Nancy Botwin of Weeds comes to mind immediately, with her drug dealing and involvement with criminals, for starters.
Then there are Sean and Julia MacNamara, Dr. Troy, and Matt MacNamara of Nip/Tuck—where does one begin? Absentee parenting, self-involvement, crime, adultery, having the nanny fill in most of the time, multiple partners in and out of the homes, etc.
Name some other crappy TV parents and let’s see how long we can make the list.
Can’t recall what he did to her (probably was a mean drunk), but Jerry Orbach’s Lenny on Law and Order went through a period where his daughter broke off relations.
And your quote reminded me of two irritating as hell parents - the Costanza’s.
I’ve only seen a few episodes of The Simpsons, but I’d have to assume that due to sheer quantity and zaniness of material that they’ve probably done almost every bad thing you can do to your child at some point.
Of course, if you include Twin Peaks then…
Leland Palmer is probably the winner, until you include people who played a bit part, “villain of the week”, sort of character on a show
Mr and Mrs Soprano?
Betty Draper is pretty far up there.
Al & Peggy Bundy
Jonny Quest’s dad.
Peter and Lois Griffin.
Wayne and Dahlia Malloy
Mr. and Mrs. Pontipine. I swear, they lose their kids every week.
I think the thread is more interesting if you exclude bizarrely-bad parents, e.g., the Simpsons with various Halloween episode homicides, or soap operas with parents killing children. With these exclusions, limiting the thread to parents who are run-of-the-mill lousy, Betty Draper gets my vote.
The Lost in Space parents. That poor little boy is doomed to either be celibate, get molested by Dr. Smith, settle for boinking his sister or his mother, bumping uglies with a robot, or engaging in buggery with Paw.
Sick, sick parents I tell you.
Was it Family Guy that had this take on * Lost in Space*?
“OK, gang, new planet. Let’s split up and explore. Major West, you’re with my nubile young daughter. And Will, you go with the robot and this mincing pedophile.”
Dr. Thaddeus Venture is pretty bad, given the number of times he’s had to clone Hank and Dean.
As parents they weren’t that out of the ordinary, aside from Tony occasionally smacking AJ. Although Tony was a multiple murderer, his business dealings didn’t have much direct impact on the kids, and Carmela studiously avoided knowing anything about them.
Butters’ parents in South Park.
And I’m only up to season 3 or 4, but Meadow seems pretty normal and is going to Columbia University… hell, she even made it there a virgin! :eek: 
Mr. and Mrs. Ray Barone.
They had three kids that they apparently locked in the attic all the time, because except for once or twice a season, you never saw them.
Malory Archer and whoever Sterling’s dad turns out to be.
Since Star Wars has been on TV, I nominate Darth Vader as Worst Father.
But I do have a find memory of Homer Simpson asking Bart to reach under a jammed lawnmower and pull out something that was blocking the blade.
The Cunninghams in Happy Days managed to totally lose a son.