When Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence and Harvey Korman took the stage for a skit on The Carol Burnett Show, which cast them as the shrill oddly sympathetic Eunice, her dragon mama Thelma and her dim-witted husband Ed, a success was born. They were rolled off into a variety of follow-up skits affectionately known as "The Family". One thing did become clear though. There was no in-between with viewers - you either loved these skits or hated them. As a kid I usually turned out, but as an adult I find them remarkably clever and funny. In a sense, it should have been a no brainer to run the family off into their own show. This ultimately happened with the arrival in the 1980s of Mama's Family, with Lawrence's Thelma obviously being the focal point, and slightly more toned down from her dragon demeanor in the skits. The show lasted for two seasons on NBC. It was both popular and a ratings hit, but critically drubbed and NBC took a lot of heat for airing a straight-forward comedy with lowbrow humor and slapstick in the age of The Cosby Show and Family Ties where such were frowned upon, so it got the axe at the end of the second season. Syndication not having those worries, snatched the show up where it played for another four seasons, albeit with a smaller cast of characters.
The early seasons focus on Mama coping with the return of ne'er-do-well son Vint (Ken Berry) and his two teenage kids Buzz and Sonya (Eric Brown and Karin Argoud), who unexpectedly move in after Vint's wife abandons them to become a Las Vegas showgirl. This does not sit well with either Mama or her prissy sister Fran (Rue McClanahan) who rents one of the upstairs bedrooms. Much of the comedy centers on the crowded house and the divisive personalities rubbing up against each other. A rotating cast of recurring guest appearances include the always welcome Carol Burnett as the disastrous Eunice, Harvey Korman as the still dim-witted Ed, and Betty White as snooty eldest daughter Ellen. Dorothy Lyman started out as Thelma's sassy next door neighbor Naomi, but soon thereafter moved in as well after a whirlwind romance and marriage to Vint.
The show was far from perfect, but it knew how to milk a good laugh and by and large the cast was quite good. Lawrence knew this was her moment to strut her stuff and she did just that - throwing herself into the verbal one-liners, the slapstick and the insults with panache. Mama could be an old bat in her own right, but watching her call out fools or stick a pin in the pretentious was worth it. Lyman definitely tackled her role with aplomb as well, playing up Naomi's fascination with sex and holding her own more often than not against Mama and her daughters. Berry manages to make stupidity endearing as the chronic lovable loser Vint. I actually enjoyed McClanahan as Fran, but it seemed they never really gave her enough to do. Similarly, I am uncertain that Vint really needed two kids here. Brown is appealing and obviously included to win over teenage girls, but Argoud's silly Valley Girl-type shtick more often than not grinds the flow to a halt. She is not funny nor is she a "straight man", so the show would have functioned better without her. Burnett, Korman and White always seemed to be having a blast on their visits, so said visits were always welcome.
After the move to syndication, the show changed in some meaningful ways. Obviously the budget went down and several cast members were lost. Season 3 opens with the death of Fran (thus allowing McClanahan to go on and make TV history in The Golden Girls). Buzz and Sonya were briefly commented on and then completely forgotten altogether. Mama, Vint and Naomi were still on board, but now added to the mix was Beverly Archer as Mama's best friend and across the street neighbor Iola, a spinster with a crush on Vint forever waiting on her unseen demanding parents. Allan Kayser also arrived as Eunice's errant son Bubba fresh out of juvie hall and abandoned on Mama's doorstep. Archer was obviously included for the similarity with McClanahan's character, but in truth Archer has it better here. She gets a lot of comedic bits and subplots that were never gifted to McClanahan. I find her a charming addition to the cast and adore her trademark high-pitched "Knock Knock" as she constantly barges through the front door.
Much like Brown, Kayser is very appealing - perhaps too much so. The skits and the prior episodes made the never seen but often discussed Bubba seem like a mischievous monster, but we see none of that here in either the writing or the performance. Despite having purportedly exited juvenile hall, Kayser comes off as an all-American nice guy boy next door type. Unlike Brown though, the writers do funnel a good amount of comedic material over his way and incorporate him into the plots better. He is obviously on hand to appeal to young girls (and truly if those jeans were any tighter we could tell what religion he was), but he is no bystander floating on his looks. He does have a nice chemistry with Lawrence and can hold his own in the comical moments.
The other major changes in syndication are that the characters got a bit more exaggerated. Vint got monumentally stupid and Naomi's flooziness was accentuated. Neither of which proved to be much of a detraction for the show in general. Truthfully, I would love to have seen the show go on for a few more seasons. Sadly, only Betty White made a token appearance. We never did get to see any more of Burnett or Korman.
Oddly, despite its rating, viewer popularity and success in syndication, Mama's Family is still bullied as some kind of underwhelming aberration, with high-minded critics knocking it to this day. However, the comedy on the show in reruns still works because they knew what was funny and went for it, and did not ever let the show get bogged down in treacle. And truthfully, I think there are a lot of families that find more in common with the volatile and verbose Harpers than they ever did with the staid calm Huxtables, Keatons or Seavers that dominated the 1980s sitcoms. Honestly, knowing what we now know about Bill Cosby, the much ballyhooed Cosby Show that was declared the pinnacle of sitcom TV for decades has been rendered all but unwatchable. No, you keep those other families. I will stick with returning to the company of the Harpers.
The early seasons focus on Mama coping with the return of ne'er-do-well son Vint (Ken Berry) and his two teenage kids Buzz and Sonya (Eric Brown and Karin Argoud), who unexpectedly move in after Vint's wife abandons them to become a Las Vegas showgirl. This does not sit well with either Mama or her prissy sister Fran (Rue McClanahan) who rents one of the upstairs bedrooms. Much of the comedy centers on the crowded house and the divisive personalities rubbing up against each other. A rotating cast of recurring guest appearances include the always welcome Carol Burnett as the disastrous Eunice, Harvey Korman as the still dim-witted Ed, and Betty White as snooty eldest daughter Ellen. Dorothy Lyman started out as Thelma's sassy next door neighbor Naomi, but soon thereafter moved in as well after a whirlwind romance and marriage to Vint.
The show was far from perfect, but it knew how to milk a good laugh and by and large the cast was quite good. Lawrence knew this was her moment to strut her stuff and she did just that - throwing herself into the verbal one-liners, the slapstick and the insults with panache. Mama could be an old bat in her own right, but watching her call out fools or stick a pin in the pretentious was worth it. Lyman definitely tackled her role with aplomb as well, playing up Naomi's fascination with sex and holding her own more often than not against Mama and her daughters. Berry manages to make stupidity endearing as the chronic lovable loser Vint. I actually enjoyed McClanahan as Fran, but it seemed they never really gave her enough to do. Similarly, I am uncertain that Vint really needed two kids here. Brown is appealing and obviously included to win over teenage girls, but Argoud's silly Valley Girl-type shtick more often than not grinds the flow to a halt. She is not funny nor is she a "straight man", so the show would have functioned better without her. Burnett, Korman and White always seemed to be having a blast on their visits, so said visits were always welcome.
After the move to syndication, the show changed in some meaningful ways. Obviously the budget went down and several cast members were lost. Season 3 opens with the death of Fran (thus allowing McClanahan to go on and make TV history in The Golden Girls). Buzz and Sonya were briefly commented on and then completely forgotten altogether. Mama, Vint and Naomi were still on board, but now added to the mix was Beverly Archer as Mama's best friend and across the street neighbor Iola, a spinster with a crush on Vint forever waiting on her unseen demanding parents. Allan Kayser also arrived as Eunice's errant son Bubba fresh out of juvie hall and abandoned on Mama's doorstep. Archer was obviously included for the similarity with McClanahan's character, but in truth Archer has it better here. She gets a lot of comedic bits and subplots that were never gifted to McClanahan. I find her a charming addition to the cast and adore her trademark high-pitched "Knock Knock" as she constantly barges through the front door.
Much like Brown, Kayser is very appealing - perhaps too much so. The skits and the prior episodes made the never seen but often discussed Bubba seem like a mischievous monster, but we see none of that here in either the writing or the performance. Despite having purportedly exited juvenile hall, Kayser comes off as an all-American nice guy boy next door type. Unlike Brown though, the writers do funnel a good amount of comedic material over his way and incorporate him into the plots better. He is obviously on hand to appeal to young girls (and truly if those jeans were any tighter we could tell what religion he was), but he is no bystander floating on his looks. He does have a nice chemistry with Lawrence and can hold his own in the comical moments.
The other major changes in syndication are that the characters got a bit more exaggerated. Vint got monumentally stupid and Naomi's flooziness was accentuated. Neither of which proved to be much of a detraction for the show in general. Truthfully, I would love to have seen the show go on for a few more seasons. Sadly, only Betty White made a token appearance. We never did get to see any more of Burnett or Korman.
Oddly, despite its rating, viewer popularity and success in syndication, Mama's Family is still bullied as some kind of underwhelming aberration, with high-minded critics knocking it to this day. However, the comedy on the show in reruns still works because they knew what was funny and went for it, and did not ever let the show get bogged down in treacle. And truthfully, I think there are a lot of families that find more in common with the volatile and verbose Harpers than they ever did with the staid calm Huxtables, Keatons or Seavers that dominated the 1980s sitcoms. Honestly, knowing what we now know about Bill Cosby, the much ballyhooed Cosby Show that was declared the pinnacle of sitcom TV for decades has been rendered all but unwatchable. No, you keep those other families. I will stick with returning to the company of the Harpers.