Just in time for Mother's Day, this CBS special is a lighthearted look at how mothers have been portrayed on television and--more important--plays to audiences' recent craze for vintage TV.
Just in time for Mother’s Day, this CBS special is a lighthearted look at how mothers have been portrayed on television and–more important–plays to audiences’ recent craze for vintage TV.
Phylicia Rashad plays host to this delightful hour-long event, taking us down the sometimes thorny primrose path of how women, pregnancy and their relationships with their children have been portrayed over the years.
Interestingly enough, the word pregnancy or even the depiction of it was taboo in early television, a far cry from today’s shows that touch on everything from birth control to sperm banks. We’ve come a long way since the days when Barbara Billingsley (“Leave It to Beaver”) could spend a half hour counseling Beaver (Jerry Mathers) on the merits of Brussel sprouts.
That dry unfertile ground of twin beds and neck-to-ankle pajamas began to crack in the 1970s with such people as Norman Lear leading the way. It was Gloria (Sally Struthers), after all, on “All in the Family,” who was the first woman to be shown in the delivery room, pain, pushing and all.
Zip forward to today’s TV moms, like Roseanne Arnold, whose humor and tough-love TLC sometime isn’t enough to get her through the harder moments, such as when daughter Becky tells her that she wants to go on the pill.
Along the way, actresses Shirley Jones and Florence Henderson talk about raising their own families while also playing TV moms on “The Partridge Family” and “The Brady Bunch.”
Picking some of the best moments from a large selection of shows makes for some very funny and heartwarming moments, thanks to the work of director Peyton Reed and his crew. Writer Russell Marcus puts it into a tongue-and-cheek perspective with Rashad’s commentary.
Mom Knows Best
(Friday (8), 8-9 p.m., CBS-TV)
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