Television's father role models are scarce these days when once they ruled the airwaves.With just a few exceptions, TV dads have gone from "heroes" who work to always do and say the right thing to "hapless" dads who are clueless but mean well to "hopeless" men whose parenting skills leave a lot to be desired.As an example of the latter, take the fathers of ABC's "Lost" -- please. Worst among a bad lot is the character Anthony Cooper, who fathered John Locke, reconnected with his adult son because he needed John's kidney, then tried to murder poor John by pushing him out a window.Most of the fathers on NBC's "Heroes" (in which characters possess superpowers) don't fit our definition of "hero." One father, for example, met his son after years of abandonment, then tried to trap the younger Parkman in a nightmarish existence. Luckily, good guy Matt was able to turn the tables on daddy dearest.On The CW's "Reaper," Sam Oliver's father sold his son's soul to the devil (played by Ray Wise, the possessed dad who killed his daughter, Laura Palmer, on "Twin Peaks"). The season finale cast both Mr. and Mrs. Oliver in a new light, though, so the jury may still be out on Sam's parents.The list goes on and on, and so do we.TV patriarchs: From father dear to daddy dearest:HeroesJim Anderson (Robert Young, "Father Knows Best")The Rev. Eric Camden (Stephen Collins, "7th Heaven")Tom Corbett (Bill Bixby, "The Courtship of Eddie's Father")Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith, "The Andy Griffith Show")Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby, "The Cosby Show")Charles Ingalls (Michael Landon, "Little House on the Prairie")Honorable mention: Howard Cunningham (Tom Bosley, "Happy Days"); Ignacio Suarez (Tony Plana, "Ugly Betty").HaplessRay Barone (Ray Romano, "Everybody Loves Raymond")Fred Flintstone (Henry Corden, voice, "The Flintstones")Jim (Jim Belushi, "According to Jim")Tom Scavo (Doug Savant, "Desperate Housewives")Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini, "The Sopranos")Ross Geller (David Schwimmer, "Friends")Honorable mention: Alan Harper (Jon Cryer, "Two and a Half Men"); George Lopez ("The George Lopez Show").HopelessFrank Barone (Peter Boyle, "Everybody Loves Raymond")Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill, "Married ... With Children")Anthony Cooper/Locke's dad (Kevin Tighe, "Lost")J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman, "Dallas")Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta, voice, "The Simpsons")Paul Young (Mark Moses, "Desperate Housewives")Honorable mention: Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller, "Seinfeld"); Don Draper (Jon Hamm, "Mad Men").(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette entertainment editor Sharon Eberson can be reached at seberson(at)post-gazette.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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