Mama's Family - Season Four (1987 - 1988/Time Life/Star Vista DVD set)

Picture: B Sound: C Extras: B Episodes: A

Mama's Family - Season Four hits DVD with a vengeance in this great new release from Star Vista and Time Life as a single after the entire series was issued as a boxed set. Produced by Joe Hamilton, this was one of my favorite shows from my childhood growing up in the Bible Belt of West Virginia and in my opinion is of the greatest American sitcoms to hit television.

The show is hilarious and stars Thelma Harper (aka Mama) played by Vicki Lawrence and is simply a great character that plays perfectly off supporting characters Ken Berry (Vinton), Dorothy Lyman (Naomi), Allan Kayser (Bubba Higgins) and Beverly Archer (Lola Lucille Boylan). The show was a spin off from the Carol Burnett Show skit series that became known as The Family and had two lives as a sitcom. This volume features episodes from the second life of the series that featured minor adjustments to the show's set design and new supporting characters in Bubba and Lola. (The only returning characters from the original two seasons being Thelma, Naomi, and Vinton via a year break in production and budget issues that prevented them from returning.)

Episodes in this release (all about a half-hour each) are vast starting with Disc One: Education Mama, Zirconias Are a Girl's Best Friend, The Key To The Crime, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, A Big Hand For Mama, Flounder's Day, and Teacher's Pet.

Disc Two features Child's Play, Mama Mania, Gift Horse, Workman's Holiday, Mama Sees Red, A Room With No View, and The Sins Of The Mother.

Disc Three has A Friend Indeed, I Do, I Don't, Mama Gets The Bird, Mama's Girls, Mama On Jeopardy!, and Mama Goes Hawaiian Parts One and Two.

Disc Four features Bubba's Double Date, Bed and Breakdown, Naomi's Identity Crisis, and Pomp and Circumstance. Show dates for the episodes span the years of 1987 and 1988.

The transfers on these discs are in standard definition and preserve the original 4X3/1.33 X 1 aspect ratio from the original video masters. The audio is the original English Mono tracks from the original broadcasts, here in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0.

There are some great extras on this release including Mama's Family Tree: The Neighbors, an Interview with Beverly Archer, and a fantastic retrospective Under One Roof: A Mama's Family Cast Reunion.

It's really great to see this show again and especially in this great release. Recommended.

- James Harland Lockhart V

www.vimeo.com/jamielockhart