That's My Mama

*That's My Mama*
That's My Mama
Created by	Dan T. Bradley; Allan L. Rice
Developed by	Stanley Ralph Ross
Starring	Clifton Davis; Theresa Merritt; Theodore Wilson; Lynne Moody (Season 1); Jester Hairston ; (Season 1); DeForest Covan ; (Season 1); Ted Lange; Lisle Wilson (Season 2); Joan Pringle (Season 2); Helen Martin (Season 2)
Theme music composer	Allan Blye; Chris Bearde; Gene Farmer ; (1974–1975); Lamont Dozier (1975)
Composers	Jack Eskew (1974–1975); Lamont Dozier (1975)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	39
Production
Executive producers	Allan Blye; Chris Bearde (1974–1975); David Pollock; Elias Davis (1975)
Producers	Walter N. Bien; Gene Farmer
Running time	25 minutes; (per episode)
Production companies	Blye-Bearde Productions; (1974–1975); (season 1); Pollock/Davis, Inc.; (1975); (season 2); Columbia Pictures Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 4, 1974 –; December 24, 1975

That's My Mama is an American television sitcom that was the first series to be produced by Columbia Pictures Television and originally broadcast for 39 episodes on ABC from September 4, 1974, to December 24, 1975. That's My Mama was never a ratings success, having always been beaten by NBC's Little House on the Prairie among other competing programs, and was not among of the top 30 most-watched U.S. programs in the Nielsen ratings for either the 1974–1975 or 1975–1976 television seasons. As a result, the series ended on Christmas Eve 1975.

Synopsis

Set in a middle-class African American neighborhood in Washington, D.C., the program revolved around the character Clifton Curtis (played by Clifton Davis), a man in his mid-20s who worked as a barber at Oscar's Barber Shop, the family barber shop he had inherited from his late father. While Clifton enjoyed being a bachelor, his loving, but tart-tongued and opinionated mother Eloise "Mama" Curtis, played by Theresa Merritt, wanted him to settle down and find a nice wife. Additional characters – such as Clifton's two best friends—Earl, played by Teddy Wilson, an easy-going mailman and Junior, played by Ted Lange, a suave and good-humored ladies' man—came and went over the course of a typical day at Oscar's Barber Shop. Other characters included Tracy, Clifton's little sister, played by Lynne Moody and later by Joan Pringle and her husband, Leonard, played by Lisle Wilson, as well as local seniors Josh and Wildcat, played by DeForest Covan and Jester Hairston. Clifton Davis and Hairston would work together again years later in the hit sitcom, Amen.

The original name for That's My Mama was The Furst Family of Washington. One year before the series debuted, ABC aired the pilot episode of this version, starring Merritt opposite Godfrey Cambridge as her son Oscar, as a one-off special.^[1]

That's My Mama Now!

In 1986, inspired by the success of What's Happening Now!!, Columbia Pictures Television produced a pilot for a sequel series called That's My Mama Now! with Ted Lange as the star. It lacked enough stations signing up to ensure revival.^[2]

Cast

Clifton Davis as Clifton Curtis
Theresa Merritt as Eloise "Mama" Curtis
Ted Lange as Junior
Theodore Wilson as Earl Chambers (season 1, episode 3 - season 2, episode 13, main)
Jester Hairston as Wildcat (season 1, main)
Lynne Moody as Tracy Curtis Taylor (season 1, main)
DeForest Covan as Josh (season 1, main)
Lisle Wilson as Leonard Taylor (season 2, main; recurring season 1)
Joan Pringle as Tracy Curtis Taylor (season 2, main)
Helen Martin as Laura (season 2, recurring)

Ernestine Wade originally portrayed the role of Laura in two episodes: "Clifton's Sugar Mama" (season 1, episode 5) and "The Birthday Party" (season 2, episode 1). Ed Bernard originated the role of Earl Chambers in the first two episodes of season 1: "Whose Child Is This?" and "Honesty Day". Teddy Wilson took over the role in episode 3 of season 1, and was added to the main cast. In addition, Wilson appeared as a different character in the pilot episode while Bernard portrayed the role of Earl in that episode.

Episodes

Season 1 (1974–1975)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	"Whose Child is This?"	Bob LaHendro	Larry Siegel	September 4, 1974 (1974-09-04)
2	2	"Honesty Day"	Bob LaHendro	Tom Tenowich & Ed Scharlach	September 11, 1974 (1974-09-11)
3	3	"Clifton's Dubious Romance"	Bob LaHendro	Larry Siegel	September 18, 1974 (1974-09-18)
4	4	"Cousin Albert"	Bob LaHendro	Hal Goldman & Al Gordon	September 25, 1974 (1974-09-25)
5	5	"Clifton's Sugar Mama"	Bob LaHendro	Ron Friedman	October 2, 1974 (1974-10-02)
6	6	"Clifton's Big Move"	Bob LaHendro	Larry Siegel	October 9, 1974 (1974-10-09)
7	7	"Mama Steps Out"	Bob LaHendro	Larry Siegel	October 16, 1974 (1974-10-16)
8	8	"The Loan"	Bob LaHendro	Bob Shayne	October 23, 1974 (1974-10-23)
9	9	"Clifton's Con"	Bob LaHendro	Thad Mumford & Dan Wilcox	October 30, 1974 (1974-10-30)
10	10	"Clifton's Persuasion"	Bob LaHendro	Larry Siegel	November 6, 1974 (1974-11-06)
11	11	"Oscar's Affair"	Bob LaHendro	Story by : Jerry Ross Teleplay by : Jerry Ross & Larry Siegel	November 13, 1974 (1974-11-13)
12	12	"Tracy's Trouble"	Bob LaHendro	Hal Goldman & Al Gordon	November 20, 1974 (1974-11-20)
13	13	"The Gun"	Bob LaHendro	Jay Moriatry & Mike Milligan	December 4, 1974 (1974-12-04)
14	14	"Song and Dance Man"	Bob LaHendro	Ron Friedman	December 11, 1974 (1974-12-11)
15	15	"Mama Gets Fractured"	Bob LaHendro	Larry Siegel	December 25, 1974 (1974-12-25)
16	16	"The Last Haircut"	Bob LaHendro	Story by : David and Sally Evans Teleplay by : Larry Siegel	January 8, 1975 (1975-01-08)
17	17	"The Shakedown"	Stan Lathan	Rick Mittleman	January 15, 1975 (1975-01-15)
18	18	"The Ambulance Chaser"	Stan Lathan	Simon Muntner	January 22, 1975 (1975-01-22)
19	19	"Earl's Girl"	Bob LaHendro	Jerry Ross	January 29, 1975 (1975-01-29)
20	20	"The Witness"	Bob LaHendro	Hal Goldman & Al Gordon	February 5, 1975 (1975-02-05)
21	21	"Clifton and the Kid"	Alan Rafkin	Story by : Jay Moriarty & Mike Milligan Teleplay by : Jay Moriarty & Mike Milligan and Larry Siegel	February 12, 1975 (1975-02-12)
22	22	"The Hero"	Norman Abbott	Eric Tarloff	February 19, 1975 (1975-02-19)
23	23	"The Image Maker"	Stan Lathan	Ron Friedman	February 26, 1975 (1975-02-26)
24	24	"Trial and Error"	Norman Abbott	Rick Mittleman	March 5, 1975 (1975-03-05)
25	25	"Clifton and Politics"	Bob LaHendro	Ilunga Adell	March 12, 1975 (1975-03-12)
26	26	"Stephanie's Boyfriend"	Bob LaHendro	Ron Friedman	March 26, 1975 (1975-03-26)

Season 2 (1975)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
27	1	"The Birthday Party"	Arnold Margolin	Lloyd Garver	September 10, 1975 (1975-09-10)
28	2	"Business is Business"	Noam Pitlik	Walter Bien & Gene Farmer	September 17, 1975 (1975-09-17)
29	3	"Mama's Solution"	Herbert Kenwith	Charlie Hauck	September 24, 1975 (1975-09-24)
30	4	"That's Earl, Brother"	Arnold Margolin	Milton R.F. Brown	October 1, 1975 (1975-10-01)
31	5	"A Date with Judy"	Burt Brinckerhoff	Larry Siegel	October 8, 1975 (1975-10-08)
32	6	"Earl's Dad and Mama's Glad"	Arnold Margolin	Lloyd Garver	October 15, 1975 (1975-10-15)
33	7	"Weekend Daddy"	Arnold Margolin	Bud Wiser	October 22, 1975 (1975-10-22)
34	8	"Clifton and La Femme"	Arnold Margolin	David Pollock & Elias Davis	October 29, 1975 (1975-10-29)
35	9	"Mama's Big Move"	Arnold Margolin	Bud Wiser	November 5, 1975 (1975-11-05)
36	10	"Queen of the Ribs"	Mort Lachman	Jim Parker	November 12, 1975 (1975-11-12)
37	11	"A Man from the Past"	Burt Brinckerhoff	Charlie Hauck	November 19, 1975 (1975-11-19)
38	12	"Get Your Kicks on Routes 22 and 76"	Mort Lachman	Winston Moss	December 3, 1975 (1975-12-03)
39	13	"Clifton's Casual Fling"	Jerry Markus	Lloyd Garver & Winston Moss & Thad Mumford & David Pollock & Elias Davis	December 17, 1975 (1975-12-17)
40	14	"That's my Papa"	Stuart Margolin	Stuart Margolin	(Unaired)

Catchphrases

"Wooooooo, WHEE!! I got it, I got it, and I got to report it!"—Junior's (Ted Lange) introduction whenever he had a bit of juicy gossip to tell Clifton and anybody else in the barbershop who happened to be listening.

Home media

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released both Seasons on DVD in Region 1 on August 23, 2005. The majority of episodes are presented on both DVD releases in their edited-for-syndication form. Only a handful of episodes are presented in their original unedited form.

On June 13, 2017, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released That's My Mama- The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.^[3]

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
Season 1	26	August 23, 2005
Season 2	13	August 23, 2005
Complete Series	39	June 13, 2017

Cultural reference

In the movie Coming to America, Eddie Murphy has a brief role as Randy Watson, who is explained by Arsenio Hall’s character, Reverend Brown, to have played “Joe the Policeman" in the (fictional) "What’s Goin' Down” episode of That's My Mama.

In the Family Guy episode "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington," Peter testifies before Congress. Trying to think of a snappy line with which to end his speech, he finally quips "Well, that's my mama!" (This was the tagline at the end of each That's My Mama episode's prologue.)

Syndicated rebroadcast

Decades aired That's My Mama during its Weekend Binge marathon block on February 12–13, 2022.

References

^ "Television Obscurities". July 2016.
^ "What's Happening!! : Classic TV". tvparty.com. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
^ OooooWEE! I Got It! I Got It! And I GOT to Report It: 'The Complete Series'! Archived 2017-05-21 at the Wayback Machine

External links

That's My Mama at IMDb
That's My Mama at Super70s.com

[1] "Television Obscurities". July 2016.

[2] "What's Happening!! : Classic TV". tvparty.com. Retrieved 11 September 2015.

[3] OooooWEE! I Got It! I Got It! And I GOT to Report It: 'The Complete Series'! Archived 2017-05-21 at the Wayback Machine

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