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Father Does Know Best: Life Lessons Learned from TV Dads

By Amy & Nancy Harrington, GetBack.com | Friday, June 19, 2009, 5:22 PM


'Father Knows Best'
Shout Factory

Back in the early sitcom days, Jim Anderson ("Father Knows Best") used to pass on valuable advice to Bud and Princess... and through the magic of television to us as well. The most important message we got from Jim is that father, indeed, does know best. Through the years, this adage was taken seriously by other TV fathers who, week after week, dispensed words of wisdom like Pez candies. Here are some of the valuable life lessons we've learned from our TV dads.

 

 

[Photo gallery: See the life lessons from our favorite TV dads through the years.]

 

 

Sheriff Andy Taylor on "The Andy Griffith Show"

Life Lesson: Enjoy the Simple Pleasures

Andy Taylor was not only one of TV's first single dads, but he also was charged with running the sleepy town of Mayberry. Not an easy task by any measure. Yet Andy managed to bring up Opie right, teaching his son to be a fine, upstanding, moral citizen (and a pretty darn good film director). But the most important thing Opie learned from Andy? Enjoy the simple things life has to offer, like fishing and whistling.

 

 

Mike Brady on "The Brady Bunch"

Life Lesson: Discipline Equals Love

As dad to one of TV's first blended families, Mike Brady doled out equal measures of love and discipline to all six of his kids, whether the recipient was a very lovely stepdaughter or one of three boys of his own. And no one respected Mike's love and convictions more than Marcia in the "Father of the Year" episode. She wanted to nominate her new step-dad for the local paper's Best Dad competition. But while sneaking around to write and mail the letter (including Wite-Out spilled all over some blueprints in the study and a late-night trip out in her fuzzy yellow slippers), Marcia repeatedly lied to Mike about what she was doing. The punishment (dispensed with an even, yet compassionate tone) kept increasing with each misstep, until she was banned from the family ski weekend. But when the newspaper editor showed up at the door with the Dad 'o the Year plaque, all was forgiven. Marcia wasn't lying; she was just making Mike look good. Isn't that what counts after all?

 

 

Archie Bunker on "All in the Family"

Life Lesson: You'll Always Be Daddy's Little Girl

No matter who Archie was spewing racist comments at, or how much he battled against Meathead, there was one constant throughout his outrageous behavior: he always loved his little girl, Gloria. Perhaps the most tender moment in the nine-season run of "All in the Family" occurs in the episode called "Flashback: Mike and Gloria's Wedding." In the pivotal scene, Archie sits with Gloria minutes before she gets married and tells her, "You were my little girl, and anything you wanted was OK by me," touchingly giving his blessing to her marriage to the long-haired, liberal freak waiting downstairs.

 

 

Charles Ingalls on "Little House on the Prairie"

Life Lesson: Always Show Courage in the Face of Adversity

Pa Ingalls was a rock. He faced freezing prairie winters, crop-ruining summer storms, the heartbreaking death of a child, constant financial crises, and the ever-dreaded Olesen family. But he conquered them all with a strong hand, a gentle heart, a loving soul, and a great head of hair (OK, maybe that didn't really help). But the biggest weapon in Pa's adversity fighting arsenal was courage. He taught his daughters and adopted son to be brave in the face of hardship. So when Mary went blind, she had the tools she needed to face her fears head-on, attend a school for the sight-impaired, and meet her teacher and visually challenged husband-to-be, Adam.

 

 

Howard Cunningham on "Happy Days"

Life Lesson: Sometimes You Need to Take a Back Seat

Aside from the time he misplaced a son (his oldest kid, Chuck, disappeared during Season Two, and no one ever mentioned him again!), Mr. C. was a pretty great dad. He was not only there for his other two kids, Richie and Joanie, but he often helped out their friends too. He let the local greaser, Fonzie, move in above the garage, and Potsie and Malph always seemed to be hovering around. But mostly, Howard Cunningham knew his place. He was there to be a father figure, and the brunt of a lot of Leopard Lodge jokes. But when it came to the important stuff, the "Happy Days" gang turned to the Fonz for his infinite wisdom and guidance.

 

 

Tom Bradford on "Eight Is Enough"

Life Lesson: Eight is Most Definitely Enough

Long before the Octomom, TV's Tom Bradford was the Octodad. Though not originally intended to be a show about a single dad, when Tom's onscreen wife died in real life after filming just four episodes, he was left to raise his brood of eight on his own. But in Season Two, widower/journalist Tom met widow/schoolteacher Abby, and they were married six episodes later. And though Tom tried hard to instill life lessons, with all that constant commotion, it's no wonder some of them slipped through the cracks. After the series ended, four of the eight Bradford alumni had difficulties with drug abuse, reality TV blow-ups, shoplifting, and run-ins with the law. Guess that "Eight is enough to fill our lives with love" thing didn't work after all.

 

 

Steven Keaton on "Family Ties"

Life Lesson: You Don't Always Have to Agree with Your Loved Ones

Every parent expects their kids to rebel, but it was a harsh dose of reality for ex-hippie Steven Keaton to realize his son, Alex, was rebelling through the GOP. Sixteen-year-old Alex P. Keaton was a Reagan-loving conservative, and Steven did his best to cope with his son's enthusiasm for Young Republicans meetings and his reading of the "Wall Street Journal" while eating breakfast. But as the theme song goes, "There ain't no nothing we can't love each other through. Sha la la la."

 

 

Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show"

Life Lesson: The Family That Laughs Together, Stays Together

Cliff Huxtable always managed to create a warm and fuzzy (and not just because of the sweaters) home life on "The Cosby Show." He doled out sage advice sprinkled with a bit of humor to his five kids about things like parental rights ("I brought you in the world, and I can take you out of it"), fashion ("Go in your room and change, you look like a fortune teller"), and the value of hard-earned money ("No boy should have a $95 shirt unless he is onstage with his four brothers"). Cosby's humor carried the Huxtables and the rest of us through some rough times in the '80s.

 

 

Martin Crane on "Frasier"

Life Lesson: Street Smart Is Sometimes Better Than Book Smart

Some of the funniest bits on "Frasier" happened when highfalutin sons Frasier and Niles, with all their educated psycho-babble, were put in their place by their down-to-earth, common-sense dad, Martin. This typically came in the form of an "I told you so," since the two neurotic, stubborn, holier-than-thou sons tended to disregard any opinions from their uneducated ex-cop dad. If we learned one thing from "Frasier," it was that street smart often outwits book smart in day-to-day dilemmas.

 

 

Ignacio Suarez on "Ugly Betty"

Life Lesson: Be True to Yourself

Former illegal immigrant Igancio Suarez teaches his daughters, Betty and Hilda, and grandson, Justin, to always be themselves. And though Betty took his advice to the extreme, we admire Ignacio for unconditionally standing by his kids with a big heart, a shoulder to cry on, and an extra-large spicy burrito. What's not to love?

 

 

TALK ABOUT IT: Who is your all-time favorite TV dad?

 

 

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