Thelma Harper and her spinster sister Fran open their home to Thelma's recently divorced son Vinton and his teenage son and daughter. It's quite an adjustment for everyone, especially the cranky, argumentative Thelma.
When Naomi is upset about her baby being late, Mama tries to calm her down with a false story about Carl. Mama tells Iola what really happened (both the false and true versions are seen in flashback, with Carl played by Ken Berry). Later that day, Naomi goes into labor and Mama ends up delivering her baby girl, Tiffany Thelma Harper.
Vinton and Naomi buy an RV and plan to move to a trailer park; however, they are unable to start the vehicle once it is in the driveway. Meanwhile, Mama is planning to host a fancy backyard luncheon for an snooty society group called the Dames.
Naomi and Vinton are taking a childbirth class. When Vint is called in to work, Mama has to go to class with Naomi instead of going to the Bingo Bonanza with Iola, so an impatient Mama creates chaos by trying to speed things along and offering her own perspective on the "miracle of birth".
Vint wins a Mother's Day dinner for two at a North African (Moroccan) restaurant called Abdul's Garden of Eating. As a result, Mama and Naomi fight over which of them Vinton should take.
While working on a photography project, Bubba makes a picture of a young bikini-clad woman with Mama's head, as a joke. However, this picture is accidentally added to a flyer that is handed out to get elderly men to attend a church dance.
After watching detective movies on TV for a week, and hearing that Iola's mother is missing, Mama dreams that she is a film noir-style detective hired to find her client's mother.
Mama's cousin sends her a live goose for her family's Christmas dinner, and everyone except Mama is against the idea of killing and cooking the bird..
When Mama slips on a roll of pennies in the bank, the family suggests that she sue the bank. To this end, she hires a sleazy lawyer Settlement Sam and fakes serious injuries.
Mama and Iola are preparing for the Crystal Thorn flower contest, and Iola is angry to find that Mama's flowers have cross-pollinated with one of hers, producing a pink-and-white hybrid. At first neither of them wants it, but when floral expert Mayjune Beasley tells Mama that it could win the award, both Iola and Mama claim ownership.
Vinton learns that he is about to lose his job because Kwik Keys is being shut down by the new owners, a corporation called Bernice. When Bubba discovers that an old stock certificate Mama owns is now ten shares of Bernice, she sets out to save Vinton's job.
Bubba books a band called The Bonecrushers for homecoming, and tells the family that the band will be staying with them. They turn out to be an all-female heavy metal band, and Mama must rein them in.
After heckling a stand-up comedian at the Bigger Jigger, Mama accepts a challenge to do a routine of her own.
Vinton and Naomi persuade Mama to have a psychic called "Madame Rita" give everyone readings. At first, Mama is surprised by the psychic's ability, but later sets out to expose the phony medium.
Mama is invited to her junior high school's 50th reunion, but she is reluctant to go because of a false rumor that was spread about her years ago that earned her the nickname "Hotpants"
Mama verbally attacks a radio show's unhelpful consumer advocate, and the station manager offers her his job, with Mama broadcasting from her living room.
Mama is attracted to actor Leslie Lemoyne, until she sees him on "Tri-State's Most Wanted" (the local version of America's Most Wanted), and believes that he is the infamous "widow waster".
The Harpers install an intercom so that Naomi will be able to monitor her baby, but Mama uses it to eavesdrop on the family, and vice versa.
Mama encourages Iola to find herself a man, but the man she finds turns out to be a domineering blowhard.
Mama suspects that Vint is having an affair with his new trainee Heather, so she and Iola go to his workplace to investigate.
After reading about how much it costs to raise a child, Vint and Naomi decide to start a business selling bottles of Mama's mother-in-law's "miracle tonic."
Thelma Harper and her spinster sister Fran open their home to Thelma's recently divorced son Vinton and his teenage son and daughter. It's quite an adjustment for everyone, especially the cranky, argumentative Thelma.
Vicki Lawrence , Ken Berry , Dorothy Lyman
Dick Clair
Joe Hamilton Productions ,
as Thelma Harper
as Vinton "Vint" Harper
