Show:Roseanne Kids: Becky, Darlene and D.J. Known for: Wisecracking, beer-drinking, motorcycles and sports
Sure, construction contractor Dan Connor was, at times, a pretty hands-off dad. The show isn’t called Roseanne for nothing. But John Goodman, playing Dan as a gruff, goofy, goodhearted Joe Sixpack, showed love for his three children in other ways — making Halloween an entertaining family affair, allowing both his daughters’ boyfriends to move in the Connor home and not killing either of them, keeping Roseanne at bay when she surely would have chewed up and spit out one of her misbehaving kids. He also did everything to make sure his family had place to live and food to eat — even if Roseanne cooked it all, and worked to help pay for it.
Show:The Simpsons Kids: Bart, Lisa, Maggie Known for: His love of beer, donuts, TV and pork products; his hatred for his neighbor, Ned Flanders; “D’oh!”
Alright, so Homer Simpson isn’t the ideal role model. The boorish, balding, terrifyingly inept nuclear-safety inspector drinks too much, eats too much, belches too much and has apparently declared war on his own brain. But while the dysfunctional family man often leads his children astray, (he once tried to console his daughter’s fear of vampires by explaining that they’re make-believe, “like Elves, Gremlins and Eskimos”) his heart is in the right place — even when he’s strangling his son with his own bare, four-fingered hands. As creator Matt Groening once noted, Homer embodies “consumption and envy, laziness and opportunity, stubbornness and redemption. Just like the rest of us. Only exaggerated.” And yellow.
Richard Dawson, the wisecracking British entertainer who was among the schemers in the 1960s sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes” and a decade later began kissing thousands of female contestants as host of the game show “Family Feud” has died. He was 79.
As we prepare for the Game of Thrones finale, we recognize Joffrey and nine other baddies who showed us that terrible, horrible things can come in small packages
