One might want to say that sitcom dads in the 80s were wholesome and entirely PC, but there were plenty of moments when they broke out of that mold since the 90s were on their way and things were changing in a big way. As the sitcom moms changed, so too did the dads since things were a lot different than they’d been from the decades before and various subjects were no longer strictly taboo since they were being allowed on TV and people were wanting more and more of them. TV dads were still more or less the good guy that was looking out for their family, but at some point, there were a few of them that went on to become kind of rough and tumble and would make it known that they weren’t the nice, cuddly guys that had been so prevalent at one point. One has to remember that in the 60s and 70s things were changing quite a bit as well, and if anything, sitcom dads in this decade were undergoing another transition after trying to bring back family values with a new era feel to them. In other words, the family unit was no longer the Leave It to Beaver crowd, they were the Conners, the Huxtables, the Seavers, and so on. They were families that still followed the nuclear model, but they weren’t nearly as clean-cut as before. And that’s why we loved it.
Here are some of the best sitcom dads from the 80s.
5. Cliff Huxtable
People might want to moan and groan about this entry and I’m right there with you, but the fact is that before Bill Cosby was demonized in such a huge way, he was thought of as one of the most perfect sitcom dads that had ever come along. He was funny, he was caring, and he was the type of guy that could sit and have a conversation with you or explain something in a manner that would get a person rolling on the floor from laughing so hard. Before the trouble he found himself in within the last several years, Cosby was one of THE best actors on TV that people looked up to and idolized in a big way.
4. Phillip Drummond
It’s fair to state that a lot of people noticed Willis and Arnold a lot more than Mr. Drummond a lot of the time, but he makes this list because he was an interesting individual that took in two young boys that weren’t his and a lot of people might have said no to. Mr. Drummond wasn’t perfect, not at all, but he was a kind man that brought two young boys into his home where he stayed with his young daughter and he gave them a place of safety and security where they wouldn’t want for anything. He did his share of teaching various lessons and sharing in the hilarity, but otherwise, Mr. Drummon was kind of a supporting presence that was needed every now and then but not all the time.
3. Steven Keaton
How would one deal with a kid like Alex Keaton? For their own part, his parents did their best just to keep up with him since his mindset was so focused and didn’t allow for much of anything to get past his plans for the future that talking to him was nearly impossible sometimes. Unless it had something to do with something he wanted Alex didn’t appear to care. But Michael Keaton was the kind of dad that was pretty easygoing and didn’t stress about too much unless his kids made a huge deal about it and made it into a bigger deal than it needed to be. Seeing where Michael Gross is now as compared to where he was with this show is amazing.
2. Dan Conner
Dan Conner is a cool dad no matter how people want to look at him since he wasn’t too strict but he knew when to call his kids out for their behavior and he did the best he could with what he had. He was also the kind of guy that knew how to have fun and just cut loose every now and again and didn’t take too much seriously. His feuds with Roseanne and Jackie were legendary since he didn’t always come out on top, but he did manage to get his licks in now and then when it came to getting even. And the parenting he did was great since his kids didn’t really get much by him, and when they did, they regretted it.
1. Jason Seaver
Jason Seaver was the kind of dad you could talk to if you had a problem, but also the kind of dad that you really didn’t want to disappoint since that would have been worse than getting yelled at. It’s funny that when he showed up on Married…with Children, he was a straight-up egotistical jerk, but when he was on this show he was one of the most caring sitcom fathers ever. That kind of shows how great of an actor Alan Thicke was.
Sitcom dads in the 80s were a lot of fun.
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