# Who is the best TV dad of all time?

> Warm, wise, useless, terrifying: television has produced every kind of father, and they all share one ballot.

*By YPB Team · Published August 4, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/who-is-the-best-tv-dad-of-all-time*

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## Current results (0 votes)

1. **Homer Simpson**
   The Simpsons patriarch who strangles his son one minute and gives up everything for him the next.
2. **Philip Banks**
   Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a tough judge who became Will's real father figure.
3. **Phil Dunphy**
   Modern Family's relentlessly upbeat realtor dad who parents by cool-dad enthusiasm.
4. **Danny Tanner**
   Full House's obsessively tidy widower raising three daughters with hugs and life lessons.
5. **Red Forman**
   That '70s Show's ex-Navy dad, all threats and gruffness with real affection underneath.
6. **Bob Belcher**
   Bob's Burgers' burger-flipping dad who never once mocks his kids' weirdness.
7. **Hal Wilkerson**
   Malcolm in the Middle's manic, hobby-obsessed dad barely surviving four sons.
8. **Andy Taylor**
   The Andy Griffith Show's widowed small-town sheriff, the original calm and decent TV dad.
9. **Ward Cleaver**
   Leave It to Beaver's 1950s father, the template every later sitcom dad reacted against.
10. **Eric Taylor**
   Friday Night Lights' coach, a father to his daughter and half of Dillon's teenagers.
11. **Jack Pearson**
   This Is Us' idealized father whose flaws and early death shaped three children's lives.
12. **Peter Griffin**
   Family Guy's oblivious man-child, proof that being a TV dad is not the same as being good at it.

Tags: tv shows, comedy, classics, characters