Top of the Pops: Who Was the Best TV Dad?
SodaHead Slideshows
2010/10/20 15:13:13
SLIDESHOW: Who Was the Best TV Dad?
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Howard Cunningham (Tom Bosley, "Happy Days")
We'll remember the Fonz and "Joanie Loves Chachi," but the heart of it all was Tom Bosley, who played kindly TV dad Howard Cunningham on "Happy Days."
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Howard Cunningham (Tom Bosley, "Happy Days")
We'll remember the Fonz and "Joanie Loves Chachi," but the heart of it all was Tom Bosley, who played kindly TV dad Howard Cunningham on "Happy Days."
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Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby, "The Cosby Show")
Pretty much the funniest, coolest, most awesome TV dad of all time, and a huge glass-ceiling breaker in TV history. We're still jealous of Rudy, Theo, Vanessa, Denise and Sondra!
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Mike Seaver (Alan Thicke, "Growing Pains")
We wouldn't trade our dad for anyone, but if we had to, it just might be for Jason Seaver. Jason always tried to be "cool" -- he wasn't, but at least he tried. And you got a dad and a shrink in one package.
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Burt Hummel (Mike O'Malley, "Glee")
Is there a dad in the world more understanding and sympathetic than Burt Hummel, let alone dealing with the sensitive issue of his son's homosexuality?
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Philip Drummond (Conrad Bain, "Diff'rent Strokes")
Wealthy Manhattan businessman Mr. Drummond adopted 2 orphans from Harlem, crossing the color barrier in the late '70s. Mr. Drummond always had Arnold and Willis' back, even when it wasn't a "very special episode."
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Mike Brady (Robert Reed, "The Brady Bunch")
Mike Brady was kind of boring, but he was as sensitive to the needs of his three adopted daughters as he was to his three sons. And that's the way they became "The Brady Bunch."
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Jim Anderson (Robert Young, "Father Knows Best")
"Father Knows Best" may be dated, but Jim Anderson was the "perfect" dad of his time, wearing a suit and tie and heading off to work each day but finding time to give moral lessons at home.
Top of the Pops: Who Was the Best TV Dad?
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87 votes
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41% | |||
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45 votes
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21% | |||
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80 votes
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38% | |||
It was a sad day for "Happy Days" fans yesterday as children of the '60s, '70s and '80s lost a surrogate parent.
Tom Bosley, who played kindly TV dad Howard Cunningham on "Happy Days" from 1974 to 1984, died of heart failure at age 83, his agent Sheryl Abrams told the Associated Press. He also had lung cancer.
Bosley played a hardware store owner, father to Richie (Ron Howard) and Joanie Cunningham (Erin Moran) and landlord to Arthur "the Fonz" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler).
And while Generation X grew up with the show, it also appealed to their parents, taking place as it did in the 1950s.
"Kids were watching their parents grow up, and parents were watching themselves grow up. And that was the key to success of that show," Bosley said in a 2000 interview.
Bosley died just a few days after legendary TV mom Barbara Billingsley, who played June Cleaver on "Leave It to Beaver."
And like Billingsley, Bosley has secured his place in TV history.
"If you think about it, every TV father that has come since has had a little bit of Mr. C in him," Scott Baio, who played The Fonz's cousin Chachi Arcola, told People.
We know Mr. C made a great TV dad, but click through our slideshow and let us know: Was he the best of the best?
Tom Bosley, who played kindly TV dad Howard Cunningham on "Happy Days" from 1974 to 1984, died of heart failure at age 83, his agent Sheryl Abrams told the Associated Press. He also had lung cancer.
Bosley played a hardware store owner, father to Richie (Ron Howard) and Joanie Cunningham (Erin Moran) and landlord to Arthur "the Fonz" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler).
And while Generation X grew up with the show, it also appealed to their parents, taking place as it did in the 1950s.
"Kids were watching their parents grow up, and parents were watching themselves grow up. And that was the key to success of that show," Bosley said in a 2000 interview.
Bosley died just a few days after legendary TV mom Barbara Billingsley, who played June Cleaver on "Leave It to Beaver."
And like Billingsley, Bosley has secured his place in TV history.
"If you think about it, every TV father that has come since has had a little bit of Mr. C in him," Scott Baio, who played The Fonz's cousin Chachi Arcola, told People.
We know Mr. C made a great TV dad, but click through our slideshow and let us know: Was he the best of the best?
Read More: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20435416,0...
Top Opinion
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Ty ~ PHAET 2010/10/20 22:22:45
Here is my Dad, he's the best.
Red Foreman!
Or Spawn?
Or Ozzy Osbourne?
1) Mr. C.
2) Cliff Huxtable
3) Andy Taylor
4) Mike Brady
5) Charles Ingalls
6) Ben Cartwright
7) Jim Anderson(Father Knows Best)
8) Archie Bunker
9) Al Bundy
10) Fred Sanford