History MissingMom / LiveActionTV

* ''The Courtship of Eddie's Father'': Eddie's mother died, hence the reason for the title.

* ''Series/Siren2018'':
** Maddie's mother left her and her father about nine months before the series began. It's shown the departure was not a cordial one, and resulted from her drug abuse. She later returns to mend things with Maddie, though it's difficult.
** In Episode 6, Ryn reveals to Maddie and Ben that her and Donna's mother died when they were young.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': We never meet or hear about Tony or Gibbs' mothers until Season 7, when we found out they died- or in Gibbs' case, wasn't just dying from cancer, but separated and decided to commit suicide rather than wither. ''NCIS'' is bad about this. We know so much about Tony, Gibbs and Ziva's fathers, but where are any of their mothers? Shannon Gibbs also counts, as she was a mother... but daughter Kelly Gibbs died, too.

* ''Series/NoTomorrow'': Xavier's father was one of the "emotionally absent" kinds to him, and they haven't spoken for years. Now doing so is one of the items on his bucket list. Meanwhile his mother died when he was a child.

* ''Series/Zero2021'': Omar mom has been gone for years, after the police in Senegal took her away. His father claims this was to protect Omar from her, but details are unrevealed.

* ''Series/YearsAndYears'': Muriel's daughter, the mother of the Lyons siblings, died a few years back of cancer.

* ''Series/TwoSentenceHorrorStories'': In "[[Recap/TwoSentenceHorrorStoriesS3E9Heirloom Heirloom]]" the very first scene is of Vivie asking her dad Montrell whether her mom can see their new house from Heaven-he says yes. We don't learn why she'd dead, but it was recent and they're still dealing with it. He didn't used to put Vivie into bed or fix her hair for instance.

* ''Series/YoungDracula'': Vlad and Ingrid's mother ran off with a werewolf, and Jonathon's mother left because of Van Helsing's vampire obsession.

* ''Series/{{Merlin2008}}'':

* In ''Series/{{Castle}}'', Meredith--Richard's ex-wife and Alexis' mother--lives in Los Angeles to further her acting career, meaning she's not around. Played with in that, as much as Richard and Alexis care for her, they're kind of ''glad'' she's missing--she's flighty, irresponsible (even more so than Richard), and [[TheDitz ditzy]], with the kind of obnoxiously-shallow personality that grates after a while.

%%* ''Series/FamilyAffair'': Another dead mother.

* ''{{Series/Batwoman}}'': Gabi, Kate and Beth's mother, was killed in their childhood when a bus the Joker hijacked rear-ended the car she was driving (with them inside). It was run off the bridge she had been driving on-Gabi was [[OffWithHisHead decapitated]] and killed instantly on hitting the water below. This traumatic event overshadows her daughter's afterward (particularly with Beth, as we see it helped lead her to become Alice).

** Riker has a father, but no mother.

** Kathryn Janeway appears to be raised by her father alone.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Elendil's unnamed wife died at sea under mysterious circumstances, leaving their three children motherless.

*** "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]", yet another Season 9 episode, has Heather Preston, whose mother passed away well before the events of the episode, likely in her pre-teens/early teens. As if that wasn't enough, for both her and her father alike, the episode's plot has her being kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard, McNeely]], and about to be murdered on [[MurderDotCom live TV]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock within, well,]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin six hours]]! [[spoiler:Of course, Walker saves her JustInTime, with [=McNeely=] being [[HoistByHisOwnPetard killed by his own]] [[BulletproofHumanShield murder weapon]].]]

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' ''LOVES'' this trope, and it can and will either [[GenderInvertedTrope be gender-inverted]] or [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest overlap from time to time with]] DisappearedDad. Many of the minor characters in the series, oftentimes the VictimOfTheWeek, are dealt with this, but the strongest example of all is the eponymous Texas Ranger, whose parents were killed by a trio of white supremacists when he was 12 years old, and would go on to hunt down and arrest one of the men who did it in Season 4's "Final Justice", [[spoiler:though not before [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim nearly letting him fall to his death]] during their final fight]].

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' ''loves'' this trope, and it can and will either [[GenderInvertedTrope be gender-inverted]] or [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest overlap from time to time with]] DisappearedDad. Many of the minor characters in the series, oftentimes the VictimOfTheWeek, are dealt with this, but the strongest example of all is the eponymous Texas Ranger, whose parents were killed by a trio of white supremacists when he was 12 years old, and would go on to hunt down and arrest one of the men who did it in Season 4's "Final Justice", [[spoiler:though not before [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim nearly letting him fall to his death]] during their final fight]].

** Played with in the case of Claire Bennet. For the first 18 months of her life, Claire was raised by her Missing Mom, Meredith Gordon, until a fire happened. As a result, Nathan Petrelli, Claire's DisappearedDad, and Meredith, Claire's Missing Mom, were told their baby daughter perished in this fire and they believed Claire died. However, her father's parents, Angela and Arthur Petrelli, knew she survived the fire and let Nathan and Meredith believe their daughter died. Angela and Arthur made arrangements for their granddaughter to be adopted by an agent in their company, Noah Bennet. Claire was lovingly raised by her adoptive parents, Noah and Sandra Bannet, and she reconnected with her birth parents, Nathan and Meredith, ultimately resulting in Claire having [[HasTwoMommies two fathers and two mothers]].

** ''Series/FullHouse'': Yet another dead mother[[spoiler:, revealed in the final season to have been killed by a drunk driver.]] The reason why Jesse (said mother's younger brother) and Joey (Danny's best friend) moved in with the Tanners was to [[HasTwoMommies help Danny with the three girls]]. Jesse later gets married and Aunt Becky becomes [[ParentalSubstitute a mother figure]] to the Tanner girls along with raising twin boys.

*** "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E12DesperateMeasures Desperate Measures]]" (also in Season 9) gives us mother and son Lara and Griffin Pope. It is unknown what happened to ''both'' of Lara's parents, since she grew up in a small town with her taxidermist uncle Walt. Walt did everything for her since then, up until he was murdered by her mobster ex-husband, Garrett Pope, after he received word of her escape from prison for a murder that he framed her for, which brings us to Griffin's situation, where Lara herself serves this role, which is justified and defied. Lara escaped at the beginning of the episode [[ChainedHeat while still chained to another inmate]], namely, Jane "Hitch" Harrelson[[note]]who was sentenced to life without parole for killing three men[[/note]], after [[OutlawCouple the boyfriends of two other escapees]] ambushed their prison bus. [[MamaBear She loves and cares for him deeply and refuses to let Garrett hurt him.]] Garrett framed Lara for killing his business partner, whom she supposedly had an affair with, and tried to maintain the cover that she was dangerous woman, when in actuality, ''he'' was the one having the affair. While trying to find Griffin, Lara and Harrelson unknowingly give Gage a ride back to Dallas after his motorcycle breaks down due to two thugs [[VehicularSabotage cutting his drive belt]] after he beat them up for harassing them. After Gage apprehends Harrelson, Lara takes off and reunites with Griffin, only for them to be kidnapped by Garrett's men so she could be killed, until the Rangers intervened and arrested Garrett.

* ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': Both Alicent and, from the end of Season 1's episode 1, Rhaenyra deal with the loss of their mother. It's a big part of what made the relationship between Rhaenyra and her father uneasy.

** Ranger Francis Gage and his older sister, Julie, also aren't spared, as revealed in Season 8's "Tall Cotton". While the majority of the plot has the Rangers dealing with the sleazy owner of the titular nightclub kidnapping and threatening to murder Julie after she uncovered evidence of his many crimes while working undercover there, she and Gage lost both their parents when he was 8 years old and she was 10. They were both killed in a car accident due to icy roads while on their way home from a church social. One of their aunts wanted to take them both in, but could only afford one sibling. Gage suggested that Julie go, but she said now, saying they must stick together no matter what. As such, they ended up being sent to a group home for foster children; it wasn't a pleasant experience for both of them, though Julie got to bear most of the brunt of it.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' ''loves'' this trope, and it can and will either [[GenderInvertedTrope be gender-inverted]] or [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest overlap from time to time with]] DisappearedDad. Many of the minor characters in the series, oftentimes the VictimOfTheWeek, are dealt with this, but the strongest example of all is the eponymous Texas Ranger, whose parents were killed by a trio of white supremacists when he was 12 years old, and would go on to hunt down and arrest one of the men who did it in Season 4's "Final Justice", [[spoiler: after [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim nearly letting him fall to his death]] during their final fight]].

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' ''loves'' this trope, and it can and will [[GenderInvertedTrope overlap from time to time with]] DisappearedDad. Many of the minor characters in the series, oftentimes the VictimOfTheWeek, are dealt with this, but the strongest example of all is the eponymous Texas Ranger, whose parents were killed by a trio of white supremacists when he was 12 years old, and would go on to hunt down and arrest one of the men who did it in Season 4's "Final Justice", [[spoiler: after [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim nearly letting him fall to his death]] during their final fight]].