Ryan O’Neal’s Son Patrick Goes On NBC And Trashes The Today Show’s ‘Professionals’

Los Angeles sportscaster Patrick O’Neal, son of troubled actor Ryan O’Neal, appeared on Access Hollywood Live Tuesday and blasted each of the Today Show’s “Professionals” panelists for their poor treatment of his father the previous week.

The elder O’Neal has a history of alcohol and drug abuse, and was estranged from his three eldest children (actress Tatum, actor Griffin, and Patrick) for many years. The Today Show recently ran a segment featuring “the Professionals” panel, with the question: Is Ryan O’Neal a bad father?

Patrick O’Neal came to his father’s defense:

I’m real proud to say that Ryan O’Neal is my father. The thing that really upset me a little bit was … [the Today Show] did an episode [with] a panel of four people and there was a host. And the subject was, big screen: Ryan O’Neal is a bad parent. Go.

And then there was Kelly Osbourne saying “Oh, well, I can’t believe that he forgot his son [Redmond’s] name. That’s terrible. I went to school with Redmond.” I will argue that Ryan knows his son’s name. If you look back at the Matt Lauer interview, he said Redmond immediately after. My dad makes a joke about everything. When he was told he had stage-two cancer, he’s like “I live for the stage. Stage two, where are my lines? I’m ready to perform.”

He continued on to tear into panelist Dr. Nancy Snyderman‘s analysis of his family’s genetics:

The next person spoke, Dr. Nancy. She says “Why does he have a band-aid on his nose first of all? And all of his children had tragic childhoods and all of his kids clearly have some sort of genetic disposition towards drug abuse.” Now I’m sitting going wait, just a second, I’ve had to deal with this my whole life.

O’Neal became emotional as he took issue with panelist Donny Deutsch‘s thoughts on the elder O’Neal:

I like Donny. I’ve watched the show and I know he’s worth, like, millions of dollars. And he’s sitting there and he’s like “Ryan O’Neal makes me want to puke. He should have his license taken away to be a parent. And i have no respect for the man.”

Now, I sat there and I said you know what? You take my father’s license away for being a parent, I’m not here. [You take away] my kids, his grandchildren, my two beautiful daughters, my memories of my father who was my hero.

View the full segment below, via NBC: