It seems like a contradiction in terms: forgetting I Remember Mama, but only the heartiest of Baby Boomers are likely to remember this gentle sitcom from TV’s early days. Based on the book, Mama’s Bank Account, by Kathryn Forbes. It recounted her growing up in turn-of-the-century San Francisco as a first-generation American with Norwegian parents.
The first thing to note is that the TV series was not named “I Remember Mama.” Its official title was Mama. However, every episode began with a voiceover narration by the actress playing the eldest daughter Katrin Hansen. She always concluded the narration with the phrase, “…most of all, I remember Mama.” In addition, there was a Broadway play and feature film that preceded the TV series that WERE named I Remember Mama. So, most of us still called the show by the longer title.
Like the book, play, and movie, the show revolved around the day-to-day struggle of the family to both adapt to American culture and to make ends meet. Mama was played by veteran actress Peggy Wood. Papa was Judson Laird, Rosemary Rice was Katrin, and eldest son Nels was played by a young Dick Van Patten. (BTW - Rosemary Rice played Archie's girlfriend Betty - of "Betty & Veronica" fame - on the long-running Archie Andrews radio seies. Her resemblance to the comic book character is incredible considering a radio performer didn't need to look like her character!)
Mama’s first season was broadcast on CBS in 1949 and, like a lot of TV in those days, was broadcast live. For its first four seasons, the show consistently placed in the top 10 of the ratings. By the fifth season (1954-55), ratings had started to slip and by the end of its sixth season, CBS canceled the show. However, a mail campaign to save the show was launched. CBS received over 175,000 letters (quite a large sample in those days) and announced they would bring Mama back as a mid-season replacement in December 1956.
For the re-launch, they also decided to film the episodes rather than air them live. Unfortunately, by the time mid-season rolled around, there was no prime-time slot available on CBS. So, the network aired the show on Sunday afternoons at 5 pm. That was a disaster. The show generated almost no ratings and, although 26 episodes had been filmed, Mama was canceled by March 1957.
Those 26 filmed episodes were syndicated briefly in the late 50s and early 60s when there really weren’t that many reruns of prime-time series available, but with so few episodes and the fact they were all in black and white, Mama quickly vanished from TV land.
Today, a small handful of those later episodes can be found online or in DVD packages of early TV for those who still remember Mama.
