By Vinnie Penn
Special to MSN TV

The TV mom has come a long way, baby. From preening alongside a father who knew best to marrying one with three boys of his own, to knowing that less is Gilmore. But the real moms -- the flawed, foul, ferocious ones -- who mirror many we met at friends' houses in our lives, get a Mother's Day card, too.

George Costanza's mother, Estelle, in all her roaring glory on "Seinfeld," was more like the moms I met during my childhood than Clair Huxtable on "The Cosby Show." Blythe Danner's Emmy Award-winning turn in Showtime's "HUFF," complicated and sardonic, was a thing of relatable beauty. And Chandler's mom? Well, while no friend of mine's mom ever looked like Morgan Fairchild, let's just say the making out with a buddy (in "Friends" it was Ross) was the stuff of many a neighborhood legend.

Where was Barbara Billingsley? Seriously.

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