Noteworthy Fictional Dads

I’m Carys Wilson and you can find me in the Family Portrait series by Gillian Felix. In honor of Father’s Day, I thought I’d give a shout out to some fictional dads who have really made me take notice.

Fox’s Empire, Luscious Lyon played by Terrence Howard.

Why we love Luscious… looks aside, he’s a fighter, a warrior who built his Empire from ashes. Luscious loves his family but he loves his empire more.

In Empire Season 1 Luscious was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The show became such a hit with Luscious at the helm, I wondered how the producers would handle his eminent death. Turns out he was mis-diagnosed, phew!

Would that bit of good news give LL an awakening? Heck no! He is more ruthless than ever. I am excited to see what adventure awaits us now that he’s found out his sons plan to dethrone him.

Speaking of Sons… FX’s Sons of Anarchy, Jax Teller, played by the gorgeous Charlie Hunnum makes the list. I just recently started watching SOA and I am truly obsessed… thank you Netflix!

Why we love Jax… he’s hot, no seriously, he’s really hot and gives new meaning to the acronym DILF. Obvious hotness aside, even though Jax keeps the Charming PD busy with his ever increasing body count, he has a heart of gold and is loyal to his club.

The amount of women Jax has been with could fill a small arena, but his heart belongs to his high school sweetheart, Dr. Tara Knowles, who he finally married, four seasons and one and a half kids later. Jax gets the Who’s Your Daddy award for traveling halfway around the world to find his son who was kidnapped by the Irish Mafia.

Jax’s dilemma has always been to find a way to steer the club away from organized crime to become a legitimate organization. But can a club built on crime survive without it? I still have 3 more seasons to go, but as it stands right now, the Sons seem to be in over their head with gang related violence, the Irish mob and Mexican cartel. Yikes!

I have to give a shout out to Walter White, from Breaking Bad, played by Bryan Cranston. Walter White is a character that no one will soon forget, especially us Albuquerque residents because his ghost is still everywhere.

You have to be living under a rock if you don’t know Walt’s story, so I won’t go into that. Walter took us on his transformation from a helpless weakling diagnosed with cancer to a one man drug cartel, nicknamed Heisenberg, bolo hat and all.

All the crimes Walt committed was because he wanted to provide for his family after his death. What’s not to love? Even if he left a body count that would gain the respect of Jax Teller, we still felt for Walter and hurt when his demise came. What I loved about Walter was that in the end he went out on his terms.

Looking back at who I have listed so far, all of the above are bad asses. Let’s tone it down a bit with Robin Banovic from the Family Portrait Series: Changes, Banovic Siblings and Bad Uncle (releasing summer 2015).

Readers identified with Robin when he had to file for bankruptcy to save his family from financial ruin, as if things couldn’t get worse, his father dies, leaving him with more guilt than he can handle. Robin loves his family and does what he has too to protect them, but how can he protect his family when there are so many secrets between them?

Teddy Conrad from ABC’s hit series Nashville, played by Eric Close. Teddy, Teddy, Teddy. Teddy seems to always be the victim of circumstances. First off, being married to the queen of country Raina James cannot be easy. So in true Teddy style he has an affair with Peggy Canter, who got pregnant, lost the baby, and forgot to tell him.

After his divorce from Raina, Teddy and Peggy were married. Happily ever after? I think not, Peggy was murdered very early in the marriage.

We thought Teddy found true love when a very attractive and clean cut lawyer caught his eye. But she was too boring for him so he turned to a hooker, orchestrated by his *ahem* BFF Jeff Fordham. Did I mention that Teddy is the Mayor of Nashville? Turns out the hooker was under FBI surveillance and now they’ve got the goods on Teddy… looks like he’ll need that lawyer after all.

With all that drama, there is no question that Teddy loves his two daughters. He even kept the identity of his eldest daughter’s paternal father from her, because he loved her so much. He illegally signed both girls to a record deal with music exec chief scumbag Jeff Fordham. Teddy for Daddy of the year? Maybe next year.

Feel free to share your fictional father in the comments below and click here to receive your free copy of Changes (Family Portrait Book 1).