TV Dads, Family Ties, and Scrabble

Father's Day 2010: I woke up wishing I were more like Cliff Huxtable.

Funny. Calm. Nurturing. Wise. Unreal.

Then I wanted to reassure myself a bit. Thought of Dan Conner (from Roseanne) and Homer Simpson. Left me wishing again for a (TV) model.

Then I remembered Steven Keaton.

I think if I could be a TV dad it would be him. All of the above Huxtable, but in realistic doses, sporadically intertwined with personal neuroses, occasional freakings out at life, and regular returns to grace. (Seriously, I remember them "making up" a lot on that show.)

The sound is bad on this video, but it is the most classic Family Ties episode of all time, and it endures in my memory as one piece with memories of my own Dad and my young hopes (strangely enough) about the kind of father I might grow up to be.



And to top it all off this morning, my five year old, unprompted, asked me to play Scrabble today. Unreal.