Real-life dads are sometimes preoccupied with their careers and distracted by life's many complications. Happily, on TV, all dads have plenty of quality time to share with their kids, while dispensing encouraging words and occasional tough love.

Maybe that's because TV dads never spend much time at work. (We're pretty sure everyone's fathers would sign up for that!) Step into the wonderful make-believe world where every day is Father's Day, and join us as we count down our 20 favorite TV dads.

I was going to title this post "Louvre it to Beaver," but a quick check showed that 98% of the people doing the story on the web had already thought of that title. Everything moves so quickly these days.

Tony Dow, who played Beaver's older brother Wally Cleaver on the classic series Leave it to Beaver, is also an artist, and he's going to have one of his sculptures shown at the famed Paris museum The Louvre. It's an abstract sculpture titled "Unarmed Warrior."

Dow doesn't act much anymore, but he was busy behind the scenes of TV shows and movies while doing his artwork. He directed episodes of such shows as Deep Space Nine, Coach, Crusade, Get A Life, Swamp Thing, and Cover Me. He also did visual effects for the Doctor Who TV movie in the 90s, as well as Babylon 5.

So Dow didn't die from eating Pop Rocks, become a porn star, or end up dying in Vietnam, rumors which swirled around his Beaver costars and aren't true.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the classic sitcom Leave it to Beaver, and while many of the show's original stars have left us (Hugh Beaumont, Stanley Fafara, Sue Randall, Richard Deacon), much of the main cast is still going strong, and five of them - Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, Barbara Billingsley, Ken Osmond, and Frank Bank - appeared on Good Morning, America this morning to celebrate the day.

They've all kept busy over the years. Mathers appeared on stage in Hairspray this year and has appeared in several TV shows and wrote a book. Dow has directed many TV shows and movies over the years and is also an artist. Billingsley is an incredibly active 92 and even recreated her famous Airplane jive talk on GMA. Osmond became a cop - and was shot three times in the line of duty - and is now retired, and Bank (Lumpy Rutherford) is a financial expert who handles Mathers and Dow.