It's abundantly clear that one of the fall's top TV moms can be found on "American Housewife," which begins its second season Wednesday on ABC.
June Cleaver. Carol Brady. Jill Taylor. Regardless of decade, the nation’s most memorable TV moms have shared several traits that propelled them to their most favored status. They’re funny, they’re nurturing, and they are all a mirror of the values and ideals shared by parents of that generation. Based on that criteria, it’s abundantly clear that one of the fall’s top TV moms can be found on “American Housewife,” which begins its second season Wednesday on ABC. Here are seven reasons why we love Katie Otto, as portrayed by actress Katy Mixon:Motherhood today can be a real challenge, and Mixon brings all that out through Otto. In the last year, we’ve watched as this Westport mom juggled three kids, a husband, her endless chores, and trying to figure out how to be more involved in the community without losing her mind. As the “second fattest housewife in Westport,” Katie often finds herself in a battle between really good pastries and bad dietary consequences. We love that she has curves, and that the show explores how American women feel about beauty, fashion and their relationship with food. Katie wasn’t always forgetful, but with so much going on, sometimes her memory is a little blurred. We laughed out loud watching kids Taylor, Oliver and Anna-Kat test her during the episode “Dude, Where’s My Napkin,” when they tried convincing her she agreed to buy them a trampoline. We love watching how sassy Katie gets when dealing with overly-enthusiastic yoga freak neighbor Viv or when she’s dropping off Anna-Kat for a playdate at town gossip Chloe Brown Mueller’s house. Her shady one-liners are worth remembering. Just in case. If it isn’t how she scored some slightly-off polo shirts for Oliver at a great price, we adored how Katie went to war with the manager at a big box store after being ripped-off on some defective garbage bags in the first season. Katie can go shopping with us any day. If you’re a mom, you’ve likely toed the threshold where snoozing might just solve everything. In the second episode, “The Nap,” we watched as Katie struggled to stay awake while navigating how to care for a sick husband, meet a very busy daughter’s schedule and even deal with an insider trading scandal all at once. Talk about exhausting (and funny)! While she’s apparently so tough she has earned the unflattering nickname “Colonel Beatrix Von Beige Underpants Control Freak,” she is constantly looking for ways to connect with her kids, often with hilarious results. Bittersweet as it is, Katie’s age-old struggle of trying to stay relevant in the lives of her children is one viewers with kids will identify with.
