Childbirth requires a gargantuan amount of energy and work\u2014no wonder the physical process is dubbed \u201cgoing into labor.\u201d On TV, it pops up in various ways, whether in visceral horror stories, realistic medical dramas, or family sagas. Sitcoms usually present this serious life event with a touch of humor and sweetness, making it digestible for a mass audience. The evolution of how comedies present childbirth is also a marker of how times change, whether that change is driven by public perception, TV standards and practices, or just the dynamic nature of the genre itself. In the \u201950s, the writers of I Love Lucy couldn\u2019t use the word \u201cpregnant,\u201d but TV births became commonplace during the last three decades of the 21st century. Today, sitcoms hardly feature protagonists having children. To commemorate a holiday devoted to a different type of labor, here are 18 episodes that show how this stock storyline has been told over the years.<\/p>\n
Lucille Ball was pregnant with her second child during I Love Lucy\u2018s second season, and while some advertisers objected to the star \u201cbeing in the family way,\u201d Ball\u2019s husband and co-star Desi Arnaz insisted on including the couple\u2019s big news in their show. When advertisers still balked at the term \u201cpregnant,\u201d the preferred word for Lucy Ricardo\u2019s condition became \u201cexpecting.\u201d While Ball may have spent a number of episodes in increasingly voluminous dresses and blouses and sometimes posed behind set furniture to hide her baby bump, the storyline\u2019s big conclusion became one of the first major must-watch moments in early TV history\u2014over 70% of American households with a TV tuned in. It was a history-making episode, and one perfectly aligned with the series\u2019 sensibility: The chaos of getting Lucy to the hospital epitomizes I Love Lucy\u2019s frantic brand of physical comedy. [Monica Castillo]<\/p>\n
A decade later, The Flintstones earned the distinction of being the first animated sitcom to pull off a pregnancy arc\u2014it helped that the show was the first animated sitcom, period. \u201cThe Blessed Event\u201d is a slight but no less form-defining moment not for the introduction of Pebbles Flintstone, but for being a clinic on how not to write a childbirth episode, with Fred Flintstone remaining the show\u2019s focus even as his wife, Wilma, approaches her big moment. In fact, most of \u201cThe Blessed Event\u201d features Barney Rubble mentally preparing the big lug for the imminent delivery of Flintstone #3. Still, Wilma\u2019s delivery is a genuine turning point that signaled The Flintstones\u2018 growing appetite for a larger cast\u2014for better or worse<\/a>\u2014and, for a time, more consequential themes, as seen with season four\u2019s \u201cLittle Bamm-Bamm\u201d and its allusions to the Rubbles\u2019 difficulty conceiving a child of their own. [Jarrod Jones]<\/p>\n The bundle of storylines (and basis for \u201cphysically correct\u201d tie-in merchandise<\/a>) that came to be known as Joey Stivic served as a new bone of intergenerational contention between reactionary Archie Bunker and his liberal son-in-law, Mike \u201cMeathead\u201d Stivic. Three episodes after the Bunker family Thanksgiving blows up over the kid\u2019s religious upbringing, Joey arrives at an ideally inopportune time: In the middle of a two-parter while his mother, Gloria, is stuck in a restaurant phone booth, and his grandfather is trying to wriggle his way out of The Royal Brotherhood Of The Kings Of Queens\u2019 annual minstrel show. Arch is uncharacteristically on the right side of history here (albeit for the wrong reasons\u2014he just doesn\u2019t want to do the show), though his reluctance leads to the perfectly All In The Family image of TV\u2019s favorite bigot showing up to the maternity ward in blackface. Once she\u2019s out of the phonebooth and in labor for six hours, Gloria gets her chance to test primetime taboo, too, asking Mike, \u201cWhy did you do this to me?\u201d\u2014one of the first, if not the first, sitcom mom to hit a sitcom dad with that eventual chestnut. [EA]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Cheers, \u201cThe Stork Brings A Crane\u201d (1989)<\/p>\n From the end of the decade that gave us Family Ties\u2019 Elyse Keaton going into labor on-air during a public-TV pledge drive and the arrival of rapidly aging<\/a> Growing Pains sister Chrissy amid her brother Ben\u2019s 12th birthday comes an episode that does so much of what we think of when we think of sitcom births. Leave it to the \u201980s defining sitcom to really squeeze it all into \u201cThe Stork Brings A Crane\u201d: The mother, Lilith, going into labor in loud and highly public fashion (during Cheers\u2019 100th-anniversary bash); the father, Frasier, storming into the bar to announce his car has been towed at the absolute worst possible time; Frasier and the Sternin-Cranes\u2019 bartending buddy Sam serving as ad hoc midwives for a stranger who, unlike Lilith, is actually in labor. And then, to top it all off, Frederick Crane is born (offscreen) in a taxi without Dr. Crane present. It just goes to show that even at this late stage, Cheers could still deliver. [EA]<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/p>\n Murphy Brown, \u201cBirth 101\u201d (1992)<\/p>\n The only episode on the list to become a campaign trail talking point<\/a>, \u201cBirth 101\u201d was the culmination of a fourth season in which Murphy Brown\u2019s namesake TV reporter found herself unexpectedly pregnant, dismayed she\u2019s carrying a boy, and feted with a baby shower attended by multiple real-life news personalities. It\u2019s also uncommonly frank about all the unknowns and anxieties that can creep up on anyone in the post-delivery room\u2014let alone an accomplished single mother who\u2019d managed to kick addictions to everything but work and winds up spending the first few minutes of her son\u2019s life frantically monologuing at him. Interrupted by her camcorder-toting co-worker Frank Fontana and a request for an impromptu video message to the newborn, Murphy turns to her higher power\u2014Aretha Franklin\u2014and sings a lullaby rendition of \u201c(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.\u201d It\u2019s an incredibly tender moment\u2014and an utterly confounding one to commit political suicide over. (Then again, as Murphy pointed out over and over and over in the next season\u2019s premiere<\/a>, Dan Quayle never was the smartest potato in the field.) [EA]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Simpsons, \u201cAnd Maggie Makes Three\u201d (1995)<\/p>\n Babies are usually a blessing in sitcom land, even if they often arrive in unusual or outrageous situations. The Simpsons had some fun with this TV building block in the flashbacks of \u201cAnd Maggie Makes Three<\/a>,\u201d playing up the effects three unplanned pregnancies can have on someone as incapable of forethought as Homer Simpson. Thinking he\u2019s achieved perfect balance in his life, Homer quits the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in spectacular fashion, literally burning a bridge as he heads to his dream job at the Bowlarama. But when he learns another bundle of d\u2019oh is on the way, Homer has to beg for his job back, leaving him resentful in the delivery room (after being blithely unaware of Marge\u2019s pregnancy). That bitterness melts away like synthetic fabric in acid rain the moment a newborn Maggie grabs his finger. Along with birthing the \u201cDo It For Her\u201d meme, this season six episode offered a hilarious, somewhat bracing look at a growing family\u2019s growing pains. [Danette Chavez]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Friends, \u201cThe One With The Birth,\u201d \u201cThe One Hundredth,\u201d \u201cThe One Where Rachel Has A Baby,\u201d and \u201cThe Last One, Part One,\u201d\u00a0(1995, 1998, 2002, and 2004)\u00a0<\/p>\n Most sitcoms depicted childbirth as a \u201cclose family only\u201d situation, until multiple characters on Friends went into labor, usually surrounded by their closest pals\u2014or, in the case of the show\u2019s earliest birth, their ex\u2019s BFFs. From its first season until its last, Friends wasn\u2019t shy about throwing in pregnancy and baby storylines to depict how parenthood and its accompanying responsibilities affected the show\u2019s six protagonists. Sometimes, it was a milestone on top of a milestone: Phoebe gave birth to the triplets she carried for her brother and sister-in-law in the 100th episode, while Emma\u2019s arrival in the season-eight finale further shifted the dynamics of Ross and Rachel\u2019s relationship. The Friends always were there for each other in the hospital, save for when Monica and Chandler\u2019s twins were born, and through these episodes, the show continued to emphasize its core thesis: the value of found family, especially if or when blood relatives aren\u2019t around to share some of life\u2019s biggest moments. [Saloni Gajjar]\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Office, \u201cThe Delivery\u201d (2010)<\/p>\n The will-they\/won\u2019t-they between Jim and Pam was so central to the The Office that by the time the couple had a baby<\/a> in season six, it became the subject of a special, hour-long two-part episode. In the first half, Pam delays going to the hospital for insurance purposes, forcing everyone at Dunder Mifflin to come up with distractions from the pain of her contractions\u2014The Office, in its own goofy way, tapping into serious healthcare concerns about going into labor. Eventually, Pam reveals that she\u2019s anxious to take the next inevitable step: actually becoming a parent. In the second half, she and Jim learn the immediate challenges of the same when Pam has trouble breastfeeding baby Cecelia, partly due to her own exhaustion. It\u2019s some emotionally raw material, but it\u2019s also just nice of The Office\u2014and its fictional documentary crew\u2014to take a break from the workplace and give us a peek into Jim and Pam\u2019s first days as a mom and dad. [SG]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Community, \u201cApplied Anthropology And Culinary Arts\u201d\u00a0(2011)<\/p>\n Dan Harmon\u2019s comedy about an offbeat gang of community college students loved nothing so much as poking fun at established sitcom tropes and themes\u2014so of course it has a childbirth episode. Community\u2019s take on the traditional TV birth plan sees Shirley give birth in the middle of the gang\u2019s anthropology final, and hits plenty of Abed-approved beats, like the study group coming together in a friend\u2019s moment of need and the process of birth neatly wrapping up in 25 minutes or less. But because this is also an episode that lets some of the show\u2019s more under-appreciated characters shine (particularly Ken Jeong\u2019s Ben Chang), it\u2019s hard to be too mad about it. That and the fact that \u201cApplied Anthropology And Culinary Arts<\/a>\u201d is also a hilariously satisfying callback to a previous season two episode, \u201cThe Psychology Of Letting Go<\/a>,\u201d in which Abed inexplicably delivers a child as part of a storyline that plays out entirely in the background of other scenes. [Lacy Baugher Milas]\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Jane The Virgin, \u201cChapter Twenty-Two\u201d (2015) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, \u201cNathaniel Is Irrelevant\u201d (2018)\u00a0<\/p>\n Jane The Virgin wraps up its inventive artificial insemination premise when Jane gives birth to Mateo at the end of the show\u2019s first season<\/a>. In typical fashion, plenty of theatrics are involved, including false labor and the fact that Jane\u2019s parents aren\u2019t in town. It\u2019s equally sweet and soapy, and far from The CW\u2019s only comedy-drama to straddle that line, too\u2014Crazy Ex-Girlfriend served up its own take on this approach when Heather goes into labor in season three<\/a>. To assuage her, mother of two Paula sings Heather a song about the \u201chellride of your life,\u201d describing the process of giving birth in vivid detail. Yet despite their respective telenovela and musical-comedy components, both \u201cChapter Twenty-Two\u201d and \u201cNathaniel Is Irrelevant\u201d mark these shows\u2019 commitment to keeping their heightened depictions of life\u2019s big moments grounded in an emotional and factual reality. (Maybe too factual, given the lyrics of Paula\u2019s song.) [SG]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Superstore, \u201cDelivery Day\u201d\u00a0(2018)\u00a0<\/p>\n As with so much of Justin Spitzer\u2019s consistently underrated NBC comedy, there\u2019s a raging heart of class consciousness running beneath the absurdity of Superstore\u2018s season-four double-birth episode. As Dina cruises through a surrogacy C-section at a hospital staffed by hunky doctors (courtesy of Cloud 9 management health insurance), floor supervisor Amy instead finds herself bounced to a local clinic, where she\u2019s forced to give birth six feet from a corpse while her ex-husband and new boyfriend serve as makeshift stirrups. True to form, Superstore doesn\u2019t let its fury at a basic injustice shafting millions by the day overwhelm either its heart or its dark wit\u2014\u201dDelivery Day\u201d is still a great episode for both \u201caw\u201ds and inventively mean-spirited gags. But it does remind viewers that even a birth can\u2019t be a break from the real work a TV show is here to do. [William Hughes]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Human Resources, \u201cBirth\u201d (2022)\u00a0<\/p>\n It only took 59 years and several overhauls of how and where most people watch their favorite shows to go from \u201cyou can\u2019t say Lucy is pregnant on TV\u201d to \u201cyou can show an animated, amniotic-fluid-slicked infant spilling out of a vagina on TV.\u201d You can thank the Big Mouth spin-off Human Resources for the latter: The Netflix cartoon immediately doubled down on its parent (pun intended) series\u2019 unapologetic and imaginative approach to human sexuality, treating viewers and newly assigned, shitfaced lovebug Emmy (Aidy Bryant as an antennaed manifestation of affection) to the miracle of birth in its very first episode. Big Mouth\u2019s entire menagerie of physical and emotional abstracts made flesh-and-boners is at the bedside of Emmy\u2019s client Becca, their presence making labor\u2019s psychedelic swirl of feelings as explicit as the split-second view of the baby emerging from between Becca\u2019s legs. [EA]<\/p>\n Young Sheldon, \u201cA Launch Party And A Whole Human Being\u201d (2023)<\/p>\n Perhaps it speaks to how most contemporary comedies have fewer episodes per season; focus on young, unattached characters; or don\u2019t run long enough for those characters to get attached and have kids, but you\u2019d need to look back to 2024\u2014when an IVF storyline factored into the final season of Bob Hearts Abishola and the sixth season of The Neighborhood ended with a baby starting to make its way into the world during a Toni Braxton concert\u2014for the last time anyone had a kid on a network sitcom. For a sitcom birth that recalls the event episodes of yore, you\u2019d need to go back another year, when single-camera Big Bang Theory prequel Young Sheldon set up its own multi-cam spin-off, Georgie And Mandy\u2019s First Marriage, with \u201cA Launch Party And A Whole Human Being.\u201d When she goes into labor while Sheldon prepares to launch the database he\u2019s spent much of season six building, poor pregnant Mandy initially has to rely only on her famously germophobic future brother-in-law to drive her to the hospital\u2014eventually taking matters into her own hands. Once there, tensions flare between the Cooper and McAllister families, as is normal in high-pressure situations, until Georgie kicks them out of the room for baby CeeCee\u2019s arrival. [SG]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n St. Denis Medical, \u201cHere A Righteous Woman Comes\u201d (2026)<\/p>\n There\u2019s more talk of birth than actual birthing in St. Denis Medical\u2018s season two standout \u201cHere A Righteous Woman Comes.\u201d Set around the umbilical-cord-themed ribbon-cutting of her disastrously named \u201cWhite Women\u2019s Birthing Center,\u201d modern Sisyphus Joyce Henderson does what she always does: Too much. She hires gospel singers, invites The New York Times, and when the birthing center\u2019s maiden couple goes into labor early, she recruits Matt and Serena to fake a pregnancy. All these spinning plates were bound to come crashing down. They don\u2019t; Joyce does, in an all-timer pratfall. Somehow, miraculously, the day gets even further away from Joyce after her concussion. Wendy McLendon-Covey gives a bravura performance \u201cHere A Righteous Woman Comes\u201d as a woman who doesn\u2019t get enough credit. The same could be said for the actor, as well as billions more around the world whose labor goes unnoticed. That\u2019s right, we\u2019re talking about mothers. Happy Labor Day, moms. [Matt Schmikowitz]<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Childbirth requires a gargantuan amount of energy and work\u2014no wonder the physical process is dubbed \u201cgoing into labor.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":["post-839761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}