Mama's Family Season 1
Mama's
Family
DVDs
Buy now!
Product Description:
Thank goodness it's Mama's Family and not yours! Mama's Family of
dingalings, wannabes and can't-get-alongs sure knows how to put the
fun in dysfunctional. Season 1 of this uproarious working-class
comedy series -spun off the popular skits originated on The Carol
Burnett Show - stars Burnett Show alumna Vicki Lawrence as
cantankerous Mama. Ken Berry (F Troop) as her dim-bulb son and Rue
McClanahan (The Golden Girls) as her flighty sister. Add guest
appearances by Carol Burnett as tightly wound daughter Eunice,
Burnett Show veteran Harvey Korman as Eunice's hapless hubby and
Betty White (The Golden Girls) as Mama's highfalutin daughter Ellen,
and you have 13 hilarious episodes in a 2-disc set that prove Father
knows best...but Mama knows funny!
Amazon.com:
Do you remember Mama? How could you forget her? As indelibly
portrayed by Vicki Lawrence, formidable Mama put the "diss" in
dysfunctional. Like Tyler Perry's Madea a decade later (but without
the penchant for firearms or corporeal punishment), Mama dispenses
no-nonsense motherly advice, discipline, and verbal kicks in the
backside. She makes Dr. Phil look like Stuart Smalley. Thelma Harper
does not suffer fools. She makes them--well, everybody--suffer.
These include her sister, Fran (Rue McLanahan, The Golden Girls), a
journalist who lives with her; her feckless son, Vint (Ken Berry,
F-Troop), who moves in with his two teenagers after he is evicted
from his house; and "bleached-blonde bimbo" Naomi (Dorothy Lyman,
the original Opal on All My Children), who marries Vint by episode
4. Mama's extended family includes her two daughters, highfalutin
Ellen (Betty White) and high-strung Eunice (Carol Burnett), who, to
say the least, has issues. No one will mistake Mama's family for the
Cleavers or the Bradys. They communicate mostly by screaming, and
with put-downs often more cruel than comical. As a bystander tells
Mama and Eunice in one episode, "Hold it, you're giving me a
headache." One of the most memorable episodes is the one in which
the Harpers must stick together when they appear on Family Feud
(featuring a game Richard Dawson). Lawrence and Burnett, who appears
in four episodes, share a palpable chemistry, honed all those years
on The Carol Burnett Show, where Mama originated. As with those
classic sketches, the best of these episodes, such as "Cellmates,"
in which Mama and Eunice are jailed after a disastrous birthday
celebration, can make you laugh one minute and move you the next.
Mama's Family is a great place to visit. Thank god we don't have to
live there. --Donald Liebenson
