Is it good?
I ♥ the tv series, "Mama's Family," but is this made-for-tv movie, good?
I've NEVER sen it & I grew up in the 80's!
Dream until your dreams come true.share
The movie is great but a much much darker and serious tone than Mamas Family. It more closely resembles "The Family" skits on CB but I would say this movie is even a bit darker than those.
Mama herself is just less lighthearted and likable.
I agree with ncoflin.
Having come after the sketches and before Mama's Family, Eunice is actually a little darker than the sketches and a lot different from MF.
In the sketches, someone, usually Eunice, would boil over but then in a few minutes, everything would be back to "normal".
In Eunice, we see the same type of eruptions but not always a resolution. The ending, for me, was very bittersweet.
After Mama's funeral, Eunice breaks down over what she's accomplished in her life, which to her is virtually nothing. Phillip gets in her face and points out she always made excuses and never really tried to make her life better. He offers to help her make a major change and she is ready to go. Then a call comes from an elderly aunt and Eunice agrees to come help her out. As she hangs up, we see that she realizes she is not going to go with Phillip, she is just going to take care of another old woman and her life isn't going to change.
Mama's Family took a new direction. Mama herself was changed to act younger, sprier and not quite as mean spirited. It's the first we hear of brother Vinton and his kids. In the sketches all of Mama's sons were very successful and there was no mention of grandkids, other than Eunice and Ellen's.
The first season was on NBC and when it was cancelled they moved it into first run syndication and revamped it. Vin's kids were gone as was Aunt Fran. Eunice's son Bubba moved in and the neighbor Iola's role was expanded.
According to Vicki Lawrence, when the show finished it's run on NBC, Carol Burnett was going through a nasty divorce from Joe Hamilton who had produced The Carol Burnett show as well as Mama's Family. Joe reached out to Vicki about signing on to take the show into first run syndication and Vicki signed up. Then she got a call from Carol, who wanted to produce the show for syndication. Vicki told her she had already signed with Joe, Carol apparently didn't know Joe was going to do the show. This upset Carol quite a bit and her relationship with Vicki was strained for a long time. This is also why Carol doesn't appear in any of the syndicated episodes, just the first season.