Vicki Lawrence was never intended to play “Mama,” the sharp-tongued Southerner who became one of the most iconic characters to emerge from “The Carol Burnett Show” in the 1970s. The show’s writers created the part for Burnett in a one-time sketch, with the role of Mama’s long-suffering daughter, Eunice, to
TV show characterizations, like all popular culture, simultaneously reflect the times and push the envelope. It’s how “The Brady Bunch” got away with its blended family concept in the late 1960s without mentioning that Carol Brady got divorced. One can track the changes in American culture through the roles of