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In honor of Mother’s Day this Sunday, we thought we’d look at some of our favorite moms from TV and film…and some not-so-nice ones, too. The first one to come to is the impeccably dressed June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley) from Leave It to Beaver. She kept her house spotless and was always there for Ward and the boys. Especially with sandwiches. It was a delight to see her years later in 1980’s Airplane! sending up her image by speaking “jive” to help an ailing black passenger.
Morticia Addams (Carolyn Jones) of The Addams Family was a different kind of Mom, encouraging her children to embrace their more sinister aspirations. Conformity was the enemy. Trying to conform was sorceress Samantha Stephens’ (Elizabeth Montgomery) problem in Bewitched. Dealing with “no witchcraft allowed” husband Darrin and meddling mother Endora (Agnes Moorehead) while trying to raise her two children (who also were gifted with magical powers) always ended with some rules being broken. Lucky for us.
Marion Cunningham (Marion Ross) of Happy Days was a sunny positive force for her entire family and The Fonz, whom she called by his given name of Arthur. Later in the 1980s when Claire Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad) arrived on The Cosby Show, her very cool rational demeanor sealed her fate as a beloved TV mom. The exact opposite of her also was a hit with TV audiences, that being Peg Bundy (Katey Sagal) of Married… With Children. She was lazy, didn’t clean, didn’t work, and dressed provocatively. She treated her husband as an ATM and berated him constantly. Indifference was her superpower.
Roseanne took a more realistic approach to motherhood. Eponymous star Roseanne Barr could be blunt and opinionated, but her love for her children always shone through. Malcolm in the Middle gave us the harried Lois (Jane Kaczmarek), a tornado of a mom who yelled, cajoled, and manipulated her offspring to her will and made it all hilarious. And then there’s Marge Simpson (Julie Kavner) of The Simpsons. She is perfect. No notes. And before we move on to movie moms, a special shoutout to Smurf (Ellen Barkin) of Animal Kingdom, a mother who made her three sons into her very own crime syndicate. That’s talent.
On the big screen we’ve had all types of mothers. There’s The Devotional, who make sacrifices for their children, as Joan Crawford endured in Mildred Pierce (1945) only to be literally slapped in the face by ungrateful daughter Ann Blyth. Another Devotional–a distant version–was seen in Stella Dallas (1937), starring Barbara Stanwyck as an unrefined mother who gives up her child so they may have a better life. Skip the awful 1990 remake with Bette Midler. You should never remake a classic. Then there’s the Domineering, like Angela Lansbury playing a calculating mother in the political thriller The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Manipulating her son to help her husband, she is cold and power hungry. This was also remade with Meryl Streep in 2004. I repeat…You should never remake a classic.
Mary Tyler Moore was the seemingly cold, distant Beth Jarrett in the heartbreaking Ordinary People (1980), trying to deal with the death of a son from an accident and not knowing how to love the son who survived. If you watch that film more than once you will see how layered her performance is. Mommie Dearest (1981) had Faye Dunaway as movie legend Joan Crawford, raising her adopted children in an atmosphere of severe discipline as her career ebbed and flowed. Camp has never been so good.
Determination is the main characteristic of mom Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) as she navigates her volatile relationship with daughter Emma (Debra Winger) in Terms of Endearment (1983), becoming her fierce advocate when she is diagnosed with cancer. Also determined is Cher in Mask (1985), as a biker mom named Rusty. Her teenage son Rocky (Eric Stoltz) is suffering from a rare genetic cranial disorder, and her support for him to have as normal a life as possible is unwavering. It’s a beautiful performance from the singer-turned-actress. Olympia Dukakis is Rose, a world-weary Italian-American mom, dealing with a philandering husband and a confused daughter–none other than Cher–in the romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987). Dukakis’ deadpan delivery is delicious.
Our final movie mother is Beverly Sutphin (a very game Kathleen Turner), a middle-class housewife with a dentist husband and two teen-agers who happens to be a selective serial killer. In John Waters’ Serial Mom (1994) she has her own set of rules, and if you break them you might end up dead. Wearing white shoes after Labor Day is one. Taking a parking space from her or not rewinding a VHS tape are also infractions punishable by death. So don’t set Mama off. And Happy Mother’s Day!