Loretha “Cookie” Holloway Lyon is about as far from June Cleaver as you can get.
The matriarch on Fox’s hit series “Empire” is an ex-con taking on her ex-husband Lucious, reclaiming her part in the family record company and reuniting with sons Andre, Jamal, and Hakeem.
Played to the hilt by actress Taraji P. Henson, “Cookie” is tough and just one of the modern TV moms we adore.
Here are some others:
Bonnie Plunkett on “Mom”
It isn’t easy to make drug and alcohol abuse recovery funny, but Allison Janney as Bonnie and Anna Faris as her daughter, Christy, do a great job on the hit CBS comedy “Mom.”
They put the “fun” in “dysfunction” and Janney has twice won Emmys for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series with her performance on the show.
Rainbow Johnson on “Black-ish”
Bow and Dre Johnson are #relationshipgoals.
The parents of five manage to keep both the humor and the romance alive.
Besides, how can you not love a biracial anesthesiologist raised by hippies who has a heart of gold AND snappy comebacks for her saucy mother-in-law?
Lorelai Gilmore on “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life”
Thanks to the Netflix revival, we recently got to grab a cup of java and remember why we loved Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) so much.
Jessica Huang on “Fresh Off The Boat”
Jessica (Constance Wu) is the mom we need at the moment.
Loving, but not here for your foolishness, she is deeply invested in her children making something of themselves and not forgetting where they came from.
Plus, her “rules” for how hubby Louis must deal with other women are on point.
