Vicki Lawrence
Encyclopedia
Vicki Lawrence is an American actress, comedienne, and Billboard Hot 100
#1 singer, who was frequently a game show panelist in the 1970s and 1980s. She is best known for her co-starring role on The Carol Burnett Show
, alongside Carol Burnett
, from 1967 to 1978, and as the sharp-tongued matriarch, Thelma Harper
(the main character on Mama's Family
, airing from 1983 to 1990, which was spun off from The Carol Burnett Show's The Family
sketches). As a singer she recorded The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
that made #1 on the US
chart as well as in Canada
. She is credited with co-authoring two books and has also used the name Vicki Lawrence Schultz.
, the daughter of Anne Alene (née Loyd) and Howard Axelrad, a certified public accountant. She is a graduate of Morningside High School
in Inglewood
.
, of which she was a part from 1967 to 1978. She was the only cast member, except for Burnett herself, who stayed on the show for the entire eleven seasons.
Lawrence was hired for the show on the basis of a letter she sent to Burnett and the producers, with a photograph of Lawrence that clearly showed her resemblance to Burnett.
After The Carol Burnett Show ended in 1978, Vicki and her husband Al moved with their children to Maui
in Hawaii
but after a couple of years, returned to Los Angeles where they have remained.
Her portrayal of the "Mama" character was so popular that NBC created a sitcom, Mama's Family
, based on characters from the skit. (Burnett reprised the Eunice Higgins character for the sitcom from time to time.) The series ran from 1983 to 1985 on NBC; after its cancellation from NBC, it was renewed from 1986 to 1990 in first-run syndication. The show was more successful in the renewed version. She also reprised the "Mama" character on stage for Vicki Lawrence & Mama: A Two-Woman Show.
Lawrence has made appearances on other programs, such as the sitcoms Laverne & Shirley
(as the girls' mean drill sergeant, Alvinia T. Plout), Major Dad
, Roseanne
, Hannah Montana
and Yes, Dear
. She has also appeared with Burnett, Harvey Korman
, and Tim Conway
in the Burnett show retrospectives that were broadcast in 1993, 2001 and 2004.
Lawrence played 'Mamaw Stewart' (the mother of Robby Ray Stewart
and grandmother of Jackson and Miley Stewart) in the hit Disney series Hannah Montana
, alongside Billy Ray Cyrus
, and his daughter Miley Cyrus
.
Lawrence recently played as "Mama" on an Ohio commercial, promoting a constitutional amendment that would permit casino gambling in Ohio.
Lawrence played Dan's old high school flame, Phyllis, in an episode of Roseanne.
She appeared on a special celebrity edition episode of the Anne Robinson
version of The Weakest Link
. Playing for a charity, she made it to the final two, but ended up losing to Ed Begley Jr.
, which was released on Bell Records in November 1972. It sold over two million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
by the R.I.A.A. in April 1973. (Cher
was offered the song first but, unbeknown to her, her then-husband Sonny Bono
had turned it down.)
"He Did With Me," Vicki's follow-up to "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," only managed to reach #75 in the United States, although it became her biggest hit in Australia reaching #1 there in November 1973. She followed it up there with Ships In The Night in 1974. A year later, in the fall of 1975, Vicki managed one last minor US chart entry on the Private Stock
label with the anti-feminist curiosity "The Other Woman" (#81).
She released a disco
album entitled Newborn Woman late in 1979. The album produced the minor disco hit Don't Stop the Music which was released as a disco single. Unfortunately the anti-disco backlash was in full swing when the album was released and the album and single failed to chart.
As an emcee, she hosted the daytime NBC
version of the game show
Win, Lose or Draw
, and has also appeared often as a popular panelist on such game shows as Match Game
, Password, Password Plus
, Super Password
, various incarnations of the Pyramid game show
, as well as Hollywood Squares
, where she appeared both as herself and in character as Thelma "Mama" Harper. Lawrence was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award
for Best Talk Show in 1993 for the eponymous Vicki!, but the show was canceled after two seasons.
She tours the country with her "two-woman" show with the first half as herself and the second half done as Thelma "Mama" Harper. She also currently can be seen on TV in an infomercial for the "Big Boss Grill".
She is also known for her voice over work as "Flo" on the animation series "Hermie and Friends
".
, a homeless man and former radio announcer who garnered media attention after another video of his vocal talents went viral on Youtube. The video, in which Lawrence plays her famous foul-mouth and quick-witted satirical "Mama" character and makes several jokes about "overnight celebrities," came under fire by the National Coalition of the Homeless. NCH director Neil Donovan was quoted as saying "This is a woman who has made children's videos with a Christian message and now she's saying some of the most un-Christian things imaginable."
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
#1 singer, who was frequently a game show panelist in the 1970s and 1980s. She is best known for her co-starring role on The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
, alongside Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...
, from 1967 to 1978, and as the sharp-tongued matriarch, Thelma Harper
Thelma Harper
Thelma Harper is a fictional character, who originally appeared on the ongoing Mama's Family on The Carol Burnett Show. She was portrayed by Vicki Lawrence...
(the main character on Mama's Family
Mama's Family
Mama's Family is an American television sitcom that premiered on NBC on January 22, 1983. It was cancelled in May 1984, but NBC would continue to air reruns until September 1985. In September 1986, Mama's Family returned in first-run syndication, where it aired for an additional four seasons,...
, airing from 1983 to 1990, which was spun off from The Carol Burnett Show's The Family
The Family (sketch)
The Family is a series of skits that aired on The Carol Burnett Show. It was so successful that it became a recurring skit on The Carol Burnett Show and later spun off into the comedy series Mama's Family, a show which first aired on NBC, and then in syndication...
sketches). As a singer she recorded The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" is a Southern Gothic song written by songwriter Bobby Russell and performed in 1972 by his then-wife Vicki Lawrence...
that made #1 on the US
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart as well as in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. She is credited with co-authoring two books and has also used the name Vicki Lawrence Schultz.
Early life
Lawrence was born in Inglewood, CaliforniaInglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
, the daughter of Anne Alene (née Loyd) and Howard Axelrad, a certified public accountant. She is a graduate of Morningside High School
Morningside High School
Morningside High is a public high school in Inglewood, California.-History:In 1951, the first two classes of students came to the Morningside Park area of Inglewood to attend the new Morningside High School. Incoming 9th graders came from the surrounding junior high schools, and a class of 10th...
in Inglewood
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
.
Acting career
As a comedienne and actress, Lawrence is known for her work on The Carol Burnett ShowThe Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
, of which she was a part from 1967 to 1978. She was the only cast member, except for Burnett herself, who stayed on the show for the entire eleven seasons.
Lawrence was hired for the show on the basis of a letter she sent to Burnett and the producers, with a photograph of Lawrence that clearly showed her resemblance to Burnett.
After The Carol Burnett Show ended in 1978, Vicki and her husband Al moved with their children to Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
but after a couple of years, returned to Los Angeles where they have remained.
Her portrayal of the "Mama" character was so popular that NBC created a sitcom, Mama's Family
Mama's Family
Mama's Family is an American television sitcom that premiered on NBC on January 22, 1983. It was cancelled in May 1984, but NBC would continue to air reruns until September 1985. In September 1986, Mama's Family returned in first-run syndication, where it aired for an additional four seasons,...
, based on characters from the skit. (Burnett reprised the Eunice Higgins character for the sitcom from time to time.) The series ran from 1983 to 1985 on NBC; after its cancellation from NBC, it was renewed from 1986 to 1990 in first-run syndication. The show was more successful in the renewed version. She also reprised the "Mama" character on stage for Vicki Lawrence & Mama: A Two-Woman Show.
Lawrence has made appearances on other programs, such as the sitcoms Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from January 26, 1976, to May 10, 1983...
(as the girls' mean drill sergeant, Alvinia T. Plout), Major Dad
Major Dad
Major Dad is an American sitcom created by Richard C. Okie and John G. Stephens that originally ran from 1989 to 1993 on CBS, starring Gerald McRaney as Major John D. MacGillis and Shanna Reed as his wife Polly...
, Roseanne
Roseanne (TV series)
Roseanne is an American sitcom broadcast on ABC from October 18, 1988 to May 20, 1997. Starring Roseanne Barr, the show revolved around the Conners, an Illinois working class family...
, Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana is an American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on the Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real...
and Yes, Dear
Yes, Dear
Yes, Dear is a television sitcom that aired from October 2, 2000, to February 15, 2006, on CBS. It starred Anthony Clark, Jean Louisa Kelly, Mike O'Malley and Liza Snyder....
. She has also appeared with Burnett, Harvey Korman
Harvey Korman
Harvey Herschel Korman was an American comedic actor who performed in television and movie productions beginning in 1960...
, and Tim Conway
Tim Conway
Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway is an American comedian and actor, primarily known for his roles in sitcoms, films and television. Conway is best known for his role as the inept second-in-command officer, Ensign Charles Parker, to Lt...
in the Burnett show retrospectives that were broadcast in 1993, 2001 and 2004.
Lawrence played 'Mamaw Stewart' (the mother of Robby Ray Stewart
Robby Ray Stewart
For the actor of the character Robbie see Billy CyrusRobert Ray "Robby" Stewart is a fictional character from the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, portrayed by Billy Ray Cyrus. Robby is the single father of Jackson Stewart and Miley Stewart...
and grandmother of Jackson and Miley Stewart) in the hit Disney series Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana is an American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on the Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real...
, alongside Billy Ray Cyrus
Billy Ray Cyrus
William "Billy" Ray Cyrus is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor and philanthropist, who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon...
, and his daughter Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
.
Lawrence recently played as "Mama" on an Ohio commercial, promoting a constitutional amendment that would permit casino gambling in Ohio.
Lawrence played Dan's old high school flame, Phyllis, in an episode of Roseanne.
She appeared on a special celebrity edition episode of the Anne Robinson
Anne Robinson
Anne Josephine Robinson is an English journalist and television presenter, known for her assertive views and acerbic style of presenting. She was one of the presenters on the long-running British consumer affairs series, Watchdog, from 1993 to 2001 before returning in 2009...
version of The Weakest Link
Weakest Link (US game show)
The Weakest Link is an American game show that aired on NBC from April 16, 2001 to July 14, 2002. It is based on the British show of the same name. Ten episodes were left unaired until appearing on PAX in 2002, with the remainder eventually airing on GSN...
. Playing for a charity, she made it to the final two, but ended up losing to Ed Begley Jr.
Other work
As a singer, Lawrence got her start as one of the scores of bright-faced, wanna-be hopefuls on the syndicated "Johnny Mann's Stand Up And Cheer" program. But she is most known for her #1 hit, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, a song written by her first husband Bobby RussellBobby Russell
Bobby Russell was an American singer and songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he charted five singles on the Hot Country Songs charts, including the crossover pop hit "Saturday Morning Confusion." Russell was also married to singer and actress Vicki Lawrence from 1972 to 1974.-Career:Russell wrote...
, which was released on Bell Records in November 1972. It sold over two million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
by the R.I.A.A. in April 1973. (Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
was offered the song first but, unbeknown to her, her then-husband Sonny Bono
Sonny Bono
Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American recording artist, record producer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades.-Early life:...
had turned it down.)
"He Did With Me," Vicki's follow-up to "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," only managed to reach #75 in the United States, although it became her biggest hit in Australia reaching #1 there in November 1973. She followed it up there with Ships In The Night in 1974. A year later, in the fall of 1975, Vicki managed one last minor US chart entry on the Private Stock
Private Stock Records
Private Stock Records was a record label which was started in 1974 by Larry Uttal after he was ousted from Bell Records. The label had hit records with singles by David Soul of Starsky and Hutch fame , Starbuck , Austin Roberts , Samantha Sang , Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band , and Frankie...
label with the anti-feminist curiosity "The Other Woman" (#81).
She released a disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
album entitled Newborn Woman late in 1979. The album produced the minor disco hit Don't Stop the Music which was released as a disco single. Unfortunately the anti-disco backlash was in full swing when the album was released and the album and single failed to chart.
As an emcee, she hosted the daytime NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
version of the game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
Win, Lose or Draw
Win, Lose or Draw
Win, Lose or Draw is an American television game show that aired from 1987 to 1990 in syndication and on NBC. It was taped at CBS Television City, often in Studios 31, 33, and 43 at various times...
, and has also appeared often as a popular panelist on such game shows as Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...
, Password, Password Plus
Password Plus and Super Password
Password Plus and Super Password are American game shows that are revivals of the game show Password. Both Password Plus and Super Password had the same format other than some subtle changes....
, Super Password
Password Plus and Super Password
Password Plus and Super Password are American game shows that are revivals of the game show Password. Both Password Plus and Super Password had the same format other than some subtle changes....
, various incarnations of the Pyramid game show
Pyramid (game show)
Pyramid is an American television game show which has aired several versions. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted March 26, 1973 and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series...
, as well as Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants...
, where she appeared both as herself and in character as Thelma "Mama" Harper. Lawrence was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
for Best Talk Show in 1993 for the eponymous Vicki!, but the show was canceled after two seasons.
She tours the country with her "two-woman" show with the first half as herself and the second half done as Thelma "Mama" Harper. She also currently can be seen on TV in an infomercial for the "Big Boss Grill".
She is also known for her voice over work as "Flo" on the animation series "Hermie and Friends
Hermie and Friends
Hermie and Friends is a Christian video series for children. The show is 3-D animated and stars two caterpillars named Hermie and Wormie.The show started with a 40-minute Max Lucado video special called "Hermie: A Common Caterpillar" based on his book with the same name. The show was turned into a...
".
Criticism
In January 2011 Lawrence elicited criticism from advocates for and members of the homeless community for a video she created as a parody of Ted WilliamsTed Williams (voice-over artist)
Ted Williams is an American voice-over artist from Columbus, Ohio. Williams gained widespread media attention when an interview – made during a period when he was homeless – went viral after being posted to YouTube in early January 2011...
, a homeless man and former radio announcer who garnered media attention after another video of his vocal talents went viral on Youtube. The video, in which Lawrence plays her famous foul-mouth and quick-witted satirical "Mama" character and makes several jokes about "overnight celebrities," came under fire by the National Coalition of the Homeless. NCH director Neil Donovan was quoted as saying "This is a woman who has made children's videos with a Christian message and now she's saying some of the most un-Christian things imaginable."
Personal life
Lawrence was previously married to Robert "Bobby" Russell from 1972-1974. Lawrence's second (and current) husband is Hollywood make-up artist, Al Schultz, to whom she has been married since November 16, 1974. They have two children, Courtney Allison Schultz (born May 5, 1975) and Garrett Lawrence Schultz (born July 3, 1977).Albums
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | Catalog # | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
CAN | |||
| 1973 | The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia | 51 | 31 | Bell 1120 |
| 1974 | Ships in the Night | — | — | SOSL10106 |
| 1979 | Newborn Woman | — | — | WindMill L26 |
Singles
| Year | Song | Chart Positions | Album | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US AC Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States... |
US Country Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales... |
CAN | CAN AC | CAN Country | |||
| 1969 | "And I'll Go" | — | — | — | — | — | — | singles only |
| 1970 | "No, No" | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1973 | "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" is a Southern Gothic song written by songwriter Bobby Russell and performed in 1972 by his then-wife Vicki Lawrence... " |
1 | 6 | 36 | 1 | 2 | 25 | The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia |
| "He Did with Me" | 75 | — | — | 42 | 16 | — | ||
| 1974 | "Ships in the Night" | — | — | — | — | — | — | Ships in the Night |
| "Mama's Gonna Make it All Better" | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Old Home Movies" | — | — | — | — | — | — | singles only | |
| 1975 | "The Other Woman" | 81 | — | — | 97 | — | — | |
| 1976 | "There's a Gun Still Smokin' in Nashville" | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "The Other Man I've Been Slipping Around With" | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1977 | "Hollywood Seven" | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1979 | "Don't Stop the Music" | — | — | — | — | — | — | Newborn Woman |
| "Your Lies" | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||||||||
Books
- Vicki!: The True-Life Adventures of Miss Fireball (1995) - ISBN 0-684-80286-4; published by Simon and Schuster with Marc Eliot, an American biographer listed several times on the New York Times bestselling list.
- Mama for President: Good Lord, Why Not? (2008) ISBN 1-4016-0409-9 ISBN 978-1-4016-0409-7, with Monty Aidem, an American comedy writer.