That's My Mama

This is a show that needs to be seen again! This was one of the lost forever sitcoms of the 1970's that had African-American characters in prominent roles. However,the 1970's rolled-out a ton of quality-themed African-American shows,which some were instant hits and classics like "Sanford and Son","The Jeffersons","Good Times",What's Happening?",to the ones that were good but only lasted one season like,"Baby,I'm Back", "Rollout","Get Christie Love",and not to mention,"That's My Mama".

And the ones that didn't last long,quickly faded into our memories. However,one of those shows,"That's My Mama",provided some good laughs and some hilarious hijinks. Clifton Curtis(Clifton Davis)is barbershop owner who lives in Washington,DC who shares a house with his mother Eloise(Theresa Merritt)and his sister Tracy(played by Lynne Moody in the early episodes and then later by Joan Pringle)who was married to Leonard ,a stiff,unhip accountant(played by Lisle Wilson in the earlier episodes). Clifton's friends were Earl(Teddy Wilson),a mailman who later became his partner in the barbershop,and Junior(Ted Lange),a boisterous college student. Wildcat(Jester Hairston) and Josh(DeForest Covan)were two senior citizens who hung out in the barbershop,just for conversation and sometimes mischief. Theresa Merritt's character of Eloise,was billed as the main character,but the focus was more on Clifton and the comical support was more on Junior,who supplied most of the hijinks on the show. Eloise was basically the mentor who basically gave advice whenever the other characters got into trouble,and it most of the time she had to bail Clifton out of a tight situation.

This series was the starting point of for two of its actors,since after this series went off the air,Clifton Davis and Jester Hairston would star together in the series "Amen" which ran on NBC-TV during the mid-1980's,early 1990's. Also it is to note that actor Ted Lange would go on to "The Love Boat" as Issac,and would make himself known as an great director of several TV and movie projects. It is also interesting to note that actress Joan Pringle would go on to do "The White Shadow",and later on in the late-1980's make her mark in the all-black daytime serial,"Generations". As for actor Teddy Wilson,most viewers would recognize him as the street hustler Sweet Daddy from "Good Times" who would make several appearances not on "Good Times",but other black shows of that decade including appearances on "The Jeffersons",and "What's Happening!"

It is sad to note that Teddy Wilson,Theresa Merritt,Jester Hairston,and DeForest Cowan are no longer with us. There memories of this show will lived on,since "That's My Mama" is seldom seen in syndicated markets in repeats,probably because it only lasted one season when it ran on ABC-TV from 1974-1975. Only 39 episodes were produced on this series in which 26 episodes were produced in Season 1 and 13 episodes were produced for Season 2. The series premiered on September 4,1974 on ABC's Wednesday night prime-time schedule where it faced strong competition from CBS' "Tony Orlando and Dawn",and the NBC powerhouse drama "Little House on the Prairie". The series was abruptly canceled on Christmas Eve of 1975 due to poor ratings. ABC replaced the series with "The Bionic Woman"

as a teenage girl in 1974, i used to watch "That's My Mama" just so i could see the handsome (ok fine) Clifton Davis do his magic in the shop and also for "Junior" (Ted Lange) to whirl into the shop with his famous "oooooooweeeeeeee! i got it, i got it, and i got to re-port it!" --- cracked me up every time. personally, i think that this show was the predecessor for the hit movie "Barbershop" only with more characters.

the second season of "TMM" kinda started going downhill, however the opening theme music was a little more R&B oriented and nicely performed by Lamont Dozier (one of the songwriters that made up the Holland-Dozier-Holland team at Motown, who were famous for making hit songs for the Supremes in the early 60s). i hope one day TV Land or Nick-at-Nite or TVOne will find these gems and show them again for those of us who remember it to enjoy once again.

Clifton Davis coped quite well as the straight man son in this all-black comedy show. He was let down by Theresa Merritt, who was always weak in the title role of Mama. Ted Lange provided some comic relief as Junior, but he did not really start to shine until he joined the crew of the Love Boat.

I don't believe this show was ever rerun, so these recollections are a quarter century old.

This show was so crazy back in the day! Theresa Merritt was so funny. And Theodore Wilson was almost as funny as he was playing "Sweet Daddy" on Good Times. Clifton Davis and Jester Hairston were on this show together way before they were Amen together. And it was so cool to see Ted Lange playing Junior. Every episode, Junior would say "Oooooooooooooooooooooo! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" I didn't like the fact that they had two different guys playing the role of Clifton Davis' brother in law in the show. I used to look forward to watching this show every evening when I was in the 4th grade. This was another great black sitcom that they stopped showing reruns of.

The ensemble work in this show, and the scripts are pretty incredible, the laughs constantly surprising. The sets are roomy and the lines are shouted. There's lots of physicality, lots of high energy, lots of brilliant punchlines set up and tossed about, lots of screaming and laughing from the audience, and lots of skill. Most of what works well here is driven by character, and there is no weak link. You will laugh out loud a lot at unique outrageous humor drawn from guns, marital problems, car accidents, religion, loan sharks, a dead body, broken ankle. Ted Lange always has a choreographed entrance and struts all over. Theodore Wilson is comic perfection. Theresa Merritt has fantastic timing, she was very strong in the role of Mama. Lynne Moody is awesome as always. Clifton Davis is a hottie, etc. There's literally nothing wrong with this show.