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Main Cast
Thelma "Mama" Harper
- Portrayed By: Vicki Lawrence
Thelma is the matriarch of the Harper family, with most of the show focusing on her and her relationships to the rest of her family.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Mama is much nicer here than in the "Family" sketches, though still salty and cranky.
- Berserk Button: One episode revealed that underage drinking is a HUGE berserk button for Mama due to an incident involving Eunice years earlier.
- Character Catchphrase: Mama has several, most notably "Good Lord!" (when shocked), and "I'm just a poor old widow woman..." (when trying to ellicit sympathy).
- Character Development: Mama becomes much nicer as the series goes on. In the original Carol Burnett sketches and the early episodes, she was rude, nasty, and petty all the time. As the series progresses, she becomes a much sweeter character who reserves her ire only for people who deserve it.
- Color-Coded Characters: Mama usually wears shades of blue or purple.
- Cool Old Lady: Although she's usually cranky towards them and everyone else, when she is in support of her family or friends or has a cause she's in favor in, she's this. Most noticeably this is how Bubba feels about her in plenty of episodes.
- Intergenerational Friendship: She is best friends with Iola, who is roughly the same age as Vinton, Thelma's youngest child.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's as abrasive as they come, although her heart is generally in the right place.
- The Lad-ette: Though she tries to act like a respectable lady in public, she's quite boorish in the comfort of her own home.
- Mama Bear: She may be overly critical of her children at times, but Thelma will NOT tolerate anyone badmouthing a member of her family.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Mama takes a number of jobs over the course of the series, almost inevitably leading to her getting fired or quitting by the end of the episode due to her family getting involved. This includes jobs as a travel agent ("Mama Gets a Job"), a customer consultant at Food Circus ("Supermarket"), mayor of Raytown ("Mama for Mayor"), and a cashier at Mc Ray's ("Have It Mama's Way").
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Her relationship with her in-laws is contentious at best (even though she flat out said that she doesn't respect anyone who would marry one of her kids). Particularly, her and Naomi were at each other's throats (namely in the NBC years).
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: She's very abrasive towards anyone that so much as mildly irritates her.
- Tsundere: She goes from a heavy Type A in season 1 to a much gentler Type B as the series goes on.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: She bears a strong resemblance to her deceased mother and her rich cousin Lydia (due to both also played by Vicki Lawrence).
Vinton "Vint" Harper
- Portrayed By: Ken Berry
Vinton is Thelma's adult son. He moves in with her at the start of the series after his first wife leaves him and remains in her household for the duration of the series.
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: "Amateur Night" sees Vint winning a talent contest at the Bigger Jigger with his Fred Astaire impression. His ego almost instantly swells to enormous proportions, to the point where he decides to ditch the impression and perform a whole new routine as the flashy "Vinnie Vegas". Mama talks him out of making an ass of himself at the last minute.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Vinton's never been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he takes his job as a locksmith very seriously and has a surprising amount of knowledge about locks and keys.
- Character Catchphrase: A sarcastic "Thanks a lot, Mama!".
- Color-Coded Characters: Vinton typically wears tan and brown.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Completely inverted; when Naomi's ex-husband (now a self-made millionaire) returns and tries to win her back, the thought of Naomi leaving him never crosses Vinton's mind (though this could largely be chalked up to his usual stupidity). Naomi decides to stay with Vint specifically because of this.
- The Ditz: While the whole family (with the possible exception of Thelma) are pretty dim, Vinton is by far the dumbest person on the family.
- Flanderization: He started out with a man of average intelligence who tended to make bad decisions, but had taken several levels in dumbass to the point where he basically becomes what you would get if Patrick Star was a person.
- Happily Married: To Naomi.
- Hidden Depths: The episode "Amateur Night" shows that Vinton is actually a talented singer and dancer.
- Manchild: Despite being in his forties, Vinton often behaves quite childishly, especially during the syndicated run.
- Momma's Boy: He still lives in his mother's basement and always succumbs to her will.
- Second Love: Well, more like third love given that Naomi had been married at least twice before and had quite the extensive love life even before that.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: The first two seasons depict Vinton as a rather average man who tends to make bad decisions. Come the syndicated run, Vinton has the intelligence and maturity of a child.
- Panicky Expectant Father: After Naomi goes into labor in the Series Finale, he crashes his car into Mama's while trying to pull out of the driveway and then passes out when Thelma tells him not to panic.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: He looks exactly like his father Carl (except lacking Carl's moustache).
Naomi Harper
- Portrayed By: Dorothy Lyman
Naomi starts the series as one of Thelma's neighbors, though she soon marries Vinton and moves into Thelma's basement.
- Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Iola's Betty, being a flirtatious blonde with an extensive list of exes before settling down with Vint.
- Color-Coded Characters: Naomi's wardrobe seemingly consists solely of yellow sundresses.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Her famous "international stew" consists of canned stew, canned peas, canned Mexican corn, canned sauerkraut, and Spagetti-O's.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: As glamorous as she thinks she is, her voice is often shrill in tone, especially when yelling.
- '80s Hair: She sports this following the series' switch to syndication.
- Happily Married: To Vinton.
- Hidden Depths: It is at various points in the show implied that Thelma and Naomi are more alike than they care to admit, especially when they put aside their differences and work together. This is shown to be the case in "The Big Wheel," when the two women tag-team to con Iola out of her winning lottery ticket, taking turns at telling an elaborate story about a fictitious "lottery curse" while Vinton remains clueless about what they're even trying to do. When the now terrified Iola forks over the ticket, Thelma quickly pockets it while Naomi smiles approvingly and sips her drink slowly. Her shrewdness comes as a surprise given her usual Dumb Blonde persona.
- Insurance Fraud: Thelma and Iola suspect her of trying to off Vinton when Vint starts having a series of near-fatal accidents immediately after announcing that Naomi is the sole beneficiary of his new life insurance policy.
- Pregnancy Scare: She believes she is pregnant in "Naomi and the Stork", causing friction in the household as Vinton isn't ready to have another kid and no one wants to give up their room to accommodate the new baby. Naturally, by the time all of those issues get worked out, Naomi learns it was a false pregnancy.
- Really Gets Around: Strongly implied to be the case before she settled down with Vinton. She is confirmed to have at least two ex-husbands at the start of the series.
- Second Love: She's Vinton's second wife.
Fran Crawley
- Portrayed By: Rue Mc Clanahan
Thelma's spinster sister and an aspiring writer. She dies prior to the start of season 3 and is largely forgotten for the rest of the series.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: She admits to this when Naomi asks if she can confide in her. Later that same episode, Thelma is able to get her to spill her guts just from forcing Fran to look her in the eye.
- Giftedly Bad: She considers herself to be a superb journalist, although most of her articles end up being heavily edited (usually leaving just the things that other people contributed to the article).
- Old Maid: She remained unmarried up until her death. Thelma would occasionally refer to her as one during their arguments.
- Undignified Death: She chokes to death on a toothpick in the ladies' room at the Bigger Jigger. Thelma (and later the rest of the family) just vaguely refer to her cause of death as "natural causes" for this reason.
Sonja Harper
- Portrayed By: Karin Argoud
Vinton's teenage daughter. She moves into Thelma's house with him, though she inexplicably leaves before season 3 and is never mentioned again.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Especially in the first season, where she was moody, whiny, and almost always bopping around the house to music on her headphones, oblivious to the rest of the family. She mellowed out considerably in season two, which had the unintended consequence of making her as vanilla as her brother.
- Missing Mom: Her mother unexpectedly left the family behind to become a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas just before the start of the series. Naomi later becomes the mother figure in her life after Vinton remarries.
- Put on a Bus: She is never seen after syndication, and is only mentioned once afterward (specifically about her absence from Fran's funeral). It's never explained where she or Buzz went, either; some sources say they went to live with their mother in Las Vegas, while others say they went to college.
- Totally Radical: About half of her dialogue falls into this.
Buzz Harper
- Portrayed By: Eric Brown
Vinton's teenage son. He moves into Thelma's house with him, though he inexplicably leaves before season 3 and is never mentioned again
- Flat Character: Buzz is quite possibly the blandest recurring character in the entire series, with most one-shot characters showing greater depth and relevance to the plot than he ever did.
- Missing Mom: His mother unexpectedly left the family behind to become a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas just before the start of the series. Naomi later becomes the mother figure in his life after Vinton remarries, though their interactions are limited.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Vinton Harper, Jr., though this is only mentioned once in the entire series.
- Put on a Bus: He is never seen after syndication, and is only mentioned once afterward (specifically about his absence from Fran's funeral). It's never explained where he or Sonja went, either; some sources say they went to live with their mother in Las Vegas, while others say they went to college.
Bubba Higgins
- Portrayed By: Allan Kayser
Eunice and Ed's son and Thelma's grandson. He debuts in season 3, fresh out of juvenile hall, and moves into Thelma's house due to his parents moving to Florida and his probation preventing him from leaving the state.
- Big Eater: His debut episode has the Harper family returning home after Fran's funeral only to find that Bubba has eaten almost the entire buffet laid out for Fran's wake.
- Burger Fool: He gets a job as a cashier at a fast-food restaurant.
- The Casanova: Bubba seemingly has a different girlfriend on a near-weekly basis.
- Character Development: In his early appearances, Bubba was a boorish juvenile delinquent. He later develops into a friendlier, more ambitious and obedient teenager (thanks to Mama's influence) and is considerably more mature by the time he enters college (though no less goofy).
- Insistent Terminology: He insists that he was in juvenile hall, not reform school (except when he was angry at his folks for moving out-of-state while he was in there).
- Mr. Fanservice: He's a tall, athletic redheaded teenager with a slew of girlfriends and love interests over the course of the show's run.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Although Bubba seems to be his real name, Allan Kayser stated during a reunion on Vicki! (Vicki Lawrence's talk show) that Bubba's official first and middle names were some combination of "Carl" and "Edward" (the former being Thelma's late husband's name and the latter being Bubba's father's name).
- Parental Abandonment: He learns that his parents moved to Florida while he was in juvenile hall, with his probation preventing him from leaving the state until he comes of age. He does not take the revelation lightly.
- Parental Substitute: As much as Eunice and Ed's abandonment of him hurts him, he does find a motherly influence in Thelma (and to a lesser extent Naomi) and Vint is often seem enjoying his company and hanging out with him like a father would.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He takes Buzz and Sonja's place as Thelma's most prominent grandchild, although you can say that he has a lot more personality than the other two put together.
Iola Boylen
- Portrayed By: Beverly Archer
Thelma's spinster neighbor, who harbors an unrequited crush on Vinton, much to Naomi's ire.
- A-Cup Angst: Implied in several episodes.
- Canon Foreigner: Iola didn't debut until Season 3 (the start of the series' syndicated run), despite being portrayed as having lived across the street from the Harpers her whole life.
- Color-Coded Characters: She wears pink dresses (with a handful exceptions) in virtually every appearance.
- Crappy Homemade Gift: Her homemade gifts are usually treated as such by the Harpers. One episode involves the Harper family trying to sell off all of her gifts in a garage sale, only for no one to show any interest even when Thelma lowers the prices to practically nothing.
- Drop-In Character: Iola spends just as much time with the Harpers as she does with her own family.
- The Friend No One Likes: Though it largely depends on the writer, it is often shown that the Harpers don't quite reciprocate her friendship.
- Intergenerational Friendship: She is best friends with Thelma while being roughly the same age as Vinton, Thelma's youngest child.
- Old Maid: Occasionally gets referred to as one, due to being an unmarried woman in her forties.
- Remember the New Guy?: She suddenly appears in Season 3 as having been Thelma's neighbor for decades, despite her absence from the first two seasons.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She's essentially a replacement for Fran after Rue Mc Clanahan left the series, with both characters being an Old Maid foil to Thelma with a wardrobe consisting almost entirely of old-fashioned pink dresses.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: She has had an unrequited crush on Vint since they were children.
Supporting Characters
Ellen Harper-Jackson
- Portrayed By: Betty White
Thelma's oldest daughter.
- May–December Romance: She dates a much younger man in "Ellen's Boyfriend", much to Thelma's disapproval.
- Rich Bitch: She married into wealth and loved to flaunt it as passive-aggressively as she could.
- Socialite: In contrast with her crude working-class family, Ellen is a fairly wealthy and well-respected member of the community. Hilarity Ensues anytime her family life and social life mix.
Eunice Higgins
- Portrayed By: Carol Burnett
Thelma's younger daughter and Bubba's mother.
- Demoted to Extra: Eunice started out as the main character of the "Family" sketches that the series was based on. Once the series took off, she was reduced to a recurring character for the first two seasons before being Put on a Bus when Carol Burnett declined to return for season three.
- Drama Queen: And how!
- Freudian Excuse: Eunice blames pretty much every awful thing she does on being The Unfavorite middle child in an abusive household.
- Put on a Bus: She and Ed move to Florida for the syndicated run, due to Carol Burnett declining to return for season three. Eunice ends up calling Thelma in the Season 4 finale to explain that she and Ed won't be able to make it to Bubba's graduation.
- Took a Level in Kindness: A very, very brief level in the episode "Positive Thinking", where she starts listening to self-help tapes and adopts a more optimistic and self-confident nature. By the end of the episode, constantly being pushed around by people leads to her more upbeat personality giving way to her usually unpleasant self.
- The Unfavorite: She certainly thinks so, though this is probably just her neuroses getting the better of her.
Ed Higgins
- Portrayed By: Harvey Korman
- Henpecked Husband: It comes with being married to Eunice.
- Put on a Bus: He and Eunice move to Florida for the syndicated run, due to Harvey Korman declining to return for Season 3.
Aunt Effie Harper
- Portrayed By: Dorothy Van.
Thelma's sister-in-law and Vinton's aunt.
- Ascended Extra: She was originally intended to be a one-shot character for Vint and Naomi's wedding. She proved so popular that she became a recurring character during the syndicated run.
Reverend Meachum
The preacher at Mama's church.
- Henpecked Husband: Strongly implied to be the case.
- Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Downplayed; he is never seen inside his church, although he still seen performing his duties in other settings, such as Vint and Naomi's wedding (held at Mama's house) or funerals.
Alberta Meachum
- The Rival: To Thelma within the Church Ladies' League.
Carl Harper
Thelma's late husband.
- A Man Is Always Eager: Inverted; Thelma frequently implies that Carl was borderline asexual when he was alive.
- Thelma: How did I end up raising such a pack of sex maniacs? (Beat) Well, they sure didn't get it from their daddy.
- Posthumous Character: Carl's been dead for over a decade when the series starts.
Claude Canemaker
Vint's friend in several early episodes.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Claude only appears in a few episodes in the first season before disappearing from the show altogether, never to be mentioned again.
- Toxic Friend Influence: His few appearances have him using his friendship to manipulate Vint into doing some morally (and legally) questionable things, such as trying to marry Vint to a Portugese woman so she can get a green card or pawning off Mama's silver to bail Claude out of jail.
