My Two Dads

My Two Dads was a situation comedy television show which aired for three seasons (1987-1990) on NBC.

The show's premise revolved around the unusual parenting arrangement between Nicole Bradford (age 12 at the beginning of the series) and two men: former friends turned rivals Michael Taylor (a successful, but somewhat neurotic, financial advisor) and Joey Harris (a struggling, but rather laid back, artist). The two men had vied for the affection of Nicole's mother (shown only one time in a dream sequence during the show's second episode) 13 years earlier while in Key West: one of the two would become Nicole's biological father. After her mother's death, a family court judge awarded joint custody of Nicole to both Michael and Joey. Most of the episodes in the series involved the two men attempting to raise a pre-teen, and then a teenage, girl by themselves with no clue how. They were assisted in large part by the judge, who later purchased the New York City apartment building where the family lived, and essentially became a surrogate mother to Nicole.

The series never revealed whether Michael or Joey was Nicole's biological father: in a 3rd season episode ("Pop, The Question") the men - after yet another argument between them - decide to find out once and for all. However, Nicole - who didn't consent to paternity testing, and is happier not knowing - destroys the results before either of the men find them. (The episode reveals that the judge is also given the results, but she too throws them away and never reveals them to the audience.)

The series ended when Joey decided to relocate to San Francisco to be with another woman; Nicole decides to remain in New York City with Michael and the judge, but writes Joey a letter saying that no matter where he goes, she will always consider him one of her two dads.