Thelma Harper

Appearance

Mama's appearance is based on that of a stereotypical elderly woman. She is a buxom, purse-lipped widow, with silvery blue curls. All of her outfits have consisted of various short-sleeved, floral-print dresses that carry lace collars. As much of Mama's time on Mama's Family was spent cooking and cleaning, her dresses were often worn with an overlapping apron. Mama's lower legs have been clasped by visible support hose since the outset of Mama's Family; she wore no support hose during The Family sketches nor the Eunice movie. For footwear, Mama has invariably worn white, orthopedic shoes of a high heeled brogue style.

Mama has also invariably worn a few fashion accessories: a white pearl necklace and white pearl earrings.

Mama's outerwear has always consisted of the same purple sweater, worn casually, draped over her shoulders without arms in the sleeves; inconstant floral headpieces; and a white purse, which she didn't hesitate to use as a weapon when given the opportunity.

Vicki Lawrence on Mama's persona evolution

The persona of the "Mama" character was revolutionized as between The Family sketches and the first life of Mama's Family. Lawrence recognized the modifications early on and disapproved. She has revealed that she originally found the softening of the "Mama" character to be unfunny. However, Lawrence has stated that after counsel about the character needing reshaping to fit sitcom television from Harvey Korman (played the "Ed" character), she came to accept and later embrace the adjusted version of Mama. She has stated that to this day, she appreciates how the character has "blossomed" and "matured" from The Family sketches. The original writers of the character had based Mama on their real-life family members and thus disapproved of the adjustments.

Persona evolution

The character of "Mama" was originally based, at least in part, on the relationship between Carol Burnett's mother and grandmother and was intended to be a maternal, elderly version of Eunice. Lawrence has noted that she also used her southern ex-mother-in-law and her own grandmother from Missouri in the genesis of Mama.

Between The Family sketches, the first life of Mama's Family, and the second life of Mama's Family that followed, the character of Thelma Harper went through a series of character adjustments. On The Family sketches, she was simply known as Mama, always cantankerous and full of spiteful efforts to annoy and offend her son-in-law Ed and daughter Eunice. This explains, in part, why the sketches were full of bickering between she, her daughter, and her son-in-law. Though Ed and particularly Eunice, with their tumultuous characters, share more than a hand in the constant quarreling as well. Mama also possessed more stereotypical traits of a senior citizen in the skits as she was dependent, inert, etc. Moreover, she was a spiteful and impudent ingrate who didn't seem to appreciate anything her daughter and son-in-law did for her.

By the arrival of Mama's Family, the Mama character's invariable negativity, grumpiness, and spite were toned down significantly. Though still cantankerous in the show's first life, Mama's character expanded with wisecracks, humor, pesky antics, indecorum, and naiveness. Mama's indecorum and naiveness were exampled in her inability to drive (ep. "Mama's Learns to Drive"); inability to act in socially acceptable ways out in public and in the presence of guests (ep. "The Mama Who Came to Dinner" and "Ellen's Boyfriend"); inability to work jobs outside of the home (ep. "Mama Gets a Job" and "Mama for Mayor"); etc. This often resulted in the humiliation or frustration of her loved ones.

By the show's second life, Mama was no longer naive (rather, Vinton overwhelmingly assumed this role) and far more capable of high spirits than ever before. More than other versions of Mama, this version saw the least stereotypical traits of an elderly woman as Mama was active, lively, high-spirited, and independent. To example, Mama was involved in the Church Ladies League; dirty dancing; catered to her family; kept up with all the household duties; engaged in numerous hobbies with best friend Iola Boylan; etc. However, this version of "Mama" was also rough and abrasive in manner; explosive in temper; smart-mouthed in commentary, and prone to snappy retorts. In this version, Mama has no qualms with making humorous insults and antagonistic wisecracks, particularly about her son and daughter-in-law.

Mama's catch phrases

Unlike the sketches and the television movie, Mama had several locutions in the sitcom. Her most frequently used locution in the series is "Good Lord!" also occasionally stated in alternate ways, such as "Good Lord in heaven!" or "Good night Louise!" Among her other locutions included "Now hear this!" "Hell's bells!" "God-awful!" "The hell you say," "Smut," "For heaven's sake!" "For crying out loud!" "In a pig's eye," "Shoot!" "Real good," (sarcastically), "Oh I bet the neightbors are just lovin' this." etc. Thelma also had a series of name-calling catch phrases she often used to refer to certain members of her family or her family as a whole, such as "Nitwit," "Dimwit," "Goon," "Goober Goon," "Lamebrain," "Dunce," "Tramp," etc.

Evolution of family members' personas

Unlike the ill-tempered and stormy personalities alongside Mama in The Family sketches and the assertive and forceful personalities in the first life of Mama's Family, the supporting characters in the second life of Mama's Family weren't nearly as quarrelsome or assertive. Due to the supporting characters being more easily subjugated and Mama's own adjustments, the second life of Mama's Family was much more lighthearted, less serious, and less contentious than all previous Thelma & family broadcasts. Though there are some moments in the show's second life where all the supporting characters band together and gang attack/outnumber Mama with petulant complaints and finger-pointing, causing heated arguments to ensue.

Mama's life history

In The Family sketches, Thelma and her late husband, Carl Harper, have five children: Ellen, Eunice, Phillip, Larry, and Jack. This created marked plotholes as in the "Eunice" TV movie, they have three children: Ellen, Eunice, and Phillip. In Mama's Family, they have three children, but the character of Phillip is replaced by Vinton. Thelma's husband, Carl, is deceased character in all three broadcasts. He's only present in flashbacks as unseen character, portrayed in voice only. In the Eunice movie, Carl was voiced by Dick Clair and was heard from the main floor bathroom. Thelma is in her late 60s during "Mama's Family." (Vicki Lawrence was in her 30s during this time and would not turn 60 until 2009).

Thelma's squabbles, resulting from her ingratitude and spite for her daughter Eunice and Eunice's husband, Ed, was the ongoing theme of The Family sketches.

In Mama's Family, Thelma lived originally with her sister, newspaper writer Fran Crowley. In the first episode, Vinton and his two children, Vinton "Buzz" Harper, Jr. and Sonja Harper, move in with Thelma after being evicted from their house. Vinton has just gone through a divorce from a woman named Mitzi, who fled for Las Vegas to become a showgirl. Vinton soon marries Naomi Harper, Thelma's next door neighbor, whom Thelma despises. Thelma becomes so enraptured and relieved to find out Naomi, Vint and the kids are going to move to Arizona to run a trailer park, that she consents to having them marry in her living room. Following the wedding, they all return to Thelma's house to stay because Naomi's partner in the trailer park venture has absconded with every cent of Vint and Naomi's life's savings and had never actually had a trailer park.

Thelma's relationships with her grandchildren are different than those with her children. She gets along rather well with Buzz, since he isn't always worrying her into the grave, the way his older sister does and Thelma's own children had done when they were younger. In fact, Buzz seems to have a unique bond with his grandmother.

Thelma is best friends with her neighbor across the street, Iola Boylan who is crazy about Vinton and agrees with Thelma that Naomi wasn't the right kind of wife for him. In fact, Iola thinks she would be Vint's perfect mate instead. Thelma and Iola often spend a great deal of time together, and Iola is often over for dinner when she isn't helping her eccentric and infirmed parents. Although they are best friends, Iola and Thelma do have their share of disagreements as well. Most of them are instigated by outside forces, but usually, they patch their differences and become friends again.

After Buzz and Sonja move out of the house for parts unknown, and Fran dies, Thelma is joined by her other grandson, Bubba. Her relationship with him is vastly different from the one she had with Buzz. Bubba is certainly his mother's son, and while not as contentious and selfish as Eunice was, he is just as headstrong and stubborn, though he matured as the series progressed. He makes no fan of his Uncle Vint and his Aunt Naomi when he is given Fran's old bedroom, relegating them to the basement yet again. Thema reasoning she needs him right next door to her where she can keep an eye on him every second of the day. However, given what Bubba has gone through, his father and his eternally selfish mother leaving him in Raytown while gallivanting off to Florida without even one word of good-bye, they were not about to begrudge him a bedroom.

Thelma has a very strong aversion to her grandchildren drinking to excess. In one particular instance, when Bubba comes home drunk after several beers, she really lowers the boom on him. At first, nobody in her family understands why she is really punishing him hard; considering that she herself drinks beer as often as she does, until Iola tells everyone about a really terrible situation with Bubba's mother, Eunice. During a Mother-Daughter banquet, Eunice showed up quite intoxicated. Then, during a song, Eunice and Thelma started having a violent argument on stage, during which Mama revealed to everyone present the circumstances under which Eunice was conceived. (Mama: "If your daddy hadn't gotten me as drunk as you are now, you never would have been!") Which would perhaps explain just why Eunice and her mother don't get along to this day. Needless to say, Bubba swears off beer from now on.

Ironically, Thelma's embattled relationship with Eunice was not unlike the somewhat contentious relationship she had with her own mother. In her mind, Thelma's mother had no liking for anything Thelma did. In an episode where she deals with her own austere mother who haunts her for entertaining the idea of selling her brooch, Thelma calls her the same epithet that Eunice sometimes uses on her: "Old lady". At the end of the episode, Thelma's mother's haunting ends when Thelma sells the brooch, and then screams at her mother's apparition, "Get the hell out of my life!!!"

Thelma has held various jobs in Raytown. She works with Meals on Wheels; had a short stint as Mayor of Raytown; worked at a travel agency (for less than a day); worked at local grocery store, "Food Circus", to Naomi's disgust; went to night school; worked at a fast food restaurant. She wore many hats.

One of Thelma's lifelong dreams is to go to Hawaii. She gets her wish when she appears on Jeopardy! While Thelma loses the main part of the competition, she does win a Hawaiian vacation as a consolation prize. The next two-part episode features Thelma, Iola, Vint, Naomi and Bubba's adventures in Hawaii.

As a former president of the CLL (Church Ladies League), Thelma has to deal with the ladies of the church, including the gossipy pastor's wife, Alberta Meechum, who brazenly tries to break up Thelma and Iola's friendship by suggesting that Iola run for president of the CLL. (Ms. Meechum did this because Thelma had helped Alberta's husband spank their grandson, Little Eugene, for causing trouble for the Harpers and for kicking her husband in his sore leg. In her mind, Little Eugene was an angel, and helping to hurt him was a huge "no-no".) Neither Thelma or Iola wins and Thelma's eventual successor is a woman named Lolly Perdue, (Doris Hess; Marge Redmond) who wins because she was the only person big enough to separate the squabbling Thelma and Iola. Some time later, Lolly is the target of an impeachment attempt by Thelma and Iola, but they end up backing down when they discover Lolly is illiterate. Thelma also has to contend with Reverend Lloyd Meechum, the man who married Vint and Naomi. She also babysat their grandson, a little demon named Eugene, with disastrous results.

Thelma was known for her somewhat uneasy relations with her neighbors, going back to when Naomi lived next door. Most of her neighbors wouldn't mind seeing her and her entire dysfunctional family move away and never come back. A large part of this animosity came about during an aborted attempt to knock down the neighborhood and replace it with a landfill. To Thelma's shock, the house she had lived in since she was married had once been a house of ill-repute where the town's founder, James A. Ray, died. Thus, it was made a Raytown historical landmark, to mayor Alvin Tutweiler's chagrin, and her neighbors ire. They wanted a lot of money to leave that neighborhood and lose Thelma as a neighbor, but it was not to be. Even Iola was irate.

Post-television show appearances

Lawrence has resurrected the character of Thelma (still in her late 60s) several times on the game show Hollywood Squares, on stage in her two-woman show, on her talk show in the early 1990s, on the TNN talk show Primetime Country and in the 2008 TV Land Awards, and on numerous comedy tours.

Thelma "wrote" a book in 2008 entitled Mama for President.

Thelma also appeared on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? on October 2, 2009 playing for charity. She ended up winning $8,000 USD, getting 9 out of 10 questions correct and opted not to answer the 11th question (the bonus question), as missing the bonus question results in a loss of all the player's winnings.

On October 29, 2012, Thelma was seen once again on Logo's RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race as the special comedian in which the contestants had to interact and have a comedic sketch. Later seen out of the Thelma persona, Vicki Lawrence played as a special guest judge to the contestants alongside RuPaul.

On February 5, 2013, Thelma appeared in a special sketch during Betty White's 2nd Annual 90th Birthday in honor of Betty White. The sketch features a Beverly Hills high school class reunion with three of Betty's "classmates" from 1939. The sketch has a run time just over two minutes.

MeTV's insertion of Mama's Family into their 2015-2016 schedule also brought with it several new video spots of Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper, used for bumpers and promotional commercials on the network.