Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, Melvin had a fraught relationship with his father. Lawrence Melvin was a distant, often absent parent due to his drinking as well as his job working the graveyard shift at a postal facility. Fortunately, he had a fiercely protective mother who held the family together. He also had a series of surrogate father figures in his life, who by their examples helped him figure out the kind of person and father he wanted to be. Here Melvin tells the story of all these men-- and of the inspiring fathers Craig has met reporting his "Dads Got This Series" on the Today show. -- adapted from jacket