15 ’90s Sitcom Moms That We Can’t Forget

In the 1990s, there were all types of sitcom moms on television. Many were written as traditional homemakers, while others showcased stronger personalities and focused on jobs and careers as shows started to consistently buck the convention of a stay-at-home mom. But shows didn’t completely stray from the established norm; having that time-honored stability was what kept many sitcoms going season after season.

A mother is an essential character in sitcoms involving families, often a stalwart matriarch for the children and husband, and even herself. Plus, mothers frequently meddle into other characters’ lives, which creates comical and poignant situations, sitcom style.

Usually what made moms appealing for viewers in the ’90s weren’t how they looked or dressed, but how they interacted with their family, displayed their personality, and dealt with the zaniest of situations. However, a combination of all the above – appearance and personality – makes any sitcom mom unforgettable.

There’s no doubt the following moms loved their families, but something in each of them gave you reasons to fantasize about them when the show wasn’t on.

Here are the 15 ’90s Sitcom Moms That We Can’t Forget.

15 Vivian Banks – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

There were two Vivian Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The one you definitely dreamed about was the Vivian Banks from the first three seasons, played by Janet Hubert-Whitten. Vivian and her husband Philip had kids of their own (Carlton, Hilary, and Ashley) and care for their rambunctious nephew Will when his mother sent him from the mean streets of Philadelphia to live with them. If you are ever in doubt of the show’s premise, give the theme song a listen.

The initial Vivian was an elegant woman and a very career-driven Doctor with a PhD from UCLA. She spoke her mind and never shied away from being brutally honest with any of the kids. But that honesty came from an affectionate place. The first Vivian was also a talented singer!

In the last 3 seasons, when Daphne Reid took over the role of Vivian, the creators of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air drastically changed Vivian’s personality to that of the more familiar homemaker.

14 Jamie Buchman – Mad About You

From 1992 to 1999, Helen Hunt starred as Jamie Buchman in Mad About You. She was married to Paul Buchman (Paul Reiser), and the show revolved around the life and struggles as a newlywed couple. For her role as Jamie, Helen Hunt won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series 4 years in a row starting in 1996.

The couple didn’t have a baby until the fifth season. Even after Mabel was born, Jamie never lost what made her shine. With her quick wit, she verbally sparred with Paul, often providing funnier responses and timing. Her unmatched sarcasm continued even after the baby arrived.

Through the years, before and after Mabel, there was something about the way Jamie carried herself that made her irresistible. And that made us Mad About Jamie.

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13 Amy Matthews – Boy Meets World

One ’90s sitcom mom you might have forgot you dreamed about was Amy Matthews from Boy Meets World. Most of the show focused on her son Corey Matthews (and to a lesser extent his brother Eric and Joshua, who was born in season 4), but Amy was a main character throughout all seven seasons from 1993 to 2000.

Played by Betsy Randle, Amy Matthews took a more traditional role as a mom, with traits resembling previous sitcom mothers like in Leave it to Beaver and Brady Bunch. She was a very cute mother who regularly offered advice to her husband and children since, in sitcom fashion, they found themselves in compromising situations. She knew how to stay calm when her husband became impetuous or when her children were trying to understand life.

12 Midge Pinciotti – That ’70s Show

In That ’70s Show, Midge Pinciotti (Donna’s mother) was the mom all the neighborhood boys (and men) fantasized about. She often wore tight shirts and sweaters, but even when she wore conservative clothing, her smile and shapely body caused imaginations to run wild.

The most interesting part of the character, however, was the control she had over the men without them knowing. She had a simple charm and exuded a subtle intelligence hidden by her good looks. Some might consider her an excellent manipulator, but if you really watch and listen to Midge, you’d realize that how she acts around men was a façade and that “men don’t control the world.” She secretly sought to empower her daughter, and this made Donna.

11 Janet Darling – Clarissa Explains it All

Janet Darling from Clarissa Explains it All may not be a sitcom mom you’d expect to dream about, but she managed to be one of the cooler moms in a ’90s sitcom. The show aired on Nickelodeon for 5 seasons, and if you caught any number of episodes, you could see how memorable Clarissa’s mom was.

Janet was the voice of reason for Clarissa, who sought advice from her mom to get through teenage life. But Janet Darling also had her own vibrant personality. She enjoyed cooking strange meals (remember her tofu concoctions?) and promoting environmentalism while maintaining a teaching at the local children’s museum.

In 2015, the creator of the show wrote a novel titled Things I Can’t Explain, with Clarissa in her 20s now navigating adult life.

10 Debra Barone – Everybody Loves Raymond

Sometimes the ’90s sitcom mom you dreamed about was one you wanted to save from the sitcom itself. Debra Barone (played by Patricia Heaton) in Everybody Loves Raymond was the wife of Ray Barone, a sports journalist who obviously didn’t appreciate her. She dealt with three high-spirited kids mostly on her own and lived next to Ray’s mother and father. Marie Barone (Ray’s mom) was an overbearing and invasive and meddling in-law to Debra, criticizing her housework and how she raised the kids. All those reasons make you want to give her a hug and tell her “Everything’s going to be all right.”

On occasion, Debra was known to dress in a tight skirt or satiny nightgown for a well-deserved outing or a romantic evening with her husband. She looked amazing going about her daily chores or reprimanding Ray anyway, but if you tried not to dream about Debra Barone before, those scenes didn’t help.

9 Denise Huxtable – The Cosby Show

As a free-spirited, outgoing daughter, Denise Huxtable (played by Lisa Bonet) was the second-oldest child of Cliff and Claire Huxtable. She was a college dropout and multiple job-holder as she figured out who she wanted to be. Eventually she travelled to Africa and met and married Martin Kendall, who had a daughter from a previous relationship, Olivia (played by Raven-Symone).

Denise was already gorgeous and fun before getting married, but when she became an instant step-mom, she shot to a new level of hotness reserved for mothers. At first, Denise’s somewhat selfishness would hinder her ability to love and foster her relationship with Olivia. However, Denise slipped quickly into her role as mom to provide the support Olivia needed.

Lisa Bonet was nominated for an Emmy for her role as Denise Huxtable, and she played the character in the first season of The Cosby Show’s spin-off, A Different World.

8 Jesse Warner – Jesse

Lasting only two seasons, Jesse starred Christina Applegate as Jesse Warner. Most everyone fondly remembers Applegate’s iconic character, Kelly Bundy, who was the stereotypical dumb blonde in Married… with Children, the highly popular show from the ’80s and ’90s.

Jesse Warner was a single mom raising her nine-year-old boy while attempting to find love again after her ex-husband walked out in her years before. The role shifted Applegate from the bubbly teenage ditz to the mature adult, and she couldn’t have pulled it off better.

Even though the show had typical sitcom tropes, situations, and characters, Jesse was a nurturing mom and attentive girlfriend despite the hardships she had endured. She was a different kind of hot from Kelly Bundy, which made it just as easy to dream about her.

7 Carol Foster-Lambert – Step by Step

Suzanne Sommers starred in Step by Step as Carol Foster-Lambert, who meets Frank Lambert (Patrick Duffy) while vacationing in Jamaica. For reasons only known to the TV sitcom universe, Carol and Frank impulsively decide to get married, thereby combining their separate families of three children each.

You can’t deny that as Chrissy Snow, Suzanne Sommers lit up the ’70s sitcom scene with her bumbling demeanor and hot looks on Three’s Company. Her character on Step by Step was completely opposite. Though both characters were bombshell blondes, Carol Foster-Lambert easily took our hearts as a tender mother to her own kids, while quickly becoming a devoted and loving step-mom to the Lambert’s children.

ABC lured Sommers away from her Thighmaster empire to play Foster-Lambert, and it was the best decision she made to secure her legacy as a ’90s sitcom mom we all dreamed about.

6 Marge Simpson – The Simpsons

If you’ve never dreamed about a cartoon sitcom mom, then you haven’t watched enough The Simpsons. The blue-hared, bee-hived beauty is married to Homer Simpson and is mother to Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. She epitomizes the suburban housewife ideal, but branches out of her comfort zone more than most sitcom moms of the past, present, and future.

Marge adores her blundering husband and tries to make his life amazing both inside and outside the bedroom. Marge has had her hair down, worn lingerie, and donned swimsuits.

She’s hilarious when she drinks wine, but it’s clear she wants the best for her family and thinks of them first in nearly any situation. The Simpsons have run for 28 seasons, and if the show continues for more seasons, Marge can only get more dream-worthy.

5 Fran Fine – The Nanny

Fran Drescher played Fran Fine in the television show, The Nanny, a sitcom that ran from 1993 to 1999. For those unfamiliar with the show, Fran became the nanny to Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield’s three children after trying to sell him cosmetics. In typical sitcom fashion, Sheffield wasn’t keen on her presence, but soon realized that Fran had revitalized the family and household with love and kindness.

Eventually, Fran marries Sheffield (after years of obvious attraction) and gives birth to twins, ending up as a step-mom and mom to five kids. Fran Fine was an outgoing fashionista with sharp wit and raw street smarts and found herself using all of that to escape sticky sitcom situations. Her nasal voice was off-putting to some, but as beautiful as Fran Fine (and Drescher then and now) was, it’s easy to forget the voice.

4 Peggy Bundy – Married… with Children

If there’s one sitcom mom that defined the word vivacious, it’s Peggy Bundy from Married… with Children, played by Katey Sagal. With poofy, shoulder-length red hair, she typically wore form-fitting Spandex shirts and pants and sat on the couch watching talk shows and eating bonbons. She refused to get a job, cook, or clean, and expected her husband to provide her with money so she could be lazy (sometimes, she took it straight from his wallet herself!)

Despite how irritated Al Bundy got with his wife, he obviously lusted after her. Peggy wasn’t the most attentive husband and mother – to claim Peggy was a mother is playing loosely with that term. But when you see her traipsing around in her Spandex and high heels, you tend to forget she was a less-than-stellar mom.

3 Becky Katsopolis – Full House

Rebecca Donaldson Katsopolis was the whole package on Full House, which aired from 1987 to 1995. She became the co-host to Danny Tanner on a morning show called Wake Up, San Francisco and developed feelings for Danny’s brother Jesse. She ultimately married him. They were a cute couple who had twin boys in season five that made them an adorable family.

The reason many dreamed about her was Becky Katsopolis had an endearing smile backed with hard-to-resist prettiness. Her sarcasm could halt a train, but that sarcasm was never mean or hurtful; it was all part of her charm. She was a loving wife, friend, and aunt to Danny’s girls, dispensing advice that was neither overbearing or forceful. And this memorable behavior continued when Lori Loughlin reprised her role on Netflix’s Fuller House, which is currently in production for the third season.

2 Jill Taylor – Home Improvement

Like a few other moms on this list, Jill Taylor (played by Patricia Richardson) from Home Improvement was a wife and mother who didn’t take nonsense from her family. This was perhaps due to her upbringing in a military family. At first, she took on the role of a characteristic housewife on the lookout for a job in many episodes. She did go back to school to study psychology, but nothing substantial arised from doing so.

Jill was the typical “straight man” character to her goofy husband (played by Tim Allen). She often gave advice to her boys about girls that exemplified how gentlemen should act. She had a sophistication that was total opposite of her “Neanderthal” husband because she liked the theater and ballet. Because of her quick smile and the cute bob of her hair in addition to the above, Jill Taylor is simply lovable.

1 Nora Bing – Friends

Morgan Fairchild has had an extensive career in television and film spanning 50 years. She’s best known for Falcon’s Crest and Flamingo Road, but did do 5 episodes of Friends where she played Chandler’s mom, Nora Bing. In the show, she played an erotic novelist who met Chandler’s friends while on a book tour in New York. Her first episode was “The One with Mrs. Bing”. During the episode, while having dinner with her son and the rest, she comes on to Ross and kisses him by the end of the night.

Despite not having a main role on the show, Nora Bing lit up the episodes she did appear in with her beauty, grace, and alluring voice. It makes us wish the best-selling books she wrote in the show (Euphoria Unbound, Euphoria at Midnight for example) were real and the audiobooks read in Nora Bing/Morgan Fairchild’s voice.

Was there a ’90s sitcom mom that you dreamed about not on this list? Let us know in the comments!

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