Even though there was no Netflix or Hulu in the 90s, there were plenty of sitcoms on regular
TV to keep us entertained. At the heart of many of them was the all-American dad. Get
ready for some nostalgia, as we reveal what these 90s sitcom dads look like today.
One of the first sitcoms to feature a non-traditional blended family with several different father
figures was Full House, which ran on ABC from 1987 to 1995. Bob Saget played Danny Tanner,
a sports anchor and widower who calls upon his brother-in-law Jesse and best friend Joey
to help him raise his three daughters. There were plenty of hijinx, but there were also
a lot of tender teaching moments between father and daughters. The cast of the show has remained
close since the series ended, something Saget acknowledges is rare. During an appearance
on Steve Harvey's talk show, he said,
"Normally actors don't stay with an ensemble, and stay friends, but [...] we stayed really
close. We went to dinner once, years ago, in Malibu, the entire cast [...] and Tony
Danza walked in with his wife, and he said, 'What are you all doing together?' and I said,
'What? Who's the Boss doesn't go to dinner?'"
"My philosophy is, why should child actors have people in their life for eight years
and then suddenly they're not in their lives the rest of their life?"
The seminal sitcom was rebooted by Netflix in 2016 as the sequel series Fuller House,
with many of the same cast members returning all grown up.
Family Matters ran on ABC for eight seasons and then on CBS for a ninth and final season
from 1989 to 1997. Reginald VelJohnson played Carl Winslow, a police officer living in Chicago
with his family. The show was also beloved for the character of Steve Urkel, played by
Jaleel White, who was so popular that he often became the focus of the show. In 2017, the
cast was reunited by Entertainment Weekly, an experience that made VelJohnson especially
emotional. As he gushed,
"I love these people... Every one of them. I didn't realize I was going to see everybody
[...] To see them now, the way they are, is wonderful. It's heartwarming. It makes me
cry."
The cast enthusiastically expressed interest in a reboot during the reunion, although White
later shut down the idea in a post on his Instagram. Maybe someday!
Tim Allen was the comedic heart of the wildly popular ABC sitcom Home Improvement, which
ran from 1991 to 1999. The show, which focused on the life and work of Tim "The Tool Man"
Taylor, was consistently one of the highest-rated shows on TV. Allen himself managed to snag
a Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy or musical in 1995. Clearly, the guy knew
how to get a laugh!
As with so many other classic shows, the question has come up about whether or not Home Improvement
will ever be revived. According to Allen, he and most of the original cast would be
on board for a reboot. In 2018, he told Entertainment Tonight,
"I can't say everybody, but it has been floated. And more than I would have expected said,
'Yeah, that would be cool to do it years later.'"
Allen also noted that he would take on a leadership role in getting the proverbial band back together,
if given the opportunity. Our fingers are crossed!
From 1991 to 1998, Step By Step ran on ABC for six seasons and then on CBS for its seventh
and final season. It focused on two single parents who each have three kids of their
own when they marry each other. If you thought that premise sounded a bit familiar, you'd
be right. It clearly took a page out of The Brady Bunch playbook, but it still managed
to be popular in its own right. It starred Suzanne Somers and Patrick Duffy as Carol
and Frank, who spontaneously get hitched while vacationing in Jamaica. The rest of the series
follows the integration of their respective families. When the role of Frank landed in
Duffy's lap, he welcomed it with open arms. As he told Sidewalks Entertainment in 2018,
"I'd been working for 17 years playing the most, not downer characters, but never frivolity,
never fun, never joyful. It was always serious, heavy drama, especially on Dallas. And to
walk out the Dallas door and walk in the Step By Step door [...] was such a joy."
Clearly, it was a breath of fresh air for Duffy to finally be a little goofy and not
so serious all the time. In a 2014 Reddit AMA, he revealed that he and Somers would
like to see a Step By Step reboot. Maybe it'll be even better the second time around!
Who could possibly forget 3rd Rock from the Sun, the zany, off-the-wall sitcom that followed
the lives of aliens inhabiting human bodies on Earth? The show starred John Lithgow in
the leading paternal role of Dick Solomon and ran on NBC for six seasons from 1996 to
2001. It poked fun at human beings and society in general, using the alien characters to
point out how silly life on Earth really is, and how easy it is for alien visitors to get
caught up in it.
Lithgow still clearly has a lot of good memories from that time in his career. When the Los
Angeles Times asked him in 2017 which of his comedic roles is his favorite, he enthusiastically
responded,
"Oh, Dick Solomon [...] Dick Solomon was not just Dick Solomon. He was a man trying to
figure out what kind of a human being he was, so it allowed me to just act and act and act
and act."
"Anything could go! I could sing Gershwin songs. I could dance like Gene Kelly in Singin'
in the Rain."
It sounds like Lithgow had a total blast on set, and that definitely came through on screen!
He's open to the idea of a reboot, although he admitted to E! News in 2016 that it would
be difficult for him to now be as energetic as he was back then.
When it comes to sitcom depictions of Italian-Americans living on Long Island, New York, the first
show that pops to mind for a lot of people is surely Everybody Loves Raymond. From 1996
to 2005, viewers followed the trials and tribulations of Ray Barone, as played by Ray Romano, and
his family. Ray was a sarcastic and often indecisive sitcom dad. He seldom took sides
in an argument and rarely helped much around the house. When you consider all that, it's
a miracle that anybody, let alone everybody, ended up loving him!
By the time the show ended, Romano was the highest-paid sitcom actor on television. But
that didn't mean he was looking for a repeat of the show's success, or even another sitcom
role. As he told Vanity Fair in 2017,
"I didn't want to have to follow Everybody Loves Raymond with another sitcom. Let it
be my sitcom legacy, and leave it at that."
And it's quite a legacy, as he put in the time and earned plenty of accolades. Considering
Romano's resolve to avoid sitcoms now, a reboot is highly unlikely. Furthermore, he can't
imagine the show without the actors who played his parents, Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts,
who are both now deceased. We'll just have to keep revisiting the Barones in reruns!
One of the most beloved and most controversial sitcoms of the 90s was Fox's Married... with
Children. Ed O'Neill starred as patriarch Al Bundy, a women's shoes salesman who's often
miserable and always pining for his glory days when he played high school football.
The show lasted an impressive 11 seasons from 1987 to 1997. And though it hasn't aged well
in some respects, it definitely made its mark on TV history.
Believe it or not, O'Neill was performing in a dramatic role on Broadway when Married…
with Children's casting director first saw him. A year later, when the show needed to
cast Al Bundy, that director suggested O'Neill, who was far from an obvious choice at the
time. So when he read for the role, he stood out. As he explained during a 2016 appearance
on The Rich Eisen Show,
"Apparently most of the guys that read for it were doing it like Jackie Gleason in The
Honeymooners, you know, yelling and mad."
But inspired by an uncle of his who had a reputation for being resigned, O'Neill decided
to take it in a different direction, and it worked out.
"So you know, it'd be like, he'd get home from work, and he'd come in the house, and
my aunt, his wife, would say, 'Joe, I ran over the dog in the driveway today, he's dead.'
And Joe would say, 'What's for dinner?'"
In 2018, TMZ reported that the cast is game for a reboot, but we'll have to wait and see
if we ever actually get another round of love and marriage.
When it comes to sitcom dads who love football, Coach Hayden Fox made Al Bundy look like a
third-stringer. Played by Craig T. Nelson on the ABC series Coach, Coach Fox was consumed
by the gridiron, though he obviously cared about his family and friends as well. He was
deeply concerned about his daughter's imminent transition to full-blown womanhood in early
seasons, which surely made him relatable to all the fathers who were watching.
Coach aired for most of the 90s, airing nine seasons from 1989 to 1997. Even though Nelson
ultimately proved to be a fantastic fit for the role, he thought his audition went terribly,
so he left early. As he told the AV Club in 2013,
"I just said, 'You know what? You guys are not enjoying this, and I'm not really doing
a very good job,' and I left. And the next day, they wanted to give it to me."
He of course said yes, and the rest is history! Coach was actually supposed to be rebooted
in 2015 by NBC, but the network killed it before it could come to fruition.
Who's the Boss? was one of the most iconic sitcoms of the 80s and early 90s, airing on
ABC from 1984 to 1992. Tony Danza played Tony Micelli, a retired baseball player who becomes
a live-in housekeeper for advertising executive Angela, played by Judith Light, and her son.
The character of Tony was notable at the time, as there weren't a whole lot of men on TV
taking on the role of a stay-at-home father figure while the woman in the partnership
was the breadwinner.
Danza won over a lot of fans' hearts when the show originally aired, and he isn't surprised
that it's still beloved today. In 2014, he told Entertainment Tonight,
"It's a good show for kids to see. It was about trying to be there for people, and about
supporting each other and love and trust and all the things that we don't highlight in
TV too much anymore."
"The part was originally written for an Irish heavyweight, and then they met me, and they
made it an Italian middleweight."
While Danza looks back on his Who's the Boss? days fondly, he's not necessarily itching
to go back. When Uproxx brought up the idea of a revival in a 2018 interview, he said,
"You know, I like to look forward rather than backward."
However, in August 2020, he announced on his Instagram that a Who's the Boss? revival was
indeed in the works.
From 1988 to 1997, the ABC sitcom Roseanne was one of the most popular shows on TV. It
was groundbreaking thanks to its depictions of LGBTQ+ characters as well as overweight
people whose size wasn't relegated to a punchline. As Roseanne's husband Dan Conner, John Goodman
was a very human patriarch of a blue-collar family, which often dealt with real life situations
that viewers could identify with.
The show was rebooted in 2018, but it was only a few months into its run when Roseanne
Barr posted a racist tweet that ultimately led to the show's cancellation and left the
other cast members reeling. As Goodman told People Magazine,
"There was the feeling of not wanting it to go away until we were ready. There was a debt
owed to this fictional family. We want to finish telling this story."
Fortunately for Goodman and the rest of the cast, ABC created a spin-off series called
The Conners, which follows the family's exploits after Roseanne's sudden passing. As of 2020,
the show is still going strong three seasons in.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more List videos about your favorite
stuff are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss
a single one.