Mother’s Day Names: Remembering TV Moms

By Linda Rosenkrantz

Once upon a time—let’s say pre-Roseanne—the TV mom was the paragon of domestic motherhood, as exemplified and epitomized by the Beaver’s understanding mom, June Cleaver, who famously did her vacuuming in high heels and pearls and pencil-slim skirts on Leave It to Beaver. This idealized image persisted via later near-perfect parents like The Cosby Show’s Claire Huxtable, who was able to effortlessly combine high-powered career with being the wisest and most compassionate of moms, never losing her cool.

Of course there were blips over the years, such as vibrantly vulgar characters like Roseanne Conner and Married with Children’s Peg Bundy and later cranky (older) moms like Marie Barone and Estelle Costanza, but for the most part television moms set a pretty high—if not unattainable—bar.

So here’s our Mother’s Day salute to those Margarets and Marions, Harriets and Helens of TV Momdom past– and their perfect period names.

ABBY Bradford—Eight is Enough

ALICE Mitchell—Dennis the Menace

AMY Matthews—Boy Meets World

ANGELA Bowers—Who’s the Boss?

ANN Romano, One Day at a Time

BARBARA Russo–Blossom

CAROL Brady—The Brady Bunch; CAROL Walsh—Beverly Hills 90210

CAROLINE Ingalls—Little House on the Prairie

CLAIR Huxtable—The Cosby Show

DEBRA Barone–Everybody Loves Raymond

DOROTHY Baxter—Hazel

EDITH Bunker—All in the Family

ELLEN Miller—Lassie

ELYSE Keaton—Family Ties

FLORIDA Evans—Good Times

HARRIET Nelson—The Ozzie & Harriet Show; HARRIET Winslow—Family Matters

HELEN Marie—That Girl

JILL Pembroke, Charles in Charge, Jill Taylor—Home Improvement

JUNE Cleaver—Leave It to Beaver

KATE Bradley—Petticoat Junction; KATE Lawrence, Family

KITTY Forman—That 70s Show

LAURA Petrie—The Dick Van Dyke Show

LOIS Wilkerson—Malcolm in the Middle

LOUISE Jefferson—The Jeffersons

MAGGIE Seaver—Growing Pains

MARGARET Anderson—Father Know Best; MARGARET Williams—Make Room for Daddy (The Danny Thomas Show)

MARION Cunningham—Happy Days

MARSHA Owens—Mr. Belvedere

MARTA Hansen, I Remember Mama

MURIEL Rush—Too Close for Comfort

NATALIE Lane—The Patty Duke Show

NORA Walker—Brothers and Sisters

NORMA Arnold—The Wonder Years

OLIVIA Walton—The Waltons

PEG Bundy—Married, With Children

ROSEANNE Conner—Roseanne

SHIRLEY Partridge—The Partridge Family

WINNIE Gillis—The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

So, do you think most of these are pretty much still Mother/Mom/Mama/Ma names, or are some of them ready to go into reruns?

And, of course, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all you momberries !!!