That's My Mama

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.

Ted Lange was extremely funny on this show. His catch phrase was long excellent: "I got it, I got it, and I got to report it!" I wish Ted were given more opportunities to show his great abilities to go over the top. I just checked online and there are no references to his catch phrase on the Internet! I'm going to change that and post it somewhere, because this must live on. I think that if more people knew about Ted's abilities then he would have been one of the very top stars of the 1970s...instead, he made it as a major figure -- and I should at least be grateful for that. I wish Ted's catch phrase were as popular as his pointing with index fingers.

I have (4) episodes of this sitcom on tape but would like to communicate with others that may have some of these extremely hard to find episodes on tape. Episodes of another black sitcom from the 1970's was just recently put on DVD. Maybe someone in the film vault, will someday, pull out some of these episodes for syndication or DVD.

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.

I didn't have the pleasure of seeing this series on television or in syndication. By getting the two seasons on DVD, I was entertained by this lighthearted series. I knew Clifton Davis and Jester Hairston from the eighties sitcom, "Amen." Theresa Merritt who plays Mama Eloise Curtis as a warm loving mother to her adult children, Clifton (played by Clifton Davis) and Tracy (played well first by Lynne Moody and just as well with Joan Pringles in the second season. I will never understand why the network canceled the series. It was mostly because of poor ratings but they aired their last episode on Christmas Eve. Ted Lange (Isaac from the Love Boat) tried to bring it back in syndication in the eighties but not enough stations signed on. I felt this series had plenty of potential. The casting was brilliant but the writing could have been better. Still a barbershop in Washington DC with a terrific cast.