than her appearances on The Family sketches. Carol Burnett has said that Eunice is her favorite character from her show. Burnett did not appear at all in the first-run syndication version of the show due to her acrimonious 1984 divorce from Carol Burnett Show and Mama's Family producer, Joe Hamilton, who owned all the Mama's Family characters. Also, as revealed in Vicki Lawrence's autobiography, Burnett resented Lawrence for accepting the "Mama" role in first-run syndication, this being during her divorce from Hamilton. She held a grudge against Lawrence up until Hamilton's death in 1991. According to the original Carol Burnett Show, Eunice had three brothers: Phillip (Roddy McDowall); Larry (Alan Alda); Jack (Tom Smothers); and one sister, Ellen (Betty White). Later, Mama's Family added a fourth brother, Vinton, played by Ken Berry. Their Aunt Fran was played by Rue McClanahan. Creation and development Writers Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon created the Eunice character as part of a sketch the two would perform on TV variety shows in the 1960s. McMahon played Eunice and Clair played her brother. They later adapted the sketch for The Carol Burnett Show in 1973, and added the mother character (initially thinking Burnett would play the mother). In contrast to being Midwestern as Clair and McMahon had created, Burnett based the characterization on her own mother, who also had a Texas accent. Burnett said Bob Mackie's costumes helped her with her feel for the character. Family/Early life Eunice and her family are from Raytown, Missouri. Eunice's birthday is December 19 which makes her a Sagittarius. Her mother is Thelma Harper, whom she sometimes refers to as "Old Lady." Eunice eloped with a hardware store owner named Ed Higgins after he impregnated her. Eunice and Ed had two sons, Bubba (who later moved in with Thelma during the run of Mama's Family) and Billy Joe. Her older sister is Ellen Harper and she has at least one brother, depending on the installment (Vinton Harper in Mama's Family; Larry, Phillip, and Jack in the original sketches.) Eunice had a strained relationship with her parents growing up, as they blatantly favored her sister Ellen. She was bitter towards her father, who called her his "Prune Tart", while calling Ellen "Apple Dumpling". Relationships Even in adulthood, Eunice's mother blatantly favors her rich sister Ellen, though Eunice visits her mother much more often and takes care of her more. This leads