character was redeveloped for Mama's Family after the character's inception on The Family skits. Lawrence recognized the modifications early on and disapproved. She has revealed that she originally found the softening of the "Mama" character to be unfunny. However, Lawrence has stated that after counsel about the character needing reshaping to fit sitcom television from Harvey Korman (played the "Ed" character), she came to accept and later embrace the adjusted version of Mama. She has stated that to this day, she appreciates how the character has "blossomed" and "matured" from "The Family" sketches. The original writers of the character had based Mama on their real-life family members and thus disapproved of the adjustments. Mama's catch phrases Unlike the sketches and the television movie, Mama had several catch phrases in the sitcom. Her most frequently used catch phrase in the series was "Good Lord!" also occasionally stated in alternate ways, such as "Good Lord in heaven!" "Well Good Lord!" or "Good night Louise!" Additional catch phrases of Mama's included "Horse pucky!" "Now hear this!" "Hell's bells!" "God-awful!" "The hell you say!" "(insert the sender's claim or statement here) my aunt Fanny!" "Smut," "For heaven's sake!" "For crying out loud!" "In a pig's eye!" "In a pig's patoot!" "Shoot!" "Real good," "Oh I bet the neighbors are just lovin' this," etc. Thelma also had a series of name-calling catch phrases she often used to refer to certain members of her family or her family as a whole, such as "Nitwit," "Dimwit," "Goon," "Goober Goon," "Lamebrain," "Dunce," "Tramp," etc. Evolution of family members' personas Unlike the ill-tempered and stormy personalities alongside Mama in "The Family" sketches and the assertive and forceful personalities in the first incarnation of Mama's Family, the supporting characters in the reincarnated first-run syndicated version of Mama's Family weren't as quarrelsome or assertive with Mama. Due to the supporting characters' more easily subjugated natures and Mama's own adjustments, the reincarnation of Mama's Family was much more lighthearted, less serious, and less contentious than all previous Thelma & family broadcasts. There are some moments, however, in the sitcom's reincarnation in which the supporting characters band together against Mama with petulant complaints and finger-pointing at her, causing heated arguments to ensue. Mama's familial and life history In "The Family" sketches, Thelma and her late husband, Carl Harper, have five children: Ellen, Eunice, Philip Harper, Larry, and Jack. This created marked plotholes as