Beverly Goldberg is the loud, fiercely loving, and wildly overprotective matriarch of the Goldberg family in 1980s Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. A dedicated housewife, she devotes her entire life to her husband Murray and their three children: Erica, Barry, and her youngest “baby,” Adam. Family is her entire identity, and she expresses her love through massive meals, aggressive hugs (“snuggies”), dramatic guilt trips, and constant meddling in everyone’s lives.

Though often embarrassing and over-the-top, her love is genuine and all-consuming. Beverly lives in constant fear that her children will no longer need her, which fuels her smothering behavior.