The decline and fall of “guy” in popular culture offends more than just conservatives — I have a liberal friend raised with an absent father, and he has had just about enough of the man-child/feminized portrayals. Hollywood, like these schmucks, has spent at least two decades apologizing for a gender, damning men from birth, either infantilizing or neutering men in service to a can-do female lead or a pacifist guilty conscience.
I’ve noted a few exceptions. Booth, from Bones, is my favorite.
Following several decently produced seasons, Bones no longer has first-tier writing; production seems content to let previously buoyant leads regress to character actor depth is the service of simpler joke-writing (the Homer Simpson phenomenon). Now, Booth isn’t all there. But he was a rare unapologetically masculine character, made more so by the recognition — which most of us possess, being one or having been in the company of men — that masculine doesn’t imply the preening “macho” scapegoat that left culture uses as a measuring stick for self-superiority.
Generally, among the manly men I know, “masculine” means the precise opposite: cultivating toughness in the service of others, not in vanity. Clinical in life-or-death decision-making, yet naked emotional with loved ones; can eat wings and wear a beer-can helmet in the service of inner-child fun and not date-rape.
That’s Booth. Throw in that he served as an elite military sniper and answered an optional request to return to Iraq, and that he would take two bullets for his son before breakfast.
I appreciated last season’s storyline wherein a love interest took advantage of Booth’s black-and-white morality, mistaking it for naivety. She, of course, the one frequently sidetracking her success to feed her “nuanced” self, is what most responsible adults recognize as naivety. Booth understood that, stayed true, had a few fingers of whiskey and moved on.
Good stuff, and a character I’d want influencing my son but for the overwhelming gore the show has always contained – shocking for an 8:00 p.m. slot — and the fading scripts that define the most recent productions.
Sticking to the past decade or so, got any male favorites of your own?
Yes, I just LOVE Leroy Jethro Gibbs, head honcho of NCIS. He actually has RULES to live by, hides the women and children first and never involves a lawyer. He doesn’t talk too much, like the babbling hollywood she-males that are constantly getting ‘in touch’ with themselves, boring us to tears and driving real women to drink. His most trusted team member is a woman that’sjust as tough as him with pretty much his same outlook on life. Can we clone maybe….30 millions of them for re-populating this country?
Ditto on Gibbs. And I’ve really enjoyed the evolution of Tim McGee from insecure child to self confident, “emulate Gibbs as best he can” male role model.
I also admire Commissioner Regan (played by Tom Selleck) in Blue Bloods. A man that knows and lives right from wrong as he protects his City while he takes care of and teaches his family the proper way to behave in a sometimes less than civilized society.
I third the sentiment with Gibbs. I would also submit Ed Lane from Flashpoint (if you aren’t watching Flashpoint, you should be). He has a calm demeanor, keeps his temper in check, yet leads his team well and pulls the trigger when necessary. He is dedicated to his family and his teammates. Excellent role model.
I am also pleased about the growth of McGee. I hope they continue with that. Maybe Tony will even grow up one day.
Gibbs, NCIS, of course but the other male leads have good qualities as well. Captain Malcom Reynolds of the Firefly. Perhappes an eccentric choice, Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor. And I do agree with your choice of Booth.
Gibbs is a great first choice for all the reasons cited. Michael Weston on Burn Notice for the younger generation is always trying to do “the right thing” as well. He misses more often than Gibbs but his heart is in the right place. (I also loved the Firefly series/movie).
I watch almost no TV fictional programming and can’t think of any male character I’d recommend. On the other hand, I like Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs,” Ford commercials, and as narrator of several good shows. He’s smart enough to know the limitations of his intelligence and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. His website, Mike Rowe Works is a celebration of the work that made this country.
You can keep your actors. I’ll nominate Mike Rowe as a prominent male on TV that I want my grandsons to watch. Go ahead and watch this video of a speech he made a couple years ago.
I don’t have kids but, if I did, the only TV male I would want them watching is Hank Rutherford Hill. Maybe the guys on “Swamp Loggers” too.
Build it Bigger, b/c every guy is named. Every last single construction guy is named on set, and made to look like a super- hero.
Psych. Hands down. The Corbin Berenson character is raising his son Sean. Sean’s the main character with his best friend. They are on the side of right and good. They are two guys in their twenties, and they flirt with girls. The Dad is strong, sensible, dedicated, passionate, there are flashbacks where you see him raising his high-spirited kid. My kids LOVE this show. As do every last one of their friends. They are pre-teens. My husband now loves the show. He’d nearly given up- why get kicked by tv for doing the right thing, and being the right guy? There’s a priest, he’s a good guy. The cops get to be heroic, too, even the one they make fun of.
For me, White Collar. The FBI agent is a good guy with an enviably strong marriage. too mature and talky for the kids, though.
Oh, yeah, Hank Hill. in small doses for the kids, though.
USA is just a safe channel, really. I wish more channels tried to compete with them, by being smart and funny and patriotic and so on and so forth.
I second the nomination of White Collar’s FBI agent, Peter Burke, played ably by Tim DeKay – partly because he features in one of primetime’s VERY rare portrayals of a successful marriage!
It’s a different kind of relationship from what you usually see on TV. The fact is that marital tension, dysfunction, and failure are dramatic. They engage people’s emotions, they provide lots of conflict to help drive the plot. That’s why marital strife is more common on TV than marital harmony. It’s not that writers and directors are purposely tearing down marriage. It’s that good marriages are harder to make drama about. Like you, I’m glad to see the occasional exception.
Fascinating that so many folks picked Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I, of course, agree.
But that putz on Bones, no way.
+1 for Gibbs.
Seely Booth of “Bones”, Leroy Jethro Gibbs of “NCIS”, and Hank Hill of “King of the Hill” are all good choices. I also like Michael Weston of “Burn Notice” along with his former Navy SEAL sidekick, Sam Axe. Michael, by and large, gets it right and, even though his earthy, chain-smoking mom (EXCELLENT performance by Sharon Gless) frequently “pushes his buttons”, he treats her with respect and will do anything to keep her safe (it’s been said that if you really want to know what a man is like, look at how he treats his mother).
It looks like Auggie on Covert Affairs is going to remain a good male character. Blinded, former Spec Ops guy, who is mentor to the title character and plays well off the strong female boss. Honorable amongst many playing angles.
Castle (Nathan Fillion’s title name character) on Castle. He started off as a dilettante but he’s a strong single father and devoted friend. HE still plays the fool some but it is just a persona the viewers see through now.
Good call on Booth. “Bones” tends to be a liberal show, but it also turns some TV cliches on their heads. Temperance herself is beautiful and smarter than anyone else in the cast, so you’d expect her to be putting stupid ol’ guy-like Booth in his place, launching feminist zingers at him all the time. That doesn’t happen, though. The beautiful, smart, independent woman is, in fact, socially and culturally clueless. Booth constantly has to tell her how “normal” people behave and react. The situation is often played for humor, but it’s seldom the “gotcha, stupid” gender jokes you sometimes hear elsewhere.
Another interesting relationship is Hodgens and Angela. She’s another feminist dreamgirl – the free spirit, floating from man to man, relationship to relationship, following her inner voice, never letting any male complications tie her down. He’s completely in love with her and apparently willing to wait patiently while she makes up her mind. He doesn’t like it, it’s painful, but he does it. In Hollywood mythology, it’s almost always the man who’s afraid of commitment. In this case, it’s the woman. What at first seems romantic and fun – being sexually liberated and emotionally unbound – turns out to be painful, even dysfunctional. Angela eventually has to choose between her immature lifestyle and a deeper, more fulfilling life with the man who seems to be THE one for her.
Then there’s Dr. Sweets and the strange, libidinous prodigy Daisy Wick. I’m not sure what that relationship is all about. They seem to be working on it.
Most of the good guys mentioned here are in dramas – some more lighthearted than others, but dramas nevertheless. Corbin Bernsen and Hank Hill are the main exceptions. Any other decent male characters in comedy series? Sitcoms are the main offenders, in my opinion. The smart wife/stupid husband situation has gone on way too long. The proof-that-men-are-pigs characters (Charlie Sheen) are getting a bit old, too.
OK, I’ll just come out and say it: Where’s Mike Brady when we need him???
Let’s see. My choices for characters (not necessarily *actors* or the shows themselves, but the characters they play) I’d love to have kids watching.
‘Fin’ Tutuola, from Law And Order: SVU. While the actor has his issues, the character himself has always given me a strong masculine vibe. Aggressive, and yet responsible. Strong, with a solid personality and, though he has a fiery temper, proves himself extremely capable of holding it back when it comes to professional work. I would be more inclined to say that he’s even more in control of his temper than Elliot.
Gil Grissom, from CSI. Strong, but emotional. Intelligent, geeky and eccentric, and yet extremely thought-provoking and with a great deal of focus on his work and his people. He embodied the ability for the strong man to be able to lean on his people as needed, and to have his people lean on and respect him. The show really hurt for his loss.
Barney, from how I met your mother
My kids don’t need to watch TV to find a male role model because their dad is a wonderful father.
I’d have to go with Joyce Meyers on that.