Submitted by swayzeXpress815 t3_11q37jb in television
Is Ed O'Neill the longest running, most popular T.V. dad? He was on Married With Children for 11 seasons as Al Bundy, then on Modern Family for another 11 seasons as Jay Pritchett. Has any other actor played a similar character for more cumulative years? Or is Ed O'Neill the ultimate T.V. dad?
I would agree that Dan Castellaneta would be the longest running dad on tv. I was wondering if there was any other actor with more on-screen, physical roles.
Bryan Cranston was the dad for Malcolm in the Middle (7 seasons) then Breaking Bad (5 seasons and technically in Better Call Saul too). Also plays a dad in Your Honor (2 seasons)
Walter White was a dad on a TV show, but he wasn't a TV Dad
John Goodman would be getting pretty close by playing Dan Conner for 15 seasons now
His record is actually better as its just one role.
And he ended up with Peggy Bundy too.
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He has over 300 episodes of TV Dad, with probably more of playing a dad on TV
Not quite as long, but Patrick Duffy was on Dallas for 14 seasons, then Step by Step for 7 seasons. So 21 total. If you count the Dallas revival, he passes ole Ed
I'm pretty sure that there are soap operas like Days of Our Lives or Guiding Light that have like 50 years worth of TV dads.
yeah Victor Newman and others have been horrible fathers for half a century :P
Things like this are so subjective that it's hard to really qualify it, but what I can tell you is Married...with Children is great, Modern Family is great, and Ed O'Niell is great in both.
Bob Saget was Danny Tanner for 8 seasons of Full House, 4 of Fuller House, and the voice of the father on How I Met Your Mother for 10 seasons to equal 22 seasons of TV, but he wasn't onscreen for HIMYM.
Don't forget 2 seasons of "Raising Dad" on the WB and one season of "Surviving Suburbia."
What about Carl from those progressive ads
Family Matters didn't last a decade, IIRC, and Reginald VelJohnson (Carl) was signed by Progressive's ad agency because of the show's icon status. The others cited either weren't interested or their agents were asking too much money.
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"I'm a hunk! I'm a dude! I'm a hunky dude!!!"
No the ultimate tv dad is Ward Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver
While Hugh Beaumont was "Americas Dad" in hearts and minds, he was only a T.V. dad for 7 seasons. Ed O'Neill was a T.V. dad for 22 total years.
Yeah but neither of his dad roles were portrayed as good dads. I prefer quality over quantity. He may have played one longer that's true , but he will never be the ultimate dad.
"Is Ed O'Neill the longest running, most popular T.V. dad?"
Popular and long-running are different things. O'Neill seems likely for long-running, but most-popular...sorry...is Bill Cosby. He defined a whole generation of TV dads in the 1980s, which then provoked a generation of satire dads, including Al, Homer, and Dan Conners.
Edit: asking about the most popular is not the same as asking about your personal favorite.
I think his popularity may have dipped in recent years.
What exactly does popular mean for you?
Obviously we don’t look at Cosby in the same light anymore, but a show about a black family being number #1 on network television was a pretty big deal 30+ years ago.
Not raping women for starters.
*Apparently some people are in favour of raping women.🙄
Rape a few dozen women and suddenly your legacy is tarnished.
Okay. Good. I’m not the only one. With the downvotes sometimes it’s hard to tell.
Man do I have some bad news for you...
Autoganz t1_jc15gcy wrote
I’d say that the longest running most popular TV dad is probably Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson.