25 of the most handsome fathers on television

Mitch Leery – Dawson’s Creek

Y’all remember Mitch Leery? He was the beefy but sensitive dad to the scrawny but whiny Dawson Leery on Dawson’s Creek. Mitch was constantly putting his hand on Dawson’s shoulder, using terms of endearment like, “son” and “champ,” and worked really hard to act like a wholesome, all-American dad.

He mostly succeeded. He was the moral center for the Leery fam (and the whole Creek crew, for that matter), and gave more “voice of reason” pep talks than any dad should have to. Mitch also had a body like a washboard and a voice like polished gravel. Most of the time he was on screen, I was secretly hoping he would stop talking and just take his shirt off.

Even back then, when body standards for men on TV weren’t as punishing as they are now, he was working those trapezius muscles like nobody’s business. He wore a lot of needlessly tight sweaters with the sleeves pushed up, and I didn’t hear half of what he said because I was too busy concentrating on his forearms.

True to the show’s format, Mitch was a little bit of a crybaby when it came to his feelings and emotions. Those Leery men never found a situation they couldn’t cry in, but his sensitivity may have been ahead of it’s time. I don’t think I would mind all that sniveling if I could put my cheek on that shoulder.