[RunningJoke]

"TV has also provided poor role models for fathers themselves. If you buy the argument that TV dads have been the most influential agent of paternal culture over the past 50 years, it's little wonder even more fathers haven't turned out to be ineffective, hapless idiots like the Tim Allen character on Home Improvement or Ray Romano on Everybody Loves Raymond."

The Fred MacMurray character (Steve Douglas) was a pretty good father model. There are bunch more, too. I think the point here is that hack commedians make for terrible TV dads. It's a Hollywood formula that has jumped the shark.

[RogerFGay]

I didn't think Tim Allen and Ray Romano were bad fathers. They are just more "traditional" in that they leave the housework to mom. Many working girl journalists today might not prefer that arrangement, but it doesn't mean that the men are bad.