2. "Anthony Cooper" aka Locke's father on LOST
There has perhaps never been a more outwardly evil character in all of television history than John Locke's con-man father in Lost. Despite my feelings about Lost after its series finale (let's just say, I was not impressed) you can't ignore a father like this in a list titled 5 Terrible TV Dads. He really is one of the worst. First off, but surprisingly not the most shocking example of Anthony being a terrible father is the fact that he cons his own son into giving him one of his kidneys. He pretends to build a connection with his biological child, taking him hunting etc. , only to check himself out of hospital without thanking his child for going through potentially life threatening surgery and moves so his son can never find him again. But it gets much, much worse. Several years after this, Anthony Cooper, going under the name of Alan Stewart tried to marry a woman in order to con her out of her money. The woman's son confronted Locke for information about his father, and for help to stop this man from stealing money from his mother. Locke, concerned, found his father and asked him to call off the wedding. He seemingly agrees, but later finds out that the boy that contacted him mysteriously died. Locke confronts his father about the murder, but claims he had nothing to do with it....... that is before he suddenly pushes his own son out an eighth story window, leaving him completely paralyzed from the waste down. Added to this, he is also pretty much the reason all of Sawyer's family were killed... so it's no wonder Locke wanted Sawyer to murder him when he appeared on the island, and I can't say any of us were particularly saddened when Sawyer strangled him to death with a chain. Despite all of Lost's shortcomings... and there are many, the way the characters all linked together with interesting back-stories were for the most part pretty well done, despite in the end making absolutely no sense what so ever.