Mama's Family - Recurring Characters

Recurring Characters

• Carl Harper, a predominately unseen character (although once played by Ken Berry in a flashback episode), he is the deceased husband of Mama and father of Ellen, Eunice, and Vinton. While he's occasionally made mention of, especially by Thelma, he only appears in flashback episodes. Though even in flashbacks, he's unseen for the most part, as he's usually only portrayed in voice as a man who spent the vast majority of his life, nested on the toilet in the bathroom with the door closed. In fact, Carl died on the toilet. He's characterized as a grouch, who screams from the bathroom about how he doesn't want to be interrupted during his long hours on the toilet, even for emergencies.

• Aunt Effie Harper, Thelma's sister-in-law. Effie was originally named Effie Crowley. In one NBC episode she was referred to as "Cousin Effie". She lives in Ceciltown on a farm. In the sydication episodes it is mentioned that she is Thelma's sister-in-law (which would make her Carl's sister) or she could have been married to Thelma's brother Clyde which would make her Effie Crowley. Played by Dorothy Van.

• Reverend Lloyd Meechum, the Harpers' henpecked minister. Played by Earl Boen.

• Alberta Meechum, Reverend Meechum's stuck-up, catty wife and a perennial thorn in the side of Thelma Harper. Played by Anne Haney.

• Mayor Alvin Tutweiler, the mayor of Raytown and Ellen's boyfriend. Played by Alan Oppenheimer.

• Eddie Edwards, a TV personality in Raytown, who hosts such programs as Good Morning, Raytown and the Grandma USA pageant. Played by Wayne Morton.

• Clive Montaigne, the head of the community theater, who fashions himself an actor just as important as actors in New York and London. The people in town treat him like a mini-celebrity, despite only running the community theater. Played by Rod McCary.

• Luann Fayette, Naomi Harper's flamboyant and flirtatious best friend. Played by Jennifer Richards. More spoken of than ever seen.

• Mr. and Mrs. Boylan, Iola's elderly, unseen parents with whom she lives across the street from Thelma. Not much is mentioned of her father, while her mother is supposed to be a grotesquely huge, temperamental, T.V.-watching invalid. Although Mrs. Boylan is briefly seen in one episode of season 2, "Mama Learns To Drive".

• Roselle Huplander, an obese associate of Thelma and Iola. On rare occasions, Thelma has spoken to her over the phone. But more often, she is gossiped about by Thelma and Iola. Once, at a church fair, she gave Vint a black eye when he suggested that she weighed 309 pounds at the "Guess Your Weight" booth he was running.

• Dwayne and T-Boy, Bubba's best friends. Played by Beau Bishop and Grant Heslov respectively. More spoken of than ever seen.

• Mr. Alan Hanson, an intelligent, laid-back night-school teacher of Thelma and Bubba, and love interest of Thelma Harper. Played by Joseph Campanella.

• Amy Johnson, girlfriend of Bubba Higgins. Played by Amy Benedict.

• Lolly Purdue, member and later president (succeeding Thelma) of the Church Ladies League. Revealed to be illiterate. Played first by Doris Hess, then Marge Redmond.

• Officer Sneed, an extremely youthful-looking, strange police officer. Played by Allan David Fox.

• Lester Mulligan, a Friend of Vint's mostly seen in season 3. Usually comes up with get rich quick schemes such as cutting the fingers off rubber gloves and re selling them as condoms.

• Claude Cainmaker, Vint's seedy friend, who is always thinking up schemes. Played by Geoffrey Lewis.

• Grandma Crowley (played by Vicki Lawrence), Thelma's departed mother (only appears in flashback sequences or by photo), who had a dismal, forbidding appearance. She first appeared in the NBC version of the show as a buxom elderly woman, grumpily badmouthing Mama and all of her choices over the phone. In her second appearance, she was skinnier and appeared as a ghost, haunting Mama. In this appearance, she was excessively strict, austere, and captious of Thelma and everything she did. It was said on more than one first-run syndication episode that this was something Thelma had to respectfully put up with throughout the entirety of her youth, living with her mother. In the episode "Mama makes three", in which Thelma visits a psychiatrist with Vinton And Naomi, Mama rants about her childhood, referring to her mother as "prune face old harpy". Vinton also described Grandma Crowley as being a mean grandparent to him, Eunice, and Ellen.

• Church Ladies League, also known as CLL. Their motto is: Gentle Helpers; Kind and Good" and First Lady Alberta Meechum served as the first president. Members include Thelma Harper, Lolly Purdue, Iola Boylan, Roselle Huplander, Inez and Florence. The association was first mentioned in "Where's There's Smoke", when Mama was nominated for president of the Church Ladies League. It was mentioned later in "Reading the Riot Act", "Ladies Choice" and "Mama's Medicine Show". Their award bears the name "Church Ladies League Woman of the Year".