Why Peri Gilpin’s Broad City guest turn is so perfect

Roz Doyle, Peri Gilpin’s character on Frasier, paved the way for Abbi and Ilana’s sex positive antics on Broad City.

This week Broad City finally introduced us to Abbi’s mom. After three seasons that have included arcs about Ilana’s parents (Susie Essman and Bob Balaban) and Abbi’s dad (Tony Danza), Abbi’s mother, Joanne, came to town in the appropriately titled “Abbi’s Mom.” And she was played by none other than Peri Gilpin, best known as Roz Doyle on Frasier. 

For those of you who don’t know Frasier, it is about a smart, pompous, but ultimately good-hearted psychiatrist (Kelsey Grammer) who hosts a radio show in Seattle. Roz, Frasier’s producer and friend, is sarcastic, confident, funny, and sexy. In fact, much of Roz’s character is built around her unabashed love of men.

Frasier and the other supporting characters often make snarky asides about Roz’s love life, and one of the sitcom’s running jokes is that Roz has a new dude (either seen or referenced) in her life in pretty much every episode. There are one or two men she has multi-episode relationships with as well as a late-series on again/off again flirtation with Frasier, but for the most part Roz is a single woman.

To put it in TV fanatic terms, you could say Roz is a more down-to-earth, PG-13 version of Sex and the City‘s Samantha.

In many ways, Roz was created to be shamed by her more chaste friends and family. But, incredibly, she is probably the character who holds up best in the 13 years since Frasier went off the air. I would argue that she is inherently feminist. You see, it’s not that Roz is overly sexualized: she’s sex positive in an era before sex positivity was even a thing.

Roz simply shrugs off Frasier and company’s comments about her sex life; she refuses to let them make her feel bad about herself, she doesn’t change to make anyone else feel more comfortable and the show never punishes her for her actions. Even when it seems like Frasier is handing down judgment by making Roz pregnant in season 5, it isn’t. Like most pregnant women and new mothers, Roz’s personal life takes a hit in seasons 5 and 6, but she’s neither unhappy nor celibate. Once she’s ready, she gets right back out there. Motherhood slows her down a little, but doesn’t change that aspect of Roz’s life. She’s always the sex positive character we know and love.

Which brings us back to Broad City. Gilpin is perfect for the role of Abbi’s mom because Joanne is nothing like Roz or the broads themselves. She’s reserved by nature and much more inhibited than Roz, Abbi, and Ilana. Joanne has only had three partners — as compared to Abbi’s 32 –has never tried a martini, and never really messed up, to put it mildly. But her worldview changes when she has a breast cancer scare and decides to follow her stoner, sex-positive daughter’s lead.

In “Abbi’s Mom” Joanne really lets loose: she wears Abbi’s beloved, magical blue dress, flirts with Bevers, does shots, drunkenly gets up on a table and falls into a fountain, makes out with a bisexual man and more. By episode’s end, she even goes toy shopping with Abbi and Ilana, which is about the Broad City-est thing ever.

Next: For a smart, feminist horror film, look no further than The Others

Basically, Gilpin is the best as Abbi’s sheltered but curious mother because she is in part responsible for Broad City‘s existence. We never got to see Roz do all that Joanne does, but her character paved the way for sex positive narratives like Broad City. Gilpin’s nuanced portrayal of Roz made it easier for characters like Abbi and Ilana — women who actively desire fulfilling sex lives — to be on TV.

Broad City’s fourth season is currently airing Wednesday nights on Comedy Central.