TV’s 10 best single dads

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:24:00 +0000

When "Two and a Half Men's" Angus T. Jones made a splash earlier this week by telling the world that watching his sitcom is tantamount to "filling your head with filth," he wasn't just performing a public service to his Christian brethren. He was reminding generations of television viewers of the steady, Emmy-winning work of his costar and TV dad Jon Cryer, and of the scores of widowers and divorcés and uncles and wards who've stepped in and raised so many adorable boob-tube kids without a mother's helping hand. A single mother may be the cause of all that's violent and terrible in America, but a guy changing diapers on his own? That's COMEDY GOLD.

So, for all of us who grew up on the notion that prime time requires at least one hapless dude and a cute kid or two at all times, we would like to take a moment to salute our favorite bumbling, bungling single dads. And honorable mentions to the fathers and father figures who didn't quite make the cut, including "Family Affair's" Bill Davis, "The Courtship of Eddie's Father's" Tom Corbett, "Silver Spoons'" Edward Stratton, "Punky Brewster's" Henry Warnimont, "Hannah Montana's" Robby Stewart, "Raising Hope's" Jimmy Chance and "Suburgatory's" George Altman.

In search of this year’s “30 Rock”

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 23:01:00 +0000

Let's just admit that we're spoiled right now and get it over with. When the smallest ripple throws off our experience -- the dryer breaks down, the sink backs up, the transmission locks up, the baby gets croup -- we lament the enormous inconvenience of it with the same grim tones of Air Force officers warning of aliens who seem to have a special interest in nuclear weaponry.

We're so far removed from life without six-cylinder engines and five-speed chiming large-capacity appliances that our schedules unravel at the slightest failure of technology. "Then I had to actually call the repairman and wait for him to show up!" we whine to our spouses and friends in paroxysms of learned helplessness, surrounded by machinery we can't service ourselves.

No wonder the aliens lost interest in us back in the late '60s. Like dimwitted teenagers with bad impulse control, we're a little too pathetic to bother monitoring us very closely. I'm sure the lizard demons of Zambular in the Galaxy of Termitrax are up to far worse.

Salon.com > Raising Hope

TV’s 10 best single dads

In search of this year’s “30 Rock”