Television has seemingly never had a shortage of single-parent families. To trace the roots of this common theme, one must look back to 1957 and Bachelor Father. Starring John Forsythe and running for five seasons, it set a trend that has long been imitated.

In the series, Forsythe played Bentley Gregg - a single wealthy attorney living in Beverly Hills. When his niece, Kelly, loses her parents to a car accident, he assumes the responsibility of taking care of her, a tough adjustment for any swinging bachelor to make. And as might be expected, many of the shows revolved around Kelly’s tribulations of adolescence, as she becomes a young woman preparing to leave high school and enter college. Meanwhile, Gregg has his own problems as he tries to find a woman of his own. Rounding off the cast of characters were houseboy, Peter Tong, Kelly’s best friend, Ginger, and her boyfriend, Howard Meechum. In later episodes, she would meet lawyer, Warren Dawson, who was Gregg’s junior partner, and they would become engaged.

They might have even married, had the show gone on for a sixth season, finally giving Bentley his freedom back but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. After a five-year run that managed to span all three television networks, Bachelor Father threw in the towel, yet remained an inspiration for the many similar shows that would follow for decades to come.