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Helen Pryor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| American Dreams character | |
| Helen Pryor | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Blonde |
| Eye color | Blue |
| Portrayed by | Gail O'Grady |
Helen Pryor is a fictional character from the NBC television show American Dreams, played by actress Gail O'Grady. She is the mother of the Pryor household, an Irish Catholic family living in West Philadelphia between 1963 and 1966.
Helen was born as Helen Dolan in the Philadelphia area. She began dating Jack Pryor when she was 17. After Jack's return from the South Pacific (where he was serving in the Navy in World War II), Jack and Helen were married in November 1945. She gave birth to her son John Jr., or "JJ", in 1946, followed by Meg in 1948, Patricia in 1951 and Will in 1956. Helen and Jack considered having a fifth child, but they decided not to do so early in the show's first season.
Helen, a strict Catholic, then struggled with the decision to begin using birth control. While Helen enjoys being a homemaker, the show depicts her growing interest in feminism, and as the years go by she becomes more and more willing to stand up to Jack when she disagrees with him. In the first season she began taking a literature course at Temple University, but took an incomplete after her professor made a pass at her. Early in the second season, she took a full-time travel agent job at the Pine Street Travel Agency. After JJ was reported missing in action in Vietnam, Helen suffered from a near nervous breakdown, and like her daughter Meg, she turned against the Vietnam War. She secretly joined a Catholic peace group and began using her job as a travel agent to help young men flee country to avoid the draft. Only Meg knew that her mother was involved in doing this, though JJ suspected it.
The show was cancelled by NBC in May 2005. Had the show been renewed for a fourth season, creator Jonathan Prince revealed that a major plotline would have had Jack, who supported the war, finding out about Helen's assistance to draft dodgers, causing a major conflict between them. [1]