What top-name celebs do you remember playing mommy or daddy to famous (but not as famous as them) people?

Elliot Gould (Friends)
Suzanne Pleshette (Mom on Will and Grace,Grandma on Good Morning Miami)
Marlo Thomas (Friends)
Morgan Fairchild (Friends)
Kathleen Turner (Friends)
Terri Garr (Friends)
Florence Henderson (King of Queens)
Dixie Carter (She played Sharon Lawrence's mom on both Fired up and Ladies' Man!)
Blythe Danner (Will and Grace)
Bo Bridges (Will and Grace)
Debbie Renolds (Will and Grace)
Carol Burnett (Mad about you)
Caroll O'Conner (Mad about you)

Anyone else?

Does the episode of "The Brady Bunch" in which Florence Henderson and Robert Reed (in dual roles) play Carol's grandmother and Mike's grandfather? (For all you Bradyholics, this was Episode #93, "You're Never Too Old".) Grandparents, aside from parents, count, don't they?

Also of note, Imogene Coca of "Your Show of Shows" fame played Carol's Aunt Jenny in Episode #66, "Jan's Aunt Jenny" (technically it should have been called "Jan's Great Aunt Jenny")

Oh, and Phil Foster and Betty Garrett played Laverne DeFazio's parents on "Laverne & Shirley"! (Those weren't their first entertainment pieces; Phil had a part in the movie "Bang The Drum Slowly" and Betty previously did Broadway.)

Kim Catrell (did i spell right!) playing Britney Spears' mom in CROSSROADS, I thought u said shows though. sorry if i screwed up.

Estelle Parsons (Bonnie and Clyde) was Roseanne's mother. And Shelley Winters was an aunt I believe.

Agnes Moorehead was a fairly famous movie actress before she was Endora.

Shirley Jones was a famous movie actress/singer before the Partridge Family.

Originally posted by Sitcomwriter
What top-name celebs do you remember playing mommy or daddy to famous (but not as famous as them) people?
Debbie Renolds (Will and Grace)

She also played Dan's mom in Roseanne

I'm very ashamed for Marlo Thomas to appear on such dribble as Friends (in my opinion).

About the whole "Roseanne" hting, Estelle Parsons was Bev Harris, Jackie and Roseanne's mom. Shelly Winters played Bev's mom (I think her name was Mary). I'm not 100% sure about Debbie Reynolds as Dan's mom, but I don't doubt it.

Here are some others:

Conrad Bain was already known as Arthur Harmon from "Maude" and his oldest TV son, Todd Bridges, was known for playing Loomis on "Fish."

Dody Goodman was already known around Hollywood when she played Martha Shumway on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," as was her TV daughter Debralee Scott, who was on "Welcome Back, Kotter" from 1975 to 1976.

Originally posted by JT
I'm very ashamed for Marlo Thomas to appear on such dribble as Friends (in my opinion).

About the whole "Roseanne" hting, Estelle Parsons was Bev Harris, Jackie and Roseanne's mom. Shelly Winters played Bev's mom (I think her name was Mary). I'm not 100% sure about Debbie Reynolds as Dan's mom, but I don't doubt it.


I know for a fact Debbie played Dan's mom in Roseanne. If you didn't watch the last season of Roseanne which was the lowest rated season of Roseanne(which is why many people don't know about this) Debbie did play Dan's mom who got out of the mental hospital and tried to kill Dan because she wanted revenge for him putting her in the nut house.

yeah! WANDG Fanatic is right! I watch Roseanne ALL the time on SUPERSTATION, and although the last season sucks, i've seen it more than 1ce. and WANDG Fanatic is right!

Yep, that's right.

Shelly Winters played Nana Mary
and Debbie Reynolds played Audrey Conner

Also Ned Beatty appeared on the show as Dan's Dad, Ed Conner, he married Crystal Anderson, a high school friend. of Dan, Roseanne and Jackie, in a two part episode.

Originally posted by Carmen_Epstein
Yep, that's right.

Shelly Winters played Nana Mary
and Debbie Reynolds played Audrey Conner


I would just like to say that Shelly Winters played Nana Mary very well and made the character so hilarious.

On The Love Boat, Ethel Merman played Gopher's mom,
Della Reese played Isaac's mom, Carol Channing played Julie's aunt, and Ann Miller played Doc's ex-mother-in law. And they all appeared on the same episode! It was a musical of course :)

Mel Brooks appeared in "Mad About You" as Uncle Phil.

Gavin MacLeod played Doug's Uncle Stu in "The King of Queens".
Phil Silvers (a true comic genius) played Merrill Stubing, Sr, father to Gavin's character. Sorry, but I can't get that back to Kevin Bacon.