Mama is only 65? - Mama's Family (1983) Discussion

[–] dakotasdad 9 years ago

Put a long brown wig on mama and some make-up and she could pass for 35.

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[–] tinkerbell_jonna 9 years ago

That's what I'm thinking. If I were mama I'd color my hair blonde and she'd look 35!

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[–] elaphe-1 9 years ago

It's the hair style and clothes that make her look so old.

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[–] Tatmanlulu_BACK 9 years ago

That's the exact reason I thought their rendition of an old woman was lazy for Thelma Harper. They didn't incorporate wrinkles, an elderly voice, a cain, etc. Even on the Golden Girls, they incorporated wrinkles for Sophia Petrillo. But with Mama, she is left looking like a 35 year old woman with a grey wig on and support hos.

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[–] tinkerbell_jonna 9 years ago

I honestly think it was done a little intentional just to make it more quirky looking. I heard original on the CB show, they were going to make Mama look older but decided it would take too long to get her into costume every time.

What's funny is if Vickie were to play Mama TODAY, she's be playing younger than she is in real life lol

Vickie has passed Mama in age.

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[–] liljojo79 9 years ago

Well this series was originally made back in the 80's. So the person playing Mama was in her mid 30's when filming began.

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[–] search53-1 9 years ago

She actually began playing Mama in 1974 on the Carol Burnett show. Since Vickie Lawrence was born in 1949, this means she was in her mid-twenties.

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[–] Tatmanlulu_BACK 9 years ago

LOL! Yea that's crazy. When you think about it, Lawrence has been playing an old lady character for her entire adulthood even from her very young adulthood. Now she can finally play the role without dressing up since she is older than her Mama character.

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[–] search53-1 9 years ago

Yeah, but she doesn't quite look like Mama.

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[–] Tatmanlulu_BACK 9 years ago

Well she's more than exceeded Mama's weight. She would actually have to lose weight now to be Mama's size. If she weren't dying her hair auburn, it be gray. And she has more wrinkles nowadays that show than the Mama character did. She'd probably have more if she weren't layering on makeup in all public appearances.

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[–] tinkerbell_jonna 9 years ago

Still though I think Vickie as herself in the 60s is a totally different person... Vickie still looks like a young woman to me. I think now days ppl age slower.

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[–] Tatmanlulu_BACK 9 years ago

Lol! I really don't think you should judge whether or not people are aging more gracefully by any celebrity, particularly female celebrities, what with all their plastic surgeries, botox, expensive and professional makeups, eyeliners, mascara products, lipstick, etc. There are so many more beauty products for women to give a false sense of youth these days, it's not even funny.

In addition, Vicki probably looks young to you because she is not dying her hair auburn whereas the Mama character left it gray. Vicki's natural hair color is likely gray by now.

As said in my above post, Vicki has more than exceeded Mama's weight and would have to lose weight to be Mama's size. She used to have to put a fat suit on i think to add a few pounds but I don't think she does anymore. She looks fatter as Mama these days whenever she brings back the character.

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[–] tinkerbell_jonna 9 years ago

Yes abnd I have seen Carol's hair gray a couple of times, but she's staying with the red lol

It just seems like ppl age differently these days, b/c I have an uncle who is 72 and I STILL see him as like in his late 40s early 50s... he doesn't look the way I remember my grandpa looking at 72 lol

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[–] alonzo9772 9 years ago

It would have been great if for one episode the family could have given her a makeover. That plot could have easily been done where she was in the beauty pageant.

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[–] Tatmanlulu_BACK 9 years ago

This was sort of done in Mama's Birthday during the NBC years. But not really!

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[–] novastar_6 9 years ago

When I was a kid and saw the show I thought she had to be about 80, it blew my mind that she was supposed to be 15 years younger.

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] blakgard 9 years ago

Yeah, she was almost the spitting image of my great-grandmother, who was in her 80s at the time and a big fan of the show.

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[–] AdrianLePier 9 years ago

I never had a hard time suspending disbelief of Vicki as an old woman. She didn't need extra aging makeup (although Lawrence later said on her talk show that she did wear it), manufactured wrinkles or a cane to pull off looking old. That would have been like a parody, which wasn't what they were going for. The simple gray wig and old school house dress was more than enough. I remember some people who didn't know VL outside of MF being startled to discover that she was actually young at the time. She pulled that character off perfectly with her acting.

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[–] RvaBread22 9 years ago

I always felt that in the earlier episodes she was portrayed as an old lady. By the later Seasons she seemed more like "middle aged" rather than elderly.

"Life is like a box of Krispy Kreme donuts".

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