Celebrating Mother’s Day: A Look At Iconic TV Moms

Moms are pretty amazing. They cook, they clean, they fix booboos, they run to the office supply store at midnight because her kid forgot he has a project due in the morning. Basically, these women are superheroes. Mother’s Day is a day that should be entirely devoted to them and the appreciation for who they are and what they do for us on a daily basis. While one day will never be enough to express how much love and gratitude we have for our mothers, it’s definitely a start.

In honor of all of the wonderful moms out there, let’s take a look at some of TV’s most iconic moms and why we love them:

June Cleaver – We know her from Leave it to Beaver, where she is a housewife and mother to two boys.

Image credit: ABC/MCA Television

Why We Love Her: Have you seen the way she dresses to do housework? Pearls, heels, dresses. It doesn’t matter if June is baking cookies, vacuuming, whatever. She’s always dressed to the nines. She’s the kind of mother who does everything, from running errands to planning parties to cooking to cleaning to gardening. Is she a little unrealistic? Sure. Doing everything June Cleaver does in TV land probably isn’t possible in the real world, but June is the idyllic ’50s housewife and she paved the way for decades of TV mothers to come.

Carol Brady – We know her as a mother to six children on The Brady Bunch. 

Image Credit: ABC/CBS Television Distribution

Why We Love Her: Okay, she has to deal with six kids, and does so pretty gracefully (admittedly with much help from Alice), so that right there is a reason to love her. She embraces her stepsons wholeheartedly and tries to make sure that the “group would somehow form a family” and become the Brady Bunch we know today. We love how accepting she is and how easily she turned a blended family into simply a family.

Marge Simpson – We know Marge from the long-running animated series The Simpsons. 

Image Credit: 20th Century FOX

Why We Love Her: She’s a housewife and mother to three children (maybe four, if you count the usually childish Homer.) Marge is the voice of reason in a home of chaos. She has a strong sense of morals and often urges her family to do the right thing. It’s obvious that no matter what trouble her kids (or husband) are in, she still loves them anyway.

Roseanne Conner – We know her as a wife and mother of three kids in Roseanne.

Image Credit: ABC

Why We Love Her: Roseanne is one tough woman. The family’s home life is portrayed as chaotic and difficult, both in terms of financial difficulties and social difficulties. We like Roseanne because we see her situation as being much more realistic than some other top television moms. She often complains about her family, and life in general, and usually teaches her children lessons the hard way. But, we can see that she has a good heart. She loves her husband dearly, even though he’s usually pretty lazy, and has some sort of heartwarming moment with one of the kids in almost every episode. She’s an example of a hardworking mom, and we love her because she’s real.

Lorelai Gilmore – We know her as the single mother on the hit show Gilmore Girls.

Image Credit: Warner Brothers

Why We Love Her: What’s not to love about Lorelai? She’s smart, sassy, full of pop culture references, and loves shopping, coffee, and exchanging witty banter with anyone who will listen. She had her daughter Rory when she was sixteen, and struggled somewhat during Rory’s early years. Now, though, she runs an inn and is the perfect best friend to her semi-wallflower daughter Rory. Lorelai’s approach to mothering is different than most TV moms out there. She focuses more on being Rory’s friend rather than being an authority figure. Sometimes that causes issues on the show, but all in all, their relationship dynamic is interesting and believable. Lorelai is a fantastic single mother, and the unconventional relationship she shares with Rory is part of why we love her.

Happy Mother’s Day!