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"Mama's Family: The Complete Series" Coming Soon

The high point of "Mama's Family" was the appearance of Carol Burnette as "Eunice", in the imbedded skits on her variety show. The later stand-alone series, sans Carol, wasn't as funny, IMO. Ken Berry's role as George Costanza-like-hapless flunkie just never got off the ground. The lead character, Mama, was powerful, but not as humorous as her chemistry driven collaboration with Burnette.
 
The losses of Rue McClanahan and Betty White, as well as the obvious loss of Carol Burnett, took a lot of life out of the show, even if it did have a longer run without them in syndication than with them on NBC. I never really followed the syndicated show, since it usually aired in easily-overlooked weekend time slots in my market.
 
I always thought "Mama's Family" became funnier after it became a syndicated program.
 
Mario500 said:
This is good news for folks in the Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida TV market, where the program was very popular years ago.
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So, Mario500, are you saying this is bad news for the rest of us in the other 209 markets? Because I rather enjoyed watching Mama's Family myself, and I've never been anywhere near Mobile or Pensacola. You should probably tack on an addendum, just in case you're right that historians several decades from now will stumble across these postings.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this new collection. You want to talk about which was funnier, the NBC or syndicated version: I feel they are almost like two interpretations of the same characters. The NBC show felt much like a continuation from the original Carol Burnett series and played out like half-hour sketch comedies. The syndicated version was like taking some of the same characters and placing them in a reimagined, updated environment that was standard sitcom fare. Syndicated Mama may not have been as riotously hilarious as NBC Mama, but it was still funny in a comfortable way.
 
Brother said:
So, Mario500, are you saying this is bad news for the rest of us in the other 209 markets? Because I rather enjoyed watching Mama's Family myself, and I've never been anywhere near Mobile or Pensacola. You should probably tack on an addendum, just in case you're right that historians several decades from now will stumble across these postings.
Click to expand...

I did not imply anything about the news being bad for the other TV markets. I would never make that assumption.
 
Here is a link to an article about the TV history of "Mama's Family" in Mobile, Alabama (the article includes details about national broadcasters and local broadcasters).
 
I probably saw most of the NBC and syndicated episodes at least once...the show was always a favorite. I always thought the funniest episode was the two-parter from the first season (on NBC) where Vint and Naomi got married. Of course, that episode featured Rue McClannahan, Carol Burnett, Betty White, and Harvey Korman.
 
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