Worst hidden pregnancies on TV shows

I nominate “Will & Grace”. Not only was Debra’s belly poorly concealed, hers was especially obvious because she filled out so much all over. She’d been a string bean before.

What other examples can you think of?

Lauren Lane ( C. C.) on The Nanny was pretty obvious.

Julia Louis Dreyfus on Seinfeld, despite always wearing heavy winter coats and many draped scarves.

Jane Juvitski on British sitcom 'Waiting for God'

So obvious they made jokes about it.

I remember on Frasier, where they pretended Jane Leeves's pregnancy was Daphne's extreme weight gain (they wouldn't get away with THAT now), they made a joke about Daphne having lost 7lb 6oz, or whatever her RL baby weighed, when it was born.

In the episode of I love Lucy where Lucy finds out she is 'enceinte', she looks like she's about seven months along.

Matthew Perry on Friends.

R3 I believe they also padded Leeves out so she appeared overall heavier. When her final season pregnancy was incorporated, she didn’t show nearly as much.

I was about to mention Jane Leeves. In one episode, Daphne is sitting on the floor for some reason and can't get up. Niles, Frasier, and Marty help her. Then Marty cracks a joke about how many cranes it took to lift her off the floor. This is the episode where she faces the issue and goes to the weight loss spa where she lost what r3 mentioned.

Betty White's in Hot in Cleveland.

They did a good job on SATC with SJP.

Moonlighting. People always say that once David and Maddie got together the fun went out of the show. They neglect to mention that Cybill got pregnant WITH TWINS that season. Could that possibly have something to do with the show becoming hard work to write?

r10 Cybil and Bruce were both cunts as the show aged. The last couple of seasons were hurt by Bruce refusing to be funny like he was earlier in the series (he thought he was going to be a huge movie star) and Curtis Armstrong who was absolutely the wrong look for the shows vibe.

One surprisingly effective example was on “The Exes”, one of the TV Land sitcoms, especially given how tiny Kelly Stables is. Though it was funny seeing her carrying a purse the size of a bathtub.

At least they joked about "hiding" Lauren Lane's pregnancy on The Nanny!

Both Allyson Hannigan and Coby Smulders were pregnant during HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER's first seasons.

Both were suddenly holding large things or standing behind large things.

The only in-joke was a scene with Allyson Hannigan rubbing her belly as she won a hot dog eating contest.

Concealing Marcia Cross was funny on Desperate Hosuewives. Framing the shot so the top Kathryn Joosten’s head was hiding the belly.

As soon as I saw the thread title "Worst hidden pregnancies on TV shows" I immediately thought of Debra Messing and Will & Grace.

That time that Chrissy Metz was pregnant with twins and………..you mean she wasn’t pregnant?!?!?!?!?!?!

Roxann Dawson on ST Voyager. B'Elanna starts wearing maternity uniforms for no reason.

SJP was pregnant on SATC? What season because I never noticed.

R21 Season 5. They shortened the season because of her pregnancy. They did a pretty good job of it.

There must have been dozens of female TV stars who became pregnant during their series runs pre-1980, yet I can't think of one who so obviously showed as Lucy in the 1950s.

What about all the other pregnant ladies in the 1950s, 60s and 70s? How did they hide them back then when clothes were less boxy and so much more fitted?

Were there even "dozens" of female TV stars?

Hanna Montana in Hanna Montana.

Susan St James in McMillan and wife. Twice. Iirc, they didn't even try to hide it.

First thing that came to mind was AS THE WORLD TURNS in the late Nineties all the way through the 2000's when they really had their hands full for over a decade with the incredibly fecund pairing of Martha Byrne and Maura West. Both women were "all-over weight gain" pregnancy types.

Well, there were certainly dozens of actresses who played the wife or girlfriend or adult daughter to the male star, r25.

Had Barbara Hale already had her children when she was on Perry Mason?

Susan St. James on McMillan and Wife was weird, because they made her character Sally pregnant, had dialogue and plot points incorporating it. Then one day Sally suddenly wasn't pregnant and everything went back to the way it was, with barely a mention of a baby and no kid onscreen. Having a child didn't hamper their investigational lifestyles at all!

Then on Kate & Allie, Kate was in bed with a broken leg for months to hide another pregnancy of Susan's. She was one fertile hippie!

Courtney Cox on the last few episodes on Friends. Monica couldn't get pregnant so they adopted a baby, but Courtney got pregnant. I think because the show was ending anyway, they didn't bother even trying to hide it. She was by then showing it in her face.

On The Cosby Show they put Phylicia Rashad in bed. Lore is that as she became bigger and bigger production dug a larger hole in the mattress and she was placed lower under the covers.

Not a TV show, but Madonna was pregnant while filming Evita.

R34 -

Season 4's theme. Phylicia Rashad is clearly pregnant with her daughter, Condola Rashad of BILLIONS fame.

R36 — that makes sense! She looks really good in those 80s duds!

Someone mentioned Madonna being pregnant while filming Evita. That reminded me of Whitney Houston apparently being very pregnant when she filmed the video for I Will Always Love You.

For the past 20 years or so it's been unlawful to fire an actress for pregnancy, even in a Broadway show. The producers just have to deal with it.

The pregnancies I recall were incorporated into the show, like Lisa Kudrow in Friends, and Mel Harris and Patricia Kalember on thirtysomething.

I agree, Sex & the City was genius to chop off Carrie’s hair to distract from the bebé.

[quote] What about all the other pregnant ladies in the 1950s, 60s and 70s? How did they hide them back then when clothes were less boxy and so much more fitted?

Barbara Eden in the first few episodes of I Dream of Jeanie wore lots of flowing scarves. That first season was in black and white but when they colorized it, you can tell she's got a belly. Also Elizabeth Montgomery in the first season of Bewitched always wore a heavy coat for a few episodes.

Caitlyn Jenner’s pregnancy during the first season of her reality show.

Elizabeth Montgomery on “Bewitched”.

Not a TV show, but in "Till the Clouds Roll By," Judy Garland hid Liza Minnelli with dirty dishes.

[quote]At least they joked about "hiding" Lauren Lane's pregnancy on The Nanny!

My favorite bit was when 'C.C.' walked into Maxwell's Broadway office carrying a big poster of the musical BABY in front of her. 😂

Joan Crawford's 3 pregnancies were all very well hidden.

[quote]Also Elizabeth Montgomery in the first season of Bewitched always wore a heavy coat for a few episodes.

Yes, I just saw that season recently, and you could definitely tell she was either pregnant or just post-pregnant in the early episodes, coats or not. They incorporated her other pregnancies into the show.

A show that did really well with an unforeseen pregnancy was the ill-fated, much underrated Sorkin show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Amanda Peet was the central female character but she got pregnant less than half-way through the first (and only) season. Sorkin created a storyline around it that ran right through the season and provided a gripping finale, a far cry from the usual birth-of-the-baby episode.

Kerry Washington on Scandal was a classic. Shopping bag AND giant purse!

Actually, Judy was filmed pregnant with Liza in Till the Clouds Roll By, brilliantly singing and dancing with a full MGM ensemble to "Who (Stole My Heart Away)?" The pregnancy isn't obvious to me and I think it's one of the best musical numbers ever shot by Vincente Minnelli. The choreography, camera work, production and costume design are top drawer, MGM at it's finest.

And Look for the Silver Lining.

I saw Till The Clouds Roll By before I knew Judy was pregnant while making it, and never noticed. But once it was pointed out some years ago, it's obvious she has a slightly protruding belly.

Holly Marie Combs on Charmed.

Her first pregnancy was OK because she didn't show much, but the last two she blew up big as a house very early on, and it showed everywhere. Stomach, limbs, face, and skin texture.

Judy was further along in her pregnancy when she shot "Look for the Silver Lining" than when she did "Who." Hence the embracing of dishes.

That freak accident reminds me of this scene from the Will Ferrell figure skating comedy BLADES OF GLORY.

R5 is roasting in hell today

Aw sad to read R32 because that last baby was the one that died in the plane crash.

Debra Messing and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss were the worst hidden, because they're both small women who got puffy everywhere including the face and looked obviously pregnant and big despite their hidden bellies.

[quote]The pregnancies I recall were incorporated into the show, like Lisa Kudrow in Friends, and Mel Harris and Patricia Kalember on thirtysomething.

Supposedly they gave Lisa Kudrow extra padding to wear on the show to make her look even bigger, because her character was pregnant with triplets.

When Gillian Anderson was pregnant in season 1 (?) of the X-Files, they hid it with giant coats, having her character assigned to other work and then abducted by aliens. However, just after she gave birth they made the baffling decision to have a dream scene in which she was lying on a hospital bed with no covers in spite of the fact that she still had her pregnancy weight and they had to pad other parts of her body to conceal it.

SATC dressed Carrie more modestly and she explained to Samantha that she's getting older and can't pull off those hoochie looks anymore. And Carrie continued to dress more modestly for the rest of the series.

Shirley Booth on “Hazel”.

R28 The genius thing they did at one point with the two you mentioned (and another actress) at ATWT was to put all three pregnant actresses in a storyline where they wore robes all day. The story was that they were being held captive by someone at a spa....whatever.....but it was great for the actresses to wear robes and slippers and it helped conceal their pregnancy until they took maternity leave

I always assumed that Grace's pregnancy hiding was done as a joke - like they knew they couldn't hide it so invited the audience along for the joke by making it so ridiculous.

Mindy Cohn on Facts of Life,

A pregnant Debra Messing on the cover of Vanity Fair:

Sorry about R58. Wrong thread.

All of these pregnancies were well hidden from me because I never noticed them.

A well hidden pregnancy was Carrie Coon's (Bertha Russell) during Season One of The Gilded Age.

I remember back in the seventies Susan Licci was pregnant and was swollen and puffy all over . She was married to Tom Cuddahay on the show who owned the Goal Post restaurant - I remember her holding menus in front of her. It was ironic because Erica and Tom got a divorce because he found out that she lied to him and kept taking the pill.

Where are my glasses? I meant LUCCI!

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3TmqOorZ6csm%2BvzqZmraCimq6le5Jsa3JwY2d%2BbsPOq6qtZZiesaWxzWanq52Xo66vr8ieqmannmLBt3nSoaawqw%3D%3D