Don Draper Is the Worst TV Dad of All Time

Father's Day has come and gone but after last night's episode of Mad Men, one thing is concrete: Don Draper is basically the worst TV dad ever.If, for some reason, you haven't been keeping up with this season of TV's greatest drama I will be considerate and toss out a big fat SPOILER ALERT your way. Let's proceed, shall we?

Don Draper is the Number-One-Alpha-Male-Awesomely-Talented-Ad Man/Genius around which Mad Men is centered. Don's got good looks, swagger in and out of the boardroom, and more talent than half of his creative department at S-C-Ampersand-P. While Don excels in business, he fails miserably in relationships. He's a womanizer. He has serious issues with his own childhood, yet he disappoints his own children time and time again.

Case and point: Sally Draper, Don's eldest daughter. Remember that time in Season One when he blew off her birthday party to go get hammered and returned home with a puppy? Sally Draper does. She grew up with a worka/alcoholic father. He consistently chose business over family. That's weak, Don.

Weaker still: Don spends his energy chasing after ladies when he could be caring for his children. These affairs have had disastrous results upon the Draper kids--Don's infidelity drove his wife, Betty, into the arms of her now-husband Henry Francis. Don already put Sally through one D-I-V-O-R-C-E, and now she knows a second split is waiting in the wings.

How, you ask? It's kind of hard not to--she walked in on her dad in the midst of a tryst with Sylvia, the downstairs neighbor to whom I will always refer as Lindsay. Anyway, Sally's old man has put her through the emotional ringer many a time, but this latest offense is the icing on the Daddy Issues Cake.

She told him he was a terrible person. She later had Betty tell Don she wasn't coming back to his NYC penthouse pad--not this weekend, not ever.

Don's response? He said to tell Sally he's so busy working that she shouldn't be around anyway. WEAK. How passive-aggressive can you be? He threw in a "Tell Sally Megan--we-- miss her" at the end of the conversation. You can tell Don's upset that he let his daughter down for the fifty millionth time, but come on, dude. If you really and truly cared, you'd apply that favorite phrase of yours to your own life and "move forward" to a life in which you can act like a real man.

Looks like Sally's off to some East Coast Boarding School to get away--far away--from her pops. Can't say I blame her. It's a good thing that Don's a gagillionaire, because Sally's therapy bills ain't gonna be cheap.

Don Draper, ladies and gentlemen, the worst TV Dad of all time.