Al Bundy: A toast to TV's best (and worst) dads

Al Bundy, Disaster Dad

(from MSNBC) "Married with Children" patriarch Al Bundy pushed the envelope of what TV dads could get away with. In one episode, he accidentally shot the neighbors' dog. When he took wife Peg away for a night to celebrate their anniversary, he did so solely to watch a boxing match on the hotel's TV.

No one is safe from Al's insults — he criticizes his wife, his kids, and everything about his shoe-store job. Yet Al is really his own worst enemy, as he flunks his driving test, goes on a spending spree with a credit card made out to the dog, and moves his family into the shoe store while their house is being fumigated. He didn't want to sleep with Peg, but at the same time, he was never going to leave her or the kids. Kelly and Bud, meanwhile, seemed to know they've lost the Dad Lottery, but it really never bothers them — they both have enough problems of their own.

Read more about other dads such as Frank Costanza, Dan Conner, Archie Bunker and others - A toast to TV's best (and worst) dads (MSNBC)

Some fatherly advice from Al:

“Uh, children… Let me tell you a little bit about sharing. Don’t do it! It only leads to trouble. Your mother and I have shared a bed and nothing good came of it. Twice.”

“Kelly, let me tell you something. Guys will come and guys will go, but your dad will always be your dad. Until he can’t take anymore and hops on a freight train.”

“Peg, if I wanted you to know what I’m thinking, I’d be talking.”

Al Bundy - a loser? Tell us how you really feel Al...

“So you think I’m a loser? Just because I have a stinking job that I hate, a family that doesn’t respect me, a whole city that curses the day I was born? Well, that may mean ‘loser’ to you, but let me tell you something: Every morning when I wake up, I know it’s not going to get any better until I go back to sleep again. So I get up, have my watered down Tang and still-frozen Pop Tart, get in my car with no upholstery, no gas and six more payments to fight traffic just for the privilege of putting cheap shoes on the cloven hooves of people like you. I’ll never play football like I thought I would, I’ll never know the touch of a beautiful woman, and I’ll never again know the joy of driving without a bag on my head. But I’m not a loser. ‘Cause despite it all, me and every other guy who’ll never be what he wanted to be are still out there, being what we don’t wanna be, forty hours a week—for life. And the fact that I haven’t put a gun to my mouth, you pudding of a woman, makes me a winner!”

“Oh yeah, laugh now! But when the millions start pouring in, I’ll be the one at Burger King, sucking down Whoppers at my own private table!”