Our Favorite 1980s Sitcom Moms

Photo: NBC Photobank

Elyse Keaton—Family Ties

With a ready supply of no-nonsense advice, the tirelessly earnest baby boomer matriarch Elyse Keaton—played by Meredith Baxter—was the template for sitcom moms for generations to come.

Roseanne Conner—Roseanne

No show has captured the freewheeling anarchy of family life like Roseanne Barr's fearless Midwestern slice-of-life sitcom Roseanne.

Where is the cast of Roseanne now?

Marge Simpson—The Simpsons

Marge—voiced by Julie Kavner—is easily the most patient wife and mother in television history. And her longevity as the better-half parent of America's favorite dysfunctional family has been repaid in everything from a starring role in The Simpsons Movie to getting her picture on a U.S. postage stamp to an appearance on the cover of Playboy.

Angela Bower—Who's the Boss?

In an era that saw women chipping away at the corporate glass ceiling, Who's the Boss? found plenty of laughs in the target-rich environment of traditional gender roles. Tony Danza played an ex-jock who takes a job as a Connecticut housekeeper, while Judith Light played the buttoned-up ad exec mother, Angela Bower.

Peg Bundy—Married...with Children

She was never going to win mother of the year—and Married...with Children picked up more viewer boycotts than Emmy awards—but Katey Sagal's outrageous Peg Bundy was the original "Real Housewife" of America's blue-collar suburbs.

Sophia Petrillo—Golden Girls

What's the best part about getting old? Finally getting to say exactly what's been on your mind, no matter who it might offend. In the South Florida home shared by four retired women on Golden Girls, the sharpest tongue belonged to Dorothy's mother, Sophia.

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