Mama Malone

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Mama Malone
StarringLila Kaye
Randee Heller
Evan Richards
Don Amendolia
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
Running time30 minutes
Production companiesBarry & Enright Productions
Columbia Pictures Television
DistributorSony Pictures Television
Release
Original networkCBS
Original releaseMarch 7 (1984-03-07) –
July 21, 1984 (1984-07-21)

Mama Malone is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from March 7, 1984, to July 21, 1984, and featured Lila Kaye in the title role.[1]

Premise[]

The series' main character was Renate Malone (surname rhymed with "baloney"), an Italian-American woman married to an Irish-American man (never seen in the series), thus the unusual pronunciation of her married name. She was the hostess of a home cooking show called Cooking with Mama Malone that was telecast live from her fourth-floor apartment in a Brooklyn tenement. Each episode began with her instructing her viewers to chop onions no matter what the recipe might be, and the recipes never were completed because a parade of characters kept popping in to interrupt her and eat up the show's time.

Initially, the show was scheduled to premiere in the fall of 1982, but was pushed back a season and a half. The series was reminiscent of another ethnically-based series, The Goldbergs, the radio and TV show written by and starring Gertrude Berg as a New York City resident of European Jewish descent that played on ethno-religious neighborhoods populated by immigrant groups. Among the good-natured stereotypes on Mama Malaone was Padre Guradiano, an Italian-American Catholic priest who wound up gasping for breath each time he climbed the steep stairs to her apartment.

Cast[]

US television ratings[]

Season Episodes Start Date End Date Nielsen Rank Nielsen Rating[2] Tied With
1983-84 13 March 14, 1984 July 21, 1984 81 11.4 "Whiz Kids"

Note: The rating presented here comes from the TV ratings guide website and may not be completely accurate.

Episodes[]

No. Title Directed by Written by Air date
1"Pilot"TBATBAMarch 7, 1984 (1984-03-07)
2"The Commitment"TBATBAMarch 14, 1984 (1984-03-14)
3"Connie's Old Flame"TBATBAMarch 21, 1984 (1984-03-21)
4"Father Romeo"TBATBAApril 4, 1984 (1984-04-04)
5"The Education of Frankie"TBATBAApril 18, 1984 (1984-04-18)
6"Karamakopoulos and Son"TBATBAApril 25, 1984 (1984-04-25)
7"A New Neighbor"TBATBAJune 9, 1984 (1984-06-09)
8"Shall We Dance?"TBATBAJune 16, 1984 (1984-06-16)
9"Even Dino Gets the Blues"TBATBAJune 23, 1984 (1984-06-23)
10"Connie's Move"TBATBAJune 30, 1984 (1984-06-30)
11"Dino's Fan"TBATBAJuly 7, 1984 (1984-07-07)
12"A Call from the Vatican"TBATBAJuly 14, 1984 (1984-07-14)
13"Back to Basics"TBATBAJuly 21, 1984 (1984-07-21)

Reception[]

Mama Malone was poorly received critically and by audiences, owing to the characters drawing accusations of being stereotypical[according to whom?] and Kaye, who was British, actually being miscast as an Italian-American.

The show had premiered in the spring of 1984, but it lasted for no longer than thirteen episodes, whose titles are given above, and was canceled in the summer of 1984 due to low ratings.

References[]

  1. ^ The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present. Ballantine Books. 2003. p. 728. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
  2. ^ "1983-84 Ratings History -- The Networks Are Awash in a Bubble Bath of Soaps".

External links[]


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