''Mama'' was a weekly
CBS Television
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
series that ran from July 1, 1949 until March 17, 1957.
The series was based on ''Mama's Bank Account'' by
Kathryn Forbes, which was also adapted for the
John Van Druten
John William Van Druten (1 June 190119 December 1957) was an English playwright and theatre director. He began his career in London, and later moved to America, becoming a U.S. citizen. He was known for his plays of witty and urbane observation ...
play (1944) and the subsequent film ''
I Remember Mama'' (1948),
and told the ongoing story of a loving
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
family living in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in the 1910s through the eyes of the elder daughter, Katrin Hansen (
Rosemary Rice
Rosemary Rice (May 3, 1925 – August 14, 2012) was an American actress, singer, and voice-over artist. Rice was best known for her role as Katrin Hansen, the oldest daughter in the television series, ''Mama'', which aired on CBS from 1949 to 1957 ...
). Katrin would be seen looking through the pages of the family album at the start of each episode with the opening narration:
This old album makes me remember so many things in the past. San Francisco and the house on Steiner Street where I was born. It brings back memories of my cousins, aunts and uncles; all the boys and girls I grew up with. And I remember my family as we were then. My big brother Nels, my little sister Dagmar, and of course, Papa. But most of all, when I look back to those days so long ago, most of all, I remember ... Mama.
The show was originally broadcast live from CBS Studio 41 above the 42nd Street waiting room in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
's
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
and was sponsored by
Maxwell House
Maxwell House is an American brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Heinz in North America and JDE Peet's in the rest of the world. Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, it was named in honor of the ...
and
Post Cereal
Post Consumer Brands (previously Post Cereals and Postum Cereals; also known as simply "Post") is an American breakfast cereal manufacturer headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota.
The company, founded in 1895 by C. W. Post, owns a large portfoli ...
.
Characters and story
In addition to veteran stage actress
Peggy Wood
Mary Margaret Wood (February 9, 1892 – March 18, 1978) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. She is best remembered for her performance as the title character in the CBS television series ''Mama'' (1949–1957), for which sh ...
in the title role of Marta Hansen and
Rosemary Rice
Rosemary Rice (May 3, 1925 – August 14, 2012) was an American actress, singer, and voice-over artist. Rice was best known for her role as Katrin Hansen, the oldest daughter in the television series, ''Mama'', which aired on CBS from 1949 to 1957 ...
as Katrin,
[ the cast included ]Judson Laire
Judson Laire (August 3, 1902 – July 5, 1979) was an American film, stage, and television actor best known for starring as Lars Hansen in the early CBS television series, '' Mama'' from 1949 to 1957, as well as several daytime soap operas includi ...
as Papa[ and ]Dick Van Patten
Richard Vincent Van Patten (December 9, 1928 – June 23, 2015) was an American actor, comedian, businessman, and animal welfare advocate, whose career spanned seven decades of television. He was best known for his role as patriarch Tom Brad ...
[ as brother Nels. The youngest child, Dagmar, was portrayed by ]Robin Morgan
Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...
(who later became a radical feminist activist and poet) and then by Toni Campbell after Morgan left the show. Also featured were Ruth Gates (as Aunt Jenny), Carl Frank, Alice Frost
Alice Frost (August 1, 1910 – January 6, 1998) was an American actress. An inaugural member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre on radio and the stage, she later performed the role of Pamela North on the radio series ''Mr. and Mrs. North'' for ...
, Malcolm Keen
Malcolm Keen (8 August 1887 – 30 January 1970) was an English actor of stage, film and television. He was sometimes credited as Malcolm Keane.[Roland Winters
Roland Winters (born Roland Winternitz; November 22, 1904 – October 22, 1989)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 287. was an Ame ...]
, Kevin Coughlin and Patty McCormack
Patricia McCormack (born Patricia Ellen Russo in 1945) is an American actress with a career in theater, films, and television.
McCormack began her career as a child actress. She is perhaps best known for her performance as Rhoda Penmark in Maxw ...
. Gates was the only member of the cast to have played her role in the original Broadway production in 1944.
The series was different from the play and film in that there were only three children instead of four, with the character of daughter Christine being eliminated. Also, Mama had two sisters instead of three, consisting of Jenny and, occasionally, Trina – Sigrid was never seen or referred to. The character of Mama's Uncle Chris (played by Roland Winters) made a few appearances on the program, but the character of Mr. Hyde was deleted from the series. However, in a 1957 episode, "The Seventh Age", a character was featured with a different name - Mr. Carlysle (played by actor Bramwell Fletcher
Bramwell Fletcher (20 February 1904 – 22 June 1988) was an English stage, film, and television actor.
Career
Fletcher appeared on the stage in 1927 and made his Broadway debut in 1929. Hollywood and sound films soon beckoned. He made his ...
) - who was very similar to Mr. Hyde, in that he was a kind man, although a down and out, penniless, aging actor whom the Hansens took in as a boarder.
Although earlier incarnations of ''I Remember Mama'' had focused primarily on the relationship between Marta and Katrin, the television series typically dealt with a specific family member's problem and eventually drew the whole family into helping with its resolution.
The program aired live, and kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940 ...
recordings were prepared for West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to:
Geography Australia
* Western Australia
*Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia
* West Coast, Tasmania
**West Coast Range, mountain range in the region
Canada
* Britis ...
broadcasts. The popularity and high ratings of ''Mama'' prompted a national re-release of the ''I Remember Mama'' film in 1956. In some theaters, this reissue included a stage presentation of "Dish Night", a recreation of the dinnerware giveaways theaters
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
held during the 1930s to attract ticket-buyers.
From its premiere in 1949 to 1956, ''Mama'' proved to be not only a ratings winner for CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, but it also became a Friday night tradition when millions of families across America (including children already dressed for bed) gathered around the television set at 8:00PM to tune into another episode of the Hansen family.
From live to film
By the end of the 1955–56 season, even though the ratings for ''Mama'' were still respectable, viewership had decreased; Maxwell House, who co-sponsored the show, complained that not enough viewers were buying their coffee. This complaint led to CBS's cancellation of the show in July 1956. Carol Irwin, the show's producer, urged viewers to write the network demanding a return of the show. As a result, 175,000 letters poured into CBS, and the network immediately renewed the show. Unfortunately, with the prime-time schedule already filled, CBS scheduled ''Mama'' at 5:00pm on Sunday afternoons beginning December 16, 1956. This time, 26 episodes were filmed. The entire cast was reunited with the exception of actress Robin Morgan
Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...
, who had portrayed the youngest daughter Dagmar beginning in 1950. Morgan opted not to continue with the role, wanting to pursue writing rather than acting. So, when ''Mama'' returned to CBS in December, 1956, the role of Dagmar was played by actress Toni Campbell. However, because of its less-than-desirable new time slot, ''Mamas ratings plummeted to the point of ultimately terminating its run three months later in March 1957, with several episodes left unaired.
Nevertheless, after eight years of playing Marta Hansen, Peggy Wood was honored with her first Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
nomination as best actress in a drama series. Her first nomination was for her work on ''Mama'' during the 1952–1953 television season. (The series itself was nominated in 1951 for Best Dramatic Show.) It was during this season that the orchestral accordionist John Serry Sr.
John Serry Sr. (born John Serrapica; January 29, 1915 – September 14, 2003) was an American concert accordionist, arranger, composer, organist, and educator. He performed on the CBS Radio and Television networks and contributed to Voic ...
collaborated with Peggy Wood on the show. Even though she did not win on the night of the 1956–57 Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
, in admiration for the long-running success of ''Mama'' and the great affection the public felt for Wood, the Television Academy asked her to present the last award of the evening: Best Single Program of the Year, which went to ''Playhouse 90
''Playhouse 90'' was an American television anthology series, anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology dr ...
s ''Requiem for a Heavyweight
"Requiem for a Heavyweight" is a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show ''Playhouse 90'' on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey R ...
''.
In the fall of 1957, the complete 1956–57 filmed season of ''Mama'' aired on New York's WPIX-TV
WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of The CW ...
Channel 11. However, as the live (kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940 ...
d) episodes are largely lost, ''Mama'' is unfamiliar to later generations of viewers. The aforementioned 26 filmed episodes from the last season of the show have occasionally been screened on public access stations.
In 1985, the Museum of Broadcasting in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
presented a retrospective of ''Mama'' by arranging screenings of several of the live television broadcasts (1949–56), which had been donated by various sources, as well as a seminar featuring the three actors who played the Hansen children - Rosemary Rice (Katrin), Dick Van Patten (Nels), Robin Morgan (Dagmar) - and longtime director, Ralph Nelson. The Museum also discovered all 26 episodes of the filmed season of ''Mama'' (1956–57) in a CBS storage facility in New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
; not only did these episodes become part of the screening exhibition, but they were also added to the Museum's collection. Rice donated several kinescopes she kept from the show for the exhibition.[
The opening and closing musical pieces were the "]Holberg Suite
The ''Holberg Suite'', Op. 40, more properly ''From Holberg's Time'' (Norwegian: ''Fra Holbergs tid''), subtitled "Suite in olden style" ( no, Suite i gammel stil, links=no, italics=no), is a suite of five movements based on eighteenth-century ...
" and "The Last Spring" by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...
. Director-producer Ralph Nelson
Ralph Nelson (August 12, 1916 – December 21, 1987) was an American film and television director, producer, writer, and actor. He was best known for directing '' Lilies of the Field'' (1963), '' Father Goose'' (1964), and ''Charly'' (1968) ...
, himself of Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
descent, went on to direct the film '' Lilies of the Field''.
Awards
The series received three Emmy nominations: one in 1951 for Best Dramatic Show and two for Peggy Wood's performance in 1953 and 1957.
Ratings
''Mama'' was one of the first TV sitcoms to consistently finish in the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
' top 30 after they were instituted in the 1950–1951 season:
# 1950–1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
: #10
# 1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
– 1952: #11
# 1952– 1953: #18
# 1953–1954
Events
January
* January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany.
* January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.
* January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...
: #26
In the 1954–1955 seasons and afterward, ''Mama'' was not in the top 30 and its ratings data are not available.
References
Further reading
Holden, Stephen. ''Mama'' Is Remembered", ''The New York Times'', December 15, 1985
*
*
External links
*
Internet Archive: "The Parade Grandstand"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mama (TV Series)
1949 American television series debuts
1957 American television series endings
1940s American comedy-drama television series
1950s American comedy-drama television series
American live television series
Black-and-white American television shows
CBS original programming
Norwegian-American culture in California
Norwegian migration to North America
Period family drama television series
Live action television shows based on films
Television series based on plays
Television series about families
Television series set in the 1910s
Television shows set in San Francisco
Works about Norwegian-American culture
Television shows filmed in New York City