That's My Mama: Season 01 (1974)

Offered up as ABC's "urban" challenge to the bucolic NBC series Little House on the Prairie, That's My Mama premiered opposite Little House on Wednesday, September 4, 1974. In typical sitcom shorthand, the series wastes no time establishing the fact that bachelor barber Clifton Curtis (Clifton Davis) runs a small neighborhood barbershop in Washington D.C. and lives with his widowed "Mama," Eloise Curtis (Theresa Merritt). Having already married off her daughter Tracy (Lynne Moody) to ambitious but stuffy engineer Leonard Taylor (Lisle Wilson), Mama sees no reason why her "swinging" son Clifton should not settle down with a wife himself. But Clifton prefers to play the field -- a habit that tends to reap variable results, as witnessed by the opening episode, in which one of Clifton's exes (played by Judy Pace) shows up at the barbershop claiming that he is the father of her child! Although Ed Bernard is seen as mail carrier Earl Chambers in the first two episodes, Theodore Wilson permanently takes over the role in episode three. Other casting choices worth noting include Berlinda Tolbert (The Jeffersons) in the episode "Clinton's Dubious Romance," Kim Hamilton (Sanford and Son) and Emestine Wade (Amos 'N' Andy) in "Clinton's Sugar Mama," Tim Reid (Sister, Sister) in "Clifton's Persuasion," and Gordon Jump (WKRP in Cincinnati) in the recurring role of Officer O'Reilly. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi