01/26/2024
41 years ago today, January 22, 1983, Mama's Family premiered. The series is a spin-off of a recurring series of comedy sketches on The Carol Burnett Show (1974–78) and Carol Burnett & Company (1979) called "The Family". That led to the made-for-TV movie, Eunice, and finally the television series.
The show's theme song is "Bless My Happy Home" by Peter Matz (music) and Vicki Lawrence (lyrics). The show's producers chose to use an instrumental version.
Mama's Family originally aired on NBC, debuting on January 22, 1983. After several timeslot changes and subsequent drop in ratings the network cancelled the series, the final episode airing on April 7, 1984. NBC broadcast reruns until September 1985.
Two years after its cancellation, original series producer Joe Hamilton Productions (JHP) decided to follow a lead that several other programs at the time had set and revive Mama's Family for first-run syndication on local stations across the United States. The revived series, produced by JHP and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures, premiered on September 27, 1986. The syndicated version garnered substantially higher ratings than did its network version, eventually becoming the highest rated sitcom in first-run syndication. Its four season-run ended on February 24, 1990.
