25 TV Dads we wish were ours
By Sundi Rose
![](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/bb4f158222a32d0966b2075245735affc75f1f88bb5474e0129c376995e13c97.jpg)
Photo: HBO
Tony Soprano – The Sopranos
Tony Soprano may have been a mob boss, but he was also kind of a softie when it came to his family. The Sopranos surprised us by offering up a complicated protagonist in Tony that was both ruthless and conflicted. He did what he had to do, but always grappled with reconciling it with his conscious. He was also the first mob boss to seek out a psychologist and drug therapy.
When it came to his family, however, especially his son, AJ, and daughter Meadow, he fought to maintain a normalcy for them, despite their father’ s day job. It didn’t really work out that way because Tony’s kids turned out to be kinda awful. Especially that little punk, AJ.
I guess we could sort of blame the kids’ dysfunction on their dad’s latent sociopathy and personality disorder, but I like to think his love, devotion, and support offset all that damage. That’s probably just wishful thinking on my part, as a parent, but Tony did the best he could. Tony is a good TV dad because he worked so hard to be a good man for his kids, even though he didn’t always feel worthy of them. While most of us aren’t mob bosses, we’re always trying to deserve our kids.