Greatest Black Sitcoms Moms

[MajorHoy]

No Julia Baker from the show Julia?
(Julia was played by Diahann Carroll. The show ran for three seasons from 1968-1971.)

[CaptCleghorn]

No Julia Baker from the show Julia?
(Julia was played by Diahann Carroll. The show ran for three seasons from 1968-1971.)

Damn, this is an amazing catch! Well done, Major.

[Tofali]

So true about The Jeffersons, unless you consider Louise mothering George. Which leads me to ask if Zara Cully's Mother Jefferson even considered for this list?

Mother Jefferson overdid her mothering and was a monster-in-law but all in all a very fun character

[Monkey Genius]

The current meme-ified backlash regarding Florida as a bad mother is based on her stubbornly maintaining her values -- the fact that she refused any advantage or escape from poverty that was morally questionable. She wanted to do it the 'right' way, and so the internet hates her now.

[wleakr]

^^^ Well said.

[numberthirty]

No Julia Baker from the show Julia?
(Julia was played by Diahann Carroll. The show ran for three seasons from 1968-1971.)

I was thinking about the same thing about Eloise Curtis from That's My Mama.

[Surf]

Shoutout to Nell Carter in Gimmie a Break. She had to pull that group up after the mother passed AND she had to half explain her situation every ten steps they took.

Debbie Allen used to really do it for me. She played behind the kids and LL but she was good.

Angell Conwell in Family Time was the only sitcom momma I I tuned into for just her. She kept in a little robe or somethin' short.

[numberthirty]

While they were not the "Classic Coke..." sort of "Greatest...", Dierdre Thorne/Phyllis Thorne from Half & Half.

Both perfectly solid moms even if that wasn't the first thing their characters were there to do.

[MoneySpider]

I'm surprised Tanya Baxter is even on the list. I don't recall the mother being in "That's So Raven" all that much. It seemed like she was always out of town or something. Based on my own personal biases, I would have placed Claire Huxtable at #1 and Vivian Banks (Janet Hubert's version) at #2.

[Fridays]

D from Moesha.

With the almost new found fame with a new generation of audience that Sheryl Lee Ralph is finding again with Abbot Elementary, when I was growing up, I always knew her as the step mum of Moesha and Miles from the UPN show Moesha.

She was such a great step mum, giving the fact that Moesha could be at times bratty and unlikeable as a character.

Honestly the 90s were the best portrayals of black women both in teen and adult roles. The 90s usually showed black women as having and been the whole package.

[kcekada]

No Julia Baker from the show Julia?
(Julia was played by Diahann Carroll. The show ran for three seasons from 1968-1971.)

As the first black mom on TV -- she should definitely be included on that list. I agree with a previous poster that Florida Evans was not a great mother. And in hindsight, not a great character outside of Maude.

[kcekada]

The current meme-ified backlash regarding Florida as a bad mother is based on her stubbornly maintaining her values -- the fact that she refused any advantage or escape from poverty that was morally questionable. She wanted to do it the 'right' way, and so the internet hates her now.

I think I quit watching after the first couple of seasons. Maybe it's because J.J. took over as the focus, but I still liked the dad on the show. Florida seemed very ineffectual -- and kinda wimpy in comparison to most black moms on TV.

[80sbaby]

This list was just put together with black TV moms the writer remembers or were on famous shows, not actually taking into account all the black moms out there. And even if you think Florida wasn't "the worst," I don't see how she was in any way better than Claire Huxtable (or most of the others on this particular list, tbh.)

[Mark Trail]

Perhaps I should've waited closer to Mother's Day to post this. CBR ranks the 10 best Black sitcom moms.

Perhaps they are doing all the other races in May.