Dan Hedaya of course, played Mel Horowitz in the movie and Michael Lerner then played him in the first season of the TV series on ABC. When the show moved over to UPN, Doug Sheehan played him.

The problem with Sheehan is that he just seemed too much of a bland, passive, nice guy. If you saw Dan Hedaya and even Michael Lerner, then you would see that Cher's dad is supposed to be a scary lawyer type. Basically, the character that Sheehan played didn't at all align with who Mel was previously written and interpreted to be.