Do you remember the famous television “aunts” that were part of your favorite shows? Each were cast with a purpose, some to take the place of a mother figure and others to add pizazz to the cast.
Aunt Bee, from the “Andy Griffith Show” was one of the more well known aunts of television. She kept the home fires burning, dinner on the table and added stability to the episode when needed. Aunt Bee was apron clad pie baking woman who loved her nephew, Andy and his son, Opie. This “pleasing plumb” woman and her squeaky voice was just as much a part of the show as “Sheriff Andy Taylor, Opie, and Deputy Barney Fife.
Aunt Bee was “Aunt Bee” to all the townspeople. Everyone called her by that name. She took the place of an absent mother on the show. We never were told what happened to Andy’s wife and Opie’s mother, but we knew Aunt Bee had come to take her place. Aunt Bee was added to the show as a mother figure, without her there would have been too many unanswered questions.
Aunt Clara from “Bewitched” is the most comical aunt that has ever graced TV. She was a witch who was losing her powers due to old age and her mishaps of wrong spells added comedy into this show.
A goat instead of a coat would appear when Aunt Clara would try her magic. Instead of a painting, she would conjure up a painter from centuries ago and the story would center around him running around modern times with people thinking he was crazy. Many of the shows story lines gave us good TV viewing with Aunt Clara’s spells running a muck. Samantha would try to fix the mistakes of Aunt Clara and the show would get crazier by the minute. This TV Aunt had the purpose of breathing some life back into a sitcom, and she did her job.
Aunt Vivian of the Fresh Prince of “Bel-Air”, really kept the household going. She was the Aunt, and a beloved one at that, of the show’s star, the “Fresh Prince”. She played the one person on the show that had the insight of what was really going on. The woman with the common sense, while everyone else was going about things the wrong way. She was raising her nephew, who came to her from the inner city along with his antics and street smarts. Aunt Viv was the aunt we all wanted to have, she was more than an aunt to the “Fresh Prince”, she was like a mother.
Zelda and Hilda the aunt’s of “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” were comical and fun to watch. These two aunts who were polar opposites in personality, rounded out the up bringing of Sabrina nicely. This show was a hit with the early teen crowd and even though there was a lot of “magic” flying around, it was always used for the good of things in the end. The aunt’s taught lessons and got caught up in capers, but they made you wish for aunts just like them. Aunt Zelda and Aunt Hilda where the mother roles in this show.
References: IMBd IMBd, TV.com
