# Single Dad Sitcom With No Help **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 4, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441 "2007-07-04T00:23:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rediff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47774/32.png) [@Rediff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rediff)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/1 "2007-07-04T00:23:37Z")
I was trying to think of a sitcom past or present that featured a dad who was single (divorced, widowed whatever) and had no help. We have had shows like _Alice_ and _One Day At A Time_ that featured a single woman raising a child or kids on her own with no help, but I can’t think of a father doing this. _The Great Gildersleave_, _The Courtship of Eddie’s Father_, _Diff’rent Strokes_, _Family Affair_ and _Bachelor Father_ all had housekeepers or “manservents” to help them. _My Three Sons_ had a grandfather, then an uncle help. _My Two Dads_ needed not one but TWO fathers to raise that little girl and of course _Full House_ had not one, not two but THREE dads (effectively) to raise those kids. The only sitcom I can think of that had a dad raising kids with no help was _Hello Larry_. Were there anyothers? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/2 "2007-07-04T00:32:37Z")
Are you kidding? Who’d do the _cooking and laundry_? (I’d imagine the kitchen burning down every week can only go so far before continuity errors crept in.) ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/3 "2007-07-04T00:39:29Z")
I don’t know about sitcoms (I thought I saw a preview for a new show for the fall schedule that would fit, but I could be mistaken) but in the comics, there’s **The Humble Stumble** ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/4 "2007-07-04T00:51:06Z")
What about Precocious Girl and Son Who Was A Closet Alcoholic and the other kid and the dad was a musician? Blossom? Did they have a housekeeper? ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/5 "2007-07-04T00:56:29Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] What about Precocious Girl and Son Who Was A Closet Alcoholic and the other kid and the dad was a musician? Blossom? Did they have a housekeeper? [/QUOTE] the other kid was “teen heartthrob” (gotta have a teen heartthrob) Joey “Whoa!” Lawrence, and I do not recall a housekeeper/maid/what-have-you. Blossom did a lot of the housework, tho, didn’t she? ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/6 "2007-07-04T01:05:11Z")
Does Punky Brewster count? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/7 "2007-07-04T02:27:26Z")
“One on One” is a show about a single father and his teenaged daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/8 "2007-07-04T12:29:49Z")
[QUOTE=anyrose] the other kid was “teen heartthrob” (gotta have a teen heartthrob) Joey “Whoa!” Lawrence, and I do not recall a housekeeper/maid/what-have-you. Blossom did a lot of the housework, tho, didn’t she? [/QUOTE] Yeah, I think she did a lot of the work, but she wasn’t “outside” help, which I think the OP was referring to. (Of _COURSE_ the daughter would do the housework. While the one brother drank in the closet and the other one “whoa’d” his way into the hearts of millions…to step outside the traditional gender roles woulda been…you know…kinda “commie” or something.) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/9 "2007-07-04T12:30:52Z")
Ned Flaunders on the Simpsons ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/10 "2007-07-04T12:43:24Z")
There was a British sitcom [Me And My Girl](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086757/) widower brings up teenage daughter, with a little help from mother-in-law. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/11 "2007-07-04T12:46:54Z")
Nick on Blossom, whose wife left him to find fulfillment in Paris. He was raisng a now sober alcoholic/druggie son, a total idiot of a son, and Blossom, the only normal one. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/12 "2007-07-04T13:24:49Z")
Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) on “The Rifleman”? Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) on “Bonanza,” maybe (though his sons were grown men, and you might regard Hop SIng as a “manservant”). ---
**Author:** ![Shryn\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Shryn\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shryn_King)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/13 "2007-07-04T14:40:44Z")
Disney’s \*\*[Hannah Montana](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493093/plotsummary) \*\* has Billy Ray Cyrus as the dad of two teenagers. I have only seen parts of it a couple of times; but, I haven’t seen where there is anyone else around helping with the parenting. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/14 "2007-07-04T17:16:21Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] Yeah, I think she did a lot of the work, but she wasn’t “outside” help, which I think the OP was referring to. (Of _COURSE_ the daughter would do the housework. While the one brother drank in the closet and the other one “whoa’d” his way into the hearts of millions…to step outside the traditional gender roles woulda been…you know…kinda “commie” or something.) [/QUOTE] I’m not sure housework was the point of Blossom, especially when exchanges like this would happen _every week_: Blossom: I could have sex with my boyfriend anytime I want! I’m a grown woman! But I’m not going to today! Ex-Drug Addict Son: Did you know I used to be a drug addict? Six: My name is six because my father drank six beers the night he and my mother… Joey: Whoa! Every week man, every week. Who has time for laundry? ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/15 "2007-07-04T17:28:48Z")
[QUOTE=Shryn King] Disney’s \*\*[Hannah Montana](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493093/plotsummary) \*\* has Billy Ray Cyrus as the dad of two teenagers. I have only seen parts of it a couple of times; but, I haven’t seen where there is anyone else around helping with the parenting. [/QUOTE] Mr. Stewart (aka the dad) is a widower. Mostly he takes care of the kids on his own, and I think they both pitch in with the housework. Occasionally some country music singer will guest star as a visiting relative from Tennesee or wherever the family’s from, and will dispense some down-home wisdom while they’re there. Plus Miley/Hannah has a female bodyguard who shows up once in a while to do responsible-adult-type-stuff and make the dad look like an idiot. I would like to thank my daughter and nieces for watching this show so damn much that I inadvertently picked up all this from casual viewing. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/16 "2007-07-04T17:52:10Z")
Sanford and son Supernatural ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/17 "2007-07-04T18:48:28Z")
“My Two Dads” had two single dads and no domestic help. I don’t recall a housekeeper on “The Patty Duke Show” but I haven’t seen that many episodes. Ditto for “Gidget.” That William Schallert sure was self-sufficient. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/18 "2007-07-04T19:06:19Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Ned Flaunders on the Simpsons [/QUOTE] He has God’s help. ---
**Author:** ![SetApart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SetApart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SetApart)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/19 "2007-07-04T20:28:26Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] “My Two Dads” had two single dads and no domestic help. I don’t recall a housekeeper on “The Patty Duke Show” but I haven’t seen that many episodes. Ditto for “Gidget.” That William Schallert sure was self-sufficient. [/QUOTE] The Patty Duke Show featured a mother, Natalie, played by Jean Byron. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2007, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441/20 "2007-07-05T04:24:17Z")
There was an old sitcom from the 70s called “Max and Me” that meets the OP’s criteria. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dad-sitcom-with-no-help/410441.md?page=2)