nsequeira-50288 This show is OK. It's not that funny. I'd watch it if there was absolutely nothing better on. I'll tell you why. I've seen most episodes of this show. None of them are that good. A few are mediocre. It's a mediocre show at best.Mama's Family started out as a little sketch on Carol Burnett and Friends. It was funny, I'll give it that. It was fun to peer inside the lives of a dysfunctional family and see how they behaved. The sketches essentially started out like this: They'd be put in some situation, and they'd try to behave nonchalant, and loving to one another, but then the dam bursts, and they go nuts and start breaking down and pointing out little flaws about each other and so on. You know, the usual dysfunctional family stuff. They break down playing Sorry, they break down in front of Roddy McDowall, and so on. This was funny up to a point. It was NOT meant to turn into a hundred-episode separate sitcom.Carol Burnett and Friends is funny, Mama's Family is not funny. Why? Well, for one, Carol Burnett has variety. They do a thousand different things on there, from the sketch where Carol plays the queen of England to the one where she's Houdini's niece or something, and they always have big guest stars. It's funny. Mama's Family is not funny. It's the same formulaic plot structure used over and over again. In fact, they don't even usually use the plot how it's supposed to be- sometimes they don't even break down, they just act nonchalant. And, in order to stop the audience from falling asleep, they keep coming up with new plots- but it doesn't work, it just doesn't have the same charm that Carol Burnett and Friends had.Another thing I hate is that Mama's family doesn't even have Carol Burnett OR Harvey Korman, who were crucial to the original sketches. they're both funny. Carol shows up in the pilot episode or something, then she vanishes and she's never seen again, and Harvey Korman's character, Ed, is even less heard from. The original sketches were also funny because Tim Conway played Ed's stupid sidekick. No more Tim Conway. Or Carol Burnett. Or Harvey Korman. they don't keep a single one. Just Vicki Lawrence. Don't get me wrong, she's pretty funny, but not as funny as Carol. Once Carol is gone, all the charisma gets sucked out of it. It's not funny anymore. To replace Carol, we have Iola, a weirdo who's stuck with her elderly mother. She's not funny, just sort of pitiful and depressing. To replace Harvey Korman's boisterous Ed, we have Ken Berry as Venton- who's not as funny as Harvey Korman because he's a mentally unstable sissy with relationship problems. To top it all off, we add Naomi, the sexy lady, Venton's wife- who annoys everyone with how snobby she is. The family is still dysfunctional, but not in a funny way. Vicki Lawrence isn't a very good old lady- she wasn't old when the show was made, so it seems insane- like she's pretending to be old or something- she just screams in a little nasally voice and does silly things and bugs everyone. She's not that funny. Betty White is in the first few episodes, and you think the reboot might turn out successful, but then she leaves, too.They try to revive the show many, many times- through an episode where Thelma dreams she's a detective and one wheere she does dirty dancing and one where she goes to a yoga place or something- but it's not funny. The plots become bizarre. Then, in the last season, they have a baby, just to tweak the hearts of the viewers a bit- but it doesn't work. This rotten tomato is cancelled soon after, and the dysfunctional family fades away into obscurity. Honestly, I just don't know why those five minute long sketches on Carol Burnett were turned into a sitcom. it was a bad idea. To be honest, a Carol Burnett spinoff didn't have to be bad- it could have been pulled off well. maybe there could have been a sitcom about those sketches where Carol and Harvey play a modern married couple and Vicki plays Carol's younger sister. maybe there could have been a real life adaptation of As The Stomach Turns, the show's soap opera parody. Maybe we could have seen Tim Conway swallow that hand grenade. Maybe there could have been a Dorf/Carol Burnett crossover. the possibilities are endless, really. They just made the wrong choice. Mama's Family is not absurd or funny in any way- it's an undead thing trying to reclaim its glory days, and it just goes on for too long. I don't care about watching Southern hicks fight it out. That's not funny. This show is dull and lifeless and I don't know why it was even a thing, or why the guys behind the Carol Burnett show saw relevance in the character of Thelma Harper. everything about it is wrong. I'm giving it a three, though, because the theme song is OK.

OmegaWolf747 The only reason I don't give this show ten stars is the first two seasons weren't all that great. The characters hadn't yet developed and the show seemed like a comedy pretending to be a serious soap opera. Then in the third season, things suddenly fell into place. Bubba and Iola were introduced and annoying characters like Buzz and Sonja faded out of the picture.I love Mama's personality and how she doesn't take crap from anyone, especially her idiot son and his wife. If Vinton gets too big for his britches, Mama gives him the smack down. A classic line: Vinton: "Aw, Mama fish again?" Mama: "Fish is brain food. I'm givin' you a double helpin'." That had me cracking up.Naomi is a complete floozy and she and Mama rarely agree on anything. Mama: "In my day, husbands and wives made love. These days, it's just shaking' the sheets." Naomi: "Excuse me Mrs. Harper, but I am performing my wifely duties." Mama: "Why is it none of your wifely duties are ever performed standing up?" Bubba is great. We see him grow from an ex-juvenile delinquent into a fine young man as well as become very handsome. In the later episodes, we see that he is indeed quite intelligent.Iola is sweet though she can be annoying at times because she seems to cry at the drop of a hat. My favorite episodes with Iola were the one where her cat Midnight died but she got to keep one of the kittens hidden in a treasure trunk that Vinton, Bubba and Naomi bought and the one where the Harpers sold all her handicrafts so they could buy a VCR.This is a show that'll still be considered a classic 50 years from now.Mama: "Who drinks vodka at the beach?" Olga: "Everybody!"

Studioart81 Before "Roseanne" and during the height of "The Golden Girls", one perhaps lesser known sitcom made it big. It was none other than "Mama's Family." I was a die-hard fan of this show when it aired in syndication in the late 80s and early 90s. While not as realistically funny as say "Roseanne", I liked "Mama's Family" for its down-home Southern humor. My grandmother and I seemed to never tire of this show. I taped nearly all episodes in syndication. Naturally, I am pleased that the first season has finally been released on DVD. Yet, it needs more in the way of special features, even if the original uncut episodes are not available.The series concerned the Harper family situated in Raytown, part of the "tri-state area" as Mama often said. Presumably, it was based on the real-life city of Raytown, Missouri. Vicki Lawrence is Mama, better known as Thelma Harper. Thelma is an unemployed, widowed, sarcastic, but lovable person who, in the original NBC series, shares her small house with her journalist sister Fran, played by Rue McClanahan. Ken Berry is her dim-witted, locksmith son Vinton, who moves into her house with his children Buzz and Sonja from his first marriage. He soon marries next-door neighbor Naomi, whom he knew in high school but never dated. Naomi is a cashier at the local store Food Circus, and like Vinton, has been married before. Plans to live on their own do not work out, so Vint and Naomi move into Thelma's house and live in her basement. Adding more tension and humor to the plot are Mama's daughters: the drunken, argumentative Eunice, played by Carol Burnett, and rich, stuck-up Ellen, played by Betty White. Harvey Korman is Eunice's husband Ed. Ellen's husband Bruce is mentioned but never seen; they eventually divorce. Thelma is often seen as manipulative, bossy, and difficult to work and live with. Fortunately though, she has a caring anf loving side. This makes her a humorous and likable character. On a side note, "Mama's Family" was originally based on characters and stories from "The Carol Burnett Show."The NBC series ran for two seasons (35 episodes) from early 1983 to mid 1985, and was then canceled. Initially, it looked like the end of the series, but that was short-lived. In 1986, an updated version of "Mama's Family" was picked up by CBS and sold into first-run syndication for four seasons. Only Thelma, Vint, and Naomi from the NBC cast remained in the syndicated series. Fran was written out as having passed away, Buzz and Sonja had graduated high school and moved out (no explanation was given as to their whereabouts, but they may have gone out West to be closer to their mother), and Ed and Eunice had relocated to Florida. Ellen makes one guest appearance, but otherwise fades. Ed and Eunice's son Bubba is in reform school in Raytown for stealing a car, and moves in with Mama after serving his sentence. Neighbor Iola Boyland makes frequent appearances at Mama's house and has a crush on Vint. Iola is unemployed, not married, and lives with her domineering parents. She is also very into arts and crafts, and designs many treasures. Later on, Vint and Naomi have a baby girl named Tiffany Thelma.In my opinion, the syndicated edition of "Mama's Family" was much better than the NBC edition. The first edition, while good, was too dramatic and tense at times (i.e. they do a lot of yelling and screaming). The house interior also has a different design, with a large window between the stairs and the closet, darker wallpaper, and darker stage lighting as well. Mama, Vint, and Naomi are not as funny either, as all three have a tougher edge to their characters. They are made funnier and grow into themselves much more in the syndicated series. In syndication, the interior design of the house is better. The window between the stairs and the closet is removed, the wallpaper is a much brighter flower-like color, the doors are painted yellow, and the lighting is much brighter. The symbolism here I believe is that the show was supposed to be funnier in syndication, and it definitely was! My only hope is that enough consumers purchase the first season DVD set, and future seasons are released and have special features. Live on "Mama's Family"!

ucdc "Mama's Family" has become so addictive that my "body clock" awakens me each morning before 5:00, at which time I view currently the best family show rerun. It's too bad that that the cast isn't regrouped to have this wonderful show live again.Needless to say, it would be "dead in the water" without "Mama" but the others are just icing on the cake. I love all of them, and have visited their biographies, but never learn all I would like to know about them.It seems hopeless that Vinton will ever wise up, but of course it would of necessity eliminate his "peachy" wife. The show would be lacking if it were not for Viola, whose twittering makes one anxious for her next comments.IS IT POSSIBLE FOR THE SHOW TO RESUME AS A CURRENT PRODUCTION?