well there was an episode of Ren and Stimpy, where they introduced Anthony's father...he was portrayed as a hard-working indiviual, who worked the typical 9-5 scene, cared for his family, and loved them, with every ounce of being in his life...and he was willing to put his own life on the line, to protect them from harm.
now though, most parents in cartoons, as you say, are portrayed as 'bumbling oafs', whereas the children are (somewhat) in control of everything.
a few others, I just remembered here:
Simpsons was funny up till around the 14-16th seasons, then from there until the 20th, it was so-so...but after that, it just didn't appeal to me like it used to. one classic scene was Burns seeing a portrait of him, in pioneer garb, with a young lad, and a dog, hiking in the mountains. he says to his advisor "Why are my teeth showing like that?" his advisor states that "it's because you're smiling" and Burns responds "Oh." with a confirming nod of the head. years ago, it wasn't really funny, but now, it's like epic...especially compared to what it is today...
Family Guy was pretty funny...though I find now, it's getting kinda stale...maybe it's because you can only use Meg as the scapegoat for your frustrations and jokes so much, before it stops being funny, and just becomes pathetic.
American Dad and The Cleveland Show was just awful IMO...never really saw the humor in those...except the pilot of AD...it was pretty funny, when Stan slammed his head into the wall, saying that the two guys, his wife, was trying to sell a house too, were reporters, and couldn't be trusted, as they were "vultures of the media world" (or something along that line.)
seems like alot of shows, that were funny at one time, are now, not that great anymore...also noticed how some programs seem to put their money, more into making the shows look more crisp and pristine for "High Definition" viewing, rather than coming up with decent stories. I mean, shows back in the 80's, sure they looked pretty terrible, but the stories had morals to them...they had good quality...something bad happens, they manage to pick themselves up, and move on with their lives, and learn from their mistakes...not forget the whole thing ever happened, like the producers have done with the simpsons time and time again.
I.E. Fat Tony having a heart attack, and dying, having his cousin Fit Tony come in, to take over, only to gain the exact amount of weight, to look like Fat Tony, when he was already a identical twin to him...then having the mafia pretend he "never had a heart attack at all. they could've said "Fat Tony decided he needed to lose some weight, so he went on that Subway diet plan that Jarrod is famous for."
*clears throat* sorry about that guys...