From the infinitely patient Marge Simpson to squeaky-clean Carol Brady or ramshackle Roseanne, TV moms have staked out a special place in viewers’ hearts.
With Mother’s Day this Sunday, we asked a diverse set of celebrities: Who’s your favourite TV mom?
Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays right-fielder:
The all-star slugger says he “religiously” watched the ’90s sitcom Family Matters while growing up in the Dominican Republic. He was a big fan of Harriette Winslow (JoMarie Payton) whose family was tormented by nerdy next-door neighbour Steve Urkel.
“She was pretty cool. She was sassy, but she was a disciplinarian. At the same time, she was kind of fun and hip. That’s the one that comes to mind…. She was maybe one of those TV moms that would have been cool to have.”
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Jane Fonda, two-time Oscar winner:
The star of Nine to Five, Barbarella and the new Netflix series Grace and Frankie went with a tough-as-nails TV mom, Cookie Lyon of Empire.
“Taraji Henson is, I guess, my favourite. Just because she’s a great actor,” says Fonda.
“(But she’s) not exactly a role model.”
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Maria Bello, actress and author of Whatever… Love is Love, offered her son’s choice:
“Jack’s favourite TV mom is Julie Bowen on Modern Family because he says I remind him of her. It’s partially accurate, it is. Not only do we look alike but, you know, I can be a bit neurotic.”
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Nick Kroll, star of Adult Beginners:
The comic star of Kroll’s Show branches out in his new dramedy Adult Beginners as the figuring-it-out caretaker of a nephew. Without hesitation, he zeroed in on the most-loved matriarch of ’80s TV.
“Phylicia Rashad from The Cosby Show, Claire Huxtable, reminds me a lot of my mom, in that she was seemingly smarter than her husband and the loving enforcer. So I identified a lot with Claire Huxtable as my mom.”
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Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future and the new film 88:
Instead of choosing a TV role, Lloyd picked Mary Steenburgen’s Clara, his love interest from Back to the Future III, who moves from New Jersey to California in the late 1800s for a job as a school teacher. He praises her “vivacious” and independent spirit and ability to relate to kids.
“She was responsible and caring, loving and daring, to come out to the (Wild) West, being as primitive as it was in those days and take on being exposed to the roughness of that time. And to deal with a predominantly male society and all of that. She came out there and she held her own and was wonderful.”
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