Television has introduced us to many incredible fathers; in fact, too many to list, sorry Homer, Herman, Al and Archie! However, we’ve selected some of our favorites, from conventional to unconventional, who have truly raised the bar in parenting. Now, we want to hear from you. Who is YOUR favorite TV dad? Take our poll below and help us decide who will be crowned the King of the TV Dads!
1. Andy Taylor (The Andy Griffith Show)
Andy Griffith played the local sheriff of Mayberry, North Carolina, on The Andy Griffith Show, and he kept his community under control with common sense and good advice instead of serious jail time and blazing guns. At home, single dad Andy got a parental assist from his Aunt Bee, who helped him be a stern but gentle guide for Opie.
2. Dick Van Dyke (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
Van Dyke starred as a comedy writer who works for a television variety show while juggling his family life and a career in suburban New York. The Dick Van Dyke Show ran for five seasons between 1961 and 1966 and also starred an up and coming Mary Tyler Moore, who played Rob’s wife, Laura, and Larry Mathews, who played their adorable son, Ritchie.
3. Ben Cartwright (Bonanza)
Bonanza’s patriarch Ben Cartwright (played by Lorne Greene) didn’t have the best luck when it came to soulmates. His three wives all passed away, each after bearing a son: Adam (Pernell Roberts), Hoss (Dan Blocker) and Little Joe (Michael Landon). Together with his boys, Ben ran the thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch in Nevada during and shortly after the Civil War with a firm hand and a strict moral code.
4. Charles Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie)
It’s hard to come up with a more beloved father figure than Michael Landon‘s Charles Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. Landon appeared on the cover of TV Guide Magazine seven times during its nine-season run. He was a faithful and loving husband to Caroline and “Pa” to the Ingalls girls. He raised them to work hard and care for others, set examples of bravery and courage for them, and delivered heartfelt life lessons by late 1800s lamplight.
5. Danny Tanner (Full House)
Danny Tanner (Bob Saget) may just be the world’s best dad on the iconic 1987-95 ABC comedy Full House, but even he has his hands full raising his three daughters after his wife passes away. Luckily, he has brother-in-law Jesse (John Stamos), a rock musician, and best friend Joey (Dave Coulier), a stand-up comedian, to step up and help. Danny leads the group with kindness, dorky humor and a penchant for cleaning, and he always has a lesson ready and available for those who need it.
6. Danny Thomas (The Danny Thomas Show)
Danny Thomas’ eponymous 1953-64 sitcom (originally titled Make Room for Daddy), centering on a comic who tried to squeeze his kids into his busy schedule, became a big hit once it moved from ABC to I Love Lucy’s former CBS spot in its fifth season. It also starred Sherry Jackson, Rusty Hamer and Angela Cartwright, who played his wisecracking offspring.
7. Jim Anderson (Father Knows Best)
That title of Father Knows Best meant dad was always going to have some great advice, and Robert Young, as Jim Anderson, agent for the General Insurance Company, delivered it to his two daughters and son from 1954 to 1960, first on CBS, then on NBC. That happened, of course, after he slipped out of his work jacket into his comfortable sweater every evening when he got home.
8. John Walton (The Waltons)
John Walton Sr. (Ralph Waite) got his family through the Depression and World War II while taking care of seven children — and his own parents! He ran a lumber mill in fictional Jefferson County, a rural mountain town in Virginia, where his sons pitched in, and the family also farmed and hunted to put food on the table. John served in the military during World War I and his four sons followed in their father’s footsteps by enlisting in World War II. It’s no wonder TV Guide Magazine ranked this Waltons role model as the No. 3 Greatest TV Dad of All Time.
9. Fred Sanford (Sanford and Son)
Los Angeles junk dealer Fred Sanford (three-time Emmy nominee Redd Foxx) mastered the most powerful — and sitcom-friendly — parenting technique of all: guilt. Every time his adult son Lamont (Demond Wilson), aka “big dummy,” threatened to leave him or the family business in the 1972-77 Norman Lear comedy Sanford and Son, Fred would fake having “the big one,” a heart attack that would reunite him with his late wife Elizabeth.
10. Howard Cunningham (Happy Days)
In Happy Days, Tom Bosley got to preside over one of the most famous 1970s TV families. As hardware store owner Howard Cunningham, he was dad to Richie and Joanie, but also surrogate dad to Potsie, Ralph Malph, Fonzie and Chachi. His wife Marion helped him navigate raising school-age children (and their pals!) in 1950s Milwaukee until they grew up, got married and went on with their own lives.
11. Mike Brady (The Brady Bunch)
He went from a widower with three boys of his own to a newlywed with three daughters to boot. Still, Mike Brady (Robert Reed) accepted the challenge — and in one episode, thanks to a heartfelt letter from daughter Marcia (Maureen McCormick), he even won a Father of the Year award! Over The Brady Bunch’s 1969-74 run, the architect and husband to Carol (Florence Henderson) was a hands-on dad: He went camping, helped with cooking projects and delivered lectures about integrity, unity and other important virtues.
12. Steve Douglas, My Three Sons
Fred MacMurray went from playing dark film noir characters and a murderer in 1944’s Double Indemnity to starring as one of TV’s longest-running favorite dads on My Three Sons, which ran from 1960 to 1972. As widower Steve Douglas, father to Mike, 18, Robbie, 14, and Chip, 7, at the start of the show, he had a co-parental figure helping him out: first William Frawley as Bub (the sons’ grandfather) and then William Demarest as Bub’s brother.
13. Tim Taylor, Home Improvement
Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, the suburban dad Tim Allen played on ABC’s 1991-99 sitcom Home Improvement, was the epitome of manliness and masculinity, with his affinity for cars, power tools and, yes, delivering that signature grunt. But beneath the tool belt, Tim was a softy who had nothing but love for his wife (Patricia Richardson) and sons (Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Taran Noah Smith). For advice, he’d turn to neighbor Wilson (Earl Hindman), whose sage words of wisdom Tim would try to repeat … and mangle in the way only he could.
14. Ward Cleaver (Leave It to Beaver)
Patient, understanding and he helped with the dishes! Leave It to Beaver’s Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont) was a first-class dad to two sons, Wally (Tony Dow) and Theodore “The Beaver” (Jerry Mathers). Ward had plenty of wisdom to impart — for example, “You know what happens to boys who tell lies? When you tell one lie, it always leads to another.” Considering he was an accountant, he may have borrowed that line at work too!
15. Dan Conner (Roseanne)
Who knew the struggles of Middle America could be so funny? Life in fictional, working-class Lanford, Illinois, meant layoffs, healthcare issues and a lot of mouths to feed in the Conners’ run-down house on Roseanne (1988-97, 2018). But along with his titular sardonic wife (Roseanne Barr), patriarch Dan Conner (John Goodman) did his best to care for his family and could laugh even when on the edge of economic hardship.
