I danced with all of those boys when they were so young. What do you remember about that experience? You also got to dance with Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five. And Lucy looked at him and looked at the band director, and said, "Get him a bigger uke." Lucille Ball, couldn't find her note in a musical number when she was on, and the director took her over to the band and said to our musical director, Peter Matts, "Play Lucy's opening note." And Peter said, "It's the ukulele." And the guy hit it on the ukulele. She grabbed me and said, "I don't know how you do this every week." And I said, "Well, Miss Hayworth, you ran up and down the stairs with Fred Astaire.” I just wanted to say, "Get a grip." I clapped at the end, and she came running over to me. I remember Rita Hayworth rehearsing with Carol one day, and I was watching them run their number. It was just very special to be around all those people. You worked with a Who’s Who of classic Hollywood stars on Carol’s show. This is the real country out there." And we went through that with the network. This is where nobody on the coast ever goes. "Where is this set? What year is this?" And I'm like, "No, this is now. I used to have guest actors on the show, and they would say they thought we were a period piece. It's almost in a little time warp there in Raytown. I think Mama’s Family was one of those great, old sitcoms that you just sit and laugh at for no good reason. Why do you think Mama Harper continues to resonate with audiences more than four decades after you first played her? So, the stories I tell are things that just don't really happen anymore in show business. I feel like I got to touch the golden age of television. And television and entertainment are so different than they were. I find that the older I get, people say they love my half of the show because it's like the good old days and we're so far from that now. And my new show is largely autobiographical. I know everybody loves Mama, so we put the show together in two halves, and basically, I open for Mama. Why did you decide to take Mama back on the road? The character was so beloved by audiences that Lawrence starred in her own sitcom called Mama’s Family that ran for two seasons on NBC and then four more in syndication, ending its run in 1990. Undoubtedly, her most popular character was the straight-talking Thelma Harper better known as Mama in the recurring skit “The Family,” in which Burnett portrayed her neurotic daughter Eunice. 1 on the Billboard charts, inspired a 1981 movie, and the title of a famous episode of another CBS comedy hit, Designing Women. The series also showcased Lawrence as a singer and while still appearing on the show, Lawrence recorded a massive pop hit “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” in 1972 that hit No. Lawrence played an array of characters on the series, often in spoofs of classic movies and soap operas. Lawrence, who had already performed with the singing group Young Americans, sent the clipping to the TV star and it culminated in her being cast on the popular CBS variety program The Carol Burnett Show. The career of Vicki Lawrence famously kicked off while she was still a high school student when a local newspaper published an article that commented on her resemblance to Carol Burnett.
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