On View : The Mother of Them All : NO DONNA REED SHE, RENEE TAYLOR DEFINES THIS FALL’S NEW NURTURERS

Maaa!

Mothers’ heads turn reflexively when they hear that universal cry. Renee Taylor’s spins.

Taylor, the veteran actress and comedian, plays not one, not two, but three mothers on three different sitcoms this fall.

In addition to being Mom to her real-life 24-year-old son Gabriel, Taylor also answers to Mom when comedian Richard Lewis calls out on Fox’s new comedy “Daddy Dearest.” She’s the big-haired, gold lame-wearing mother to a daughter (Fran Drescher) who’s a street-smart nanny on CBS’ new show “The Nanny,” which bows on Wednesday. And on HBO’s acclaimed “Dream On,” she’s the overbearing, candy-chewing, face-lifted Ma to Martin (Brian Benben).

That’s a lot of moms for one TV season. But if Taylor is pegged as a mother type to grown- up kids, it’s just fine. “Well, I hope I am,” says the 50ish blonde who has been married to actor Joe Bologna for 28 years. These three roles have refueled her long career on Broadway, film and TV: “I think I’m like beginning. I think I’m getting my first wind, really.”

Just like Taylor, these moms break the mold. “All three mothers are outrageous characters,” she says, popping a piece of gum in her mouth. “Mothers used to be Donna Reed. I’m willing to show all these different aspects of myself.”

As Helen Mitchell on “Daddy Dearest,” she’s sweet to her psychologist son (played by Lewis), and biting toward her estranged husband (played by Don Rickles).

On this particular day, as Taylor sits in her dressing room waiting to be summoned to the “Daddy Dearest” set, she reflects on Helen’s mothering style.

“She’s very loving, and maybe smothering, maybe overprotective,” she says, with a strong New York accent. “But she’s also hysterical. She has all of these colors, which is why it’s so much fun to play her. They let me not be all on one note, as mothers used to be--either very good, or very bitchy. You get to be all these things.”

Taylor herself resists stereotypes. At once, this writer-director-actor-comedian hints of your aunt from Brooklyn, your lunch mate from Beverly Hills, a character in a Woody Allen movie, your funniest friend and someone with the warmth and insights of ... your mom.

Benben, who plays her son in “Dream On,” says he believes Taylor has become so hot in TV land because she’s “sort of a mother archetype. I think a lot of people can relate to her.” On his show, Taylor plays Doris Tupper, who is headstrong, but caring.

Taylor describes Doris as “very Florida by the pool.” “She’s very greedy, very selfish, but also very loving and needy. And very sexual.”

Taylor says the good thing about Doris and the other moms she plays is that they’re open; they talk about subjects like sex freely with their kids. She was the same way with her son.

But the three moms are not drawn from her own experience. “I don’t think I’m as daring as any of these characters.”

She does borrow from others in her life to create the roles. Her portrayal of Sylvia Fine in “The Nanny,” the mom from Flushing with the plastic shoes and the plastic couches, is inspired by Taylor’s aunt from the Bronx. “She had a lot of airs. She would use a fan. She was a a big flirt. She would go to the pool in the summertime with a parasol.”

Lewis (her son on “Daddy Dearest”), who is also an executive producer of the show, says, “She has one of the best ears for an actress that I’ve ever been around.”

Another muse for the roles is Taylor’s own late mother, Frieda. “There’s a little of my mother in all of them. Although my mother was shy, she was very pushy,” she says of the woman who once told playwright Noel Coward off for not casting her daughter.

In all three shows, even though she’s a mother to grown kids, Taylor’s characters are hands-on. Her mother was the same way. “I used to say, ‘You know, I don’t need a mother anymore. But we could be friends.”

Taylor’s life is more than the mommy track. She’s working on “Love All Ways,” a new play with Bologna, and hopes it will go to Broadway.

What has Taylor learned from the mother roles? “Not to be like any of them. The further I go with them, the more I can say, ‘I hope I never do that,’ ” she says with a laugh.

“Daddy Dearest” airs Sundays at 9:30 p.m. on Fox. “The Nanny” airs Wednesdays on CBS at 8:30 p.m. beginning Nov. 3 and “Dream On” airs Wednesdays on HBO at 10:30 p.m.