Spoiler alert: The embedded video clip is the series’ final scene.
Show: The Sopranos
Kids: Daughter, Meadow; Son, A.J.
Known for: Anxiety attacks; infidelity; running the North Jersey mafia
As a father, Tony Soprano had his shortcomings. For starters, he’s the only member of this list to have one of his daughter’s boyfriends’ whacked. (He also spewed racial epithets at another of Meadow’s boyfriends, garroted a turncoat associate while ferrying his daughter on a college tour, and regularly berated his son.) Nevertheless, Tony’s struggle to balance the stresses of running his fracturing crime family and provide for his troubled domestic one was the emotional heart of the acclaimed drama. Though often clumsy or brutish, his efforts at parenting were sincere, and revealed to viewers the vulnerable side of an exceedingly dangerous character.