TV Moms We Love | 8
Show Notes:
With Mother's Day just around the corner, Julia and Christina share who their favorite TV moms are and some funny stories about their own moms.
Transcript:
Julia: Hey friends, it's Julia. And this is Pop Culture Makes Me Jealous. On today's episode, Christina and I are talking TV moms.
This episode of pop culture makes me jealous is brought to you by Modesto reads that has to reads as a community on Instagram highlighting what people in the city of Modesto, California are reading. If you want book recommendations, or if you live in the city of Modesto, follow Modesto reads and use the hashtag Modesto reads.
And now here we are. To the shop talking about our favorite TV moms,
Christina: the variable, no issue. Happy mother's day though, before we start the episode happy mother's day, Julia, I think you're a wonderful
Julia: mom. Thank you, Christina. I should wish you a happy mother's day as well, because you are a bonus. Mom will think which bonus lumps don't get a lot of credit and watching you kind of blossom into that role as.
Thanks. And also for you to bang out your own, I can wait for that. I want to start by talking about who our favorite TV moms are, and I'm surprised that we don't have, I guess it's not surprising that we don't have a ton of overlap considering our age difference.
Christina: I also realized I had a hard time just thinking of TV moms.
Like I've had this, this episode of my mind for a month now, and I've had the same five listed. Like I can't think of anything more, but I realized I don't watch shows that are like really. Probably family mom's. Yeah. It's all weird. And all the shows I watch with my mom or like contestant or game shows.
Yeah.
Julia: It's funny that you say that. Cause so looking at my list compared to your list, which we will reveal shortly. I'm realizing how much the evolution of TV moved away from like family centric sitcoms to other types of shows. Right. So we'll start with my list because I'm older and age before beauty.
Oh, I was going to say beauty phase.
Christina: Oh,
Julia: okay. So my TV moms, Claire Huxtable, Elise Keaton from family ties, Harriet Winslow from family matters. Thelma Harper from mama's family. Amy Matthews from boy meets world Bo Johnson from Blackish, Moira rose from Schitt's Creek and violet Crawley from Downton Abbey.
Like those moms, like get me in a room with all of those moms. What a list there. So no wonder my child is like, who is my mother? All of these influences. I love that. I also.
Christina: You brought up? I didn't even think of, um, Amy Matthews.
Julia: Honestly, the only reason why it came up is because we're currently rewatching appointments world right now.
And I'm seeing just the way, like how loving and nurturing she is with like all of them. And then also when they act stupid and she's just like, she's so sensible in her. Criticism of the being stupid when meets world came out. When I was like, similarly aged to Corey and Sean. And so, you know, I was like, oh Amy, I like Amy as a mom.
She's kind of a cool mom. She was
Christina: it's slowly coming back to me. But yeah, she really was kind of. Uh, cool mom, I would say. And not
Julia: like Amy Poehler and mean girls. Cool
Christina: mom. And no, I think the nineties is kind of when, like, like the transition and TV started, like where it was not so much family sitcom base where like the dynamics would focus on different parts of the family members more.
So that's when like a big switch kind of, cause I noticed all the like list. I don't know, pull the references I was coming up with. Didn't even have a bombs in it. They were like, Hey man,
Julia: let's talk about your
Christina: list. Sure. Fresh prince of Bel air, the fosters. I love Lena and stuff. I'm not going in decade order.
Sorry for men from that 70 show love her Gloria and Claire Dunphy from modern family. Very different moms. Loved them, both Rebecca Pearson from this as us. What do you love about, I love that. I love her as a mom. I think she's super like nurturing, but I like in that show specifically how they show her as a mom and all her seasons of life.
And I think that's why I picked her specifically, because I don't see that represented in many shows. And I think it's really hard, especially now that I'm in a parent role, you don't realize until later in life, like how to see moms or parents in all seasons of life and to like, I liked that. And that's why I picked that is because the show gets to see you, like watch her fail and get better back and forth over time.
Oh, I forgot
Julia: to say Beverly Goldberg. She's on my list. Oh, I
Christina: like her. I have to say, like, I don't watch a whole lot of TV in general. So when I think of TV moms, it's cause I've watched like one season or something
Julia: and I'm like, Yeah, she's a great TV model. She really is. And I like, I have this joke with my child that I have the potential to be Beverly Goldberg and would he like me to it to activate that role?
And he's always like, please don't, but I also could be Ruby, which I don't know if you see,
Christina: because I only watched one episode, but I need a lot smaller
Julia: because room is like, I think when I grow up, I want to be Ruby. You should, which isn't on my list. But so like, so starting from the beginning, you know, in the eighties, like we talked about there's, there's a lot of family centric shows and they were, you know, mom, dad, nuclear family, and they were dealing with all kinds of issues that in situations.
And what have you, the qualities and characteristics of some of these TV moms that I grew up watching, they were really the backbone of the family and they were respected and they were left like, especially like Elise Keaton and Claire Huxtable. Um, Harriet Winslow, actually, all of them on my list, to be honest with you, with the exception of like more modern day, but the, the backbone of the family in a way that doesn't make them burn out or be taken for granted, like they are respected.
They really love. Their children are totally like their children fall in line when they are asked to like, they have a very strong motherly position. And I noticed as we sort of evolve through television, when my son was watching TV and we'd be watching like something on the Disney channel or Nickelodeon and the parents would just be bumbling idiot.
It really bothered me. That adults went from being sort of this strong foundation for children and teenagers to characatures that were butts of jokes. Like there's a time and a place like on, on all of these shows that we've listed the parents. There are moments where you're just do dumb shit, because that's what parents do.
The kids all still respect him and the kid and everyone still knows their place in the family. If that makes sense. Yeah. And so there's a lot of TV shows better within the last 20 years where I'm just like, fuck that show. Like the parents are not, I don't like the way that the parents are represented because.
In terms of consciously my kids starts behaving like that towards me. And I'm just like, not in this house on
Christina: the same note though, would you say there was any TV moms that you kind of strive to be like, oh, Claire
Julia: Huxtable all the way. Yeah. Actually had a conversation and this is going to come out in a different podcast episode because we have some guests episodes coming up where I was telling my friend, I like.
Really wanted to be Claire Huxtable. And so I had a conversation with my son's dad at the time when my son was a little little about how, like I'm going to kind of move into more of a preppy look and blah, blah, blah. Because Claire to me was the epitome of like what a mom should look like and be like, she was strong.
She was successful. She was beautiful. She loved her children unconditionally and she wasn't afraid to call them out. And I just re. The voice of reason, 90% of the time. And then there's that 10% when like her kids are being threatened where she sort of goes into this protection mode where it was just like, yeah, that's yep.
I want to do all of those things. Also want to walk into the room and be well-dressed, you know, everything looks great, but I was coming out of like, I was coming from like, uh, sort of like a. Bond breakfast. So that was a big, like 180. What? A 180
Christina: on your looks like I said, I think aunt Viv was always my favorite.
Like
Julia: TV mom. And she's another one too. Like she inclu she's almost like the nineties versus Claire. She, she, she, she was, she was a professor, not an attorney, but still, always polished, always beautiful.
Christina: I think I always gravitated to towards like these mom roles that were either like super like successful, like working women.
Cause my mom. We're working moms. So I like, I was like, oh yeah, that's what moms do. Like we think about them like that. And then, but on the flip side, I also liked the fact that she wasn't actually Will's mom. She was his aunt and she had this like, I don't know this nurturing role that was like, I'm strong and I'm forceful.
And I tell you what you need to hear, but also I will take you in and I'm going to love you. And I'm going to accept you for who you are. And it's like, I think that just reminded me of my own mom so much. She'd taken so many people in over the years and I'm just like, that's such a, like, it's such a wonderful quality and moms that I think a lot of moms have, and they don't realize it.
Like it's just a mothering nurturing. Ability. And it's so nice when you see that represented on TV, that like, it doesn't have to be your kid to be. Mothered the same time. You see how they treat their own kids. And it's the same for all of the kids, like will gets the same treatment as their children. And that's wonderful.
And then their children have like, such a great impact on we'll just like we'll have such a wonderful impact on him, like on them, like with Ashley and the drums episode, like he's just teaching her so much confidence and I love it so much. I think that that's all stems from aunt Viv. She is like the backbone of the family and she just.
She's always there and like a subtle but
Julia: strong way. Yeah. But like mama's family is, was this family who they had, like, I don't know how you would describe them other than like poor white trash, which feels wrong to say it that way. So I'm not really sure if that's the right way to say it. Vicki Lawrence is an actress who got her start on the Carol Burnett show in the late sixties, and then kind of went on to do a bunch of other things.
Couple episodes of Laverne and Shirley. In 1983, she did the show called mama's family, where she basically. Dressed up as an old woman and was the matriarch of this family. And it was basically her and her sister living together. And then there's like other familial characters too. And it was just so funny because it was like a non-traditional family in the sense of like, there wasn't really like, like she had kids and they did dumb shit and she was just this, like, No nonsense kind of mom.
And it just, I really, that was another one that was on reruns all the time. They were definitely not in the caliber of the Huxtables in terms of like social standing. Stubbles had it going
Christina: on which episode, where they taught, um, Theo, how to live in the real world. Oh, no, so much as a child. Yeah. I remember watching that and just being like, wow.
The real world looks
Julia: hard. I think that I want to carve out some time to talk about bonus moms. Okay. So I put aunt Viv on, um, bonus mom list because she's got this great, like you said,
Christina: and it changed the title to this to mother's day go
Julia: aunt Vince. So I love that we did PO both put in, you know, we brought her up in two different ways because I feel like.
Has that dual position she's Carlton and Hillary and Ashley's mom, but then also she's mothering her sister's son. And like, I can't express it more beautifully than you did. So we'll just leave it at that. It's very, very common. I don't know about other communities. I can speak for myself in the black experience I've had.
My dad's sister was a huge part of my life. You know, she had a daughter three years younger than me, which is actually closer in age to me than my siblings. And so having sort of this auntie who I would go and spend summers with and go on vacations with like she, similarly to aunt Viv would take on that mothering role.
I actually remember one time we were playing at McDonald's in Turlock when McDonald's still had play areas. I don't know if they do now. This is the 80th guys, my cousin and I are playing and I can I overhear this woman say, oh, are those your daughters? And my, my aunt's like, yeah, they are. She goes, oh, your oldest one looks so much like you that's so cute.
And I'm just like, that's hilarious. And that's probably the first time I've ever had somebody in my life. And maybe the only time until I started pointing out that I look exactly like my mom, but in a brown version that somebody actually like saw my face in a relative space. With not
Christina: super awesome for you.
Julia: Well, you know, I think I was like six or seven at the time, so I didn't really like register it, but now upon reflection, it's like, that's literally the only time in my life without having to prompt people. Cause you know, I've trained my internet following up to see me.
Christina: Comment though that you made, because so many people have the experience of hearing like, oh my God, he looks so much like your mom or, oh my God, he looks so much like your dad.
So for you to say, like, it took almost six years for some, for you to remember or realize someone said that, like, that's pretty
Julia: like.
Christina: I, I wouldn't, I've heard my whole life fell, look like my dad. So I had to cook. I don't know what that would be like for
Julia: someone to think. I just looked like me. I've heard your whole life.
Those are your parents. Yeah. Calling them mom and dad, since I can talk, did you ever watch the Brady bunch? It was on reruns on Saturdays when I was a kid. So I don't know when they stopped doing it in,
Christina: like, it didn't like the Brady bunch. No. Oh, my God.
Julia: Were you watching it through the context of the show is hella old or
Christina: were you watching a child?
When I tried to watch it like a kid, I remember it. I was like, what is this? I don't like
Julia: it. I didn't,
Christina: they were too much for me. I was like, who's family is. But like, that was so far from my family. I did, I don't know. It just was too weird to me. I was like, these people are way too cheery. No one is ever angry.
Like,
Julia: well, it was the late sixties, early seventies. And so, you know, you've got Vietnam going on. You've got the black power movement coming to rise. You've got all these social commentary things happening and then here's Brady bunch to be like, we're just going to give you some like, straight. No conflict entertainment.
Oh, my
Christina: seven-year-old brain was like, I don't like it.
Julia: It's not for me. Well, Carol Brady is a bonus mom because the boys weren't hers. Yeah. So they're like the first, you know, well, there were other sort of blend, different families on TV prior to them, but they're the first blended family show that I can recall.
And yeah, it's sort of get that part of it. Like
Christina: they just were so wholesale.
Julia: I think that was the point. It was too
Christina: good to be true in my mind, by the time I started watching it, that I was like, well, I've never met anyone this
Julia: nice. Yeah. Well, you know, 20 years, 30 years prior when it was airing for the first time, you know, they're trying to contrast, you know, the tanks running through Vietnam on this makes sense when
Christina: you put it in that context for me now as an adult, but.
Julia: Little little Christina wasn't feeling it. So she didn't really tap into it too much. When I very first saw the pilot episode, which was years after I'd been watching the show. I didn't know that those kids weren't her kids. Oh, okay. And I LA and vice versa for the dad. And so I just loved that you could come into the middle of the show and it's just this one big happy family, but really the root of it.
These are two people, a widow and a widower who I think they were both widowed. I don't know anymore. You know, they fell in love. They already have kids. And so they're going to make it work and they make it work. And I just loved that. And I just thought that it was so wonderful to see. And then it's nineties version called step-by-step, which was on TGF.
Christina: I was going to say, I did watch step-by-step. Can we talk about, she's not a bonus mom, but I almost put her in this category just because. I definitely have like friends, moms like this, but Katie foreman, her
Julia: house was the casual house
Christina: for all the teenagers. And she always had food and snacks and like, she was a parent to all of them.
And she, you know, like there was times where she did questionable things for sure, but I loved her, me and my mom watched, uh, that seventies show all the
Julia: time.
Christina: And it's just like a funny show. Yeah. I mean, what kitty? Like she held the family down when like red didn't have a job. She was like nursing, but she still like made, it makes me mad the way people made breakfast, but like breakfast, lunch,
Julia: and dinner.
She is a good bonus mom. She was like the neighborhood mom. That's a good
Christina: way to put it. She's the neighborhood mom. And I love those moms. It's like the catch all house where it's like, you just go in and you get some snacks you say hi to
Julia: Mrs. Foreman. Yeah, I do. I do. Um, another one I had listed was aunt Becky from full house because, you know, girls don't have a mom she's gone.
And then when uncle Jesse, or I guess he doesn't bring her in, I guess when she gets hired at the new station to be co-host on wake up San Francisco and, you know, Danny brings her home and uncle Jesse's like, Hey girl, Hey,
Christina: she was actually on my. Aunt Becky was cause she, she really did until she had the twins, like she was still a mom figure for those girls.
And then when she had the twins, I think she kind of doubled down even more like, yeah, she became an even better mom in the house because she now knew what it was like to be a mom. Right.
Julia: And I think she brings the necessary, especially in the nineties because we were still very, very, very gendered in how we like structure things.
But I think shin the content and the energy, but not even just feminine energy. I wasn't a little boy, so I don't have full context on little boys. And then I had a little boy, I mean, other than my brother, but he was seven when I was born. So it's. Yeah, so I have a little boy and those things that I'm just like, I can't like he was so brave at the playground as a child three and four years old, doing all these brave things.
I can't, I couldn't handle it, but I also didn't want him to inherit my fears about anything, because I don't want him to not try in life. Right. So it was like, you want to go to the park, great call your grandpa. And so I ran the risk of not being the fun mom in that way, because, because I would be stressed out the whole time, like, oh my God, he's going to fall and break his arm.
Oh my God. Like all these things, both grandpas were like, have fun. Let's climb, let's play, let's pull these things. And so they enabled him to be a brave little boy, whereas I wouldn't have been able. Do that. And that's what I loved about that aunt Becky element. There were things that DJ being a teenager and going through all of the emotions of being a teenager and dating and all these things, dad isn't, especially your dad who like is 30 in the eighties.
Right? So that means he came of age in the sixties and seventies. So he's not fully going to like grasp how to comfort DJ necessarily. And, you know, Jesse was a Playboy until, until Becky showed up and then, you know, Joey's show. Joey
Christina: say to like, sorry, adding onto what you're saying is, um, there was an episode where it shows it so well, there was like a, a mother-daughter sleepover that Becky agreed to go with Steph, uh, to, for the honey.
But you can tell that aunt Becky's like role in DJ's life. May DJ able to step up for her little sister when she needed to. And that was. That's what you're saying. Like she. That role because the men probably could never teach, you know? Well, I think it's
Julia: because they didn't necessarily know how exactly right.
So like I was never a brave little boy. So I had to find somebody who was a brave little boy at one point to be able to guide my child in that way. And Becky was doing that for the girls. And so I really appreciated how they structured her as aunt Becky. But allowed her the space to be motherly to the girls.
And I think that's true for women who have relationships with younger children. My friend recognized that I loved her daughter. Like she was a niece and has allowed me. The space to continue that. And I really appreciate that because you can't always be the everything for your children. And so there needs to be other people who can offer different things like Becky and Viv, kitty Forman.
Like these women sort of, it didn't matter that you're not mine, you're in my house. So I'm going to love you like your mind. It's
Christina: nice to have friends who create this community of love and acceptance who are willing to let you. Like be there for their kids, because like, that's what it's all about. Like, you really can't raise your kid by yourself.
Like it takes a village and the sooner you accept that and the more like a moms or parent figures you have in your kid's life, like the more well-rounded they'll be the better off they'll be. And the more accepting there'll be to society. And all I need is like love and compassion.
Julia: Yeah, kids, just, we all, this is true for all of us.
We just want to feel safe, loved and wanted. Like, that's it. And when we don't get that, you know, there's this chaos and hemorrhaging that sort of happens emotional hemorrhaging, that sort of happens. One of the things that I kind of loved about all the moms that I have listed, they all sort of. Have characteristics that I think I see in my own mom, but she's definitely very strong, very thoughtful, taught us to be critical thinkers.
I don't think moms get enough credit for being the backbone. We say they're the backbone of applying, but then we treat moms
Christina: all the time. Uh, I, I, I would like to kind of navigate on that. Like I think moving forward, supporting women is like what we really should be doing. I catch myself all the time, like wanting to be.
Fall in my own shit, my own ego as I call it. But I think the best way to be supportive women is to support other moms, even in any way we can. So I like to try and build the best relationship I can with like Aiden's mom and it's not something I necessarily, you know, it's not always something you want to do, but it's something that.
Moving forward in society. You have to constantly put your own ego aside and put your child's best interest first. And that means being a good person deep down, I think. And that just means putting the best foot forward and that's encouraging other people and telling them that they're doing good when you recognize that they're doing good.
Like I don't, you know, you don't have. You don't have to mean something to somebody to tell them they're doing good. You can see a mom on the street and be like, oh my God, good job. Like, I see that you're struggling with your toddler right now. Like, I remember how hard that was. Like, I see you. You're doing great.
Like keep it up. That would go so far. Like if you were to ever hear that, like if I ever hear someone say something like, oh, you're doing so great. Or just little things. From strangers or from people you don't expect means so much. And I think moving forward, if we did that more so in TV and more so in society, like.
Moms would start, just start to feel a little bit more
Julia: appreciated. I think an acknowledgement is the first step and it's the way we do acknowledgement. Cause I used to hear it all the time. I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you had all this patients. Oh my God. I admire you so much because you did it alone.
And then after a while it was just like, you know what? Fuck all of you. Okay, because not to say that we shouldn't acknowledge it. Like I'm not training to get what you're saying. What I'm saying is that it shouldn't take you becoming a parent to come back to me 10 years later and say like, I didn't realize how hard it was for you.
Because for me it happened in such succession because everybody had kids at 30 and then suddenly, now everyone's like, oh my God, I don't know how you did it. And dah, dah. Cool. Well, you bailed on. 'cause, you didn't know how to be a friend to somebody who has a child. And now you want to apologize, which thank you.
Or you want to acknowledge that I gave up so much, which thank you. I do appreciate that. That's not going on appreciated also. Don't just say it and then not do something about it. So like, if you're a stranger and you see somebody struggling, that's one thing to acknowledge them. But if you have women in your life who do not have.
The traditional support system, like, you know, a partner to help them raise the child. And in my situation, I had a non traditional support system. My parents were very involved. The other grandparents were very involved and that was a huge part of it. It's still very lonely, still very hard. What happened was I had a lot of friends and then one day I didn't have a lot of friends.
And then, and then one day I have all these friends are having kids. And they're saying things like, I don't know how you did this all by yourself. Like, this is really hard. How did you handle this? And then they still didn't actively become a friend because now they're in the throws of, you know, young, young parenthood.
And so it's, it's got a, it's got that. Cycle's got to stop. It would mean so much more to me. If somebody was. And somebody actually recently did this and we sort of rekindled our friendship and we were very close in high school and pre child, but she had something happened in her life that was really major.
So she kind of had to tend to that. And I respect that. And so the conversation that she and I had was kind of like this, she's sharing about a family member, who's going through something that feels familiar to me. And I say, Just be there for her, because it's really fucking hard when you don't know yet that you shouldn't be with that person and there's a child involved.
So just be there for her. And then as she's starting to recognize all of these things and going through it, just walk with her through it because that's going to be a make or break situation for her. And then the friend says, I am so sorry. I didn't realize how hard these things were for you. Failed you as a friend, I should have been there and dah, dah, dah, dah.
And I said, you shouldn't have been there. It's okay. That you weren't there. You had your own shit that I recognize and understand. What's really hard. And I don't know how you got through that. What the resolution was was this. We are now back on regular talking terms and that's what matters we've established now that we're back in each other's lives, we're out of the peripheral and we're back in sort of focused and that's, that's what makes the difference when you have.
Uh, mom in your life, even if she is partnered. Cause I do have a friend who has partnered and
Christina: it's still going to add that caveat. It doesn't matter or does matter. It does matter if you're partnered or not. But I would say like friend wise, like check on your friends. It doesn't matter if they have a partner or not, moms need to stick with together.
Like you need to check on and support your. As well, I'm not saying extend yourself past your ability. Of course. I'm just saying if you're thinking of that person, if you have the thought to say something nice, then say something productive. Like, Hey, like I see you've been working super hard. Is there anything I can do to help you out?
Or like, is there anything sweet I can do, you know, to help you? And like, I'm going to tell you anything. Like, they're not going to ask for help. So maybe offer up very specific types of help that you can do, because that's what I started doing. And it makes it a lot easier for people to go, yes, I need
Julia: that.
Please. You leave it. Open-ended you're just creating more burdens for the mom. So don't do that, right? Like the way you're saying it, give very specific. And that goes so much further than the broader. Let me know how I can help you. No, I'm not gonna let you know how you can help me because now that feels like a tour.
Now you've just added to my burden. How, what, however, well, intentioned not maybe it's just now one more thing that I have to be like me asking you for help in this way now feels like I'm a failure rather than you saying. I have the bandwidth to help you with this. So let me help you with this. I think
Christina: people are way more receptive to it that way as well.
I noticed, um, like I said, my friend, Emma and I, we kind of went through a very similar like grief cycle, like back to back and like, we were like, she was going through at first and I was like, what can I do? I can pick up the girls for an hour for you and let them run around so you can clean or do something.
She's like, I, that would be great. And so, yeah. That's what I did for that day. And then vice versa when I needed just, I was like, I just need, I just need an hour of someone's time so I can cry or, you know, like just vent and she's like, I got
Julia: you. So one of the things I wanted to you and your mom, like, is that a thing where you guys sit around and watch TV together?
Cause that's a big,
Christina: it's a huge thing for us. So actually it's really cute. A lot of you want to hear a gross, cute coming of age. Okay. Um, when I, uh, I started my period really young and I was like, I was 10. So it was like, this is not happening. I don't like this. My mom took me to target and really got like the Lizzie McGuire.
Uh, box set basically. And we had a camp out in the living room with like all of my favorite, like treats and stuff. And she just had like, she sat there and watched cause Lizzie McGuire was my favorite show at the time she sat and watched Lizzie McGuire with me all night after my dad went to bed. So we could have like a girl's night because I was now.
Uh, lady and I was not happy with it. And it's funny because it almost kind of started like my mom and I's tradition of after my dad would go to bed at eight, I didn't go to bed till like nine or 10, depending on how old I was. And we would watch a show together or two shows depending, you know, like the timeframe.
And it was like, that was mom and I's time every night together. And because like she would get home from work and do a bunch of stuff. She wasn't really sitting down or anything. And my dad would watch like sports and stuff. So like, after he went to bed, it was like, Ooh, girl type or watching, like are going to watch our girls shows and then we'd get all excited for it.
Like, oh, tonight's this? And you know, we talk about it in the morning. Like on our, when she would drop me off to school, it'd be like, oh, tonight we're going to watch, you know, whatever it was. Uh, we watched, uh, the sweet life of the American teenager when I was in high school. So it actually was, uh, this wonderful thing to watch in high school with my mom, because it brought all these very uncomfortable topics up.
And my mom is just so blunt. I love her. Now I love it now because it was like, she, wasn't afraid to just like, talk to me about all these topics that most moms would not talk to their daughters about. And I was, I didn't like it at the time, but now I'm like, I'm so much smarter and so much better off I'm much more well-rounded as a female because my mom's sat there and watched my teenage show.
With me. And she, like, she cared about them and she was excited about them, like with me. And it's like, looking back if I were to go watch that show, I can't, as an adult, I can't muster up the courage to watch it, but she sat there
Julia: and
Christina: that's
Julia: why it is. But I'm like, like Molly, Ringwald, come on, you can do better.
And
Christina: that's the other thing is then she was also like, she was able to connect with Molly Ringwald. So she was telling me like, stories about like movies and stuff that. With her, but it's just like, I loved that my mom and I had that together, you know, like that. So like even now, If Taylor goes at a T, he doesn't very often, but if he goes out of town for the weekend, big mom, you want to watch
Julia: this weekend, right?
You want to get together
Christina: and do nonsense. Yeah. So what about you
Julia: and your mom? We did. We watched TV together. You know, TJF was a big thing in the nineties. And now when I watch shows that were TGF at the time when I see crossover episodes, it's always like, oh, it's a crossover episode. Now I need to find the episode of this other series that goes with.
I realize now, like when we first started building this episode, I was like, oh yeah, we watched touch mine angel together. And there was a show called early edition. And then Dr. Quinn medicine woman, and then Felicity kind of came on my freshman year of high school. But recently I was thinking about it because my son and I watched TV together a lot.
Yeah. It makes like I make a big deal when he's ready to be done watching TV and go and do his own thing. Like, oh, spending time with me,
Christina: my
Julia: mom would do that. And now I'm thinking, and she'll probably tell me whether or not. This thinking is true or not because she listens to the show and she'll text me things, her thoughts about the show after the fact, which I actually kind of love.
I love that. I think now, like she would stay in the room to watch whatever I was watching, because that's like, you get to hang out. It's like, you know, you're in the same room together. You're hanging out together. You can have like random conversation together. So I think she sat through some of the stupid shit I watched.
Oh, So we could like have more time together, but we actively did, like watching touched by an angel together. And so I think that's hilarious now back then they seem like
Christina: clips and stuff from that show. Like what was that
Julia: show? But yeah,
Christina: I, yeah, I love like thinking back of all the weird stuff. Like I watched, like with my mom, Why did we get so into that
Julia: doctor home medicine, woman?
Like I was that show like we watched
Christina: John and Kate plus eight for way
Julia: too long. Oh my gosh. That's so funny. I wonder if it was for children, I feel bad for any children on reality shows that are under the age of like 13.
I just want, I wanted to cut in real quick and say to all the moms out there happy mother's day, the journey is not easy and not every day is the best, but I'm sure you're doing great. And I just hope that your mother's day. Is so incredibly special.
Christina: Okay. Back to the
Julia: shop.
Christina: I'm just going to ask you like a couple like of this or that question. It's not that exciting. I was going to say this or that between your own favorite mom's list. I would like for you to compare down your list since you. You switched it up on me and did decades when you listed them off. So you can decide if you want to go by decades.
And so they're a little bit closer to be able to compare them, or if you want to go like, however you want to do it. But I think if we go by decades, you go like the oldest and then the second one. And I want you to, I know it's a hard task, but I want you to pick between those two. Tell me why they're the winner just to quick, simple.
Why are you picking that one? Clearer Elise
Julia: and Thelma Harper, or all filmed in the same decade, but then the Goldbergs takes place in the eighties.
Christina: Okay. So throw the Goldbergs in, in that one, mash,
Julia: mash her up a salad. I have to pick my favorite between the two, between the two. Okay. So between Elisa and Claire, I have to pick my favorite.
Yep. Okay. So that one's easy. This doesn't mean the only easy one. Okay.
Christina: Easy one first, then Claire Huxtable. Perfect. I knew that was happening,
Julia: so, okay. Harriet
Christina: family ties and mama's house.
Julia: Mama's family. Not as
Christina: family. I'm so sorry. It hurts
Julia: the muscle that not a lot of people know about mama's family. Okay.
So then the next two would be Amy Matthews and Harriet Winslow. Cause they're the same generation I'm going to go for Harriet Winslow. Okay. What,
Christina: what was the deciding
Julia: factor? You never makes any top TV model. And that makes the saddest stories. When I was like looking up, you know, T best TV moms, she's not on a single list.
And I'm like, well, she's such a great mom. She's guess what? She's now on?
Christina: Pop culture makes me tell us his favorites list. So
Julia: you're well, sure is. Cause she's a great mom. She's she doesn't have the career that Claire had,
Christina: but career does not always equal success.
Julia: No, but. Change their socioeconomic status in comparison, like the Winslow's versus compared to the Huxtables.
So when, like she was Harriet Winslow was an elevator operator for the first season of the show. And then, you know, they eliminate that position. And so now she's out of a job and has to figure something out because she'd been an elevator operator for so long. That's a real thing that, yeah. One happened.
Elevator operators were a position that disappeared completely. And then to not, everyone is a Clair Huxtable with a career in, in that is. Career that Claire Huxtable had, she was partner in a law firm. So watching Harriet have to pivot and figure out what am I going to do now was like, though that episode, such a great episode, because family's behind her and they're encouraging of her and they're supportive of her and they just sort of rally around her.
And I really loved that. And then also, you know, you want to talk about bonus moms, her sister, Rachel comes and lives with. Uh, at one point and they have Rachel and then Rachel son Richie. And so the whole family dynamic sort of shifts now because Rachel has the son Richie, and like, everyone's now taking care of everyone.
And Harriet sort of creates this space and the woman deserves a fucking metal because she there, her mother-in-law lives with them and they have such a great relationship, even though like sometimes grandma Winslow gets a little judgy, but I love her for it. I wouldn't be surprised if grandma Winslow was me.
But print for Ruby Johnson for Blackish. That would be an interesting comparison to do at one point. But she just,
Christina: are you saying that eventually you're going to be
Julia: grandma Winslow? Yeah. I'm totally going to be like a river Johnson, violet Crawley. Like I am going to be like, I'm going to say all the shit.
I want to say out loud and it's going to be okay because I'm 80 and wait until you're 80. Um, Carl Winslow is a cop in Chicago and so she's married to this police officer who is black and. We can't sleep. I relate to having a black family matters. Doesn't get a ton of attention in the way that it deserves.
It's on Hulu right now. I should
Christina: rewatch it. I watched summit. That was everyone remembers Steve Urkel.
Julia: Like that's the takeaway of family matters is Steve Urkel. And I'm gonna tell you what that full didn't even show up until like halfway through the first season. We weren't allowed to have the TV on in the morning.
Uh, and then I think I was like in six or seventh grade and I'd turn on the news. And that was like the only acceptable TB for the morning. We couldn't have like entertainment television on, in the
Christina: morning tea. We did it. TV was like my mom's version of radio in the house. Like, I don't know if we all just had ADHD or what, but none of us actually sat and watched
Julia: it.
It was just the
Christina: noise that was on. So, like when I say I had TV on in the mornings, it literally was like, it was because I didn't listen to the music. Like now in the mornings I listened to like a podcast or like the radio or something, but like my mom, didn't like a quiet house and. She didn't know. I think the reason she didn't listen to music is because she couldn't figure out how to
Julia: work the radio.
Christina: She was like, I can never get it to turn on inside. I'm like, okay, turn on the TV. And when she was getting ready, she could just hear it. And it just sounded like there was people home.
Julia: Yeah. Well, I mean, like we, we weren't, if we were going to have the TV on it, couldn't be. A TV show. It had to be like a morning show.
So you know, how traffic was, or the news was or whatever. So, and that didn't really happen until I was in like sixth or seventh grade. And I do that bef before pre pandemic. I would do that. I would turn on the news in the morning and just kind of let that, cause I'm not sitting down. We, we didn't sit down and watch it.
It was just on, in the background while we got ready for
Christina: work. I guess when I say that I didn't start watching like right at him, the TV on, in the morning. Probably middle school or like, yeah, like sixth or seventh grade. It wasn't like when I was a kid that was, and my mom did have just like the news on in the morning.
It's not like we had entertainment TV, but then by middle school, when it was my choice that it was like naked night was playing before I fell asleep, you know, the night before or whatever I have. In my room the night before. So when I turned the TV on, that was the show that was on. Yeah. So I would just leave it 90% of the time.
Cause I was actually getting ready for school or whatever. It's funny. Like I think I liked it a lot more like as a kid, but now I'm more into like audio. I'm not a visual person in that sense. Like I can't sit still. So I'm like, can I listen to this show?
Julia: That's the difference between I think your household and my household, like.
Because we do have attention issues, too much noise just exacerbated the situation. So my mom really forced us to learn how to live in stillness and quietness. And I think that was really crucial in my ability to actually successfully navigate school with attention issues. Now, as an adult, I can't fucking function.
I need to go and get medicated for it. Cause it's getting really bad.
Christina: I understand. And I agree, but I also have a different kind of caveat where. There's certain noises. So some noises like I could tune, I could turn. Like music on or a podcast on to tune out other things sometimes versus like, if I'm in a crowded space, like that's too much noise
Julia: for me.
Like
Christina: shuffling of people, the like the N the, all the conversations that's too much, but if I'm at home and like Taylor's watching TV, and I don't really want to watch that show, I could turn on a podcast and tune his out, and that's not overwhelming to
Julia: me, which makes sense. But do you listen to it through headphones?
Are you guys? No, we both. Simultan see which I can't do that.
Christina: Something that would drive person crazy, but my brain can literally tune out his and only focus on mine.
Julia: So I have sensory. And that kind of stuff really fucks with my auditory. So like whenever, like people try to talk to me when the TV's running, I can't, I literally cannot hear either.
So it's like, if you want to talk to me, pause the fucking TV, like, or, you know, and it's hard because there are people who love to talk through television or movies, and I'm like, I can't hear you. I literally cannot hear you or the television because you're now competing noises in my, and my brain. Can't.
Paul in the information and decipher what's happening. I can,
Christina: it's also, it depends. Cause when I say we can both listen to separate things, it's because I'm not sitting in the same room with him. I'm saying I'm in the kitchen and he's like watching something in the living room. And so they're both at a level.
Yeah. Yes. So I get what you're saying. Like I could not listen. Like if I, if he's watching TV, I can't sit and watch tic talks next to him unless I have headphones in or. And less, I'm just reading captions because it is a sensory overload. I'm like, I can't,
Julia: you'd be, moms are kind of like everywhere. In the sense that there's a shared experience in watching a television show that millions of people watch and seeing that mom on TV, I appreciate that Christina and I can come together today to talk about our favorite TV moms. Mother's day is Sunday, May 9th. I hope that you let all the moms in your life know how much you appreciate them and how much you love them.
Thanks for tuning in y'all. I just am really grateful to you. This. We made it to episode eight. That's so exciting. We got some really great shows coming up and I hope that you stick around for them. Next week. I have a special guest, my friend, Stephanie, she will be joining me to talk about the Netflix original hint defied. .
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