Make-belief dads

> TV land is full of all kinds of patriarchs who we either love or hate

of a DIY show) or in Last Man Standing, where he was the father of three girls. Then there is widower Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) in The Nanny, who is so clueless about everything, he needed to hire a hot nanny to help sort out their lives.

SINGLE DADS

Well, there is widower Mitch Buchanan (David Hasselhoff) who balanced running about the beach as a lifeguard and caring for a young son in Baywatch. There is, of course, Full House’s Danny Tanner (Bob Saget), a widower with three daughters who got help from sexy brother-in-law Jesse (John Stamos), and funny best friend Joey (Dave Coulier).

Another prime example is widower Tony Micelli (Tony Danza) in Who’s The Boss? where he is an ex-baseball player who – in order to take care of his daughter – takes on the job of housekeeper to a wealthy corporate executive who has a young son.

USELESS DADS

A lot of them are running around in the Game of Thrones.

First is Ned Stark (Sean Bean) who could have kept his big mouth shut and not end up losing his head in front of his children.

Then there is Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) who had three children with twin sister Cersei and is pretty much useless at protecting them.

We also have the scheming but short-sighted Roose Bolton (Michael McElhatton), who got murdered by his nasty son Ramsey (Iwan Rheon); and Robert Baratheon (Mary Addy), who had so many illegitimate children, but was blind to the fact that his legitimate children looked more like their uncle Jaime than him.

Then, of course, there is Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane), who had his innocent daughter burned alive at the behest of a sorceress.

REAL-LIFE BAD DADS

There was a time when The Cosby Show’s Dr Heathcliff Huxtable was considered by many entertainment writers as the best TV dad of all time.

Of course, that was before all the allegations of sexual impropriety surfaced, and Bill Cosby, 79, is currently facing trial for them.

But he wasn’t the only TV dad who was perfect on screen, but a creep in real life.

Stephen Collins’ church minister Eric Camden character on 7th Heaven was portrayed as a loving husband and father to seven children (played by the likes of Barry Watson and Jessica Biel).

But in 2014, Collins confessed to having sexually abused three young girls.

Many of us are familiar with the iconic TV dads on shows like (clockwise from top left) Full House; Game of Thrones; Happy Days; and (bottom left) Home Improvement.