Being a father is a lot of hard work. Well, it is if you do it right. TV dads rarely seem to be worried about doing it right, though. Sometimes they’re terrible because that’s where the comedy comes from. Other times, their terrible parenting is a motivation for another character’s journey.
Or maybe they’re just jerks. To paraphrase Jessica Rabbit, TV dads aren’t bad, they’re just written that way. But the worst of the TV dads always stand out, even if they only appear in one episode of a series. That one episode can be all it takes to leave a lasting impression.
Steve Wyatt
The father of Ben Wyatt on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, Steve only shows up once in the entire series but that’s all it took to prove how terrible a father he is. Frankly, Ben’s mother isn’t much better.
Leading up to Ben and Leslie’s engagement party, Ben is wracked with fear as he knows what his parents will do. Steve is instantly overbearing and judgmental, eventually overshadowing the party with the news that he’s knocked up his much younger girlfriend. Fortunately for Ben, Steve never appears again and is only mentioned one other time.
Roger Peralta
A huge part of Jake Peralta’s backstory on Brooklyn Nine-Nine is his absentee, philandering, airline pilot father, Roger Peralta. When Roger finally appears, he does not disappoint, using Jake and walking away, again. Jake’s mother, Karen, eventually forgives Roger and takes him back for some reason.
At their first combined Thanksgiving with the Santiagos, Roger reveals to Jake that he has multiple half brothers and sisters in hub cities all over the US. Roger is the main reason Jake has had to overcome issues with both commitment and authority figures.
Walter White
Breaking Bad followed the horrible life choices of Walter White, a teacher who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and made the worst decision ever. What would you call trying to build a nest egg to support your family after your death by making and selling meth?
The dangers of Walter’s dubious journey to becoming a criminal mastermind and kingpin are only compounded by the fact that he was a husband and father. Walter drags his family into a life filled with potential pitfalls far worse than cancer he was fighting.
Don Draper
It’s easy to forget that Don has kids on Mad Men simply because he seemed to forget that he had kids. There are few fathers on TV who are more selfish and self-absorbed than Draper.
His focus is consistently on his own needs, most of which are self-destructive and tear his family apart. The simple reality is that Don Draper never should have been a father in the first place as it wasn’t something he truly wanted. It would have helped his various affairs go that much smoother.
Dexter Morgan
Dexter was a show about a serial killer who killed serial killers. It was also about Dexter Morgan’s personal relationships, like the one he has with his own son, or lack thereof. Dexter can’t tear himself away from stalking and killing people long enough to find time to play with his kid for five minutes.
Even worse, Dexter has two stepchildren he barely sees or even talks about. While he considers his work important, he should have set aside more time for his family. Take a weekend off from cutting up bodies and dumping the parts in the ocean, and head to Disneyworld.
Ted Mosby
How I Met Your Mother has one of the most disappointing, if not outright maddening, finales of any show that’s ever been on TV. Fans were upset with the reveals in that last episode after investing so much time in the series.
Imagine how Ted Mosby’s kids felt, listening to that ridiculously long story only to find out that it was just their father setting them up to ask if they were okay with him dating Robin. The ending would have been a lot funnier if Ted’s kids had just said no.
George Bluth, Sr.
The patriarch of the Bluth family on Arrested Development is not just a bad father, he’s a bad human being. George Bluth, Sr. did commit light treason, after all. Throughout the series, George is perpetually manipulating his entire family to get what he wants. He will sacrifice them all as a means to an end without a moment’s hesitation.
George claims to love them all but it’s incredibly possible that he has no idea what love is and just wants someone to show him. Then, he’ll frame that person for something to avoid jail time.
Tywin Lannister
Game of Thrones is filled to the brim with genuinely terrible people, and it’s quite likely that Tywin is the worst of the worst. He might have kept his family in power but he sure raised some deranged kids. Tyrion is the most sensible of them all, though Tywin’s torments likely drove his son to the bottom of a bottle.
Let’s not even talk about everything wrong with Cersei and Jaime. You know you’ve crossed the line to legendary terrible father status when one of your kids kills you with a crossbow while you’re going to the bathroom.
Frank Gallagher
Frank Gallagher of Shameless truly lives up to the name of the show. The worst part is how many kids he has, nine in total at last count. Frank is prone to drunken, rambling tirades that lack a sniff of self-awareness.
The fact that he is chronically unemployed seems to go over his head when he equates himself to the struggling, put upon workers of the world. Frank’s calm demeanor hides an angry, abusive man who is perpetually on the brink of losing what little he has.
Frank Reynolds
Frank Reynolds might be the most morally bankrupt human on the face of the Earth. That’s saying a lot on a show like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He somewhat participated in raising Dennis and Deandra Reynolds, though they found out as adults someone else was their biological father. Frank also might be Charlie Kelly’s dad, but that’s a hard one to prove.
He has ruined the lives of three children, two by being present and one by not being there at all. Frank is too interested in booze, guns, and scams to be a father, anyway.
