Soap Opera Mothers & Matriarchs

[Joseph]

Be good be nice be evil be manipulative But No Soap is ever complete without a Mother Or Matriarch i think it's fair they get their own thread

let's discuss they most iconic ones and i'm putting it here so any soap can be mentioned from any country too (i've recently came across Pat the Rat and her international ripoffs they might as well be mentioned)

[darrell66]

For me one of the truly great matriarchs of all time was Bert Bauer on Guiding Light. The difference between her and other beloved matriarchs was that she didn't start out that way. Most matriarchs were already "saints" when their show first started. Bert wasn't like that. She slowly developed into becoming a great matriarch. Bert wasn't a bad person but in her youth she was a very bitter wife. Mainly because unlike Chris & Nancy Hughes on ATWT or Tom & Alice Horton on DAYS, Bill & Bert Bauer was not a love match when they married. They married because Bert got pregnant. Back in those days, it was always the woman's "fault" something that Bert grew to resent. And that resentment grew to bitterness. In time Bert began to browbeat her husband. Bill could never do anything right in her eyes. That type beating drove the weak-minded Bill to alcohol and affairs with other women. This would go on for years until they eventually divorce. But in those years, something happened. During that time Bert would slowly begin to realize in many ways she drove her husband to booze and infidelity. She never made excuses, but she was able to see she was no innocent. And that's when she began to evolve into becoming a more compassionate, loving and understanding person. She had the marvelous ability at being self-aware of her own shortcomings and because of that she was able to give advice to others base on her own experience. It was all the qualities that would make her such a great matriarch. Add to that Charita Bauer was simply a superb actress who knew how to play all the different, complex levels of her character to perfection.

[DramatistDreamer]

Of the remaining U.S. network soaps on air today, how many of them have figures that would qualify as a matriarch, do you think?

[Planet Soap]

Stephanie Foreester my favorite!

This is a hard one, Monica Quartermaine perhaps? 

[Videnbas]

B&B:

Stephanie Forrester (a.k.a. Queen Bee) was the quintessential matriarch.

Sally Spectra was a fabulous mother figure.

[I Am A Swede]

For me the most iconic soap matriarch has always been, and probably always will be, Annie Sugden from Emmerdale Farm. And just like Bert Bauer, who was mentioned in an earlier post, we saw a gradual development of Annie's character during her 22 years on the show. She started out as a no-nonsense, tough, terse woman. Hardened by years of struggle on the farm, with an alcoholic husband who spent most of his time in the pub with his friends. She was the head of the household, and everyone knew it. But over the years we saw her gradually mellow somewhat and allow a warmer, humorous side to shine through. Her friendship with Henry Wilks played a major part in that I think. That being said, she never lost her inner core. Throughout the years she remained the backbone of not only the Sugden family, but of the entire show. Always there to support her family and friends when they needed her, yet at the same time never afraid to let them know when she was displeased with their behaviour. She suffered more losses than most I think, losing her father, all her three children, three biological grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, two husbands (if you count her first with whose funeral the show began) two daughters-in-law and her best friend.

Even though she's been gone from the show for almost thirty years, except a few brief visits, to me she remains the very symbol of Emmerdale Farm. She epitomizes the first 20+ years of the show (its golden era) and will always be its most iconic character.   

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[Mona Kane Croft]

In my opinion, none of them.   

[carolineg]

Agreed.  That was my first thought when the question was asked.  I guess Marlena, Julie, or Maggie on Days would come the closest.   I think Ron is trying to make John/Marlena the new Tom/Alice, but they just aren't lol.   Maggie is probably the closest in personality Alice, Marlena has the most connections and gives the most advice, and Julie makes the most sense due to longevity/age.  But none work. 

I can't think of anyone on the other soaps.  Monica on GH crossed my mind, but most her relatives/children are dead and she's rarely on.

[Mona Kane Croft]

Unfortunately, the definition of soap opera matriarch has been expanded over the past 40 years to include nearly any older female character who is a member of a family.  But pre-1980, the term soap opera matriarch referred to the mother (or occasionally grandmother) of a show's core family, which also made her the matriarch of the entire show. And not all soaps at that time even had a core family or a matriarch.  For example -- ask any soap fan in 1975, who are the matriarchs of the various soap operas on American TV?   You'd get responses such as, ATWT: Nancy Hughes; GL: Bert Bauer; AW: Mary Matthews; DOOL: Alice Horton; Y&R: Jennifer Brooks; AMC: Ruth Martin (or maybe Kate Martin); RH: Maeve Ryan. That's about it. Most of the other soaps at that time didn't have core families, because they had a different focus -- crime drama (EON & Somerset), hospital drama (GH & TD), heroine drama (SFT, LOL, & OLTL), etc.   

But post-1980, ask who are the matriarchs of the various soap operas on American TV, and you'll hear names such as Nikki Newman, Kathryn Chancellor, Reva Shane, Monica Quartermaine, Marlena Evans, Liz Matthews, Phoebe Tyler, Erica Kane, etc, etc, etc.   It's simply an evolution in the perception of the role and a change in definition. The perception of the soap opera matriarch has morphed into something much broader -- many times just the older woman in any soap family (as opposed to the older woman in the core family).   

Soap operas have abandoned their historic archetypal characters (including the matriarch and patriarch, and nearly all the others) in the past 40 years.  By the way, what's happened with the ratings????    

Edited June 6, 2022 by Neil Johnson

[Joseph]

Loving has a rare nice Rich Matriarch who i assume was also a loving Mother, Isabelle Alden, Originally played by Meg Mundy who had played the Matriarch from Hell Mona Aldrich on The Doctors, Then Lovingly by Augusta Dabney, Then Bitchly by Celeste Holm who seemed to be channeling Anna Rossini from Falcon Crest, Then By Patricia Barry whose portrayal i wasn't lucky to find and then again and lastly by Augusta Dabney

I remember reading and agreeing recently that the Main Reason GL was cancelled was because after Bert's Death there was never a true Mother Figure/Matriarch, The closest ever was Maureen and they killed her! I think that messy as she was Lillian might've worked but a true possibility of that was killed together with poor Maureen on that Stupid storyline (i always thought they should've let Lillian Battle Cancer instead), ANd they made an effort with both Vanessa and Nola in the 1990's but later gave up

Another reason we need Dru Back!

[carolineg]

Yeah, I would definitely consider all these ladies in bold older female leads not matriarchs.  But, with the nature of soaps, all these ladies were once younger female leads for the most part.  I think it's hard to slowly evolve into a matriarch when you lead story for so long.  Alice Horton, Lila Quartermaine, Bert Bauer, Nancy Hughes, etc were set up to be in that role and didn't evolve into it.   I think a soap could start setting someone up but people like Reva, Nikki, Marlena, Erica still lead their own stories or did when their soaps went off air, so it was difficult to transition them.  I get what you are saying about the perceived evolution of a matriarch changing in this day and age, but I would argue that it just doesn't exist because there isn't any time for those nice little family/character scenes with the pace these shows run at.

[DramatistDreamer]

I know that I was asking about shows and characters that are currently on the air but in terms of female leads that evolved into matriarchal figures I would have to say that ATWT’s Kimberly Sullivan’s evolution into Kim Hughes is definitely an example of this. 

[Paul Raven]

A lot of interesting perspectives.

Add to the fact that some of the characters that may have evolved into matriachs were written off as they aged as soaps lost interest in generational storytelling.

So female characters approaching 50 and beyond were either dropped or given the same stories they had in their 20's. eg Phyllis didn't  mellow,happily marry Jack and become a talk to and advice giver. 

And characters like Nikki don't really function as traditional matriachs because of their checkered pasts.

[Videnbas]

This absence of a matriarch, and the failure to fill that void, was very obvious on B&B when Stephanie left the show. She was the show's matriarch in the truest sense of the word, but after her, characters have actually been claiming on screen to be the "Forrester matriarch" (actual dialogue) simply because they were married to Eric Forrester (who was never a true patriarch by the way). And it never rang true because nobody after Stephanie has actually been matriarch material. 

[Faulkner]

You could tell that they’ve been trying to shove Nikki into a matriarchal role for the past couple of years, and it hasn’t worked at all. She’s too much of a singular character, and she’s not the mother tiger that Stephanie Forrester was. She’s far too vain and self-absorbed for that. Nikki thrives when she’s insecure, and Diane’s reappearance is the first time she’s felt alive as a character in years.