Gut Punch: Great TV Dad Bob Saget Dead at 65

CLAY: Buck, some bad news for people I would say of our generation and even younger and certainly older as well, it used to be that we had all these great sitcoms. We were kind of like in the wheelhouse, Buck. You’re a couple years younger than I am, but you could sit around, and you could watch the family sitcom, right? And a big part of the family sitcom with the TGIF, thank God it’s Friday.

BUCK: I loved it. I watched it religiously. As a young 12-, 13-, 14-year-old, I loved it.

CLAY: Yes. And you could watch these shows with your mother, with your grandma and grandpa, your younger brothers and sisters. Everybody kind of sat around the television together, whether it was The Cosby Show, whether it was Family Ties, and this feels kind of like a gut punch. Bob Saget, who was one of the all-time great TV dads from Full House, and then they had come back, and my kids loved it. I believe it’s on Netflix, Fuller House, which is an updated version of Full House. So Bob Saget, 65 years old, out of nowhere, just dropped dead. There was no indication that he might be sick. He’d done a comedy show the night before and this was kind of a gut punch that kind of came out of nowhere.

BUCK: I think that was probably my favorite of the TGIF lineup — and for the rough years of Clay’s and my ages, you know what I’m talking about. I did love Family Matters.

CLAY: Carl Winslow.

BUCK: Carl Winslow, one of the one of the great TV dads, as well and that whole thing came together because of the cop he played in Die Hard, a movie we share as one of the great loves of cinema. But, yeah, in Full House, he was great. I had to get a bit older to learn that not everyone gets to live in a $3 million town house in San Francisco overlooking a park. I was like, “Yeah, this is just how Americans live.” As a little kid, I had never even been to San Francisco ’til I was an adult and then I found out, “Oh, oh, they basically lived in a mansion.”

CLAY: It wasn’t as expensive, these Victorians. I can identify gingerbread houses that they lived in for those of you who remember that show. By the way, I jotted down a bunch of TV dads that I thought were pretty fantastic around that same era. Bob Saget. Alan Thicke, the dad on Growing Pains.

BUCK: Amazing. Amazing.

CLAY: Jason Seaver, if I remember correctly. Bill Cosby — before we knew the Bill Cosby off the camera.

BUCK: I think he’s canceled, Clay.

CLAY: I don’t know, but the show itself, The Cosby Show is still really, really good. He is a great TV dad, played the role of a great TV dad. Carl Winslow from Family Matters. Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

BUCK: Fantastic, yep.

CLAY: Another fantastic dad. There used to be a lot of awesome dads back in the day. I don’t even know now. I guess the Goldbergs. You ever wash that Goldberg show?

BUCK: No, never seen that.

CLAY: What’s it called, like it’s the 1980s, nineties Goldbergs-esque show. It had the dad. I think he just got fired for all sorts of issues.

BUCK: I would say coach Eric Taylor of Friday Night Lights.

CLAY: Phenomenal dad.

BUCK: I want him to be the coach of my kids’ team. We got bring him back.

CLAY: We could use coach Eric Taylor to give us pep talks during the course of the show.

BUCK: Absolutely. Oh, my God. I want to wear a Dillon Panthers T-shirt or sweatshirt while doing this I’d even wear the silly hat with the khaki shorts he wore all the time.

CLAY: We should have had more of that show, I would say. I wish it had gone on longer. It got hurt by the writers’ strike at one point.