By Courtney Enlow | Lists | April 7, 2016 |
By Courtney Enlow | Lists | April 7, 2016 |
Any show can use creative angles, awkward framing and a well-placed lamp to hide a star’s pregnancy. Some shows choose to give in and throw a baby into the narrative mix. But some shows laugh in the face of creation and get weird with it. Let’s celebrate them.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
I clearly hadn’t been paying enough attention to the boobs-up shot framing or the frequent desk work of Detective Amy Santiago, but I had no idea Melissa Fumero was pregnant until she announced the birth of her son Enzo two weeks ago.
And then I did some rewatching, and, yep, definitely pregnant. The show hid it as well as one can hide such precious belly bigness until this week’s episode featuring Santiago going undercover as a pregnant prisoner.
Also, in adorable synchronicity, Joe Lo Truglio and his wife, Another Period’s Beth Dover, just had their baby too.
How I Met Your Mother
Then there was that time How I Met Your Mother displayed Alyson Hannigan’s pregnancy by making Lily a competitive hot dog eater, missing a major continuity win (*salutes*) by having her distract her fellow eaters with her loud chewing.
And while they weren’t so free and easy with Cobie Smulders’s concurrent pregnancy, they did have a moment where a vomitous Robin tells Ted (jokingly) that she’s pregnant.
Ted of course offered to marry her and raise her food poisoning-related non-baby with her because he’s Ted.
30 Rock
When there was a gas leak at 30 Rock, everyone had weird reactions. But Jenna’s hysterical pregnancy (showing off Jane Krakowski’s actual pregnancy) was particularly on-point for the character.
Mad Men
Fat Betty. Never forget.
During season five, January Jones was pregnant (with MYSTERY) and rather than make Betty endure a similar fate, they just made her fat. And thanks to commenter Fredo, I still sing “whooa-oh Fat Betty” when I think of her. Frasier pulled the same stunt first, but whooa-oh Fat Daphne” doesn’t have the same effect.
The Nanny
While not an outright fetal inclusion, I will forever love the moment in The Nanny’s season five when CC Babcock said, “You know, Maxwell, I can’t believe what they get away with on TV these days. I was watching this rerun of Seinfeld and Elaine must have been, I don’t know, 12 months pregnant, and they didn’t even acknowledge it; they just kept hiding her behind these huge props. Anyway this needs watering.” Then she left holding a giant plant. And yes I did wade through a very choppy Tudou stream to procure this screenshot, thanks for asking. WORTH IT.