Beverly Goldberg

Beverly Goldberg is the fiercely devoted, wildly overbearing mother at the center of this 1980s-set family, a woman who refers to her son as "Schmoopie" and treats any hint of her children growing up as a personal affront. She hovers, she smothers, she barges into bedrooms uninvited, and she considers boundaries a challenge rather than a rule.

McLendon-Covey plays suffocating love without a trace of irony, which is what makes it funny instead of grating — Beverly genuinely believes invading every inch of her kids' privacy is the highest form of devotion. The writing lets her be a punchline and the emotional core simultaneously, so her intensity reads as absurd and, somehow, completely correct.