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| Sheila Shay | |
| Character Name: | Sheila Shay |
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Relatives: |
Fred Shay (husband) |
| Gender: | Female |
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Portrayed By: |
Ana Gasteyer |
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First Appearance: |
Pilot |
Sheila Shay is a recurring character on the show Suburgatory.
Background[]
Sheila Shay is a resident of the suburb Chatswin, is married to Fred Shay, and is the mother of Lisa and Ryan. Sheila and the Shays live directly across the street from Tessa and George Altman. She is known for her legendary rose garden and her pot roasts she welcomes new neighbors with. She is also known for, as president of the PTA, smothering every person she meets, child or adult, with motherly love ("The Chatterer", "Sweet Sixteen"). And she has a large collection of original, mint-condition Shirley Temple dolls ("Don't Call Me Shirley"). Also, she is almost entirely a stalker (mostly displayed in "Pilot", "The Barbeque", "The Chatterer", and "Sweet Sixteen"). She is entirely devoted to her career as a full-on mother. She spoils her son Ryan along with Fred because of his popularity and good-looks; this overshadows Lisa, who Sheila "substance-abuses" by doing wicked gestures, including taking Lisa's dessert away, putting Lisa's cat up for adoption, and plainly crushing Lisa's spirit. So, to get revenge on her mother for years of no desserts and missing her pet cat, Lisa steals her mother's beloved Shirley Temple dolls ("DCMS"). Additionally, Sheila completely babies Lisa by picking out her clothes, laying them out for her, and making her wear them ("Thanksgiving"). Once George and Tessa move into their new home, Sheila instantly stalks them and offers them pot roasts, therefore domineering over them by doing things such as packing Tessa's lunch, driving her to and from school, and setting up a college fund for her ("The Chatterer"). In "Sweet Sixteen", when George's back goes out, Sheila Shay takes care of him, only for him to find out that the previous man she took care of died as she nursed him (though he actually died of old age, this story was made up to mess with Sheila). Apparently, Sheila had a hysterectomy, which, as said by George, saved three-fourths of her ovaries ("Sweet Sixteen"). Dallas had also said she had a thyroid-removal surgery, which had removed 13 thyroids ("Pilot").
Sheila and Fred at George's barbeque.
Personality[]
Sheila is a very strictly conventional and overly mothering woman. Sheila can be annoying and nagging, mostly towards her neighbors, expecially the new ones. And once she gets stuck on something, it's hard for her to quit and she will become obsessive with a topic, only to go to extreme measures. For example, in "The Chatterer", she starts to get furious with George for his attempt to join the PTA, and wants him to quit immediately, but he doesn't. So when things won't go her way, she tries to embarass and annoy George until he finally gives up his PTA gig. It happens a few other times, though a main obsession of hers that has been occuring since "Pilot" is her trying to mother Tessa by doing every little thing she can - giving rides, packing lunches, and even assuring that she is up-to-date on her immunizations.
Her parenting style is unique, more like obsessive. Sheila is especially worried about her daughter Lisa and her lack of a social life. Yet whenever Sheila tries to bring her daughter's self esteem up a notch, she instead ends with tearing Lisa down. An example of this is in the "Barbeque", when Ryan's group of peers pool into the Shay house, and Lisa has no friends over. In front of George and Tessa, Sheila assures Lisa she has lots of friends, only to mouth the words "No friends!" behind Lisa's back. Sheila is a bully to Lisa most of the time, as shown in "The Barbeque" when Sheila makes gestures that insult Lisa on her physical appearance. For example, Sheila doesn't allow Lisa to eat dessert because Sheila is concerned about her daughter's weight. Lisa even says in "Don't Call Me Shirley" that Sheila has been confiscating Lisa's dessert for years. She even took Sheila's cat away and secretly put him up for adoption. Though, after all Sheila's substance abuse with Lisa, she favors Ryan. Sheila loves her baby boy with all her heart because of how far he is in life already - his popularity, good looks, etc. - despite the fact that Ryan is stupid beyond words.
In "Entering Eden", Lisa has a suspision about her mom after overhearing a conversation between Sheila and Jill in the bathroom, where Sheila was talking about surrogacy and how she has a past experience with it. Lisa then thinks she is a surrogate and decides to dig through family secrets, and finds tapes for the surrogacy agency. Then, in "The Motherload", Sheila sends Lisa to the basement freezer where Sheila keeps the family's blood in case of emergency. Sheila sees that Ryan is the only one with a different blood type, which is genetically impossible, proving Ryan is not really Sheila's biological child instead of Lisa.
Appearance Sheila Shay appears that she is in her late 40's. She has caramel brown hair with several streaks of gray that are sometimes highly noticeable. She is average in height and weight, though apparently she had to have several "thyroids" removed from her bottom. She usually wears loud, brightly colored gaudy and vibrant clothing, including headbands or hair bows and clothes with patterns on them - including polka dots and floral prints.[]
Quotes[]
Trivia[]
- Fred is very subservient to Sheila
- Noah is shown to be afraid of her