The Only Major Actors Still Alive From Mama's Family
Before Betty White and Rue McLanahan starred together in "The Golden Girls," the two talented actors shared the screen in "Mama's Family," one of the more inexplicable sitcoms of the '80s. "Mama's Family" aired from 1983 to 1990, pausing after its first two seasons to switch from NBC to a syndication deal (while early season actors Eric Brown and Karin Argoud exited too early to count as "major" actors here, it's worth noting that they both still seem to be doing fulfilling work today). That deal clearly worked, as you can still find "Mama's Family" reruns on channels like MeTV today. The show has aged somewhat since, but it also had a pretty weird premise at the time: Vicki Lawrence, then in her late '30s, played the titular character as an elderly Southern woman with a strong accent, a curly gray wig, and an old-timey, maternal sense of fashion.
The show made a lot more sense in context when fans would've known that the Mama character initially came from a skit in "The Carol Burnett Show." Still, "Mama's Family" operates in the grand tradition of TV comedies about lower-middle-class white families, which also includes shows like "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Roseanne," and "Young Sheldon." The show found an audience in its syndication run, and though its cast members went on to work on plenty of memorable projects, they'll forever be known to some primarily as members of Mama's family.
Vicki Lawrence (Thelma Mama Harper)
Vicki Lawrence was the Mama in "Mama's Family," but she first originated the Southern widow character of Thelma Harper in "The Carol Burnett Show." After both sitcoms came to an end, Lawrence continued appearing as Mama in everything from "Hollywood Squares" to "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" to "RuPaul's Drag Race." The actress also still performs a comedy routine titled "Vicki Lawrence & Mama: A Two-Woman Show."
Aside from her Mama persona, Lawrence has appeared in key roles in shows like "Hannah Montana," "Great News," and "The Cool Kids," as well as in movies including "The Fox and the Hound 2" and "Attack of the 5 ft 2 Women." Lawrence has also done plenty of TV hosting work, emceeing the first seasons of "Win, Lose or Draw" and hosting two talk shows, "Vicki!" and "The Vicki Lawrence Show," in the '90s. She's also appeared on popular game shows as a player before, popping up regularly on "Password," "Match Game" and "Pyramid" during the heyday of those shows.
Outside of acting, the performer gave a speech about Trump-era politics during a 2016 business conference, and was once a spokesperson on the topic of chronic hives for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. In 2023, Lawrence appeared in a celebration of her friend and collaborator Burnett titled "Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love." In a 2007 interview for PBS' "American Masters," Lawrence commended Burnett's all-in form of comedy, saying, "I think just took everything way out into the stratosphere or beyond — almost [as] more of a clown than a comedian."
Dorothy Lyman (Naomi Oates Harper)
In "Mama's Family," actress Dorothy Lyman played Harper family neighbor turned daughter-in-law Naomi, but her career after the show went far beyond TV acting. In an interview with Soap Hub, Lyman explained that she ended up working as a director on the beloved sitcom "The Nanny" after teaching Fran Drescher in a Los Angeles acting class. "A few years later when she and Peter Marc Jacobson created 'The Nanny,' she wanted me to play [Maxwell's business partner] CC, but the network thought I was too old." Still, Drescher told Lyman that if she sat in the control room for a while, she might get the opportunity to direct. It worked, and Lyman ended up directing just over half of the show's 146 episodes.
Lyman would go on to direct two feature films, the Vincent Pastore-led rom-com "Split Ends" and the drama "The Northern Kingdom," though she's perhaps most recognized for her work in the soap opera world. She appeared in "All My Children" before her time on "Mama's Family" (and won two daytime Emmys for that part), then acted on "One Life To Live" and "The Bold and the Beautiful." Outside the soap sphere, Lyman has appeared in movies like "Blow" and "World Trade Center" and on TV shows including "Battlestar Galactica," "The Blacklist," and "The Girl From Plainville."
While Lyman still acts, she also writes plays and even told Soap Hub she worked as an egg farmer for a while. "There was never enough work for me as an actor or director after a while, so I learned to do other things to keep me busy," she explained. "When my oldest child went to college and I got divorced again, I went upstate and became an egg farmer; and the extra time I had motivated me to write." As of 2021, she's written three plays and counting.
Beverly Archer (Iola Boylen)
When "Mama's Family" was reinvented for syndication, a few key characters left the show, but the sitcom also added the memorable addition of Beverly Archer as Mama's best pal Iola. After her time on "Mama's Family," Archer starred in the CBS sitcom "Major Dad" as Gunny, secretary to a kooky general at a military base. Though Archer went on to appear in other shows and movies throughout the following decade, playing teacher and librarian types in "The Brady Bunch Movie," "Married...With Children," "Rugrats," and more, she retired from the screen in 2002.
Not much was known about Archer's post-Hollywood trajectory until a hoax circulated in 2012 claiming that she'd died. Archer set the record straight in an interview with the site Sitcoms Online and gave some life updates along the way. Archer explained that she was likely typecast as teacherly types in part due to her height, and noted that "in our version of Hollywood, people who look like me don't do [dramatic roles]. So, once you get into comedy, that is where you stay, which was fine with me." As of 2012, Archer was studying sculpting in Italy and previously owned an antique store in the Catskills.
Allan Kayser (Bubba Higgins)
As Mama's initially "juvenile delinquent" grandson Bubba, Allan Kayser was one of the younger members of the "Mama's Family" cast, and he's lived a full life since the show's ending. Kayser has only acted in a handful of roles since 1990, including the Disney channel original movie "Double Teamed" and indies like 2006's "Shimmer" and clown horror flick "It's Here." In an interview with In Kansas City, the former actor revealed that he moved to Missouri to start a family at the age of 22, having decided (as he put it): "I'm not gonna stay in Los Angeles and become a broke actor or a caricature of myself."
Since leaving Hollywood, Kayser has worked in several different industries. "I've had so many careers since then, so many lives since the show. I'm always asking, 'Now what?'" He told the outlet. These career paths include working on an assembly line, a vending machine company, and as a Harley Davidson salesman, though Kayser says he's now working with the postal service, where he kept his previous sitcom stardom under wraps. "It took two years at my post office before it got out who I was — and then it blew up. My co-workers were like, 'Why didn't you tell us?!'" he told In Kansas City.
When he's not working, Kayser says he enjoys riding motorcycles, attending fan conventions like Crypticon (he was in cult horror classic "Night of the Creeps" during "Mama's Family"), and spending time with his family. He most recently appeared in the 2023 series "TNT Jackson," which is currently on Tubi and is seemingly inspired by the 1974 Blaxploitation film of the same name.