When I was a wee lad, local television stations often played classic television programming that was more than two year old. Often times they ranged from being well in to the mid-seventies. Often times as a child whenever I found myself awake in the middle of the night, I’d often sneak in a few minutes or so of “Mama’s Family.” It was a long running and very well loved syndicated program for years, before networks phased out classic TV.
It was usually sandwiched between “Hee Haw” and “MASH,” and it was usually a fun half hour. Nowadays it’s a nice kitschy series that spun off from the popular skit from “The Carol Burnett Show.” Cast member Vicki Lawrence took her character of Mama once the series ended and gave audiences the Southern fried family sitcom that served as a relative precursor to the Madea movies.
Much like Madea, Mama was tough, rough around the edges, but had a really good heart, that often benefitted her odd family in the end. The series thankfully hasn’t aged much at all, if you watch it in the context of the Southern-centric seventies. Though Lawrence often played the matriarch and straight woman to the characters, she was often hilarious in her own ways, displaying her own form of Christian discipline that involved love and caring.
Among the cast members were Rue McClanahan, and her son Vint and eventual daughter in law, Naomi. “Mama’s Family” has genuine heart and old fashioned sitcom tropes for folks who love the staged open room environment of the bygone shows. Lawrence is hilarious as Mama, and is a woman much in the vein of Archie Bunker who is set in he ways, but learns to change with the times as her family grows over the course of the series. It may not appeal to everyone, but for my money “Mama’s Family” is a gem of a seventies sitcom worthy of an audience.
For folks expecting the royal treatments for “Mama’s Family,” you’ll find yourself very much out of luck. Though Time Life is often very generous about their releases, both season sets feature nothing but the edited syndicated cuts of the episodes. Fans who want the uncut and bold humor from the original series will likely have to wait longer until another studio offers up their edition of “Mama’s Family,” as fans had to do with “Roseanne” after Anchor Bay royally fouled up their release of the series.
To make things even worse, the DVD sets offer no special features or uncut scenes for the fans, not even as extras. The original theme song is missing in favor of a truncated version, while the Harvey Korman introductions have been edited out in favor of time. There are also no bloopers, no acknowledgement of the Carol Burnett Show, and none of the usual bells and whistles that should come with a spin off from a Grade A comedy series like “The Carol Burnett Show.”
The Season Two DVD atones for the mistakes made by the first release, with some interesting extras. There’s the original TV movie entitled “Eunice” focusing on Mama’s daughter as played by Carol Burnett. There’s the featurette “Mama’s Family Tree: The Roots” about Mama and her daughter Fran, as well as interviews with Mama conducted by Vicki Lawrence, along with Lawrence interviewing Carol Burnett, and Betty White.
For folks who want to spend some time with Mama and her eccentric Southern family, Season One and Season Two are now available for purchase.