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| Eunice Harper Higgins | |
|---|---|
 Carol Burnett (left) as Eunice Higgins | |
| First appearance | Family sketch episode "Phillip's Visit" |
| Last appearance | Mama's Family episode "Rashomama" (last seen played by Carol Burnett) Mama's Family episode "Sins of the Mother" (last seen in general) Mama's Family episode "Pomp and Circumstance" (last heard, portrayed in voice only) |
| Created by | Dick Clair |
| Portrayed by | Carol Burnett Tanya Fenmore as a child version of Eunice (Mama's Family episode "Mama's Birthday") Heather Kerr as a teenage version of Eunice (Mama's Family episode "Sins of the Mother") Phyllis Franklin in a voice-only portrayal (Mama's Family episode "Pomp and Circumstance") |
| In-universe information | |
| Nickname | Eunie (by Ed) |
| Title | Mrs. Higgins |
| Occupation | Homemaker Mother |
| Family | Carl Harper (father; deceased) Thelma Harper (mother) Ellen Jackson (sister) Vinton Harper (brother) |
| Spouse | Ed Higgins |
| Children | Bubba Higgins (son) Billy Joe Higgins (son; mentioned in Mama's Family sketches) |
| Relatives | Fran Crowley (aunt; deceased) Buzz Harper (nephew) Sonja Harper (niece) Tiffany Thelma Harper (niece) Mary Beth Jackson (niece) |
Eunice Higgins (née Harper) 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.[1][2] The film starred Carol Burnett as Eunice; Ken Berry as Eunice's well-to-do brother, Philip (Berry played a different brother, Vinton, on the spin-off TV series); 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.
Eunice appeared occasionally on "The Family" skit's spin-off sitcom Mama's Family. As portrayed by Carol Burnett, Eunice was in six episodes of Mama's Family, all of which were in the first life of Mama's Family on NBC. Five of Burnett's six appearances were in season 1. The sixth episode of season 2 ("Rashomama"), which aired on November 3, 1983, was Burnett's final portrayal of Eunice. The character made two subsequent appearances in flashback episodes. Tanya Fenmore played Eunice as a child in the nineteenth episode of season 2 ("Mama's Birthday).[3] This marked the character's final appearance in the first life of the sitcom.
Eunice appeared only once during the second life of Mama's Family (originally in first-run syndication). The character's final appearance was in the fourteenth episode of season 4 ("The Sins of the Mother"), portrayed as a teenager by Heather Kerr.[4] Eunice is presented once more in voice only in the final episode of season 4 ("Pomp and Circumstance"); Eunice, voiced by Phyllis Franklin, spoke to Mama over the phone to inform her that she couldn't attend her son Bubba's high school graduation. She declined to explain her reasons to Bubba, hanging up when Mama threatened to put him on the phone.
Always clad in a tattered green dress and wearing her hair in a 1940s-era perm, Eunice is a working-class homemaker married to Ed Higgins. Eunice had a stormy, irrepressible, browbeating persona, always going melodramatically out of control, ranting and raving. However, especially on The Family sketches, Eunice was beaten down by her tyrannical, emotionally-abusive mother, and her fits of rage were usually provoked by her mother's passive-aggressive comments. Her character was portrayed as a jealous antagonist in her appearances on Mama's Family, much more so than her appearances on The Family sketches. Carol Burnett has said that Eunice is her favorite character from her show.[5] Burnett did not appear at all in the first-run syndication version of the show due to her acrimonious 1984 divorce from Carol Burnett Show and Mama's Family producer, Joe Hamilton, who owned all the Mama's Family characters.[6] Also, as revealed in Vicki Lawrence's autobiography, Burnett resented Lawrence for accepting the "Mama" role in first-run syndication, this being during her divorce from Hamilton. She held a grudge against Lawrence until Hamilton's death in 1991.[7] According to the original Carol Burnett Show, Eunice had three brothers: Phillip (Roddy McDowall); Larry (Alan Alda); Jack (Tom Smothers); and one sister, Ellen (Betty White). Later, Mama's Family added a fourth brother, Vinton, played by Ken Berry. Their Aunt Fran was played by Rue McClanahan.
- ^ McLean, Robert A. (March 14, 1982). "A New Special from Carol Burnett: Reprise of her popular 'Eunice' role strikes a universal chord", The Boston Globe.
- ^ Shales, Tom (March 15, 1982). "Too much 'Eunice'", The Washington Post, p. C11.
- ^ ""Mama's Family" Mama's Birthday (TV Episode 1984) - IMDb". IMDb.
- ^ ""Mama's Family" the Sins of the Mother (TV Episode 1988) - IMDb". IMDb.
- ^ Findlay, Prentiss (February 8, 1998). "Live show keeps edge on comedy", The Post and Courier.
- ^ "Humor Helps Carol Burnett Cope - ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
- ^ Lawrence, Vicki; Eliot, Marc (1995). Vicki!: the true-life adventures of Miss Fireball - Vicki Lawrence, Marc Eliot - Google Boeken. ISBN 9780684802862. Retrieved 2013-03-01.