Fathers will get their due on Sunday when the nation celebrates their official “Day.” While mothers often are seen as nurturing, fathers can be challenging or inspiring in the way their children see the world. That’s true of celebrities as it is for common folk.

Jeff Bridges (“The Old Man”) says his dad, actor Lloyd Bridges, blazed the path for him. “I saw how much joy my father got out of the job and began to realize you're very lucky if you enjoy your job as much as my dad did.

“I came to realize that a lot of people don’t love waking up in the morning going to work,” he says. “Even though I realized it’s a very tough job to make a living. You're on the road a lot, your relationships can suffer from it, but it still felt that it could be the most amazing adventure ever.”

Muhammad Ali’s daughter, Rashida, recalls that her relationship with her dad was conflicted. “A lot of times me and my siblings would kind of say my dad was thrown into these circumstances because he was around people who just weren't positive forces in his life,” she recalls.

“We were kind of like, ‘Daddy is a good-spirited person, but he made mistakes.’ And my dad always owned up to his mistakes. So naturally we were more forgiving, and we kind of understood from the background — the kind of circumstances that my dad was under were very unique in nature,” she says.

“So certainly it's one of those things where I know my dad's heart was so pure and genuine even though he was doing things that weren't really good for us as the family, but because he was so — just always evolving.”

In 1969, Steven Spielberg dropped out of college against his dad’s wishes. “My father was extremely upset with me because I didn't finish college, even though I got this contract when I was 21 years old and I was two years shy of graduating,” he says.

“My dad, coming from the old school of ‘You have to graduate in order to be respectable,’ my dad didn't understand why I would give up a degree for a contract. And I said, ‘Dad, many kids go to school to get a job like I am being offered two years prematurely.’ That didn't sit well with him for many years.”

Decades later Spielberg finally earned his degree using “Schindler’s List” as part of his study. “So I made sure my dad was in the front row watching me graduate. He was so proud.”

Taylor Kitsch (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “American Primeval” streaming on Netflix) says, “ My father passed last year. We were shooting ‘American Primeval’ when I heard the news and I got to go say goodbye to him. He wasn’t really in my life much at all. In the last 19 years I saw him two or three times. But me and my two brothers made it up in time. I got a call Thursday, and he died Father’s Day on a Sunday. That helped me and my brothers kind of reconnect, which was great.”

Yvette Nicole Brown (“Community”) cared for her father when he was stricken with Alzheimer’s disease. “My dad was always in my life,” she says. “They got divorced when I was 1, so the funny thing is the first time I lived in the house with my father was when I brought him in to take care of him. I've never lived with him in the same house. But he was always in our lives. Every other weekend we would go to his house. He was always a very strong part of my life, so I've never known life without my dad being in it.”

Sam Heughan (“Outlander”) remembers, “My father passed away ... but he left when I was 3 years old; they separated. So I didn’t really know him a lot, but I was very lucky I got to spend some time with him just before he died. We never got to talk a lot, and (we) got to know each other a bit more. It was a really good time. It was very rewarding. I was lucky we got that time together.”

Scott Foley (“Will Trent,” “Felicity”) after a failed attempt at Hollywood didn’t want to attend college as his dad preferred. Instead he headed for St. John in the Virgin Islands to chill. He was living in a tent on the outskirts of town.

“I’d come to the town every day and look for a job, and by the third or fourth week it was, ‘Get outta here, kid.’ ... I had to call my father. I said, ‘Dad, I'm homeless. I'm in St. John. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll come back to St. Louis. I’ll go to college.’ He said, ‘Are you kidding me? You're not coming home. Go back to L.A. I’ll buy you a ticket.’ So I went back to L.A., and it’s the best thing he ever did for me.”

Shanola Hampton (“Found”) reports, “My mother passed away when I was 16 years old from breast cancer, so that was a tough time. But even tougher was when I went to graduate school to get my master’s. The program just did not suit me. I did finish, and I have my master’s in fine arts, but it was not a nurturing environment. And it could have been, for a lesser person, mentally really damaging to even go forward in my career. It could’ve been really a detriment, but because I have the father I have and the upbringing I have, I knew I had to push through.”

'Underdogs' earn the limelight

Those who hate nature shows should take a look at NatGeo’s “Underdogs,” premiering Sunday. The subjects of this series are not the cute furry ones or the graceful predatory ones, these are the animals we never see because they are so gross, so weird, so Dr. Seussian! Narrated by Ryan Renyolds, whose company co-produced the show, the series proves far funnier than “Hacks” ever thought of being.

From their ludicrous mating rituals to their questionable hygiene habits to their repulsive parenting skills, these underdogs are definitely not ready for their close-ups.

The five-part series, which will simulcast on ABC and stream on Hulu and Disney+ the next day, explores a cave in New Zealand full of glowing grubs, follows a velvet worm with 40 feet that shoots slime on its predators, and watches a poop-eating koala bear enjoying his first meal. Hard to describe, this show is fine-tuned for the whole family and not to be missed.

Samuel L. Jackson goes west

Once suffering its untimely postmortem, the western has proved it’s alive and well. The latest, “The Unholy Trinity,” arriving in theaters on Friday, features Pierce Brosnan as an Irish sheriff and Samuel L. Jackson as a shadowy character named St. Christopher. Filmed in Montana, the tale is about the tumultuous 1870s when the west was really wild.

Jackson, who’s perfect whether he’s asking, “What’s in your wallet?” or aiming a Winchester, tells me he never lost faith even when he was constantly rejected as a performer.

“When I was an actor here in New York, I knew that if I went to five auditions a week I was going to hear ‘no’ three times. No is just part of what this business is. Funnily enough when you get to Hollywood, you have learned to say no, which is great when people offer you things and you go, ‘No.’ It's a good feeling.

“I'm an only child. So I’m really comfortable with myself. I know who I am, and I know what I am. I know how smart I am and how smart most people aren't. And when people tell me ‘no’ I just feel sorry for them. I say, ‘You had a chance to hire somebody good. And you didn't. I feel sorry for people who don't hire me.’”

Henry Winkler hosts historic hazards

Remember when kids played with toys that are now considered toxic or dangerous? Fun, weren’t they? Henry Winkler will be on hand to present some of those that threatened childhood health with “Hazardous History with Henry Winkler” premiering on the History Channel Sunday.

From the mechanical robot to the exploding kite, Winkler will delineate these nefarious implements of our youth as well as other sinister subjects like vintage daredevils, risky household products, adrenalin-spurring sports, dangerous foods and more. It’s a wonder we all lived through it.

Winkler, one of the most gracious actors on the scene, defines what he thinks is the secret of success. “The secret to success applies to anyone, no matter what he does,” says Winkler. "The producer, the actor, the science teacher or the checker in the supermarket, it's all the same stuff. First you have to really love what you do — see your glass half-full instead of half-empty, go with your instincts, exercise your taste — and at the end of the day you will feel satisfied about what it is that you did.”

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