According to IMDB Carol Burnett only did 6 episodes of the entire series.
For me, the series doesn't have the same chemistry because Carol Burnett is not part of the cast. Many TV series suffer when the loose a key character, and I feel that is the case with Mama's Family without Carol Burnett.
The show was a vehicle for Vicki Lawrence, not Burnett. This wasn't supposed to be a show about Eunice, it was about Mama. Burnett doing those handful of episodes in the beginning was really her just being nice, helping out an old friend and her husband get their project off the ground. Once it gained its legs, it was appropriate for her to back away and let Lawrence handle it from then on.
And as much as I enjoyed those episodes where CB guest starred, and would have liked to have seen a few more, the truth is that her presence always dominated everything - which wasn't good, because, again, this was supposed to be Lawrence's show.
True, and also Vickie and Carol had a slight falling out during the syndicated years or else I think Carol would have made a few more appearances. I feel like Carol would have maybe at lease appeared in Bubba's Graduation episode and MAYBE in the Christmas episodes.
Syndicated Mama was very feisty and loud, it would have been interesting to see how domineering Eunice would have faired against feisty ever-witted syndicated Mama. Earlier Mama would usually back down if Eunice was on a tirade BUT Syndicated Mama was never one to just back down like the earlier more bitter Mama was, But yet Eunice didn't back down either, so I wonder if their fights would have been much dramatic?
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I sorta consider their heart felt scene on the front porch at the end of the episode Cell Mates a SOMEWHAT "make-up" scene, Mama apologizes to Eunice for not having always been such a good mother, and Eunice does the same.
I feel that was their way of kinda closing out the Eunice chapter and having Eunice's character depart the show with her and Mama being at least somewhat on good terms with each other.
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I read somewhere that one of the reasons that Carol Burnett guest starred was because she was married to the show's producer, Joe Hamilton but stopped when she divorced him.
shareThere was some kind of lawsuit from Carol and Hamilton over ownership or something over the show.
The "family" sketches on Carol's '70s sketch show were brilliant, like a redneck blend of "Scenes from a Marriage" and "Virginia Wolfe". The sketches could be hysterically funny, but they were terribly tragic at the same time.
More to the point, the sketches were about Eunice's family, while the sitcom was, obviously, about Mama's family. So Burnett being on the sitcom would inevitably steal the scenes, simply because Eunice was Eunice. So I'm sure they felt it threw the balance of the show off -- that, and Carol's brief conflicts with Hamilton and even Lawrence, must have prevented any further appearances.
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Had Carol appeared more, I'm pretty sure Eunice's dramatic character would have been greatly toned down, or else, like you say, the show would have quickly become, "Eunice's Family" lol But you could already see her character being toned down to a great extent in her season 2 episode, Rashomama, which is notably Carol's last portrayal ever as Eunice Higgins. If you notice this is the ONLY Mama's Family episode that Eunice is in, in which she doesn't steal the whole episode and she is not the main character of the episode, like her other 4 episodes.
I've always said, I could see Eunice's character evolving into a "dark" Lucy Ricardo type character had she continued to make appearances.
It would have been cool to see Eunice in at least ONE syndicated episode. Of course there is a rumor that has been circulating for years that claims Eunice DID make an appearance in a syndicated episode, but was 1 of the 5 lost episodes. Supposedly the plot was Eunice has some illness and comes to the Harper home to recuperate.
From what I have heard is that when the show was being created that Carol and Harvey made it clear to Vicki that she would be carrying the show.
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