Dads are fantastic!—Happy Father's Day

Dads are fantastic!  

That’s why we celebrate all of them (including TV dads) today, Sunday, June 16 -- “Father’s Day”! 

According to World Book Online, “Father’s Day” was the brainchild of a Spokane, Washington, daughter. 

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd wanted to honor her father, William Jackson Smart, who had raised his six children after his wife died in 1898.  

She conceived the notion of Father’s Day in 1909 after listening to a sermon on Mother’s Day. With local support, she petitioned for a national day to honor fathers. Her dream became reality when Spokane celebrated the first Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed Father’s Day into law. * 

The rest, as they say, is paternal history.  

Most of us have our own personal Dad stories and memories.  

So today let’s remember a few of the TV fathers we’ve all shared through the years! They are many in number so we’ll start with a few... Then share the name of your favorite TV dad! 

Andy Griffith, aka widower Sheriff Andy Taylor on the “The Andy Griffith Show.” Sheriff Andy’s adorable son was “Opie.”  

(Note of interest: Now an esteemed movie director, Ron Howard (Opie) has been seen in Middletown this year working on a movie about former Middletonian J.D. Vance, author of the bestselling book, “Hillbilly Elegy.”)** 

Fred MacMurray as Stephen Douglas on “My Three Sons.” 

Fred Flintstone of “The Flintstones,” the “modern Stone Age family...” (he’s still a dad, after all...) 

Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker, the cantankerous husband/father on the often-controversial “All In The Family.” 

Homer Simpson. Need we say more? 

Now it’s your turn! 

  

Want to enjoy some golden oldie (and more recent) TV shows? Look to MidPointe Library! 

Go to: www.midpointelibrary.org > Catalog Search > DVDs 

For downloadable items only, check out our vast e-Library: 

www.midpointelibrary.org > eLibrary > Movies and TV shows 

This site includes “Hoopla” which offers “hundreds of thousands of free movies, TV shows, full music albums, audiobooks, eBooks, comics and more...” 

And don’t forget to say “Thank you” to the Dad in your life! 

*Information on Sonora Louise Smart Dodd and Father’s Day is from World Book Online/Student available via MidPointe Library: 

https://www.worldbookonline.com/student-new/#/article/home/ar192440/father's%20day 

**“Hillbilly Elegy: a Memoir of a Family and Culture In Crisis” by J.D. Vance is available for checkout at MidPointe Library.