Condiments - Final Four

 

TV Moms and Dads

They raised us! These are the moms and dads that we've all looked to over the years for advice, mentorship, and love. They've been our models for how to parent (and some of them have been our models for how NOT to parent). We've laughed, cried, and loved with them. But who's the greatest? There's only one way to find out. VOTE!

Old School Moms

(1) Clair Huxtable v (8) Marion Cunningham

Let the record show… Clair Huxtable raised five incredible kids and one bumbling husband. She was a high-powered attorney who had as much success in her law practice as she did on the home front. Clair was the model mom to an entire generation.

Let’s be honest… it’s a little easier being a mom when you know that Fonzie is looking after your boy. Still, Marion was the mother, not just for Richie and Joanie, but for the Fonz, Ralph Malph, Potsie, Chachi, Leather and Pinkie Tuscadero, and all the rest. She was always the epitome of grace under pressure.

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(5) Elyse Keaton v (4) Edith Bunker

A perfect distillation of the 80s - Elyse and Stephen Keaton, ex-hippies, and now suburbanites. Elyse is a wildly successful architect who also raises Alex, Mallory, and Jennifer (we don’t talk about Andrew). She’s a model of grace, authority, and love.

In many ways, Edith Bunker was the prototypical TV Mom. On All in the Family, she set the stage for decades of TV Moms to come. Jean Stapleton showed us how a loving mom can change more than just her family….she can change the world.

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(11) Florida Evans v (3) Aunt Bee

Florida Evans didn’t have a lot of the advantages that many of the other moms in this bracket had. After her husband James died in a car accident, Florida not only raised the kids, she worked to care for them too. She was always stern but loving, serious but kind, and tired but wise. She was the glue that held the Evans family together.

No, she wasn’t Opie’s biological mother, but that doesn’t make her any less of a TV Mom. In fact, she wasn’t just a mom to the little guy, she was a mom to the whole town of Mayberry.

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(7) Sophia Petrillo v (2) Carol Brady

Even though she was more advanced in age than the others in this bracket, Sophia was always sharp as a tack. Quick-witted and full of life, Sophia mothered Dorothy to be sure, but she always had time for Rose and Blanche too.

Here’s the story of a lovely lady… who definitely got more than she bargained for when she tied the knot with Mike Brady. Played impeccably by Florence Henderson, Carol was a breath of fresh air for TV moms. She was modern, fashionable, artistic, career-minded, and a heck of a mother to six mischievous kids.

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