The Family

The Family Sketch is a series of skits that aired on The Carol Burnett Show. It was so successful that it became a recurring skit on The Carol Burnett Show and later spun off into the comedy series Mama's Family, a show which first aired on NBC, and then in syndication, in another version distributed by CBS. [1] The Family sketches featured Carol Burnett as Eunice Higgins, Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper (better known as Mama), and Harvey Korman as Ed Higgins. In the Family sketches, Mama has five children, unlike three in Mama's Family. In addition to Ellen Harper (played by Betty White) and Eunice and instead of Vinton Harper, there were sons: Larry Harper, Phillip Harper, and Jack Harper (played by Alan Alda, Roddy McDowall, and Tommy Smothers, respectively). The Vinton Harper character, played by Ken Berry, did not appear until the sketch was spun off into Mama's Family. Ken Berry did, however, play Phillip in the 1982 made-for-TV movie Eunice (which was the precursor to Mama's Family).

Premise

Unlike Mama's Family, the central character of The Family sketches was Eunice Higgins. The sketches were about a noisy, bickering family. There was a great deal of more squabbling on The Family sketches, than on Mama's Family. As if the marriage between Eunice and Ed Higgins wasn't bad enough, Eunice's elderly mother, Thelma Harper, would visit them from time to time. This only added to the turbulence and commotion of their everyday lives. It was stated many times that Eunice and Ed also had two young sons named Bubba Higgins and Billy-Joe Higgins; however, the characters were never shown on the Family sketches. The Bubba Higgins character made his first appearance in the syndicated version of Mama's Family. Mama, Eunice, and Ed often have uproarious verbal wars over petty issues such as board games (they played Monopoly, Sorry and Password), how much butter has been used for the bread, what exactly happened 30 or 40 years ago, etc. The three characters do not respect each other at all. At the few short moments, when it seems they are verging on getting along, one of them will pick a fight with the other, causing all of them to start bickering at the same time. The final episode of the The Family sketches had Eunice talking to a psychiatrist trying to figure out what went wrong with her life. The sketch featured several flashbacks from previous sketches.

Setting

At the beginning of The Family sketches, Mama lives by herself in the home where she had raised her children. As with Mama's Family, her deceased husband is Carl Harper, who reportedly died in the bathroom. However, this house is different from the house in Mama's Family, in which Mama brought up her family, and in which Carl reportedly died. Toward the beginning, Mama would either visit Eunice and Ed over at their place, or vice versa. However, later on in The Family sketches, Mama lives with Eunice and Ed.^{[citation needed]}

Theme

The Family skits reflected in the characters not only the comic timing and brilliance of Carol Burnett, the acting ensemble and the directors and writers but also the drama of a dysfunctional family that is universal in appeal as we often saw ourselves in the Higgins family. The writing could be side-splitting but also touching and sometimes tragic as it showed the trials and tribulations of hopeful expectations and unfulfilled dreams that Eunice and many of the characters expressed. It showed how even though families can destroy each other emotionally, what we have been given at birth - mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers - is often all we have and we must ultimately make the best of it and the lives that are created within them.

Characters

Although the same characters were played on The Family, as Mama's Family, Mama was somewhat different:

• Eunice Higgins - As the very stormy, irrepressible daughter of Mama and wife of Ed, Eunice is histrionic and full of powerful emotions. She's cheerful and giddy at one moment and out of control and upset in the next. She's very ambitious and both wishes and tries to become an actor to make something of herself. She'll do anything to get away from what she perceives as a nightmare, stuck with her mama and husband. Her efforts in trying to make anything out of her self are only met with belittlement by Mama, often sparking a bickering session between the two. When Eunice starts ranting, she brings up a load of irrelevant matters that she's unhappy about. Often, her long-drawn out rants will date as far back as her childhood. Out of the three characters, Eunice has the most control in the gang, mostly over Ed.

• Mama - In the Family sketches, Mama is a grumpy troublemaker. Unlike Mama's Family, in the Family sketches, Mama never cracks any smart retorts, sarcastic remarks, and has no sense of humor. She's considerably more senile and reliant on The Family sketches as well. Mama makes insults, constantly letting Ed and Eunice know what is wrong with them and how they're failures who will never make anything out of themselves. She's also a troublemaker, who's usually the one that starts all the bickering and chaos among the three. Sometimes when they're all starting to get along (which rarely happens on the show), Mama will say something that she knows will provoke Eunice and Ed; one of Eunice's catchphrases is "Don't you start with me, old lady!"

• Ed Higgins - As the son-in-law of Mama and the husband to Eunice, Ed frequently gets pushed around and treated like garbage, mostly by his wife, Eunice. However Mama treats him almost just as terribly—provoking him with insults, often about what a failure he is. Although he gets pushed around the most, Ed never hesitates to bicker with, and stand up to his wife and mother-in-law. Ed is an unsuccessful slob, whose behavior is goofy and dimwitted. Whenever he stands up for himself, it's often to no avail, as it only gets him bickering against Mama and Eunice—who will quickly start bickering with each other. Ed has a low-class job and nothing much going on, which is often what Eunice's rants and Mama's insults are about—if it has to do with Ed.

• Phillip Harper - In the Family sketches, Phillip was the eldest of Mama's three sons. He was a successful Hollywood-screenwriter and best-selling author. Just like Ellen, Phillip was Mama's favorite but despite the fact, he was never spared Thelma's criticism, insults, or wrath.

• Larry Harper - In the Family sketches, Larry was the middle of Mama's three sons. He was a free-spirit who is a commercial illustrator, and he was teased by Ed, who thought that painting was somewhat sissy. He appeared in the Christmas sketches, coming home for Christmas after five years and he is unmarried.

• Jack Harper - In the Family sketches, Jack was the youngest of Mama's three sons. He was visited by Eunice, Ed and Mama in the hospital.

Classic Moment (Blooper)

In the final season of the Carol Burnett Show, cast member Tim Conway, in his recurring role as hearing-disabled character Mickey Hart, produced one of the sketch's (and the show's) most hilarious moments. Conway, in an unscripted ad lib, reminisces about seeing a pair of Siamese elephants during a trip to a freak show, describing in detail how they were connected at the trunk and the sounds they made. The audience was already in hysterics while Burnett, Lawrence and Dick Van Dyke desperately struggled to maintain composure. Several times when Conway would stop, the rest of the cast would collect themselves, at which point Conway would continue with his ad libbing pushing them again to the edge of breaking up. When Burnett gained her composure one last time she turned to Vicki Lawrence to help get the script moving again, to which Lawrence quipped (in character), "you sure that little asshole's through?". At that point Burnett, Conway and Van Dyke all fall apart laughing. This is considered by some as the most classic moment in the 11 year run of The Carol Burnett Show