Bonnie Plunkett | |
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Gender | Female |
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Nationality | American |
Played by | Allison Janney |
Age | 58 , Born in June 19. |
Nickname | Bon-Bon (Adam) Big Sauce (Tammy) The Big One (by Gregory) Mom Number One (by Christy) Tall Brunette (by Julian) Ungrateful giraffe (by a waitress) Swamp of Madness (by Adam) Big candle (by Adam) String bean (by a police officer) Cracked out giraffe (by Christy) Bo (by Adam) My Grandmother, the Life Preserver (by Violet in her podcast) The Life Preserver (by Christy) Our snake (by Jill) My very tall wife (by Adam) |
Job | Building Manager
|
Family | *Shirley Stabler † (Mother)
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Friends | *The Girls
|
Romantic | *Adam Janikowski (Husband)
|
Episodes | 170 |
First Seen | "Pilot" |
Last Seen | "My Kinda People and the Big To-Do" |
Seasons | Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 • Season 6 • Season 7 • Season 8 |
Bonnie Plunkett is the mother of Christy Plunkett, grandmother of Violet and Roscoe Plunkett, wife of Adam Janikowski and one of the main characters on Mom. She is portrayed by Allison Janney.
Biography
Early Life
Bonnie's mother tried her best to raise her, but then thought she’d be better off in a foster care system. Her mother left her at age four at foster care, but never came back even though she promised. Bonnie began drinking at 15 years of age. She was in the foster care system being bounced around from house to house when she ran off with Alvin and became pregnant with Christy. After Christy's birth, Alvin abandoned the two at the hospital, causing Bonnie to decide to put Christy up for adoption (a nice Jewish couple was going to adopt her, but Bonnie backed out at the last minute). From then on, she tried her best to raise Christy, but Christy ended up mostly raising herself as Bonnie did drugs and came home late. The two were estranged for several years until Bonnie tracked Christy down.
Season 1
After tracking her down, Bonnie is determined to fit into her daughter's life, no matter how much it may annoy the newly-sober Christy.
In "Big Sur and Strawberry Lube" [08] Bonnie thinks she's pregnant. However, a visit to the gynecologist reveals she's not pregnant and all the symptoms she mistook for being pregnant (big boobs, no periods) are from starting menopause. Understandably, she becomes very upset at this as she walks out of the clinic and Christy pretends not to know her.
Appearance
- Light brown hair, almost reaching down to chest
- Blue eyes
- Pierced ears, different earrings, sometimes none
Relationships
Family
Christy

Relationship: Daughter
Bonnie and Christy have a very complicated relationship. When Christy was a child, Bonnie would often do drugs, get drunk, and occasionally commit felonies, sometimes bringing Christy along for the ride. Having gotten sober years later, the two have reconnected, though Christy still blames Bonnie for some of the choices she has made, because of her upbringing. But ultimately, they share a supportive relationship with one another.
Violet
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Relationship: Granddaughter
Bonnie has been a source of comfort to her granddaughter through the years. Violet holds a lot of resentment towards Christy, but she has seems to be comfortable talking to Bonnie. When Violet cuts ties with Christy after the fourth season, she still keeps in touch with Bonnie (even apparently going so far as to invite her to her new apartment).
Roscoe
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Relationship: Grandson
Bonnie is Roscoe's grandmother.
Shirley

Relationship: Biological Mother
Bonnie harbors a long-held resentment towards her mother, who abandoned her to the foster system when she was four years old, where she'd stay for the rest of her childhood, into adolescence. After her bad experience in foster care, Bonnie put much of the blame for her problems on her mother. After she meets her again after so many years in "Terrorists and Gingerbread", Bonnie was convinced by Marjorie to forgive her mother and ultimately does for her own sake, but decides she can't handle letting her mother back into her life.
Ray
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Relationship: Half-Brother (through Shirley)
Bonnie is Ray's half-sister, and they both had no idea the other existed until the meet after Shirley's death in "Tush Push and Some Radishes". Bonnie was upset Shirley had kept one child while giving her up and didn't hesitate to yell her resentment at him. However, Ray gave her a brutal reality check at her wanting Shirley in her life by stating it wasn't easy being raised by their mother who was a horrible parent to him, by neglecting him after he was abandoned himself by his father. Ray also revealed he had troubled life and struggled as a gay black man and when he succeeded, he got far away from their mother and wanted to do the same with Bonnie for her unfair treatment.
Their next meeting in “Lockjaw and a Liquid Diet“, goes better and Bonnie even admitted that she was wrong to put her resentment on him and reluctantly put her pride aside to ask him for legal advice. Ray agreed to help and he succeeds in getting Bonnie off the hook. Much later, she invites him to dinner with her friends and she voices her gratitude at him, finally seeing him as her family. Ray was accepting and took the time to voice how he suffers from drug/substance abuse but this only solidifies Bonnie's view of being her brother after seeing they both had issues.
Friendships
Baxter
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Relationship: Ex-Son-in-Law, Friend
Bonnie is Baxter's ex-mother-in-law.
Romantic
Alvin
[Image Goes Here]
Relationship: Ex/Late-Boyfriend
Alvin was an early boyfriend of Bonnie's when she was a teenager. They were living together when Bonnie got pregnant with Christy. After Christy was born, Alvin ran away, abandoning Bonnie and baby Christy at the hospital, something Bonnie resented Alvin for for years. When Christy begins establishing a relationship with her father after finding out his identity, Bonnie is against it and repeatedly threatens him or taunts him for his failings. However, after he has a heart attack, Bonnie's romantic feelings for him re-emerge and the two begin dating again. After he dies, Bonnie is devastated and it takes a while for her to heal from the loss.
Adam
[Image Goes Here]
Relationship: Husband
Adam is Bonnie's boyfriend and later husband, whom she met over the phone after he dialed the wrong number.
Trivia
- The only character that appeared in every episode of the show's run.
- Has a love-hate relationship with Marjorie.
- Bonnie loss her sobriety two times.
- The first was over alcohol.
- The second was intentionally by cat pill medicine.
- The third was accidentally consuming marijuana cookies, but since she didn’t know what was in it it doesn’t count according to Marjorie.
- Bonnie hates scrabble games and puzzles, (Puzzle Club and a Closet Party).
- She has attention deficit disorder/A.D.D. (Skippy And The Knowledge Hole).
- She was kicked out of 12 foster homes, on her own at age 16, became an addict and criminal at 18, (A Dark Closet and Therapy With Horses).
- When she lived with Claire and Frank Dickinson it was her ninth faster home (Triple Dip and an Overhand Grip).
- Bonnie doesn’t know how to swim, (Texas Pete and a Parking Lot Carnival).
- Bonnie's blood type is AB negative (Illegal Eels and the Cantaloupe Man).
Appearances
Seasons |
Episode | ||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | Total | |
Season 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 22 |
Season 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 22 |
Season 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 22 |
Season 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 22 |
Season 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 22 |
Season 6 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 22 |
Season 7 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | N/A | 20 |
Season 8 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 18 |
(*PLEASE SEE HERE FOR APPEARANCES TABLE CODING*)