Top 30 Funniest Ways TV Shows Hid Pregnancies

Which hidden belly moment surprised you the most?

I absolutely loved the way they did it on The Nanny. Of course we could tell CC was pregnant but it was readily acknowledged in the funniest ways without writing it into the show. LOVED THIS SHOW!

I think The Nanny was my favorite. That was pretty hilarious!

Lauren Lane as CC was my fave. I love how they had to carry a poster for Baby.

The saddest instance of this was when Katey Sagal became pregnant on Married with Children. They wrote her pregnancy into Peg's storyline, even making her neighbor Marcy pregnant as well. Katey eventually had a miscarriage, so the writers used the "It was all a dream" trope to explain away the storyline. That must have been so hard for Katey to do. :(

Many years ago I got the opportunity to be in the audience for a taping of the show KATE & ALLIE. One of the leads, Susan Saint James was very pregnant at the time. Before the the taping started an emcee announced that since her character wasn't pregnant on the series, they would be doing some very creative ways to hide the pregnancy. It was hilarious because every time she entered she had these HUGE shopping bags with her. Then they would position her either sitting down with a pillow on her lap or standing behind some strategically placed object. It was so funny. Watching the show when it was broadcast, nobody could even tell she was pregnant at all.

The nanny was genius

Wandavision hilariously pointed out the way classic sitcoms used to hide pregnancies, from having the actress wearing baggy clothes, be placed behind conveniently large objects, or shooting them from the head up, or sitting down. In fact, Wanda goes from barely showing, to being obviously expecting.

The most interesting thing to me is that Gillian Anderson’s pregnancy changed the trajectory of the XFiles when they decided to write her out temporarily as abducted. The emotions deepened extraordinarily and really made the show

It must have been hard for Courteney Cox to act out Monica and Chandler's infertility struggles, since she was going through similar difficulties. Fortunately, she was able to have her daughter, Coco.

CC on the nanny should’ve been number one

CC’s pregnancy was hilarious

I love CC

For Alyson Hannigan, you missed the part where Lily got written out for several episodes of season 4 after Barney told a dirty joke that disturbed her ("What's the difference between peanut butter and jam?").

You know there were shows before the 90s! Where was Shelley Long from Cheers, Susan Saint James from Kate & Allie, Elizabeth Montgomery from Bewitched, etc.?

I'm surprised you didn't include Charmed's choice of having Piper lose her head for an episode to cover for Holly Marie Combs real life pregnancy. Weird way to hide one was on Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Keiko O'Brian was pregnant & traveling with Major Kira & the Doctor somewhere in a shuttle/runabout & something happens to the ship & Keiko was injured & in danger of losing her baby so somehow through the science (fiction) of 24th century medicine, the Doctor was able to move Keiko's baby to Major Kira to cover for Nana Visitor's real life pregnancy. Then they came up with a reason for why they couldn't move the baby back, so Major Kira had to carry the baby to term. Gates McFadden had the least weird one, with Dr. Crusher just getting bigger & bigger lab coats.

Ms. Babcock’s was my favorite 🤣

The nanny to me is #1

I love how this topic is caricatured in "Home Improvement" where Wilsons face is always hidden behind something: a fence, flowers, a face mask, candles etc.

It is a shame you didn't mention Star Trek DS9. When Nana Visitor was pregnant at the end of Season 4, there was a space accident where Keiko O'Brien's unborn son was transferred to Kira. She had to carry the baby to term until the middle of Season 5. I think that was a pretty creative way to fit the pregnancy in and should have been included in this list. It wasn't the character who was pregnant with her own child, but a sci-fi, techno-babble, creative way to hide the actress's real life pregnancy. I know this one is kind of on the border there since Kira became a surrogate mother, but it wasn't in a conventional way.