So who is your favourite TV father?

I have toyed with a few ideas for this weekend’s column: gifts Dads want (and don’t want); Memories of dad; the bum rap men, and especially fathers, are getting lately. None of them really came together, though.

And then it hit me: TV dads.

Now, I’m only 46, so there are a few TV dads that I only know from syndicated reruns or from hearing my own parents and others from their generation discuss. So, I poked around on Google™ and found a few newspaper and tv-related sites which posted polls of "10 greatest Father on television" or "Top 25 Greatest TV Dads."

There’s also a website called "TV Single Dads Hall of Fame," which lists 13o occasions of single fathers appearing in TV shows.

These were all helpful in reminding me of some of the dads from years gone by. There’s just too many to list in this column, plus that whole "copyright" thing prevents me from posting them.

Feel free to search Google™ and check them out yourself — there’s dozens of websites.

Here, instead, is a list of my favourite TV fathers — their character names, the actor who played him, and the name of the show. I’ve included a few animated characters, too.

• Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith), "The Andy Griffith Show"
Good ol’ Andy was always pretty level-headed, and dispensed a great deal of wisdom to young Opie.

• Fred Flintstone (Alan Reed, voice), "The Flinstones"
How could you not like — and feel sorry for — Fred?

• Charles Ingalls (Michael Landon), "Little House on the Prairie"
Like Andy, Charles was full of fatherly wisdom. A bit strict at times, he nonetheless showed unconditional love for his family through many trying circumstances.

• Mike Brady (Robert Reed), "The Brady Bunch"
A father who almost never raises his voice, despite trying to raise a gaggle of pre- and teen-age kids? Not terribly realistic, but as a kid I wanted to be a Brady. (Or, maybe I just like Marcia!)

• Howard Cunningham (Tom Bosley), "Happy Days"
Again, a father who rarely raised his voice. But "Mr C" was always supportive of his own kids, their friends and, later, their spouses.

• Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor (Tim Allen), "Home Improvement"
I liked that Tim was not always right, and actually was often neck-deep in a situation before someone — usually Jill, Al, or Wilson — bailed him out. Still, I think he’d have been a cool dad.

• Al Bundy (Ed O’Neil) "Married ... With Children"
No, I wouldn’t want to be Al Bundy’s kid, and I don’t think he was all that good a father except that he did keep plugging away at that lousy job just to make ends meet and support his family.

• Raymond Barone, (Ray Romano) "Everybody Loves Raymond"
Ray’s a lot like Tim Taylor, but without the tools. Hey, Everybody Loves Raymond.

• Jim (Jim Belushi), "According to Jim"
(note: According to ABC’s website, "Jim" doesn’t have a last name!)
Yeah, he’s a bumbling moron at times, but he adores his family, AND, he has a garage blues band! How cool is that?

• Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) "The Cosby Show"
Cliff didn’t just dispense wisdom, he taught life lessons. My favourite episode was when he let Theo "move out" and pay his own way.

• Homer Simpson ("The Simpsons")
D’Oh! Need I say more?

• Michael Kyle (Damon Wayans) "My Wife and Kids"
I thought Michael was a sort of hipper version of Cliff Huxtable, with a way better sense of humour.

• Reginald 'Red' Forman (Kurtwood Smith), "That '70s Show"
I think 'Red' is my all-time favourite TV dad. Nobody puts his foot up an ass like 'Red.' ["I will kick you in the ass so hard, your ears will bleed!" or "You're about to read a book that my foot wrote. It's called, On The Road To In Your Ass."]

Yes, he could be over-bearing, and he had a blind spot where daughter Laurie was concerned. But he was only as tough as he needed to be, and he really is a good father.

So, how many of these "dads" do you remember, and were any of them your favourites?

Feel free to post any that I haven’t included, and why they are your favourites.

And to all the fathers out there: Happy Father’s Day.