Theresa Falco

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Theresa Falco was a fictional character on the short-lived sitcom Angie. She was played by actress and television favorite Doris Roberts.

[edit] Every bit the Italian mother.

Theresa was a divorcee who lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and basically became the sole breadwinner, when her husband left her nineteen years previously, leaving her with their two grown daughters, Angie and Marie (Debralee Scott) to raise.

She thinks that he will come back to her, and to that end, she still sets a place at the table for him. However he never does return, and as the show progressed, she stopped putting a place for the ex-husband at the table.

Theresa runs a newspaper stand, supposedly in Center City, Philadelphia, and has done so since the divorce. Although she did try valiantly, she was not able to manage the house and her two daughters with just her income. To that end, Angie also began to work. She worked as a waitress at the Liberty Coffee Shop, which was close enough to the newsstand to allow for Theresa to see how she was doing.

It was there that Angie met a man named Brad Benson, who on the outside looked like a poor medical student, but it was later discovered that he was a pediatrician at the medical buildling across the street from the coffee shop, and also the son of one of Philadelphia's richest families.

At first, Theresa wasn't too sure what to make of Brad, because of his rich and privileged upbringing. Just as Brad's father had no idea what to make of Angie, due to her poor upbringing. The parents clashed somewhat, as Theresa also did with Brad's three-times-divorced sister, Joyce, who was characteristically cold toward her daughter, something Theresa had absolutely no approval for, and, like any other mother, would defend her daughter to the death.

However, Theresa really loved Brad and made him feel like part of the family. Because to her, family means everything. Even Randall, as well as the more reserved Joyce, had to admit that Angie's mother was a real mother to Brad. This helped Randall become more welcoming to Angie, since she was without a father; and Theresa was a mother to Brad, since his own mother died; and although Joyce never grew close to Angie's family, Theresa made an effort anyway. Joyce's daughter, Hilary, however, loved Angie and her family.

Theresa was saddened that Angie and Brad had chosen to elope. It wasn't a surprise though, since the families were battling over the wedding plans. (Theresa had dreamed of giving her oldest daughter a huge wedding) Because the couple didn't want to make trouble for her, they all compromised and agreed to a small family wedding which included his family.

Theresa eventually sold the news stand, and Angie sold the coffee shop, which she had run for some time, to jointly purchase a Beauty salon, called Rose's House of Beauty, where they both worked with a vain and pleasure seeking hairstylist named Gianni (played by Tim Thomerson). Presumably, Angie and Theresa are still running the beauty shop, and making a good profit from it, and still dealing with the vain Gianni.