Joyce Benson

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Joyce Benson was a fictional character on the short-lived seventies comedy, Angie. She was played by actress Sharon Spelman.

[edit] Thrice divorced.

Joyce was the somewhat overbearing and highly status conscious daughter of Randall Benson (John Randolph), and sister of Brad, a pediatrician in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She had been married three times, and was going through a very rough divorce (her third), seeing a psychiatrist for said divorce. This was complicated because the psychiatrist really hated her. She had a daughter named Hilary (Tammy Lauren), whom she loved, and tended to smother.

When Brad met and fell in love with Angie Falco, she was in shock, given that she was going through a third divorce, which soured her on marriage in the first place. Secondly, the approval of high society meant a lot to her. And to her, Angie and her family, mother Theresa and her sister Marie (Debralee Scott) were anything but high class and rich. She had always wished that Brad had married someone who was his equal in class and status, and was sorely disappointed that her younger brother chose a poor waitress to marry.

She didn't necessarily like Angie, but she didn't outright dislike her either. She tolerated her for her brother's sake, for she was the woman he loved, and to tell him what she really thought, would have alienated him for good.

Joyce did try to make Angie fit into the new world that she had married into, but that was vetoed, by Angie, Brad and Randall. While Randall was willing to open his heart to his new daughter in-law, Joyce had more problems being open, considering that she was wrapped up in her own problems. Her daughter, however, thought Angie was wonderful, and that she made her Uncle Brad, whom she loved, happy.