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The Mother of All Trivia Quizzes

How well do you remember these TV and movie moms?


spinner image Tony Dow, Barbara Billingsley, and Jerry Mathers from Leave It to Beaver
Tony Dow, Barbara Billingsley, and Jerry Mathers star together on the situation comedy Leave It to Beaver.
Bettmann/Getty Images

Just in time for Mother’s Day, we look at some of the classic moms from film and TV over the years. How well do you remember screen moms from The Addams Family, The Simpsons and American Pie? Take our quiz to find out, and if you do well, why not buy yourself some flowers?

Question 1 of 10

What was the name of the mom that Barbara Billingsley played on Leave It to Beaver?

Billingsley played the role on the original show, which ran for six seasons from 1957 to 1963. She was often cooking and cleaning on the show while wearing a pearl necklace, which, according to IMDB, was her idea because the necklace concealed a surgical scar on her neck. She reprised her role as June Cleaver in the 1980s sequel The New Leave It to Beaver — and played Aunt Martha in a 1997 reboot film, her final big-screen role.

Question 2 of 10

True or false: Carol Brady’s character on The Brady Bunch marries Mike Brady after divorcing her first husband.

spinner image Brady Bunch family and Alice lined up on stairs in their house
CBS/Getty Images

False: Florence Henderson was a Broadway veteran when she was cast as Carol Brady in The Brady Bunch, which ran from 1969 to 1974. According to Lloyd Schwartz, son of show creator Sherwood Schwartz, the initial plan was to make Carol a divorcée while Mike Brady (Robert Reed) was a widower. But the network objected, so the disappearance of Carol’s first husband was never discussed at all.

Question 3 of 10

Mary Tyler Moore earned an Oscar nomination for portraying a grieving mother in what 1980 movie?

Robert Redford, who won a best director Oscar for his feature directorial debut, cast the former sitcom star against type as an overbearing perfectionist and mother of two who clearly favored one child over the other.

Question 4 of 10

What color is Marge Simpson’s beehive hairdo?

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According to a Season 2 flashback, the Simpsons matriarch pinned up her long blue hair for her senior prom with a young Homer and never looked back. We learn later that she’s dyed her naturally gray hair since she was 17.

Question 5 of 10

Which actress has not played Morticia in any film or TV version of The Addams Family?

After Carolyn Jones originated the role in the 1960s sitcom, Anjelica Huston played Morticia in 1991’s The Addams Family and its sequel two years later; Hannah assumed the role in 1998’s Addams Family Reunion. More recently, Catherine Zeta-Jones plays the matriarch in the Netflix series Wednesday.

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Question 6 of 10

True or False: On The Golden Girls, Estelle Getty, who played Sophia, was actually younger than Bea Arthur, who played her daughter, Dorothy. 

spinner image Golden Girls Bea Arthur as Dorothy Petrillo Zbornak, Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux, Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Betty White as Rose Nylund.
Herb Ball/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images

Estelle Getty was actually one year younger than her onscreen daughter, Bea Arthur. According to USA Today, although Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan) never explicitly stated her age throughout the series, she was the youngest Golden Girl. According to the Season 3 episode "Mother's Day," Blanche was 17 in 1949. So in 1985 when the series began, Blanche was around 53 years old. 

Question 7 of 10

What real-life mother-daughter duo starred in David Lynch’s 1990 film Wild at Heart?

Diane Ladd earned an Oscar nomination for the role. And one year later, they both earned Oscar nods for the same film, Rambling Rose, though in that drama, they did not play mother and daughter. The two of them have written a new book about their relationship, Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding).

Question 8 of 10

What Emmy-winning comedy star played Stifler’s mom in the American Pie movie series?

spinner image Eugene Levy and Jason Biggs in a waiting room in a scene from the film 'American Pie 2'
Universal/Getty Images

Coolidge got her big career break in the 1999 box office hit, in which she helps the high school intellectual Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) lose his virginity, much to the dismay of her caddish jock of a son (Seann William Scott). She’s recently earned even more fame — and an Emmy — for her work on HBO’s White Lotus.

Question 9 of 10

Who is the Mother of Dragons on Game of Thrones?

Although Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) doesn’t birth dragons in a literal way, she does bring the extinct creatures back into the mythical world of the Seven Kingdoms in HBO’s acclaimed fantasy series. And in George R.R. Martin’s book, her stillborn child with the warrior king Khal Drogo has scales and a tail much like a dragon.

Question 10 of 10

Who played a version of Steven Spielberg’s mom in his Oscar-nominated semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans?

spinner image Steven Spielberg at the AFI Fest screening standing in front of a poster for The Fabelmans movie

When Spielberg first saw Paul Dano and Michelle Williams on set in full costume and makeup as the parents in the 2022 film he based on his own boyhood, the director told The Hollywood Reporter that he “burst into tears.”

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