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TV Moms

We wouldn't be here without our moms...and TV wouldn't be the same without them, either. Providing good advice, as well as big laughs, the TV mom has been the anchor of the small-screen family for generations. In the 1950s, Barbara Billingsley played the quintessential stay-at-home mom on Leave it to Beaver, while Roseanne Barr showed America how to be a working mother of the 90s on her sitcom, Roseanne.

During more than 60 years of broadcasts, TV moms have served as a mirror of the times they were in, showing homes across America what it was like to enter the workforce, take charge of the blended family, and triumph over the struggles of single motherhood. Biography.com presents TV's most famous moms, from the 1950s to the 21st century, and explores the lives of the actresses who played them.

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    TV Moms: 1980s

    In the 1980s, TV moms began juggling family life with professional careers. Phylicia Rashad played lawyer and mom to a big family on The Cosby Show, and Candace Bergen portrayed a TV news anchor who has an unplanned pregnancy out of wedlock. Judith Light played a busy, single advertising executive on Who's the Boss, and even hired a male housekeeper—who happened to be a single dad. Joanna Kerns played the much-loved mom on Growing Pains, whose husband worked from home so she could go back to working as a reporter. This bending of gender roles reflected more modern family structures, and the new choices that women faced.

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    TV Moms: 1980s

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    TV Moms: 1970s

    As women were developing roles outside the home for the first time, TV moms also began playing characters that were relatable to real-life moms. Mary Tyler Moore became America's favorite working woman—30, single and living on her own—on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. As laws changed the racial dynamics of the country, Esther Rolle portrayed the hard-working matriarch of an urban black family on Good Times. Some even chose to remarry like Bea Arthur in Maude...who was on her fourth husband.

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    TV Moms: 1970s

    TV Moms: 1950s

    In the early days of television, actresses of the small screen often reflected the traditional roles of women in society. TV moms of the 1950s managed to keep a tidy home; serve as an attentive ear to family troubles; and have dinner waiting—all while keeping every hair in place. Jane Wyatt epitomized the archetypal housewife and mother on Father Knows Best, while Donna Reed made running a household look easy on The Donna Reed Show. These women, and many more like them, laid the groundwork for future female acting roles, and served as inspiration to the women watching at home.

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    TV Moms: 1950s

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    TV Moms: 21st Century

    See our group of TV Moms from the 21st Century.

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    TV Moms: 21st Century

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    TV Moms: 1990s

    See our group of TV Moms from the 1990s.

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    TV Moms: 1990s

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    TV Moms: 1960s

    As traditional family structures changed in America, so did the women of 1960s television. Mary Tyler Moore began wearing the pants in the family, when she traded in her housedress for capris on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Florence Henderson played the head of a blended family on The Brady Bunch, and Lucille Ball starred as a widow with big career aspirations on The Lucy Show. These shows, and others like them, reflected the burgeoning 1960s feminist movement. Their popularity among female viewers also proved a growing national interest in women's equality.

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    TV Moms: 1960s

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