"The Family" is a series of comedy sketches featured on The Carol Burnett Show , with one final installment airing on Carol Burnett & Company . The Carol Burnett Show introduced the skit starting in the 1973-1974 season. Overall, it aired new installments of the skit for the last five seasons of its total 11-season run; the skit aired from the 1973-1974 season to the 1977-1978 season on the show. The final installment of "The Family" aired on September 8, 1979, after Burnett's CBS show had concluded, on a four-week summer series entitled Carol Burnett & Company. This was the only installment of "The Family" that did not air on The Carol Burnett Show. Altogether, there were 31 appearances of "The Family" sketches.
Not only was "The Family" well received to become a recurring skit on The Carol Burnett Show, but its success saw it developed into a 1982 TV movie titled Eunice , and then later spun off into a full-fledged sitcom in 1983, Mama's Family . Mama's Family first aired on NBC until it was cancelled in 1984, then revived in 1986 in first-run syndication, lasting until its series finale in 1990. [1] Carol Burnett, whose Eunice Higgins character was central in "The Family" sketches, did not appear in the sitcom's second incarnation, due to her acrimonious 1984 divorce from The Carol Burnett Show and Mama's Family producer Joe Hamilton, who owned all the Mama's Family characters. [2]
Along with Burnett as Eunice Higgins, "The Family" skits also featured Vicki Lawrence as Mama, Thelma Harper, [3] and Harvey Korman as Eunice's husband Ed Higgins. In "The Family" sketches, Mama has five children (in the subsequent series, she has only three): in addition to Ellen Harper (played by Betty White) and Eunice, there were three sons: Larry Harper (Alan Alda), Phillip Harper (Roddy McDowall in The Carol Burnett Show, Ken Berry in the TV movie Eunice), and Jack Harper (Tom Smothers). There was just one son, Vinton Harper (also played by Berry) in the spin-off television series. Tim Conway played recurring character Mickey Hart, Ed's employee.
"The Family" sketch was created and written by Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon. They originally had Burnett in mind to play Mama and have a guest star to play Eunice. However, Burnett decided that she wanted to play Eunice and wanted to give the part of Mama to Lawrence. Burnett also decided to do the sketch southern because of her own Texas background. The writers were so displeased with these adjustments that during the first run-through, they threw down their pads and pencils and stormed out of the rehearsal hall. They complained that the sketch was ruined and that it would offend the South. After airing to an enormously favorable viewer response, however, Clair and McMahon wrote the sketches for the rest of the run of the show. [4]
Among plot techniques, "The Family" uses: (A) satire and observational comedy, as the sketch subtly pokes fun at real-life occurrences and real-life human behaviors, inflating them and making fun of them; (B) comedy of manners, as the characters satirize the behaviors of blue-collar, working-class southerners and speak in exaggerated southern drawls.
Unlike Mama's Family, the central character of "The Family" sketches is Eunice. "The Family" sketches are about noisy, quarrelsome couple Eunice and Ed and their unwelcome houseguest who only adds to the drama: Eunice's catty elderly mama. There was a great deal more squabbling in "The Family" sketches than on Mama's Family. It was stated many times that Eunice and Ed had two young sons, Bubba Higgins and Billy-Joe Higgins (though in one skit, Eunice calls her children Bubba and Raymond). They are unseen characters in "The Family" sketches; however, the Bubba Higgins character appears as one of the main supporting role in the first-run syndication version of Mama's Family, played by Allan Kayser. Mama, Eunice, and Ed often have uproarious verbal wars over petty issues, such as board games (they played Monopoly , Sorry! , and Password ), how much butter has been used for the bread, what exactly happened 30 or 40 years ago, etc. The final "Family" sketch to air on The Carol Burnett Show had Eunice talking to a psychiatrist trying to figure out what went wrong with her life.
Nº | Season | Episode | Airdate | Title & Description | Guest Stars |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Season 7 (1973–1974) | Ep 22 | March 16, 1974 | The Reunion – Phillip comes home for a visit. | Roddy McDowall as Phillip |
2 | Season 8 (1974–1975) | Ep 1 | September 14, 1974 | Brotherly Love – Mama, Eunice and Ed come back home from church. | |
3 | Ep 5 | October 12, 1974 | Hospital Visit – The family visits Jack in the hospital. | Tom Smothers as Jack | |
4 | Ep 9 | November 16, 1974 | Sorry! – The family plays Sorry! | ||
5 | Ep 13 | December 21, 1974 | Home for the Holidays – Larry visits the family for Christmas. | Alan Alda as Larry | |
6 | Ep 16 | January 25, 1975 | Mama's Beau – Mama has a new beau, Willie. | William Conrad as Willie | |
7 | Ep 19 | February 22, 1975 | Mama's Accident – Mama breaks her leg and stays with Eunice and Ed while recuperating. | ||
8 | Ep 21 | March 15, 1975 | Visit to Phillip – The family visits Phillip in California. | Roddy McDowall as Phillip | |
9 | Ep 24 | April 5, 1975 | Hardware Store – Eunice and Mama visit Ed at the hardware store. | ||
10 | Season 9 (1975–1976) | Ep 1 | September 13, 1975 | Eunice Splits – Ed goes to a massage parlor. | Jim Nabors as Cab Driver |
11 | Ep 4 | October 4, 1975 | The Flashback – A flashback to when Eunice and Ed were dating. | ||
12 | Ep 7 | October 25, 1975 | Charades – Mickey has dinner with the family and they play charades. | ||
13 | Ep 10 | November 15, 1975 | Teacher's Dilemma – The family has a conference with Bubba's school teacher. | Maggie Smith as Mrs. Collins | |
14 | Ep 11 | November 22, 1975 | Mama's Birthday – Ellen comes over to Eunice's for Mama's birthday celebration. | Betty White as Ellen | |
15 | Ep 14 | December 13, 1975 | Aunt Mae Is Dead – The family goes to Mama's sister Mae's funeral. | ||
16 | Ep 20 | February 7, 1976 | The Restaurant – The family goes to an expensive restaurant. | ||
17 | Ep 21 | February 14, 1976 | Friend from the Past – Eunice reunites with her high school friend Midge. | Joanne Woodward as Midge Gibson | |
18 | Ep 24 | March 13, 1976 | The Business Fair – Eunice is jealous when Ed and Mickey go to a hardware convention. | ||
19 | Season 10 (1976–1977) | Ep 1 | September 25, 1976 | Monopoly – The family plays Monopoly . | |
20 | Ep 4 | October 16, 1976 | The Rehearsal – Eunice rehearses a play with her director Mavis Danton. | Madeline Kahn as Mavis Danton | |
21 | Ep 7 | November 6, 1976 | Mickey's Apartment – The family visits Mickey's apartment for dinner. | ||
22 | Ep 12 | December 11, 1976 | The Attic – Eunice, Ed and Ellen help Mama clean the attic. | Betty White as Ellen | |
23 | Ep 19 | February 12, 1977 | The Gong Show – Eunice appears on The Gong Show . | Chuck Barris, Jaye P. Morgan, Jamie Farr and Allen Ludden as themselves | |
24 | Season 11 (1977–1978) | Ep 1 | September 24, 1977 | Visit from Dan – Dan, an old friend of Ed's, comes to dinner; Ed has left Eunice. | |
25 | Ep 4 | October 15, 1977 | Overnight Guest – Mama drops in on a newly divorced Eunice unannounced. | ||
26 | Ep 7 | November 5, 1977 | Password [A] – Eunice and Mama play Password with Mickey and Dan. | ||
27 | Ep 12 | December 11, 1977 | Mama's Exodus – Eunice and Mickey try to coax Mama into a retirement home. | ||
28 | Ep 15 | January 8, 1978 | Honorary Degree – Phillip visits again to receive an honorary degree. | Roddy McDowall as Phillip | |
29 | Ep 21 | March 5, 1978 | Ellen's Anniversary – Eunice and Mama visit Ellen before her anniversary party. | Betty White as Ellen | |
30 | Ep 24 | March 29, 1978 | The Psychiatrist – Eunice and Mama visit a psychiatrist. | Craig Richard Nelson as Psychiatrist | |
31 | Carol Burnett & Company | Ep 1.4 | September 8, 1979 | Carl's Grave – Eunice and Mama visit the late Carl Harper's gravesite. |
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American comedian, actress, and singer. Her comedy-variety show The Carol Burnett Show, which originally aired on CBS, was one of the first to be hosted by a woman. She has performed on Broadway, on television, and in film of varying genres, including dramatic and comedic roles. She has received numerous accolades, including seven Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, a Grammy Award, and seven Golden Globe Awards. Burnett was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2013, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2015.
Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway was an American actor, comedian, writer, and director. Conway is perhaps best known as a regular cast member (1975–1978) on the TV comedy The Carol Burnett Show where he portrayed his recurrent iconic characters Mister Tudball and the Oldest Man. Over his career he received numerous accolades including five Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. He received the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999 and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2002.
The Carol Burnett Show is an American variety/sketch comedy television show that originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 279 episodes, and again with nine episodes in fall 1991. It starred Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner. In 1975, frequent guest star Tim Conway became a regular cast member after Waggoner left the series. In 1977, Dick Van Dyke replaced Korman but it was agreed that he was not a match and he left after 10 episodes.
Mama's Family is an American sitcom television series starring Vicki Lawrence as Mama. The series is a spin-off of a recurring series of comedy sketches called "The Family" featured on The Carol Burnett Show (1967–78) and Carol Burnett & Company (1979). The sketches led to the television film Eunice, and finally the television series.
In theatre, breaking character occurs when an actor fails to maintain the illusion that they are the character they are supposedly portraying. This is considered unprofessional while performing in front of an audience or camera. One of the most common ways of breaking character is corpsing, in which an actor loses their composure and laughs or giggles in a comedy scene or scene requiring ludicrous actions. If the breaking of character is particularly serious, it would normally result in an abandonment of a take in recorded or filmed drama.
Harvey Herschel Korman was an American actor and comedian who performed in television and film productions. He is best remembered as a main cast member alongside Carol Burnett, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence on the CBS sketch comedy series The Carol Burnett Show (1967–1977) for which he won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.
Vicki Lawrence, sometimes credited as Vicki Lawrence Schultz, is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She is best known for her character Mama. Lawrence also originated many other characters on CBS's The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1978, the variety show's entire series run.
"As the Stomach Turns" is a series of comedy sketches parodying the soap opera As the World Turns featured on The Carol Burnett Show, with one installment airing on Carol Burnett & Company. The sketch was created by show writers Kenny Solms and Gail Parent. The Carol Burnett Show introduced the series during its first season in 1967–68 and continued to air new installments for the remainder of its 11-season run, through its final season in 1977–78. The final installment of "As the Stomach Turns" did not air until September 8, 1979, on a different four-week summer series titled Carol Burnett & Company. This was the only installment of "As the Stomach Turns" that did not air on The Carol Burnett Show, which completed its run almost a year and a half earlier on March 29, 1978.
Eunice may refer to:
Kenneth Ronald Berry was an American actor, comedian, dancer, and singer. Berry starred on the television series F Troop (1965–1967), Mayberry R.F.D. (1968–1971) and Mama's Family (1983–1990). He also appeared on Broadway in The Billy Barnes Revue, headlined as George M. Cohan in the musical George M! and provided comic relief for the medical drama Dr. Kildare with Richard Chamberlain in the 1960s.
Thelma Harper, better known as Mama, is a fictional character played by American actress Vicki Lawrence. Mama is a purse-lipped, thickset senior citizen in her mid-to-late 60s. She has lived in an unspecified part of the Southern United States called "Raytown" for her entire life, evident from the southern drawl of her speech and customs. Mama is an exaggerated version of a prototypical middle twentieth century lower middle class grandmother in the United States South. The character was originally created for Carol Burnett, however, Burnett preferred to play Mama's daughter Eunice Harper Higgins, resulting in Mama as Lawrence's claim to fame.
Eunice Higgins is the main character in "The Family" comedy sketches played by Carol Burnett and featured on The Carol Burnett Show (1974–78) and Carol Burnett & Company (1979). Eunice also was featured in her eponymous CBS TV movie, which aired in 1982. The film starred Carol Burnett as Eunice; Ken Berry as Eunice's well-to-do brother, Philip ; Harvey Korman as Eunice's husband, Ed Higgins; Betty White as Eunice's sister, Ellen Harper-Jackson; Vicki Lawrence as Eunice's "Mama", Thelma Harper; and Dick Clair as the voice of Eunice's father Carl Harper. The film takes the Harper family on a 23-year journey.
Carol Burnett & Company is an American four-episode summer variety/sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, Kenneth Mars and Craig Richard Nelson. The series served as a continuation of The Carol Burnett Show (1967–1978) and aired on ABC on four consecutive Saturday nights from August 18, 1979, to September 8, 1979.
Joseph Henry Hamilton Jr. was an American television producer and actor.
"Went with the Wind!" is a comedy sketch featured on the eighth episode of the tenth season of The Carol Burnett Show. It originally aired in the United States on CBS on November 13, 1976, and is a parody of the 1939 American historical drama film Gone with the Wind. The sketch was written by two young writers, Rick Hawkins and Liz Sage. In 2009, TV Guide ranked the sketch #53 on its list of "Top 100 Episodes of All Time".
Eunice is a 1982 American made-for-television comedy-drama film starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Ken Berry and Betty White which is based on characters of a recurring series of comedy sketches called "The Family" featured on The Carol Burnett Show (1974–78) and Carol Burnett & Company (1979). The film was broadcast as a "CBS Special Presentation" on March 15, 1982 and served as a precursor to the spin-off television sitcom Mama's Family. It was directed by Roger Beatty and Harvey Korman.
"Mrs. Wiggins" is a series of comedy sketches featured on The Carol Burnett Show, with one installment airing on Carol Burnett & Company. The Carol Burnett Show introduced the skit series during its ninth season in 1975–76 and continued to air new installments for the remainder of its 11-season run, through its final season in 1977–78. However, the final installment of "Mrs. Wiggins" would not air until August 18, 1979 on a different four-week summer series titled Carol Burnett & Company. This was the only installment of "Mrs. Wiggins" that did not air on The Carol Burnett Show, which had completed its run almost a year and a half earlier on March 29, 1978. All together, there were 19 installments of "Mrs. Wiggins" sketches.
"A Special Evening with Carol Burnett" is the two-hour series finale of the American variety/sketch comedy television show The Carol Burnett Show. It is the 279th overall episode of the show and the 24th episode of the eleventh and final season which aired on CBS on Wednesday, March 29, 1978 from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. EST.
The Oldest Man, sometimes referred to as Duane Toddleberry, is a recurring character from comedy sketches featured on The Carol Burnett Show. The character was created by Tim Conway during his run on the show and is noted for Conway's performance of slapstick and ad-libbed humor. The character has been revisited in Conway's live comedy tour with fellow actor Harvey Korman from 2003 until Korman's death in 2008, twice on The Queen Latifah Show between 2014 and 2015, in a sketch in the Motion Picture & Television Fund, and also in the collector's edition DVD titled Together Again, which includes new sketches starring Tim Conway and Harvey Korman in their classic roles from The Carol Burnett Show.