Happy Fathers’ Day from all of us at Big Shiny Robot. Several of us are dads ourselves, and have found inspiration from not only real-life fathers but also from some of the best fictional dads from the world of geekery. Even some are not so geeky (especially #1 and 2) but all of them are good examples of what we strive for as fatherhood- and I took a somewhat liberal definition of what “father” means (see #7, 5, and 4, specifically). Oh, and as a bonus, I also added a bunch of other categories of dads we both love and loathe afterwards.
10. Omni-Man aka Nolan Grayson – An odd choice, yes? Certainly the only father on this list who nearly beat his son to death right before abandoning him and his mother. Damn Viltrumites. But yet, before he went all supervillain, Omni-Man was the greatest dad a superhero adolescent could ever want to young Mark aka Invincible. Plus, he’s got that great “Dad” mustache. If you’re not reading this comic, you really, really need to be.
9. Michael Bluth -Again, maybe not the best dad, but he really tried. As beleaguered quasi-self-appointed-patriarch/actual middle child of the Bluth clan, Michael was sometimes annoyingly out of touch with his adolescent son and his various nascent girlfriends (like how he always called Ann “Egg” or when he was propositioned by Ann’s mother to “do me secularly!”), but can you blame him? He sometimes had bigger problems.
Michael: What have we always said is the most important thing?
George Michael: Breakfast
Michael: Family
George Michael: Oh, right. Family.
8.The dads of Modern Family – you know, Mitchell and Cam get all the glory, but I think Phil Dunphy and Jay Pritchett need some props, too. Three episodes are available currently on Hulu that show exactly what I mean: Two Monkeys and a Panda – Cam writes a children’s story for Lily and then finds out a dark secret. Good Cop, Bad Dog – Claire and Phil trade places as the enforcer and the fun parent for the day. The One that Got Away – Jay just wants a quiet birthday alone. A great moment with Manny in the boat at the end.
7. Jonathan Kent / Jor-El – Superman would not be Superman without being the son of Jor-El, a Kryptonian, who sent him to Earth to rule and make peace through the use of his superior powers. But the influence of Ma and Pa Kent and being raised in Smallville, Kansas made him decide to use his powers as an example for humanity. And that’s why we love Superman.
6. Hank Hill -“That boy just ain’t right.” Perhaps it is the true test of a father to see his son making all of the decisions he would never make and still show love for him. Hank is repeatedly disappointed by Bobby’s choices, from comedy to magic to collecting troll dolls, and it takes until the very. last. episode. for Bobby to get involved in an activity that makes Hank happy– collegiate competition meat grading. But he still loves him and accepts him.
5. Rupert Giles – As Buffy’s Watcher, Giles was far more. With an absent father in her own life, for Buffy Giles was the only one there to help her cope with so many things. Who else do you talk to about “My boyfriend the sexy vampire and I had sex and now he turned evil and we may have to kill him to keep him from causing the end of the world.” Heavy stuff. His love for her was put to the test many times, often at the hands of the Watcher’s Council, and we saw how even though Giles often appeared so stuffy, the alternatives were far worse.
4. Ben Parker – showing that being a father can be more than just DNA, Uncle Ben gave Spiderman his moral compass: “With great power comes great responsibility.” As the Green Goblin is Spiderman’s primary adversary and the ridiculously messed-up relationship between Norman and Harry Osborne, so is Uncle Ben the iconic counterpoint to that madness. Arguably, it wasn’t the spider bite that made Peter Parker into Spiderman, but it was the words of his Uncle Ben.
3. Admiral William Adama – I literally just got done watching the season 3 episode “A Day in the Life” and I stand by this ranking. Bill Adama was an absent (to put it nicely) father for his two actual sons. But as for playing father to the remnants of the twelve colonies he was second to none. And he seemed more fatherly to Kara “Starbuck” Thrace than to anyone- even, probably, his son Lee “Apollo.” Maybe it just took the near destruction of the human race to awaken his humanity.
2. Bill Cosby – Go back and watch The Cosby Show. Listen to the Fatherhood album. Cliff Huxtable is the quintessential 80’s tv dad (see more of them below), and Cosby was broaching things in his standup like talking to your teenage sons about birth control and whether it was right to feed the kids cake for breakfast. And I think every kid and father dreams of being able to pull off a ruse like when Cliff turned his house into “The Real World Hotel.”
1. Atticus Finch – I’m pretty sure Swankmotron agrees with me on this one. But it was immediately the one that jumped first into my mind. And it was the first words out of my wife’s mouth when I asked her “Who are the greatest fictional fathers. . .” If you do nothing else for Father’s Day, go watch To Kill a Mockingbird and tell me I’m wrong here. He may not battle aliens or have superpowers, unless you count prejudice and bigotry as aliens and having the superpowers of intellect, morality, decency, and being the best shot in the county, but regardless he belong on top of this list as well as any other list of fictional amazing fathers.
And now, some miscellaneous awards.
Rookie of the Year: Jimmy and Burt Chance from Raising Hope.
Most Likely to Have Sired Dozens of Children He Never Met: Captain James Tiberius Kirk Runner up: William Shatner
Awesome Superpowered dads: Bob Parr, Magneto, Luke Cage, Reed Richards, The Shoveler
The Fox 5: Al Bundy, Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin, Red Foreman, and Stan Smith – 3 decades, 5 dads, one network,all of whose parenting skills are somewhat in question.
Bad and mediocre dads we love anyway: (see the above Fox 5), Don Draper, Clark Griswold, Bill Henrickson, Archie Bunker, Dexter, Early Cuyler, Dr. Thaddeus T. Venture / Dr. Jonas Venture.
Goofy. He gets his own category because he’s so great.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSWdcbEN_xM
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S-e6juFnCQ
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gft-WQE1FVo
Classic TV Dads: Rob Petrie (The Dick Van Dyke Show), “Mr. C”/Howard Cunningham (Happy Days), Steve Douglas (My Three Sons. . .and almost everything else Fred MacMurray ever did for Disney), Ward Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver), Fred Flintstone, Alex Stone (The Donna Reed Show), Henry Mitchell (Dennis the Menace), Mike Brady (The Brady Bunch)
80’s TV Dads: Jason Seaver (Growing Pains), Phillip Drummond (Dif’rent Strokes), George Papadapolis (Webster), George Owens (Mr. Belvedere), Edward Stratton III (Silver Spoons), Willie Tanner (ALF), and Steven Keaton (Family Ties). – you know, as lily-white and sanitized as the dads of classic tv were, we sure got the white guilt adopting a black son thing in the 80’s. Nice.
90’s TV Dads: First, the holy trinity of Danny Tanner, Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey (Full House), Dan Connor (remember that Joss Whedon wrote for Roseanne. Never forget that.), Uncle Phil Banks (Fresh Prince), Carl Winslow (Family Matters), and does Ross Geller count? Regardless, look at how different this lineup is from the classic TV dads. Progress?
I’m sure I’ve missed some. And maligned some you love, or slighted them by not putting them in the top 10. There are a couple (Bob Parr, Goofy) were this close to making it in. This isn’t a democracy, but you can make your voice heard in the comments below and tell me how wrong I am.