Your Mothers' Quiz

Answer: Victoria Barkley

Victoria Barkley was the widowed matriarch of the Barkley Ranch in California on "The Big Valley" from 1965 through 1969. She was played by actress Barbara Stanwyck, and kept a tight rein on her children, i.e., Jarrod, Nick and Audra, along with Heath who was her late husband's illegitimate son.

There was also a younger son named Eugene who was a medical student at Berkeley, but he was away at school a lot.

Answer: Thelma Harper

On "Mama's Family", Thelma Mae Crowley Harper ("Mama") is a crotchety senior citizen. She is played by Vicki Lawrence who actually created this character on "The Carol Burnett Show", which aired from 1967 to 1978. Burnett played the part of Mama's daughter Eunice. Based on her accent, Thelma lived in Raytown in a southern state in the 'U.S. of A.'.

She was portrayed as being in her late 60s (although Vicki Lawrence was only in her 30s at the time of filming). Thelma and her late husband Carl had three children, i.e., Ellen, Eunice and Vinton. Vinton, his kids 'Buzz' and Sonja, and his new wife Naomi, all wind up living in Thelma's basement.

Answer: Estelle Costanza

Estelle Nussbaum Harris was born in New York City in 1928. She is an actress and voice-over specialist, having been heard as Old Lady Bear in "Brother Bear", and as Mrs. Potato Head in the "Toy Story" franchise. For those overzealous couch potatoes (an oxymoron?), she was also Lulu the sword on "Dave the Barbarian" and Dr. Drakken's mother on "Kim Possible".

However, arguably, her most famous role was on "Seinfeld" as George's overbearing mother, Estelle Costanza...and that voice! Most of Mrs. Costanza's time is spent yelling - especially at George and Frank.

She and Frank (her husband) seem to hate each other but stay together anyway.

Answer: Florida Evans

Esther Rolle (1920-1998) was a stage, film and TV actress. Rolle, coincidentally, was born in Florida, which was the name of the acerbic but caring maid she played on the Norman Lear show "Maude". Her character was so popular on "Maude" that Lear developed a series specifically for Florida Evans called "Good Times"; it premiered in 1974. Florida was married to James Evans and they lived with their kids (J.J., Thelma, and Michael) in a Chicago housing project.

After "Good Times", Esther Rolle won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series in "Summer of my German Soldier" in 1979.

Answer: Ann Romano

The trials and tribulations of a divorced single mother raising two teenage girls in Indianapolis, Indiana...that was the plot of the TV show "One Day at a Time" (1975-1984). Bonnie Franklin played Ann Romano who was the working mother of Julie and Barbara Cooper, played by Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli, respectively, with help from her building's superintendent, Schneider (Pat Harrington Jr.), lending comic relief.

She was not the first divorcee on TV (Diana Rigg was, on "Diana") but the show was more realistic, i.e., a 'dramedy', dealing with issues like birth control, drug abuse, virginity, and other issues never faced by "Gidget" or "Ozzie and Harriet".

Answer: Livia Soprano

What a great actress Nancy Marchand (1928-2000) was! In the early days of television (the 1950s) she was in almost every drama series, and created roles on the soap operas "Love of Life" and "Another World". She convincingly played Lou Grant's boss and owner of the L.A. Tribune, Mrs. Margaret Pynchon from 1977 to 1982.

Then, in 1999, she went on to portray Livia Pollio Soprano, the ultimate, evil, manipulative matriarch of the Soprano family, i.e., mob boss Tony, and daughters Janice and Barbara.

Her late husband, Johnny, was never good enough, until he died; as for motherhood, she is quoted as saying that babies were "animals...no different from dogs".

Answer: Marie Barone

In 1995 Doris Roberts won the role of Marie Barone on the show "Everybody Loves Raymond", a role for which she won four Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress. Another stereotypical matriarch, her son Robert (the policeman) referred to her as 'Queen Marie'. Was there ever a time when she didn't get her way? She treated her grown sons like little kids, and clearly favored Ray over Robert.

She was bossy and condescending but, when criticized, she played the martyr, and claimed she only did these things out of love.

But if you were hungry, she made the best Italian dinners in the world!

Answer: Lorelai Gilmore

Lauren Graham played the fictional character Lorelai Victoria Graham from Stars Hollow, Connecticut on the first run of "Gilmore Girls" from 2000 through 2007. One of the interesting facets of this show was the fact that Lorelai was the young, single mother of a teenage girl (Rory), but she was also the daughter of Emily Gilmore, a rich, controlling mother.

The dynamics of the relationships on the show were fascinating. Lorelai's rich parents had raised her to be a proper young lady, go to an Ivy League school and marry a rich, well-bred young man - what many parents hope for their daughters.

The only problem was... that wasn't what Lorelai wanted! Graham was also in "Parenthood" from 2010-2015. In 2016, it was announced that "Gilmore Girls" would return on Netflix.

Answer: Elyse Keaton

Meredith Baxter's mother was an actress (Whitney Blake) and her father was a radio announcer (Tom Baxter) so she really was born with 'show biz' genes. In 1972 she starred in a short lived sitcom called "Bridget Loves Bernie" and then married her co-star, David Birney (the Birney in Bernie); after that she was billed as Meredith Baxter-Birney. Under that name she was in the TV drama "Family" as the oldest daughter, winning two Emmys for her role. From 1982 through 1989 she was cast as former flower child Elyse Donelly who became an architect and married Steven Keaton, the manager of a public TV station.

They raised three kids (later a fourth) in the conservative Reagan era.

Answer: Peg Bundy

Katey Sagal played the role of Peg Bundy on "Married...with Children" from 1987 to 1997. Peg was the matriarch (?) of the Bundy clan but, unlike the other TV mothers, she was 'underbearing', i.e., she didn't seem to do anything except complain and fight with her shoe-salesman husband Al; she did not have a job, and her skills as a housewife seemed to include no cooking, no cleaning, no child rearing. Peg and Al fought about sex, their 'loser' kids, their lack of money and success, pretty much everything. They were the
anti-Huxtables! In retrospect, how did we watch this show for that long?
Katey Sagal was also Leela on "Futurama", and was on "Sons of Anarchy".