User reviews

Loved this character when she was on The Carol Burnett Show when I was a kid, and was thrilled when they gave her this show. Thelma Harper is a sharp tongued, quick-witted, equal opportunity, insulting Spit-fire. Gotta love her and her goofy, lovable family. I still love watching re-runs of the Hilariously Ridiculous Show! ;D.

Mama's Family is a classic show from the 80's. It depicts how life was like then. The show is about Thelma "Mama" Harper living with her family, of which includes her son Vint and daughter-in-law Naomi. Earlier episodes have Vint and Naomi's 2 children of whom suddenly disappeared and had no in-show explanation for the disappearance. They were replaced by Vint's nephew and Thelma's daughter Eunice's son Bubba and their neighbor Iola. I have watched more of the episodes with Bubba and Iola and I definitely prefer those ones. The camera quality is definitely not as good like it is today. It does show how even live action content has evolved. The camera is better now than what it was 40 years ago. The show is pretty comical in my opinion, has pretty good humor. I find it like an earlier version of the Simpsons, with how the family looks like is different. It's definitely a show I would recommend to anyone who wants to know more about 80's society.

This is one of the best shows ever on television. This is the one I could watch forever. But the show really took off when it went into syndication. I like how they worked the name of the city of Raytown into everything, such as Ray-Mart, K-Ray(the radio station) and other goofy stores like The Donut Hut. Too bad the show ended with an open end as they could have gone on for a few more years with the baby storyline. And did anyone else notice that each of the five characters had a specific color they always wore? Iola had pink, Bubba had green, Naomi had yellow, Vint had brown and Thelma had blue/purple?

As many people have stated, this show did not try to solve any major problems or tackle any serious issues, it just made you laugh!! It was simply good, clean, insulting humor at its finest! Some things may have been a little 'over-the-top' but that is what made it so funny to watch. An old lady doing the kind of things Thelma was doing was not typical but who wants typical? All the characters and actors were very likable people as well. As an aspiring actor, this is one show I could only dream of working on. I would watch the actors in their scenes, and I could see them trying so hard not to laugh at themselves, however, still never breaking character. That is when you know the cast is having a blast at what they are doing! I'm so jealous! I have said over and over that Vicki Lawrence and this show as a 'whole' were very underrated. I have never seen a show as this one that has literally made me laugh out-loud! So in my book, this show is pure gold! While there were certain episodes in the first two seasons I enjoyed, it was the syndicated years that I loved the most. Sharp-tongued and sarcastic Thelma, dim-witted Mama's boy, Vinton, his floozy, dumb-blonde wife Naomi, the juvenile, turned-good grandson Bubba and the nosy, prissy, craft-wielding neighbor Iola that would give Martha Stewart a run for her money, made this show one of the funniest shows I have ever seen! I grew up to this show and still love it to this day! It's really a shame the new generation of young adults have to be subjected to the 'crud' (for lack of better words) that's on TV today. I don't really care if people have anything bad to say about it. It's a matter of opinion really. Everyone likes different things. The people that dislike this show like things that I think are just as bad, but I don't get onto websites comment pages and bash the heck out of them. Grow up people. I wish we could all be in an equally dysfunctional family like the Harpers. I also hope I'm half as feisty and full of sarcastic-flare as I am now when I reach Thelma's age. The one thing this show does teach is that age is just a state of mind. Thru the years, Thelma rode on a wrecking ball to save her house, wrestled two fat women in a bee-suit, boycotted a grocery store that sold sleazy magazines, became first runner-up in a Grandma USA pageant, ran for mayor and won and proved that you are never too old for romance just to name a few things. I can't wait for this show to be out on DVD! It's rather insulting that TBS chooses to only air this in the wee hours of the morning. I could think of a few other shows that deserve that kind of treatment, but not this show! 'Mama's Family' is a rare, comedic gem that you will not find anymore so please check it out! It's definitely worth it!

Of all the Carol Burnett show sketches, Mama's family was always my favorite with Eunice and Ed. When it came on television in NBC primetime, it stayed on for two seasons. It was worth watching a dysfunctional family like the Harpers for a change. No, the Harper's are not perfect but nobody else is. Perhaps the fact that the Harpers were really one of the first dysfunctional families in prime time television. I liked Rue McClanahan and Betty White as Aunt Franny and snobby Ellen on Mama's Family more than on the Golden Girls. I love watching the Harpers on TBS. After its prime time cancellation, they resurfaced in syndication and stayed on for a few more seasons. It is wonderful to have them again. I didn't care so much about the changes because they came back in syndication. Granted, I would have loved to see Eunice, Ed, Ellen, Buzz and Sonja again but it's better than not having anything. It shouldn't have been cancelled in the first place. So when they returned to They are Midwestern family, middle class, and highly dysfunctional but if they were functional than there would be no reason to watch this show but still it's worth to watch Mama and take a few lessons from the pro.

Very simply, they are all the syndicated episodes and NOT the original uncut/unedited NBC episodes. It is NOT the complete first season, all eps are edited to conform to 21:00 for syndication meaning jokes are cut, an extra commercial fade is included, all of the Harvey Korman intros are not here...very poorly done! Shame on a series I've been waiting for....booooooooooooooooo! If you're a true die hard Mama fan, don't buy this and go to http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/main/help/whv/customer_service.jsp and send them comments on why we're unhappy on this butcher job to a classic sitcom!

One of the worse sitcoms ever made. Very poor acting, very stupid content that insults one's intelligence. The aging makeup work done on Vicky Lawrence looks like a failed attempt at making a younger woman look old. Ken Berry is about one of the lousiest comedy actors ever, and is really lousy in this particular show. The only one in the cast that can even halfway act is Vicky Lawrence, but any merit in her acting here is canceled out by the poor material. And like Gomer Pyle and JJ Evans (of Good Times fame), her character is way overdone, to the point of being offensively so. This show could have been better written and cast, with Carol Burnette and Tim Conway instead of Vicky Lawrence and Ken Berry.

Loved this show from the day it premiered in 1983 until the day it ended it 1990. I remember being bitterly disappointed when NBC cancelled it in 1984. When it was revived for first-run syndication, I was skeptical if it could be as funny without seasoned pros like Rue McClanahan and Betty White, but the new "unknown" cast members quickly made me forget about the old as they made those characters their own. This is one of the few programs that made me laugh out loud during every single episode. But like the Beverly Hillbillies, this show was looked down upon by a lot of la-dee-dah people (as Mama would say) who thought they were above the lowbrow humor. Who cares? I know whenever I need a good laugh, I can always count on that cranky family from Raytown, USA.

loved this show...loved vickie lawrence.sure it was odd and campy but that was what made it great..think about it a 35 year old woman with a gray wig padding and support hose riding a motorcycle...guess im not alone either, due to the fact that it was the number 1 syndicated sitcom for most of its running time

This is a show that I enjoyed back when it was in prime time. I remember it all the way back to when it was on the Carol Burnett Show. It is still in syndication and due to its quirkiness, it has stayed fresh and timeless and still holds up today. A true underrated gem!

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.

I think Vicki Lawrence as Mama was the absolute best portrayal of a mother that I have ever seen. I immediately fell in love with this show that show from the very first time I saw it. I enjoyed how Vinton would do things like pawn off Mama's silver to get his friend Claude out of jail and then he goes and tell Mama what he did. Also how could anyone forget Carol Burnett as Eunice? She did the best she could as Eunice Higgins. My favorite episode is when Mama and Eunice are in jail because of Eunice's hissyfit at the Bigger Jigger. She finds out that years before an old boyfriend named Duke Reeves comes over to her house but gets sent away by Mama. That was one of my favorite episodes in the whole series. When it comes out on DVD I'm so getting it. Long live Mama and Eunice. Thank you

It's kind of funny; I remember watching this show as a kid (I believe in reruns), and remembered it being somewhat entertaining; however, I just caught an episode in syndication, and... WOW! It was BAD. I actually logged onto IMDB to see what the rating for the show was, and to see on which network it was originally aired (thinking it was cable or lesser known network). I was astonished to learn it was on NBC when it originally aired. I don't know if it just hasn't aged well or was never funny to begin with. Considering NBC ended up w such fantastic shows as Friends and Will & Grace, I'm pretty surprised they let this one through. And for more than a couple seasons. But, then, it is also the network that brought us "Joey" (shivering in disgust).

I'm wondering if it was packaged along w Hee-Haw or something else equally low brow.

This is one of the classics that I love watching to this day. Vicki Lawrence and the whole cast made this show great. The Best episodes are the ones with Bubba, Iola and the cast. Just some of Mama's looks and expressions will make me laugh out loud. Naomi is also great. Wish the show would have stayed on the air longer but thank god for a show that will make you laugh out loud. They don't make them like this anymore and they should!

Mama's Family is simply a fun sitcom with great characters and laugh out loud stories.

Used to be my favorite show at 5-6am in the morning while getting ready for school 😬

Mama's Family was one of my favorites as a kid. I could never get enough of short-tempered Mama and her goofy family. Still makes me laugh all these years later. I think the thing I liked the most about Mama though is deep down she really had a caring, heart of gold.

Admittedly, I don't often get to watch the Carol Burnett Show. So imagine my horror when I tuned in tonight, ready for some old time fun, when the entire episode they aired was this garbage! It is, and has always been, unfunny! They scream their lines. VIcki Lawrence can't act, she's always been lousy and I have no idea whatever possessed CB to hire a fat version of herself for her show. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! The addition of VL ruined her show, as she has ruined any show for decades. Between the yelling, the awful accent caricatures, the silly get ups and bad makeup and the dumb scripts, there is nothing NOTHING absolutely NOTHING watchable at all in this, what's been rated the worst sitcom of all time! And now I find out it lasted more than a dozen episodes? Unbelievable. Goes to show you that audiences will watch anything. I bet these were all Southerners, hillbillies, and trailer dwellers who didn't even realize how bad Hollywood was mocking "little America". 1/10 is way too much but there's no system yet to remove your stars from those intellectually challenged individuals (ya: you!) who gave this the unconscionable ten out of ten stars. I'm here to help bring the nonsense rating of this show well below its undeserved 7, so help me God. 1/10 for this nonsense!

One the greatest shows ever definitely up there with I love Lucy and Andy Griffith

As I said earlier, it's just a bad show. I don't think it can be blamed on her association w the show (given the success of Rue McClanahan and Betty White), but I sadly recently recognized "Naomi" in a non-speaking, 1 second role on a rerun of another sitcom that was less than stellar ("Raising Hope"). Although I will say Raising Hope is by far funnier than Mama's Family; which should say something.

Mama's Family is the BEST show for anyone who lives in the South. EVERYONE knows people like Mama, Vint, Iola... Mama reminds me of my Grandma. this show is like family to me. If I'm depressed, I pop in my tape of Mama reruns and just relax....it soothes me! I love this show...God bless TBS for caring enough to keep it going. Golden Girls is another show VERY similar to this which just warms your heart! Mama is a permanent part of my life. Did you ever see the one where Mama is home alone? She does Singin on the Rain on the porch! It's a classic!