Posted on 07/16/2010 9:40:02 AM PDT by JoeProBono
-Best Protector: Bryan Mills (Taken) Chances are you wont recognize the name even if youve seen the good-but-forgettable 2008 action flick Taken. So why does Mills make the list? Because when faced with every fathers worst nightmare (his his 17-year-old daughter is kidnapped in Paris and forced in the sexual slave trade), Mills uses all his skills and knowledge (hes a former CIA agent) to find her and bring her home. While the action is pure Hollywood, the message is universal: We dads will do anything in our power to protect our children.
Honorable Mention: The Father (The Road)
-Best Cartoon Dad: Marlin (Finding Nemo)
Honorable Mention: Bob Parr (The Incredibles)
-Best Father Figure: Colonel Adama A case could be made that Adama was a father figure for all the remaining survivors of the thirteen colonies. But it was to Kara Starbuck Thrace, the fiancé of his dead son, that he best exemplified the role of daddy substitute. Their relationship was one of the best father-daughter roles on television.
Honorable Mention: Alfredo (Cinema Paradiso)
-Best Liberal Dad: Steven Keaton, Family Ties
-Best Conservative Dad: Hank Hill (King of the Hill)
-Best Tough Father: Jacob McCandles (Big Jake)
Honorable Mention: Red Forman That 70s Show
-Best Father to an Alien: Jonathan Kent (Smallville)
Honorable Mention: Trevor Broom Bruttenholm (Hellboy)
-Best Dead Dad: Mufasa (The Lion King)
Honorable Mention: Frank Sullivan (Frequency)
-Best Widower Father: Andy Taylor (The Andy Griffith Show)
Honorable Mention: Ben Cartwright (Bonanza)
-Best Stepfather: Mike Brady (The Brady Bunch)
Honorable Mention: Frank Beardsley (Yours, Mine and Ours)
-Best Listener: Ward Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver) Has there ever been a dad who listened to their children as much as Ward?
Honorable Mention: Charles Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie)
-Overall Best Movie Dad: Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird): I thought the book was overrated and the movie a bit bland. But Atticus sets the gold standard for dads in film.
-Overall Best TV Dad: Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show)
...and one fifth Old Granddad.
If only I had that deep booming voice of his I think my kids would respect me more .... / sarcasm, well half anyway ;)
Hey Joe, ya got a photo of John Walton, and Grandpa Walton???
Surrogate dads:
Richie, Chuck and Joanie Cunningham’s dad from Happy Days should get a mention, and Laverne’s dad as honorable mention for immigrant dad.
Danny Thomas in Make Room for Daddy should get a mention.
Or Fred MacMurray in “MY three Sons”
1) Taken was hardly a forgettable movie...it kicked a** (and so did Bryan Mills...a lot of a**)!
2) Bill Adama was a Commander, and later an Admiral. Saul Tigh was the Colonel. Yes, I am a BSG nerd.
3) Hank Hill and Red Forman could run for president, and I'd vote for either. Better yet, they should run as a ticket.
4) Homer Simpson is the best cartoon Dad, hands down! He may be a doofus, but he loves his family and fumbles his way into doing the right thing, every show. Furthermore, he's a fountain of wisdom, saying things like "Me lose brain? Why I laugh?" and "I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T...I mean S-M-A-R-T!" Of course, Hank Hill nailed it when he said, "Soccer is a game invented by European women to give them something to do while their men cooked."
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Excellent movie. With some good lines. Perhaps my favorite is when the French police chief tells him "Brian, Please don't make a mess"
No mention of George Bailey?
I always thought Dan Lauria as the dad from “The Wonder Years” was pretty good. A guy who hated his job, but did it anyway. Who loved his family, but didn’t know how to show it except by providing for them the best he knew how. Really a typical 60’s or 70’s dad.
YES! Secondhand Lions may be my all-time favorite for men who never intended to be father figures but stepped up and hit a grand slam.
Colonel, USAFR
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