The Final Episode #103: Mama's Family (1983- 1984, 1986- 1990)

 

Well here we are, ready, steady, spaghetti! That's right this time we are talking about a show that started on NBC but ended up in syndication. The show of the moment is Mama's Family. A spinoff of The Carol Burnett Show. I've not seen enough of that show but I'm going to assume that the Mama Family sketches on it were funnier than the series. They even had a made for TV movie called Eunice which served as the pilot for the series! Isn't that wild. However it seemed NBC wasn't too keen on the ratings the show got and cancelled it in 1984 after just two seasons. The guy who created the show got the rights back or something I dunno and made more episodes in 1986 to 1990 for syndication.

I think of all the articles or columns or blog posts or whatever the hell you want to call them, my favorite to do is The Final Episode. Some times for these shows I never saw the Final Episode. I certainly didn't see the Final Episode of say TMNT when it first aired. It also gives me a chance to rewatch just about any TV show from my youth. The ones I liked, the ones I didn't. It's fascinating to see that some shows that I liked just ended on a really poor note. (looking at every clipshow that doesn't involve Emmanuelle Lewis joining the Star Trek Enterprise). It's also interesting to see when I show I didn't like at least gave the people who were fans a fun ending. It's always a surprise to see what happens in The Final Episode of any given show from this time. I dunno, but I have fun with it.

I like to mix it up a bit from time to time and talk about shows I didn't like. I feel like I'm fair and I'm even willing to give things a second shot. Most things I'm willing to give a second shot after some time has passed. Not everything. I'm never watching say Last Ounce of Courage again. I know that won't improve over time. I'm just so into the past that I'm willing to give something I didn't like when I was like 13 another go around. This is just my long rambling way of saying I was not a fan of the Mama's Family spinoff. This show and Full House would be on late in the afternoon when we would get ready for supper. My sister loved both of those shows and I was forced to sit there and watch them. I just thought they were incredibly annoying as a kid. However I did find Full House's Final Episode to be a bunch of 90s cheese that was actually kinda fun to watch. Not rushing out to watch every episode or anything but I didn't hate it.

I also am talking about Mama's Family because I want to discuss at least every TV show I can remember watching on this blog because why not. It'll be fun to talk about weirdo Canadian cartoons that confuse portnoyd like Stop the Smoggies!. Now let's see if Mama's Family is as annoying as I remember or was little claw wrong. The show involved Mama and her Family. Mama was played by Vicki Lawrence and Harvey Korman, Carol Burnett, Betty White and Rue McClanahan  from the Golden Girls played a reoccurring role. I do not remember any of them from this show but it seems they were only in the first two seasons for the most part. I guess TBS only showed the last four seasons of this show. I do remember then only playing the Steve episodes of Full House. Did you know Steve went on to voice Aladdin in the Disney movie? Wild.

The Final Episode of Mama's Family was called Bye Bye Baby! and came to our television screens on February 24th, 1990 and was the 130th episode of the show. The cast actually voluntariy ended the show which is a nice thing when you realize how many shows end with the cast still probably wanting to continue. It's nice to get to be like "Yeah, I'm done with this" instead of "Fuck you, you're done with this" kinda ending. Anyway, This episode was directed by Dave Powers who had a great name and also worked on Three's Company, a show that went on for longer than humanly thought possible with the premise it had. It was written by Jim Evering who worked on Punky Brewster and The Wayanes Bros.. Those two shows couldn't be more different from one another. 

I now remember why watching this show was torture. It's somehow the most annoying and boring thing on the planet. These twenty one minutes of show were so tedious and I think it might end up giving me a headache. I feel one coming on. Anyway if I had to talk about this show in one word It would be shrill. The people in the show put on silly comedic voices for their characters and they are awful. Just simply awful. The people in this show also argue a lot in those silly comedic voices. I hate them. So much. Anyway let's get this messy turd out of the way. There's really not much to talk about for this shows Final Episode so I don't even know how long this is gonna be.

The show starts out with Iola coming to return some National Geographic Magazines to Mama. She talks about all the extension cords coming from the house to a trailer. This trailer is owned by Vinton, Mama's son and Naomi his wife. They are very stupid but in a way that's just not all that funny. More annoying stupid than funny stupid. Naomi is about to give birth to a baby. Vinton goes to work and Naomi comes out and Mama tells her a fake story about how it was to give birth to Vinton. Vinton plays his father Carl in this flash back. Naomi then goes back to the trailer.  She then tells the real story to Iola about how Carl was a useless piece of shit when it came to the baby and she had to go on the bus to the hospital.

So now they are in the house. Bubba is doing stuff to get on a Water Polo team. Yeah I forgot to mention that because it's a B-plot that could have been cut out. It would have been better if it was. Anyway Bubba leaves and so does Iola who was showing off some dumb piece of shit art she made with dryer lint for the baby. She goes off to a laundromat somewhere off in the city. Woohoo. So yeah you know what's gonna happen the BABY is coming! Oh shit! Vinton does some comedic shit like fainting and Mama helps give birth. They name the baby Tiffany Thelma Whatever the Fuck her last name is. I don't care enough to look that up.  Iola, Bubba, Vinton, Mama, and Naomi do what they do best which is horribly argue with each other over and over. It's garbage. I hate it.

FINAL VERDICT: This show barely gave me any stuff to work with. I gave endings that were just CLIPSHOWS more in the description area. It's not much of an episode. Nothing really wild happens and they just have a baby. Maybe they could have had some wild stuff if they had a budget. This is a very cheap looking show. I don't even think I can say this is a good Final Episode for people who liked the show. It's very shallow and boring but I don't like this stupid show in any way. Now Portnoyd will comment about how much he loved this show.