Bojack’s grandfather is a misogynistic jackass and cares more about his business and image more than his own family. Therefore, I wonder why he never though of entrusting a successor to his business and legacy.
Bojack’s late uncle had died in WW2 and Joseph is obviously not gonna hand over his company to Beatrice. This leads to him having no male heir at all. The only male heir he has is Bojack so why he did not try to groom his grandson to be his successor? Or he just too egomaniacal to even think that his own grandson is not worth to be groomed because he has Butterscotch’s blood in him or simply he thinks he can entrust his legacy to his subordinate rather his own family, which means he has no intention to hand over his business to Crackerjack even if he managed to survive the war?
Do we know when Joseph dies? We never see him as part of Bojack’s childhood, so maybe he dies relatively young.
Alternatively, he could have disowned Beatrice after she got pregnant with Butterstotch.
They showed him in the casket during her 1999 flashback in Time’s Arrow. Beatrice in her grieving black dress and veiled hat, smoking beside the casket as he lies dead within it. “My father… a man who knew what marriage meant.” He lived to almost the turn of the millennium.