Judging by this lot, it looks like we’ve some serious Daddy issues…
To mark the upcoming Father’s Day, JOE has picked out four of the most iconic TV Dads of all time and, judging by the list that you’ll see below, it looks like we’ve got some serious Daddy issues.
This fine collection of four fathers are amongst the most crazy, most controversial, and the most murderous (the less said about that the better) but ultimately, these not-so-perfect Papas are the most loved on TV. See if you agree…
Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
Husband to Lois and father to Meg, Chris and the inimitable Stewie (and, in a way, Brian the dog too), Peter is the protagonist of one of TV’s most memorable animated families, the great Griffins of Quahog, Rhode Island.
Brilliantly voiced by creator and cartoonist Seth McFarlane, Peter is a wonderful working-class Irish American with a skill for saying and doing completely the wrong thing, at completely the wrong time. We love him all the same though.
And did we mention that he’s got a long-running feud with giant, angry chicken? Because he does. Exactly what you look for in a fine father figure…
Walter White (Breaking Bad)
Now this is a man who loves his family.
Walter White AKA Heisenberg was perfectly portrayed by Bryan Cranston in Vince Gilligan’s genius series, Breaking Bad. Everyone, in JOE’s humble (and correct) opinion should know the man’s story by now and if you don’t, shuffle out from under your rock and become the Breaking Baddict you know you want to be.
Married to Skyler (Anna Gunn) and father to Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte) and Holly (Elanor Anne Wenrich), Walter White is the over-qualified and hard-working high school chemistry teacher who, after being diagnosed with cancer, discovers that he’s got quite the talent for producing top-grade Crystal Meth and becomes one of the most ruthless drug kingpins in the States. As you do.
Over the course of the show we see one man’s incredible transformation, described by the Breaking Bad team as “Mr Chips turning into Scarface,” and a change which is represented beautifully in this simply stunning tribute…
Oh, and before we forget, Cranston also gets an honourable mention for additionally being a brilliant Dad in Malcolm In The Middle as Hal Wilkerson. A slightly more wholesome, yet still completely bonkers TV Dad…
Tony Soprano (The Sopranos)
The big daddy of the family… and also, The Family.
As if looking after your wife Carmela (Edie Falco), kids Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) and Anthony Junior (Robert Iler) and multiple mistresses wasn’t enough, Tony Soprano also had the additional pressure of being one of New Jersey’s most important Italian-American mob bosses. Now that’s murderous multi-tasking at its finest.
With the simply superb performance of James Gandolfini at the lead, The Sopranos became addictive viewing for anyone who even caught just one episode, with the attentive audience eager to see how the big, BIG man would deal with difficulties in his personal life, as well as those problems that arose in his working life as, ahem, the head of a waste management firm.
That’s right, we said waste management firm. JOE ain’t no rat, ya hear?
Following the recent, tragic passing of The Sopranos’ lead man, James Gandolfini, the show will inevitably take on even greater status in the minds of fans of great drama and great TV dads. Rightly so, as The Sopranos is one of the best TV series ever created.
And don’t worry, we’re saying nothing about the show’s controversial and still much-debated final episode. No spoilers here…
Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)
Where do you begin? To put it very simply, here at JOE HQ, Homer Simpson is undoubtedly the daddy of all TV daddies.
Voiced by the living legend that is Dan Castellenata, Homer is the patriarch that all other patriarchs most certainly DO NOT model themselves on. Springfield’s finest is married to the incredibly patient Marge and father to bad boy Bart, wise-beyond-her years Lisa and the adorable (and sometimes gun-toting) Maggie.
Bald, ignorant, overweight, boozy, clumsy, lazy and entirely incompetent, it matters not, because Homer is a fantastic family guy man, completely and utterly devoted to his fantastic family.
Happy Father’s Day Homer, ya big loveable lump…
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