TV's Ten Greatest Moms

Whether they’re happy campers, sardonic comedians or strong matriarchs, mothers have always been an integral part of television. In honor of Mother’s Day, here are our ten favorite TV moms. Which ones do you like best?

June Cleaver ("Leave It To Beaver," 1957-1963)

Barbara Billingsley’s character in “Leave It To Beaver” has been so influential that her name survives as shorthand for a happy (maybe overly happy) homemaker. June welcomed Ward home with a smile, cooked from scratch every night, and never lost her temper with her wayward sons, Wally and the Beav. And she did it all in heels, fabulous dresses and pearls. We still love her clothes. The housework, not so much.

Lucy Ricardo ("I Love Lucy," 1951-1957) The daffy, always-in-trouble housewife remains one of the most beloved TV characters ever. And why not? She was played by possibly the best female comedian in entertainment history, Lucille Ball. The comedy mirrored Ball’s real life: her TV husband was played by her actual husband, Desi Arnaz. And when Ball was pregnant with her second child, Desi Arnaz Jr., known on the show as Little Ricky, the pregnancy was written into the show. The story of the delivery, “Lucy Goes To The Hospital,” drew more viewers than any other TV show at that time.

Carol Brady ("The Brady Bunch," 1969-1974) The comedy about a blended family broke some ground at the time, but didn’t go as far as it could have: ABC didn’t want Carol Martin/Brady (Florence) to be a divorcee, so they just never mentioned the circumstances that led her to marry architect Mike Brady. In any case, Carol’s three daughter and Mike’s three sons went through the usual teenage angst in the family’s groovy California house but got through the tough times thanks to their parents’ sensible advice.

Edith Bunker ("All In The Family," 1971-1979) Although the occasionally controversial show focused primarily on Edith’s relationship with her bigoted husband, Archie, the Queens housewife (Jean Stapleton) was a compassionate mother to Gloria (Sally Struthers). Despite her unfailing mildness, she opposed Archie when it really mattered, refusing to help him secretly baptize their grandchild. “No,” she says firmly, “we ain’t!”

Ann Romano ("One Day At A Time," 1975-1984) An Indiana housewives, wanting to be her own person, gets divorced and moves from her small town to Indianapolis with her two teenage daughters (Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips). Ann (Bonnie Franklin) is almost perpetually on edge as she tries to make life work despite the issues she and the kids struggle with, including premarital sex, drug use and sexual harassment. In contrast to earlier TV moms, Ann doesn’t know the answer to all her problems, or even, maybe, to most of them.

Clair Huxtable ("The Cosby Show," 1984-1992) The most popular comedy of the 1980s focused on the affluent African-American family the Huxtables, with Rashad playing Clair Huxtable, a successful attorney who was as close to an ideal mother as one could imagine in the cynical 80s. Creator Bill Cosby (who played Rashad’s husband Cliff) wanted a show portraying a black family that wasn’t oppressively poor or facing overwhelming obstacles, so he kept the show fairly light. And the issue of race wasn’t brought up much, which sent the audience the subtle but constructive message that black people don’t think about race 24 hours a day.

Marge Simpson ("The Simpsons," 1989-present) You have to give credit to Marge for the best hair any TV mom ever had. Who doesn’t want a freakishly high beehive in an unnatural color? The long-suffering housewife (and wouldn’t you be, with Homer and Bart?) has kept her cool for 23 years of, well, hair-raising family misdeeds in the all-American town of Springfield. But she’s honest, sometimes painfully so: “From now on our family is eating healthy food that looks bad on the shelf and good in our colon.” OK, Marge. That's enough.

Roseanne Conner ("Roseanne," 1988-1997) Meet the anti-June Cleaver: a fat, working-class woman (Roseanne Barr) with a fat, working-class husband (John Goodman) who live with three fairly obnoxious kids in a town no one outside of Illinois has ever heard of. Despite those stereotypes, Roseanne Conner is a smart, tough woman who shows compassion to her three kids when they need it – and no mercy when they don’t.

Nora Walker ("Brothers And Sisters," 2006-2011) Although Oscar-winner Field has played some meaty roles in movies like "Norma Rae," her part of matriarch Nora Walker in “Brothers and Sisters” seems just as substantive. Unexpectedly widowed, Walker finds out that her late husband has not only been unfaithful, he’s got a secret daughter. On top of that, Nora, who’s inexperienced in the business of running the family’s food company, has to contend with an unhappy bunch of adult kids and a series of boyfriends (actually, she does quite well in that department). Eventually, she comes to see that her life as a mother and lover, despite heartbreak and occasionally unsolvable problems, is a good one – and much better than the one she had pre-widowhood.

Gloria Delgado Pritchett ("Modern Family," 2009-present) A Colombian bombshell, Pritchett (Sofia Vergara) is married to a much older guy (Ed O’Neill) and could be seen as something of a gold-digger. But she loves him passionately, despite their cultural and age differences. The other focus of her life is her abnormally mature 13-year-old son, Manny. But that’s as far as she goes in the domestic arena: “I know you can’t tell by looking at me,” she says, “but I’m not a natural homemaker.”