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TV Shows That Kept the Kid in the Picture and Showed Off Their Pregnant Stars

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.

Sweetest face I've ever held. Enzo 3/24

A photo posted by melissafumero (@melissafumero) on

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Mad Men

Fat Betty. Never forget.

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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

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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.