The Family (sketch)

Eunice rehearses a play with drama coach Mavis Danton (Madeline Kahn) in The Rehearsal (1976), with Ed watching.

"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.

  1. ^ "The Mama's Family Site". Televisionhits.com. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  2. ^ Lawrence, Vicki; Eliot, Marc (1995). Vicki!: the true-life adventures of Miss Fireball – Vicki Lawrence, Marc Eliot – Google Boeken. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780684802862. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  3. ^ "The Carol Burnett Show – The Family – Mickey's Apartment 1/2 (uncut)". YouTube. 2011-11-12. Retrieved 2013-03-01.