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"Don't you know you've got your daddy's eyes? Daddy was an alcoholic."
—Alcoholic, Starsailor
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The Alcoholic with children. When it's the mother, it's usually Lady Drunk. When it's the father, it's usually Abusive Parents, although there's a fair number of abusive alcoholic mothers in fiction as well.
Unfortunately also Truth in Television.
Dramatic Examples[]
Anime[]
- Tomoya's father Naoyuki, in Clannad. He gets better, but it takes him years.
- Aiko "Anko" Tokosumi's mother in Bokurano. Especially when her husband is caught cheating on her and, since he's a popular Intrepid Reporter, it becomes a very public affair.
- Jounounchi's father in Yu-Gi-Oh!; we never see him in person, but there's a pile of bottles outside his door and his only interaction with his son is drunken ranting.
- Kevin Smith's father, George in The Prince of Tennis
- Miyata's father in Hajime no Ippo was this after losing his boxing career, which causes his wife to divorce him. He gets better when he sees his son has inherited his talent and decides to help him, becoming both his coach and a good single father.
- Sakuya Ookuchi's mother Reiko in Sensual Phrase. Who actually drank herself to death.
- In Future GPX Cyber Formula ZERO, Henri Claytor's unnamed father picked up the drinking habit after Hayato won first championship and being the youngest CF champion instead of his son. This was also Henri's Start of Darkness, and the seeds of his hatred for Hayato were planted from there.
- Yuri's father, Mr. Legend in Tiger and Bunny. He was not a good parent when drunk.
- Ichiro Misaki, Taro's father in Captain Tsubasa was this in the past. While not a bad person, it still caused friction in Taro's family and led his wife to divorce him.
- Christina Gabriel in Heat Guy J.
- In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kyoujurou Rengoku's father Shinjurou didn't start as such but fell into heavy depression after the death of his wife Ruka and learning an Awful Truth about Breathing Styles. He doesn't get better until Kyoujurou's death in battle.
Comic Books[]
- Jonah Hex's father, Woodson Hex.
- Captain America's father was an alcoholic but Steve still loved him.
- Iron Man might have gotten his alcoholism from his father, and the second movie made sure to include a scene of Howard drinking while shooting a film clip.
Film[]
- I Accuse My Parents, a movie featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, is an attempt at a dramatic example. The lead character, Jimmy Wilson, claims that his alcoholic parents' loveless marriage and lack of attention was responsible for his life of crime. However, anyone who watched the movie, including Joel & the 'Bots, can tell that it has more to do with his own stupidity and lying to cover up what his home life was like.
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Laughing Girl: "She's drunk!" |
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- Any time Robert Downey, Jr.. plays someone with kids, such as in Charlie Bartlett, where he plays the father.
- In Forrest Gump, it's implied that Jenny's father is an alcoholic (as well as sexually abusive).
- Cherrybomb: Luke's father is a shambling, drunken wreck who unsuccessfully tries to kill himself, and then abandons his son altogether.
- Amy is going to AA meetings in Men With Brooms, though she ends up falling Off the Wagon. Her son's rather blunt and understanding response to Chris Cutter's attempt to explain it away as her being sick implies that this happens relatively often.
- In the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, Nancy's mother. She isn't the abusive sort; once, she slaps Nancy after Nancy calls her out on her booze habit, but she immediately regrets it. In Nightmare Part 6, however, we see in a flashback that Freddy's step-father definitely was of the abusive persuasion.
- When a Man Loves a Woman has an alcoholic mother as one of the protagonist.
Literature[]
- Percy Jackson and The Olympians: Thalia's mother.
- Huckleberry Finn's "Pap".
- Bob Ewell, in To Kill a Mockingbird.
- Johnny Nolan from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
- Jay-Jay's foster mother in The Prince of Central Park.
- Jack Torrance in Stephen King's The Shining had an alcoholic father and himself was one.
- Both of Christopher Hitchcock's parents in Everworld.
- Peter's father in Rivers of London is a pretty serious drug addict, he isn't a bad father though just relatively ineffectual (that Peter's mother is a serious Apron Matron probably meant she picked up the parenting slack pretty effortlessly though).
- Catherine's and Heathcliff's foster father in Wuthering Heights.
- Edmondo D'Amici's Cuore has the father of Pietro Precossi, one of Enrico's friends and classmates. He very slowly starts getting better as the series goes on.
Live Action TV[]
- Jack Shepard's father Christian on Lost.
- Workman Roger Linus, father of Benjamin Linus.
- Sue Ellen in Dallas
- Tara's single mother in True Blood.
- John Winchester in Supernatural. You never actually see him drinking, but it's mentioned many times.
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Sam: "So he’s working over-time on a “Miller Time” shift; he’ll stumble back in sooner or later." |
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- Xander's parents (and entire family, really) on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Played both for laughs and drama.
- Also, Faith's mother.
- Leo on The West Wing had an alcoholic father who committed suicide when Leo was a kid. Leo grew up to be an alcoholic and drug-addicted parent himself (though with a good relationship with his daughter, who only says how proud she is when he confesses to it in a press conference). He got better.
- Olivia Benson's mother Selena on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was Flanderized from a single mom with an implied drinking problem to a violent, non-functional drunk.
- Also Mike Logan's mother in the original series
- Ben Stone's father as well.
- Shawn's father from Boy Meets World was a recovered alcoholic.
- Megan and Lily's father in Privileged. Though he's recovered when we first see him, he relapses when Shelby abandons them a second time
- Meredith & Lexie's father in Greys Anatomy, to the point where eventually he needs a liver transplant from Meredith to survive.
- Lianne Mars, mother of the titular character in Veronica Mars. Which is why she is Put on a Bus by Veronica, after failing to complete rehab.
- Robert Chase's mother on House; his father then pulled a Disappeared Dad when Robert was 15, leaving Chase alone for 5 years to watch as his mother slowly drank herself to death.
- Kelly's mother on Beverly Hills, 90210, although she got better.
- Carolanne Adama from Battlestar Galactica is implied very strongly to have been this.
- On Castle, Beckett's father fell into alcoholism after his wife's murder, but recovered thanks to his daughter.
- Ray Vecchio on Due South. He brought it into the open during 'North' when he got in an argument with his dad's ghost.
- Pretty much spelled out when Nadia makes Drunken Peaches on Bitchin' Kitchen:
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Nadia: My dad used to make this recipe all the time, but instead of port, he'd use homemade wine! ...and there were no peaches. [[[Beat]]] *quietly bites into a peach* |
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Music[]
- The John Denver song "Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas)".
- Billy Currington's "Walk a Little Straighter, Daddy."
Theater[]
- Vanessa's mother in In the Heights, who drinks away Vanessa's wages that were to be spent on their electricity bill.
Video Games[]
- Ethel Prune, Lillian's mother, in the first Laura Bow game. It's somewhat played for laughs, although we are shown the damaging effect it has on her daughter and the way the family ostracizes them both because of it.
- Junpei's father in Persona 3. In The Answer, one flashback shows Junpei at Paulownia Mall, having fled his father's drunken ravings, wondering how pathetic you have to be to get hammered on cooking wine.
Western Animation[]
- According to Word of God, Miriam Pataki on Hey Arnold! The show hints it fairly strongly with her overall lethargic and depressive personality, as well as her allusions to "coffee", "tabasco" and "smoothies." It's also stated in "The Beeper Queen" that she's lost her driver's license, which could be inferred to be due to a DUI violation.
Played for Laughs[]
Anime[]
- Yusuke's mom Atsuko in Yu Yu Hakusho.
- Ryuuji's mom Yasuko in Toradora!. Somewhat more understandable as she actually works as a bar hostess, thus her job includes drinking quite a bit.
- Kogoro Mouri of Detective Conan, whose alcoholism is seen as quite comedic. Except when it's not.
- Junko Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica is both a Hot Mom and a Hard-Drinking Party Girl. Episode 3 has her arriving home late and so sloshed that her husband and kids have to tuck her into bed, but otherwise she's a pretty normal person.
Film[]
- Lorraine McFly in the beginning of Back to The Future.
Live Action TV[]
- Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development
- Kitty Foreman on That 70s Show. (It was pretty subtle in the beginning, but it reached near lampshade proportions by the end of the series)
- The Strangers with Candy episode "Dreams on the Rocks" is all about this. Spoof Aesop: "It's better to be a happy, gin-soaked grape than an anguished raisin in the sun." (It Makes Sense in Context. Well, it doesn't, but... you know.)
- On Scrubs, Dr. Cox can be a pretty heavy drinker even after having his son Jack. Cox controls himself at home and is a loving father, but it didn't keep Jack's first full sentence from being "Daddy drinks lots." Not that mom-Jordan is exactly a light drinker either mind you.
- Played for Drama as part of Dr Cox's back story. His father's favorite hobby was to get drunk and beat him and his sister through every room in the house, while his mother did absolutely nothing to stop him. A loving gesture was when he threw an empty bottle at young Perry and deliberately missed.
- ICarly: Sam's mother is implied to be this, with lines like her being passed out on the couch, and various other subtle indications that she's an alcoholic wreck.
- Edina Monsoon (in addition to drug use and other dysfunctional habits) in Absolutely Fabulous.
Web Comics[]
- Homestuck: Mom Lalonde is definitely this, almost never being seen without a martini in hand. Clearly for laughs, though — the worst she does to Rose is offer her a sip of the martini in an act of ironic negligence.
Web Original[]
- One of the many squicky things that Ask That Guy With The Glasses has revealed about his parents is that his hated mother drinks too much. And from what Critic's (now known to be ATG's twin) told us about her, all the more reason to think of her as an Evil Matriarch.
- The Nostalgia Chick's parents were both drinkers, which explains her own alcohol problem better.
Western Animation[]
- Homer Simpson from The Simpsons. To the point that one of the contact numbers at Springfield Elementary is at Moe's Tavern.
- Drinky Crow in one episode of The Drinky Crow Show, until he gets drunk and makes omelets out of them.
- Clay Puppington on Moral Orel starts off Played for Laughs. Then we start seeing the effects it has on his family and Orel in particular, and it veers right into Dude, Not Funny.
- Pickles Oblong (the mother) on The Oblongs.
- Peter Griffin from Family Guy, who got that from his biological Irish father. It's a great honor in Ireland to be the town drunk.
- In its spinoff, The Cleveland Show, we get Donna Tubbs-Brown, a mother who drinks away the pain from the worst moments of parenting.
- A possible subversion on South Park Randy Marsh likes to drink with friends, but is only seen drunk in a couple episodes. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, he possibly learns discipline and self-control.