Paula Small

(Voiced by Paula Poundstone, eps 1-5, Janine Ditullo, eps 6-52)—Paula Small is Brendon’s single mother, a (temporarily unemployed) creative writing teacher (apparently having taught in her younger days, as mentioned in Method of Acting) and author. She is usually supportive of Brendon's filmmaking, but sometimes sees it as a nuisance or unhealthy. She talks very frankly with Brendon about life issues, and they both make age-inappropriate jokes, thereby creating much more of a friendship between them than is usual. She is highly critical of Andrew's (Brendon’s father’s) relationship with Linda, frequently mocking the age disparity. Paula occasionally interferes with Brendon's movies, out of boredom or thanks to manipulation by Jason or Melissa. She frequently attempts to improve Brendon's apathy towards his schoolwork, to no avail. Paula performs terribly in pressure situations, such as job interviews and parent-teacher conferences. Her love life is rare to non-existent. In the very first episode, Paula and Coach McGuirk go out on a date, but Paula can barely handle sitting through dinner, and they do not go out on a second date. Jason and Melissa suggest in the series finale that Paula and McGuirk belong together, and Brendon hesitantly admits they look good together.