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In Gossip Girl, creator Josh Schwartz fine-tuned his concept of the cool dad. Sandy Cohen may have been a wannabe singer, but Rufus Humphrey (Matthew Settle) is the real deal, an ex-rock star raising kids who are barely believable as his own. Schwartz went younger (Gallagher was 48 when The O.C. premiered, Settle was just 38 at the start of Gossip Girl, playing dad to 21-year-old Penn Badgley) and sexier (or at least with tamer eyebrows).

Rufus may have a bit too much of his own personal drama on his plate, balancing the separation from his wife with his love for an ex-flame, who just so happens to be his son's girlfriend's mother. But it's all good, because the sexy aging rocker raised two responsible, literate and clever kids who are almost entirely self-sufficient.