GirlsGuideTo | Fictional Dads We'd Love to Have…Even For a Day

Dads are great. They spent hours building your Barbie Dream House, intimidated all your high school boyfriends, did the worst chores, joined you on the scariest rollercoasters, thinks that no one else is smarter or prettier than you, and is always there for you when life gets overwhelming (even say, when you’re 25 and your air conditioning breaks on a hot June weekend…) Dads can be our greatest supporters and our biggest pains in the butt, but we love them for both. To honor the dads in the world, we wanted to nominate our favorite TV dads from our fave TV shows as "Greatest Dads," if we had an extra tie/mug/drawing we would give them to you.

Chris Brinkley from Up All Night
You are a good dad if you give up your high-powered law career to take care of your new baby while your wife goes back to work. It must be somewhat emasculating to be a stay-at-home-dad, but Will Arnett's character handles it all with grace. And when we say grace, we mean total chaos. Plus, you have to be a good husband to put up with Maya Rudolph's character all the time.

Adam Braverman from Parenthood
On Parenthood, a hugely underrated show in our opinion, Peter Krause's Adam Braverman is the bedrock of the family. He is a compassionate and loving father and even acts as the father-figure to members of his family that are not his children, like his crazy siblings. He is kind and patient and responsible, but not perfect. Sounds like a good role model to us!

Don Draper from Mad Men
Ok, so maybe Don’s not the best role model for parenting (or life) out there, but it’s obvious that despite his faults, he really loves his kids. In the earlier seasons, Don had Sally’s back when Betty was going crazy on her. And then had her make him an Old Fashioned. See? Not perfect. While we don’t think we’d want him as a Dad forever, his real draw is that he gets to be the fun parent, taking the kids all over Manhattan (and Disney Land) with his pretty young wife.

Hank Moody from Californication
Another controversial choice, I’m sure. Hank Moody has his problems, no doubt. He’s completely unreliable, is a sex addict, is constantly going to jail for something…the list goes on and on. It’s not a stretch to think that Bekka has some real daddy issues. But…he means so well! And we love that his parenting style has always been supportive and focused on equality, because honestly, who was the kid in that relationship?

Burt Hummel from Glee
Glee can be hit or miss in terms of quality (confession: we stopped watching years ago), but by far the show's most successful relationship has been between Kurt Hummel and his father Burt (Mike O'Malley). Though the mechanic struggled with his son's homosexuality at first, Burt has since been his son's strongest advocate, often pushing him to tackle new challenges and to be proud of who he is. And isn't that what being a good dad is really all about?

Danny Tanner from Full House
Danny Tanner faced the difficult task of raising three young daughters after his wife passed away. Luckily, Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey were there to help him shepherd DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle through childhood and into adolescence. Other than his obsessive complusive cleanliness (remember when he washed his dish gloves?), Mr. Tanner was pretty much the epitome of a perfect TV dad (right down to his eye-roll-inducing corniness).

Eric Taylor from Friday Night Lights
Not only was Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) a fantastic football coach (a "moulder of men" if even there was one), he was also a great dad to Julie and little Gracie Belle. Coach Taylor also took the mostly fatherless Matt Saracen under his wing and even let ne'er-do-well Tim Riggins stay at his house. His mantra of "clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose" is one to live by.

And our favorite TV dad has to be…

Phil Dunphy from Modern Family
We may be biased because we're pretty sure the character of Phil Dunphy was modeled after our dads, but we think he’s a great dad! Sure he’s clueless a lot of the time, but his never-ending optimism and love make up for it. He’s always up for any adventure, no matter how dumb it makes him look at the end. And he tries so hard! Sure, Cam and Mitchell are also great dads, but Phil’s loveable nerd qualities always steal the show.

Who is your favorite TV dad? Did we miss any great ones?