We're heading into Father's Day, so there's no better time to take a look back at some of the great fathers in television and film history, as well as some more forgettable father figures.
Our list touches on a wide range of fathers, including Atticus Finch from "To Kill A Mockingbird," Phil Dunphy from "Modern Family," Walter White from "Breaking Bad" and Frank Costanza from "Seinfeld."
We won't give away the entire list, but rest assured there is some discussion of Homer Simpson, Jack Pearson, Darth Vader, Mike Brady, Tony Soprano and Cliff Huxtable. Yes, we're all over the place.
In other topics, the show covers "Jury Duty" and season 2 of "The Bear," plus new movies coming out including "Elemental" and "The Flash."
Where to watch
- "Jury Duty" on Freevee and Amazon Prime Video
- "The Bear" on FX and Hulu
- "Elemental" in theaters
- "The Flash" in theaters
More summer movies
Theaters will be packed with movies this summer. We came up with a list of the biggest films you won't want to miss.
We talk about 11 more big films due out this summer. But are they worth your time?
🎧 Five films have grossed more than a billion dollars in ticket sales in the U.S. But is it business as usual for movie theaters? And hear from Dulé Hill, EJ Williams and the other stars of "The Wonder Years."
About the show
Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome everyone to another episode of Streamed and Screened and Entertainment podcast about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with my entertainment journalism father figure. Bruce, you're editor of the Sioux City Journal and a longtime entertainment reporter. Hey, Papa. How are you? We'll try to talk to you.
Yeah, it's you know what? I've seen so much and been around so long that you can drop a name, and I think I can grab it. I think it's that easy. Yeah, I got to tell you, you know, even though we're entering that kind of dull season where all I watch is American Ninja Warriors, last night, I truly like that.
I that is my obsession. And I couldn't make it past the first one. But I loved watching that thing. And I never, ever, ever see the last episode of that. Never. I never know if anybody won or if it's it's just that whole thrill of the hunt. But last night, I decided I was going to binge something because I've heard too much about it.
And that's jury duty. Jury duty. I've been called for jury duty, but I've never I've never served on jury duty. But it's a reality show where everybody in the show, except one guy, is an actor. So there's this one gets kind of a Punk'd thing where they are trying to, you know, show how he would react during this situation, how he doesn't catch on.
I don't know. But James Marsden is in it as one of the people called to jury duty. And he's kind of an elevated sense of aspect of himself. You see this kind of pull of himself actor who you like, you know, third tier credits that they mention. Very funny. And I was just I was smitten with it. It's not necessarily well done, but there are so many moments that are such laugh out loud, funny moments that you got to see it.
It's on Amazon Prime and Freebie had it first, and I think you can find it through Amazon, but it is eight episodes and you just it it's like eating candy and I had such a great time looking at that that then you go to the next dig where you try to look up these people online to see if you've seen them in something else.
Because some of the actors looked vaguely familiar. And I think if I were that one guy, the first question I would have is why are we sequestering the jury for this little kind of two bit case? Why are we here for 15 days or whatever the amount of time was? But they don't seem to question it. It's like, well, I got a vacation and I'll be doing this, and here we are.
And then when they start spelling out the case and the guy who is, you know, defending the guy drops everything that the audio visual stuff doesn't work. You would be I would be very curious, like, something's up with this. And then I would look in my hotel room and think, I think this place is bugged. It's got to be bugged somehow.
But I do watch it because I think it is one of those kind of fun little summer things that takes no effort out of you. You don't feel like you're worn out after you've watched it. You do feel like it's something that you go, okay, like I had a good time. I love those little ones. They'll pop up on Netflix here and there.
Hulu or Prime, as you said, there's no effort, there's no thought process. I like like there's a few of them that'll show up on Netflix. They'll do those little documentaries like they the kid that wanted to buy the Harrier jet with the Pepsi points and they did four episodes on it and I couldn't stop watching it because it's just it's just a fun little romp.
So, I mean, I'm into selling Sunset on Netflix. That said, you know, Los Angeles area high end real estate show, and it looks like there's two bad little real estate offers on the sunset Strip. It looks like, you know, you could have a 7-Eleven next door. That's how dinky it looks. And yet they act like they are all, you know, catering to everybody who starts at $1,000,000,000.
And they basically seem to show the same house. It's like the same kind of URLs. All the houses in Los Angeles look alike. But selling sunset is another one of my binge binge. Crazes like that where you don't think and I think I need that after work is where you don't think at all and you let these people kind of just wash over you.
So for a make a reality show, remember, no thinking, wash over you. Here you go. Anything else you're watching or any movies on the horizon? Well, there are some things coming up I've been looking at, but I've not yet to tell. Not yet. And they had the big premiere last night of Indiana Jones. And so we're going to start hearing a lot about that.
If you haven't buried yourself already, please get on to one of those apps and you can put your picture inside a thing where it calls you a Barbie of some sort. Nice. That's out there in case you're looking for fun. Elemental. Have you seen Elemental or is that that's about to come? Elemental? No, I did go last week to Transformers and I will admit it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Okay. I'm still not going to see it. No. What it does, though, you know, these they make no symptoms. They absolutely make no sense. And it started out with a toy that made no sense. And then they decided there was a film franchise. But in this one, they kind of back up and give you a little history about the things and why they are what they are and how they came into being and why they want to dominate the world.
So there's a little kind of a tutorial, if you will, that helps you understand this. And then they go on their little journey and transform into gorillas this time. Okay. Okay. And that is Optimus Primal. Not Optimus Primate, but Optimus Primal. Interesting. Interesting. I am looking forward to Indiana Jones. We've talked about this a few times that I've been hearing reviews, very mixed.
Like some people are loving it, some people not so much. So I'm really curious to see where that one falls. I could see that one getting very mixed reviews from critics, but doing very well with fans also gets critic proof. This is not one of those things that no matter how much people rant and rave, they're still going through it.
Absolutely. And I will dying to see it as soon as I can get to it. I am absolutely going to go see it. I'm just like a hardcore Lucasfilm. Indiana Jones Star Wars junkie. So I think they're absolutely, absolutely. Somewhere I have a whip and a hat, and that is one of the early warheads that's in my basement full of crap.
You'll find it out. If you ever want to excavate, that can be your Indiana Jones story. You go down there, dig out that stuff you got. Here's that whip. He was talking about. Yep, there's a whip down there. But you're going to see Elemental this way. Yeah. Father's Day. I love the idea that you get to pick the movie.
I know. Well, the options were. Hey, Dad, what would you like to do this weekend? And I'm thinking, I'm not sure. And then when my daughter says, Well, let's go see Elemental, so I'm okay, that sounds fine. The other option would was was Little Mermaid, and that was Oh, no or no on that one. And and the Barbie movie isn't out yet, which I, I kind of want to see that I'm kind of.
You want to see that. I want to see that one. So and I told them, I said I will absolutely go with you to go see the Barbie movie. But Elemental, I feel like you can't really can't usually go wrong with a Pixar movie. I love most of them. They've been a little bit more missed and hit the last couple of years.
But, you know, and they did just fire a whole bunch of Pixar people, like long time Pixar people, Disney. So that would be a great opening, wouldn't it? Yeah. Back. You'll have to pay for your own popcorn. Exactly. Yeah. I don't know if you saw that, Bruce, but. But Disney, because they've been cutting down because the revenues haven't been quite there and they wiped out a huge chunk of the Pixar Department and it included a lot of folks that had been there from the beginning.
Even they had a whole studio in Orlando that if you went to the Hollywood studios aspect of Disney World, you could watch them making, you know, God knows what. But it was animated films and they were actually doing the work there. And then they that one down and they shut some other ones down and then they went over to another country, did things there.
So who knows with that? And they almost shut it down before the original Little Mermaid came out. So it's hard to tell. I'm sure somebody in the in the money department looks and says, I think we need to make some cuts here. And the lowest profit area was. And that's where they go. Exactly. There is another program coming out soon.
Now, you have not gotten any advance screening of this, but you and I are both a bit of a fan of the show. The Bear season to come, it affects you. I have talked to people about the bear. I have done interviews for the bear. I've written a story about the upcoming bear, but they are very guarded about season two.
They are not letting out any kind of screeners. Now, that always is a bad sign when you do that with a movie. If you don't let anybody see it in advance, it's like, oh, we're worried about the about the kind of reviews we might get. But I think this one, because they've got really great people working on it.
I think what it hinges on is what this new restaurant is, because if you may remember, this is spoiler alert. So turn me off. They found a lot of money at the end of the episode. The final episode of last season. So they have the money to be able to make upgrades to this little the beef or whatever it's called restaurant.
So that it's not was kind of a hit and run sandwich shop. It's much more than that. And I think they don't want you to know what it's going to look like. I don't think they want you to know how the plot is going to unfold. And I can still see chaos in there in the kitchen. It'll still be there.
But it's that kind of surprise element that they want to say. And that premieres next week. Yeah, it's it looks like the 20, maybe the 22nd on Fox and then a day later on Hulu, I got into the show pretty hardcore last year. I didn't see it when it dropped immediately, but my brother reached out, one of my brothers who's a chef, and he said, You know, that's how this always works.
Like I go see the journalism things. And then, you know, he goes, sees the food ones, but he's like, Hey, you go watch them. Yeah, exactly. But he, he, he thought it was really good and just mentioned, hey, you know, if you're looking for something, then check out watch it. And I got hooked pretty hard. Now, I found with the show that I couldn't watch really more than one episode because by the time I picked it up, it was already season one was already done.
So but I couldn't binge it because I would get through one episode and there's so much yelling because it's in a kitchen, there's a lot moving on and they're yelling at each other and they're bickering because they're family or longtime friends and that kind of thing. And I just felt exhausted, like emotionally drained by the end of it.
But it's a fun it's a comedy and it's a good feeling. But it's a good feeling. Yeah. Like it wasn't a horrible dream. Like I'm never going to come back to this. It just felt like, you know, I gave the show my all for 30 minutes of sitting here doing nothing, and I just can't go anymore. I need I need like a one day buffer before I come back on episode two.
Well, and this was one of those kobin shows that they were in a bubble and they weren't able to do a lot of, you know, exterior things, a lot of stuff outside of their little bubble. So they stayed in it and they had a culinary producer, somebody who showed them how to do like chopping or where you would grab for a bowl or where pots and pans needed to be located.
So if your brother has a lot of like technical knowledge about all those things, it was absolutely technically correct. And they all felt that they had some degree of facility with all of that. But what the goal of the producer was was to throw you into that atmosphere so you didn't know anything. So that's why you felt the tension is because you felt like you were right in the middle of that kitchen and all that trouble happening.
And one thing that he discovered, well, he was like, you know, planning all of this show is that there were a lot of times he would order Uber eats and then it would be like, you can't we what is this? And that figured into one of the episodes where, you know, suddenly they get a jillion orders at once and they can't keep up with it and so they'll just turn off that app again.
They won't come. So that was a surprise to me when I first I thought, wait a minute, is this why I'm not able to order at 7:00 at night? They've shut me off. That's what the trick is. So there are a lot of things that we can learn in the process of this, but it also makes you very appreciative of what goes into a kitchen.
I think I saw Bob ODENKIRK is listed as a guest star for season two. I don't know in what capacity because obviously they won't screen it. But coming off a better call. Saul, I guess he's looking for work. Yeah, well, he is. And he had the lucky egg. Yeah, he's getting all over the place. And that will be, by the way, if you want to jump ahead to that concept, the they're really doing a lot of pitches for what will be nominated for Emmys because the Emmy Awards will be coming out pretty shortly, the nominations.
And will a Better Call Saul get something in its last season because it's been really cheated a lot. But will the bear get something? That's another one, because technically it's classified as a comedy, but it plays really dark. And and then you have ones like Ted Lasso who supposedly are wrapping it up. You give them one more shot, you know, So there are a lot of questions that are rolling around the Emmys right now.
Well, we'll have to come back at that as soon as the nominations come out to new movies we have or Mantle and we have The Flash coming out this week. And you could pick the Flash. I could have and you did. Kids didn't want to go see that one. Well, I think there are some parts that maybe you'd go, kids, maybe we shouldn't be watching that.
Probably. Yeah. Yeah, they would. They wouldn't understand. They wouldn't understand the Michael Keaton aspect of it either. They're not going to get excited. Yeah. Who's that old guy? That's Batman. And it's not Batman. That's somebody else. I think Superboy super be in it. Yeah, I'm not going to say, but yeah. So there are so elementals all fresh and new and it's a not unlike the inside out which took on emotions.
Right. And this is another one where it's element s so air, wind, water all that is kind of swirled together into one thing about learning something from yourself. I don't know I Good luck. Thanks. This better be a popcorn movie. It's. Well, I'm bringing back the bucket. Remember, I bought my my annual bucket. That will give you popcorn galore.
Exactly. I'm coming back with my refill and everything. So that's my Father's Day. Your Jurassic Park bucket. Exactly. So that's my Father's Day. So we also figured for this week we're going to talk a little bit about Father's Day. So we're going to just kind of segway from that theme over to the big day and and talk a little bit about some of our favorite fatherly figures from TV and movie history.
What do you got for us? Well, you know, whenever you say who is the best father in film, it goes to one and one only. Atticus Finch from To Kill a mockingbird is Bar None the best dad of all times in films. That's what whenever they survey people. And then maybe because that's the one they remember most. There are others.
There are many, many others. Field of dreams, you know. I mean, you could just go down the line, but I think Atticus Finch is the one that people are most tied to in terms of Father, do you agree with me or I? It has been so long since I've seen that movie. I don't know if I can agree.
I've seen it. I've absolutely seen it. It's just been so, so long now and it's been on a a a theater tour because it was on Broadway several years ago. And Richard Thomas from The Waltons is playing Atticus Finch. And, you know, it's it's one of those cases where dad tries it's, you know, set years and years and years ago, tries to convince his children that, you know, maybe sometimes the people that you suspect are right aren't necessarily right.
And then they rewrote the or brought out an earlier version of the book. And that had a different take on things. But it's Gregory Peck. Come on. Gregory Peck. Yeah. You wrong? Gregory Peck has always And maybe he felt that that was limiting, too. In the later films he made. He did MacArthur after that. So there are all these kind of larger than life real heroes.
I think he played Lincoln at one point. And so I think that kind of dogged him, if you will. But he was like the perfect dad. Now, who did you think was a great movie, Dad? A great movie, dad for me. You had mentioned Field of Dreams, and I always kind of come back to that movie. It's a movie about fathers and sons relationships.
It's a movie that I watched just a few days after my my dad passed away earlier this year. And it's something that we watch because he he died in, you know, march right around the start of the baseball season. It's a movie I go back to year after year. And I also think, you know, for myself as somebody who's in his upper forties and getting a little bit older and but I have kids and, you know, it's a little bit of a midlife crisis kind of movie, too.
You know, it's it's like you're maybe in that job, which isn't as fulfilling as you thought it was going to be or you're not progressing through life. You know, you had all these dreams as a kid. You wanted to be a baseball player or a movie star or a rock star, or maybe just be sitting on a pile of cash doing whatever.
And here he's just an average guy farming, and he's having a midlife crisis and trying to find a way to reconnect his dad. So, you know, Kevin Costner, I thought, really did a great job of that role. It's one as I said, I go back to that year after year after year to watch it and I get choked up every time I watch it at the end when he's just going out to play catch with his dad.
Yeah, yeah. It's a touch. It can really it can really get you when you need that. But there are other ones, you know. Clark Griswold. Yeah. He's a nearly good dad. Come on. He's trying to give his family the kind of vacation that they've always wanted. Yeah, if things go wrong. But his intentions as a father are good, I think.
Yes. Then you go to Steve Martin from Father of the bride. He wants to make sure all of that pulls off are right. You have the dad from Mrs. Doubtfire, Mr. Mom, Finding Nemo. Yeah, and that's a good one. There are good dads in there. The one that I hadn't really thought of recently. Minari. Do you remember that?
Did you see Minari about a family that moves to They're in an Asian family to move to the Midwest and and they're farming and everything kind of goes wrong. But the dad wants to make sure everything is right. It won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, a woman who plays the grandmother. And that dad was a good dad.
You know, Ethan Hawke in boyhood, if you remember. Oh, that movie. Yeah, right. And then we get to The Godfather. Carmen, can you be better than The Godfather? Very overly protective. Dad's there. Yeah, He's the one that you touch. My kid. I kill you. Yeah, well, and even the The Godfather Part two, when Michael Corleone slams the door, not even a slam.
It's just more of a a hard shot. And Diane Keaton, like I'm the dad, the cutting. You want your mom, you've made your choice. Yeah, And parenthood, if you're that and then one that's going to cross over. Now, when I talk about this is Friday Night Lights, the movie Taylor the coach. Now in the movie it was Billy Bob Thornton, but in the TV series, you cannot get better as a dad than Eric Taylor.
He was a dad to all those kids on the team. And I kid you not. That is one of those shows that I. I have the entire box set that I will if I need to can go back to that because it's so inspirational and it's one that I can't watch the end because I don't want it over.
But they talk all the time about rebooting it, but there might be a class reunion with that. But Eric are three Taylors in TV that you want to think about Tim Taylor, Andy Taylor and Eric Taylor. Okay. Andy Griffith, Come on. Andy Taylor was the best dad from my childhood. He was always so protective, so fun, so willing to do whatever.
Great. Tim The tool man. Taylor Come on. He was like the fun dad that you could climb, right? And then we get to my Eric Taylor from Friday Night Lights. Those are three big TV TV dads that that resonate the John Hughes dads, too, because we've talked about John Hughes movies previously, the Dan Aykroyd and John Candy and the Great outdoors, just constantly trying to one up each other or at least John Candy, just trying to keep up with Dan Aykroyd.
Right. That was always fun and trying to eat the £96 steak. Right? Right. There's nothing on that plate but fat and grizzle. And then you look at the bad dads ones we'd find on TV. Homer Simpson, come on. Does it get worse than Homer? I don't know about Red Forman from that seventies show. Oh, he was kind of always grumpy and and barking orders at people.
And, you know, one day that I really hated Mike Brady from the Brady Bunch that Brady anything he just sat there and he was like doing architecture stuff for the kids were whatever but I really thought he was a bad dad if you were picking them out and more recently on TV, Jack Pearson is a good dad. Oh, yes, right.
Yes, This is us. This is us. Yes, he is that all-American dad. He everything is always positive, can do anything wrong. And he would be willing to go to the ends for anyone. I don't know. When we first saw him bad in the course of that series. No, I mean, he might have done things that were like. But I don't think you could ever classify him as a bad dad.
Still makes me nervous every time my wife pulls out the crock pot, though you don't wear it out of the house. You know, I'm not looking at about it was so angry. It's same and same. It's a slow cooker. It's fine. Oh, man, you know, You know who I always loved for? There's a couple of dads. I wouldn't necessarily call them good dads, but they were just to me, very entertaining TV dads.
Frank Costanza by Jerry Taylor from Seinfeld. And then the relationship between Ray Romano, Peter Boyle and Everybody Loves Raymond. I thought that connection was just really especially coming from a new York background, the the complaining about everything and just a very relatable relationship for me. You know, it's funny because in the new series Barb Kiss with Pete Davidson, he kind of has this thing, you know, in real life.
He lost his dad in 911, right? He had this kind of projection, if you will, with Ray Romano and Everybody Loves Raymond. And you see kind of a sense of that in this show. And Ray Romano does a kind of a cameo bit in the in the thing. But it is interesting. What about Phil Dunphy from Modern Family, isn't he like every dad who tries too hard?
Yes. I never could quite figure out if I liked him or not through the whole series. Like there would be some weeks where you just love Phil Dunphy, but then other weeks where he's just so ridiculous that I couldn't put up with him. And that was a show, too. I love Modern Family. I don't think I watched the final season.
I think I kind of tapped out. Oh, no. Yeah, you get that? It hit that point where I just. I saw enough and it was kind of the same thing for me, episode after episode, where it just kind of lost me that last year. And I just said, you know, I'm good. We peaked. Yeah. Is there a dad that you relate to?
What kind of a dad are you? I'm not Darth Vader that I know people yet. Not yet. Who am I? I do think I am a little bit of a rake in, Sela. I'm not ready to take up my backyard yet, but I feel like. Like a you know, I'm kind of in in that point in my life where I'm things aren't always what they were meant to be.
And I've had to go through some changes here and there. And, you know, can I this has always been my theory because I'm so old that I can have that Yoda like turnabout experience in your twenties. Anything's possible, right? In the thirties, you realize I got to get something done or else I'm going to be kind of wasting this life.
Forties. You feel like, Oh, did I make a mistake and go the wrong way? Am I? Should I regroup and start over fifties? You think you know what? I don't care. I have made my point. And in the sixties you're just glad you're around. So I'm still I'm still okay. But it's it's that kind of you know, and it's like class reunions where you go, well, I've got to prove to them that I've done something or, you know, whatever, and you find usually if you go to a class reunion, you'll find that the person that you really didn't see as the most successful is the most successful.
It could have been. The kid who was quiet in the back, got C's and didn't really cause a wave. And the one that you thought was the most likely to succeed maybe didn't. But look at those. Look at those ears and see what you if you don't agree with me on that, because I find that in the twenties you were just like, Oh, I can have fun, but I better hurry up because I've got to do something with my life so that it makes sense.
And that's the thirties where you're like all freaked about what it is. And then the forties, you're sadly for a little something. And then like I say, the fifties and sixties weren't we don't care and you can easily badmouthed people in the older years too. That's always good. I've got a couple of years still until I hit my fifties but I'll I'll give that some thought for just know that that's where your head is so great where you don't give a damn that I have that and I like I can hardly wait until it's the unfiltered years.
The seventies in the eighties when when I can just say whatever I think about somebody or doubt, worry about it, let it go. That's my my grandfather, who's 93, my last living grandparent, and he just doesn't care. He just totally unfiltered. Yeah, I think you look a little fat. Don't you? And you go, Wait a minute, You're not supposed to say that.
You're supposed to be nice, right? Yeah. I remember even with my in-laws, one of my wife's grandmothers who passed away a number of years ago, the one of the last time I saw her before she passed away. She's like, You've put on some weight since the last time I saw you. And I'm like, okay, we're we're good here.
If a whale came in the room, you wouldn't say those kind of things, right? So, yeah, but you'd say, My God, in your head, this one really looks like it got out of hand. But in your mind, Oh, you. You look like you're so healthy and you're having such a good time. How are things going? You know, that's what I'm waiting for is the unfiltered.
I'm just saying it like it is. So. You look marvelous, Terry. Thank you. I appreciate it. One last bother on my list that we didn't touch on Tony Soprano. Yeah. And is he a good dad? I don't know that he is. I think he's very protective of his family. I also thought, you know, he was a great dad when he took Meadow up to New England to go looking at colleges.
And he was very, very much wants to make it a dad daughter weekend, help her find a school. He found a rat. He took care of that, cleaned himself up after the murder, and then went ahead and finished a very nice weekend with his daughter. So I think he could have a moment there. You know, he took care each care business, but also took care of family at the same time.
Don't you think that his wife had a stronger influence on the kids than he did? Yes or no? I think that Carmela and there are all these similar types of movies and shows that get into that mafia stuff. It's it's always the same where they try to paint the spouse as kind of like, you know, some unwitting bystander.
But they're fully they know everyone. They know everything. She know she knows where the guns are hidden in the wall. So, yeah, it's like The Real Housewives of New Jersey, as much as they act like they don't know what's going on in their businesses, they're right there. And when they go to court, they're just as guilty as the husband.
So I've probably seen every episode of The Sopranos at least three times because I watched it when it came out initially. And then I also a long time ago was writing a weekly column for newspapers in New Jersey with my thoughts about The Sopranos each week. So I'd watch it then. And then a few years ago, I actually rewatched the whole series again, and I thought it held up.
Other than the flip phones, you know, the cell phone technology changed. But I thought by and large, the show itself held up very well. It was always the same thing with Carmela, where she would get angry. Tony got a change and then he would show up with a Porsche Cayenne or a diamond necklace. And then she's like, I love you, Tony.
And then I would it would totally change her demeanor for about three episodes, and then it would kind of go back in the other direction. That's the secret. That's the secret that a father learns about a mother. Yep. Right. Absolutely. Okay. Red Forman was a loud, mouthy one. But then you get to Ward Cleaver. What in the hell did Ward Cleaver ever do?
When he put on the suit? He went to work and he came home, and then he was served a drink or whatever, and he read the newspaper and had to be kind of the judge of the kids went, Oh, you better go see your father. And then he would kind of like take an eyebrow to them and, and well, now, Beaver, what happened?
All that kind of Well, weren't Cleaver was a big a a big fake he did nothing so yet he gets on the list of the best of the best dads and then I'd be remiss not to mention Cliff Huxtable. Oh, yeah. I didn't know what to do with him. What? I loved it. Well, now we're we're doing the character, not the not the person.
All right. But what I loved about Cliff Huxtable is that the kids tried to schmooze him and, you know, they would try to use that. Oh, dad, you're just so wonderful. And you kids are just stupid. He would just call them out on things. And it was like it was a dad who was on to them. And I don't think we had seen dads who were on to their kids and how they just kind of work their wiles because I'll bet any money that your daughters work you.
Oh yeah, yeah. You know, And yet here was a dad who said, No, I'm not buying into that. And I don't know what you know his job. Well, what exactly was it that he did? Because he stayed at home all the time. But I did enjoy watching that dynamic. I liked the dynamic. And then the wife who had the upper hand on him was a an interesting kind of dynamic.
I thought Walter White, could he be considered a good dad or a bad? That I don't know. I was wasn't sure if I wanted to put him on my list or not. I one hand I thought he was you know, he's thinking about himself. He's he's presumably terminally ill and he's looking out for the long term good of his family.
But he also had a lot of flaws in his planning and execution. Can bad equal good? I don't know. That's one of those things. All right, then what about the monster dads like Gomez Addams or Herman Munster? They were fun dads. Do they fit in there? Do they? You know, and I don't saw I didn't see any kind of parenting that went on with them.
No, there was none. I always I think I preferred Gomez Addams. So as a father, yeah, Herman was stupid. Yeah. And he was just kind of bumbling around, which isn't unlike a lot of men currently. We've still got Dan Conner on the Conners and he has changed over the years. I've probably seen two episodes total. I think I watched maybe one episode when they rebooted it as the new Roseanne show, and then not long ago, just almost by accident, I kind of watched a bit of an episode of The Conners and it was fine.
I liked him as a dad in the original series, but I also thought he was a classic blue collar, right? Do we know what he even did? I don't even remember. But he was a working man's dad. You work at some kind of factory plant, whatever. But he was. He was a solid Midwest. Yeah, working dad. It was.
He would make sure they stayed afloat no matter what. It meant that he had to do another job or had to do something else. They were going to stay afloat. And I like that he did in Indulged Roseanne in her kind of pipe dreams. Mm hmm. Which was interesting. But I think things are a little a little back to normal with the new series.
I don't know. But how about Full House Danny Tanner? Yeah, he was a little too upbeat for me. I don't know that the show was fun to watch as a kid. My daughters watch that show on stream. You know, we we turned on Fuller House for about 30 seconds and then flipped it off. And I, I at the time when it came out, we thought it was a little too grown up for my kids.
Yeah. So they could probably watch it now. They watch they watched the original series Front to back and loved it when it aired originally. I enjoyed it. I watch it now and the shows are to me are very tough to watch because I think it's just it's not realistic. Like you can afford this house. It's probably $8 million and San Francisco, your buddies are living with you.
What's that all about? It's just it was a strange, you know, in retrospect, a very strange show to me. A lot of memories with those characters. But yeah, well, that's. Oh, and then more recently, Blackish Dre. Interesting. But I found that he yelled a lot and I did not watch that show. So yeah, I thought he yelled too much for his own good and was always kind of flustered and I didn't really care for that.
I like Anthony, though. I think he's a great actor, but I don't know that he necessarily he was more in the line of George Jefferson. I want to be honest about all that. And yeah, and so right now, I don't know that there is a dad like Jack Pearson where you would go, okay, that's our big TV dad right now.
What about All in the Family? There's a classic TV dad for you. Yeah. And I don't know that he was really that fatherly knew. He didn't think Meat Head was good enough for his daughter. Right? I mean, he's protecting his daughter, but I don't know that he ever did anything. You know, particularly I don't know Dad, like, know about when he was in Archie's place.
But I Yeah, I just I don't think he's considered a dad at all. No, I think that's more of the show is, you know, the Archie Bunker character very ground breaking for the time, you know, to tackle issues with race and in all of that during the seventies. But beyond that, it does a great job of capturing I mean, I don't think those episodes could ever run today because there were too much political discourse about the points that they take.
But it is fascinating when you look at them in retrospect and you think, my God, these were things that were being thrown out on the television airwaves when we were just, I guess, naive. Yeah, a lot has changed since then that is. I don't know which you could do it. Is that the last? Yeah, I think that's about it on my list.
You covered a lot of ground there. I had a few in mind Again, Darth Vader. Not the best, Dad. He did try to reconcile with his son at the end. Okay, but now think about this. Were we just duped into thinking he's bad because of the perspective we got? Or was he just. Yeah, you sound very Obi-Wan Kenobi there.
It's just from a different point of view, right? I mean, from his perspective, he was probably a great dad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Know, he slaughtered all the younglings. That's all we know. He went into the Jedi temple. And what you won't do for your kids, right? I know, Right, Exactly. We're going to go refill that bucket, though. That's right in the middle of the mantle.
When you think, oh, I can't watch this anymore, you go back and get an extra fill. I am looking forward to my popcorn. Any anything on the horizon, Bruce, before we sign off, you know, I really do want to dig into the flash, so if you get a chance, zip over to flash and see that because that has been such a troubled film all during its duration.
And now let's see if the hype actually if that was part of the hype or if indeed this was that film that had to be released because it is so great. So if you get a chance, please see that. And we'll talk the Flash next week, because I really want to know where you said I'm going to try to get there because my family is heading out of town, but I'm sticking around.
So maybe I will. I will have a date date evening with me, myself and I. And there you go and bring that bucket And I absolutely bring in the bucket. All right, Bruce, thanks again for another episode. Well, Terry, Happy Father's Day, too. And have lots of fun. And to all the fathers and listeners out there or the fathers that want to be fathers or whatever it might be, happy Father's Day.