The Coolest, Most Memorable Mothers And Daughters On TV

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Cindy and Brenda

Good ol’ Cindy Walsh. Not only was she mom to the mercurial and temperamental Brenda, but she was the default mom to all the ladies in the 90210. Cindy Walsh was about as vanilla and generic as a character could get, but this is what made her such a special mom.

Brenda was all fireworks, slamming doors, and huffy stomp-offs. If Cindy had more personality or sparkle, I just don’t think Brenda could have handled it. Brenda needed her mom to be a blank space on which she could spew all her melodrama, teenaged tantrums and surly fits.

Cindy’s blandness is also what made her the perfect surrogate to all of Brenda’s friends. Kelly’s mom was a cocaine addict, Donna’s mother was a sucking pit of judgment and criticism, and Andrea has a million year old grandmother instead of a mother. Cindy had to be all things to all these girls, and her lack of any real personality was a perfect backdrop against which all these young ladies could perform.

Even though Cindy was as charismatic as some of the other mothers on the list, she was perfectly familiar and comforting. Sometimes you don’t need magnanimity, sometimes you need a bowl of vanilla ice cream in a dated ’90s kitchen.