How Accurate Is Vicki Lawrence's Accent As Mama?

Her accent, as Mama, sounds like an authentic version of the many Southern and Midland accents of the US, but Vicki was born and raised in Inglewood, California. How did she manage to learn that accent so well? Or did she?

Those native or very familiar with such accents, chime in!

Her accent is not authentic at all. It's the Hollywood version of a Southerner.

Midlands? This ain't Britain, mate.

Isn't Mama's Family set in Missouri? I don't think Vicki really sounds Southern at all. She is just doing a rural "country" accent you can find in basically every state.

"Midlands?" Huh? Are you talking about the Midwest?

OP, clearly you're not from the US. There are an uncountable number of "accents" just in the South alone. A Virginia accent will sound nothing like a Louisiana accent; even within those states there are multiple accents and speech patterns.

The Midwest (not "Midlands") is an entirely different set of speech patterns. Of course there is geographic overlap where the regions meet, and historical ties as the Midwest was largely settled by Southerners post-Civil War, but it's still a different set of speech patterns for an entirely different and distinct part of the country,

All of this is to say that Vicki Lawrence was not going for accuracy. She wasn't trying to sound like she was from a specific geographic area within either the South or the Midwest. It was a dumb sitcom from 30 years ago, not a historical recreation.

[Quote]Midlands? This ain't Britain, mate.

Midland American accent, r1.

She just sounds like a hick. Not necessarily Southern. You can find people with those types of accents in any rural area and even in California (many Oklahomans settled there). I've heard people from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kansas with those types of accents. Like I said earlier, Mama's Family is set in Missouri.

Midland American would be basically Northern Missouri, and the show is supposedly set in Raytown, MO, a suburb of Kansas City.

Mama doesn't sound anything like anyone I've ever heard from Kansas City, and I grew up in Missouri and Kansas.

Absolutely no one calls the midwest "the midlands."

Not very. The Missouri "hick" accent is best exemplified by Jean Carnahan.

[Quote]OP, clearly you're not from the US.

R3 I'm VERY much from the US, from New York, in fact. I'm not from the South or Midwest, so thats why I'm asking. To me, she sounds like people who actually speak that way.

[Quote]"Midlands?" Huh? Are you talking about the Midwest?

See r4 and video.

Jean Carnahan is from DC, she didn't move to Missouri until she was an adult, and she doesn't have a true "hick" Missouri accent.

Not really sure what you're calling "hick," do you mean the hillbilly accent from the southern part of the state? That's Mel's accent, not really Jean's.

Well, [italic]I[/italic] refer to the Midwest as the Flatzone. I expect you all to know that term when I refer to it as such.

It's not all flat. Sometimes there are hills!

[Quote]Mama doesn't sound anything like anyone I've ever heard from Kansas City, and I grew up in Missouri and Kansas.

Thank you, r6. The other characters' accents (Eunice and Ed) sound exaggerated, but not Vicki's, for some reason. To me, she actually sounds like people who talk like that.

The evolution of the accents on that show is interesting.

The characters were never meant to be southern. Jenna McMahon, who co-created the original sketched on THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, was from Kansas City, MO and that's the area - Raytown - that was supposed be the setting. There's lots of evidence to support that: in the EUNICE special, Ed mentions Lee's Summit, which is part of the KC metro area as being nearby; the original opening credits were over footage of a KC neighborhood; and Mama's car has a Missouri license plate in an early episode of MAMA'S FAMILY.

It was Carol Burnett who decided to add the southern accents to the very first sketch on her show, in homage to her Texas relatives, which infuriated the writers but was ingenious and gave the sketches a southern gothic sensibility that defined them.

The accents were toned down considerably in the syndicated version of the show, to make the show's surreal version of Raytown sound more like Any Hick Town, USA - like Hooterville on PETTICOAT JUNCTION. In fact, Vicki's entire voice changes considerably - her later version of Mama is so chirpy and peppy she doesn't even resemble the original version of the character.

To answer your question, OP, Vicki's original accent is amazingly spot-on, especially for a young woman from Southern California. She based it on her first husband, Bobby Russell's, Tennessee-born mother.

Whatever she's doing, she's a hundred times better than that cunt Olympia Dukakis in STEEL MAGNOLIAS.

What the hell is that woman supposed to be speaking?

“Midlands” sounds like something dreamed up in academia that no one ever uses.

"The Family" sketch was created and written by Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon. They originally had Burnett in mind to play Mama and have a guest star to play Eunice. However, Burnett decided that she wanted to play Eunice and wanted to give the part of Mama to Lawrence. Burnett also decided to do the sketch southern because of her own Texas background. The writers were so displeased with these decisions that during the first run-through, they threw down their pads and pencils and stormed out of the rehearsal hall. They complained that the sketch was ruined and that it would offend the South. After airing and the enormously favorable viewer response, Clair and McMahon wound up writing the sketches for the rest of the run of the show.

The show is set in the city of Raytown, which actress Vicki Lawrence later revealed to be Raytown, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City (although the script writing suggests the setting was Raytown, Mississippi)."

In the opening question, someone asked why they did the sketches with a southern accent and Carol said, it was just more fun to do it that way.

It always amazes me how some people get more southern than others. Like Reba McEntire is from Oklahoma but has a real thick accent. Designing Women accents were horrible.

It’s a fairly accurate rural North Texas/Southern Oklahoma accent, perhaps slightly exaggerated. I know people who talk almost exactly like that.

Jean Smart was the only one of the original “Designing Women” who wasn’t from the South, and her accent was very good.

Jean Smart sounded like she was from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, I remember articles in places like TV Guide and Parade that would explain she wasn't really a Missourian even though she sounded like it.

I'm from north Louisiana and my mother's best friend who was born around 1940 and raised here, spoke EXACTLY like Mama. So those that blows the exaggerated theory out of the water. She wasn't the only one that talked like that, I had a coworker that had the same accent from here too.

My mother's family is from the Ozarks and the "mama" accent is exactly how they talk. The thing about accents in that region is they are so varied. One unt sounds just like Mama, while my other aunt's accent is a lot less pronounced. The only difference is the aunt who sounds less like Mama lived in Jefferson City for a few years in her 20s.

Considering the fact that Raytown was a suburb of Kansas City I'd say her accent was grossly out of place. I don't remember at any time it being revealed that she originally came from the south, so there would no reason for someone from that part of the country to have developed an accent like she had. Her daughter played by Carol Burnett sounded like trailer trash from Rotgut, Alabama. And that sister of hers played by Betty White sounded like something right out of Gone With The Wind.

I'm sorry the Betty White character was another one of Thelma's daughters, not her sister.

Ain't Nawth Kehlahna the most egregious ak-sayunt?

R6/R14: In an interview once, she claimed she based it on her grandmother from Cape Girardeau, MO. But that's the Bootheel near Memphis. While the show was supposed to be in Metropolitan Kansas City. Eventually, Ray-Town became more Alabama than Missouri. After NBC, though, the show wasn't nearly as interesting.

maybe it's because I'm from the south (Louisiana), but I didn't ever notice she was doing an accent

Being from Southern California myself, it just just sounds General Purpose Rural Hick to me.

[quote]My mother's family is from the Ozarks and the "mama" accent is exactly how they talk.

I'm from the Ozarks, my dad's entire family is from the Ozarks, mostly small towns all over the place like Nixa, Bolivar, Ozark, Mt Vernon, Forsyth, Oldfield, Bois D'ark, and mom's family is from the more hick areas of central and east Missouri like Union, Boonville, Hermann, Berger, Marthasville, and I have never, ever in my life heard anyone that sounds like Vicky Lawrence's Mama. I even watched clips just to be sure.

Mama's accent sounds like a shrill and inept version of Mary Jo Shiveley's, who was supposed to be from Kentucky.

R16 because it is. It is mainly used in linguistics.

Ah, Vicki's Grammaw is from southern Missouri. Her accent is good (though exaggerated).

You can't fake it. Jodie Foster did that in "Silence Of The Lambs" and it sounds bad. However, by the time of "Nell" she nailed it (although speaking in gibberish).

Jodie Foster in Lambs sounded like someone trying to do a bad impersonation of Reba McEntire, who is from Oklahoma. I’m convinced she studied Reba interviews to get the voice. There are several times in the film where she says words that sound exactly like how Reba would say them.

R29!

I grew up spending a lot of time in Union, Hermann and BERGER! Worked some in Boonville, and also in Bolivar.

But throw in Washington and New Haven and a nod to Etlah's Landing and it's a Franklin County dream. The older people who are left in Franklin County are edging away from the strange German-remnant Midwestern slightly clipped vocalizations, and a lot of people do have a drawl, especially away from the river and over by Union and on to St. Clair and points west and south of there.

And you're right. Mama uses a general stage-hick dialect that captures some traits of deeper South. But Lawrence also rounded things out and brings them to a short stop, the way she shows how she's always half-pissed-off at the world and its inhabitants. That's her own take on the character.

The defense of Raytown, though, is funny. Raytown is a recent suburb and the old-timers there are pure west-Missourah rubes in their speech. Just not like Mama.

The only non southern actor I've ever seen who could do a classic southern accent to perfection was Carol O'Connor on 'In The Heat Of The Night'. It's all the more amazing coming out of a native New Yorker's mouth.

Another actor who did a great (out of character" accent was Ken Curtis as Festus Hagen on 'Gunsmoke'. Curtis was from Colorado.

And we can't forget Howard Morris as Ernest T. Bass on 'The Andy Griffith Show'. Another amazing feat of linguistics from a native New Yorker (The Bronx).

[quote]It's not all flat. Sometimes there are hills!

Well, more accurately, sometimes there are mounds.

[quote]Designing Women accents were horrible.

Delta Burke is from pre-Disney rural Orlando which was part of a Central Florida dialect of which traces can still be found. Though not Atlanta South, she is definitely Southern.

Dixie Carter's and Delta Burke's accents were completely natural. Delta had lost a good bit of her accent, probably intentionally, but brought it forth with great aplomb on DW. Dixie Carter's accent was the accent she grew up with. She never succumbed to the usual Hollywood advise of "lose the accent" and we thank God she didn't.

Jan Hooks, born & raised in Atlanta (Decatur) did a bit of exaggeration with her own real southern accent.

Annie Potts obviously could draw from her Nashville upbringing.

And interestingly enough, Annie Potts' sister is an interior decorator in Atlanta.

R32 Somebody seriously needs to make a Deepfake of Reba in Silence of the Lambs.

You don't have to be Southern to have a Country accent. I grew up within a 120 miles of Raytown MO and there are definitely a range of accents to be found that part of the world which, it should be noted, has sometimes been referred to as "The Midland Empire". It's an interesting melting pot of the very flat Midwest accent but then you have stragglers down from the Dakotas and "Minnesoder". And, then there's the Reba-esque Okie accents, the Ozark accents, and Western drawls from the other end of the prairies. And, people living in the same small town can have VERY different accents from one another.

Of the original "Family" sketch characters, Lawrence's Mama actually sounds plausible. It's a broad, ham actor accent to be sure but it's rooted in believability.

I love Carol and Harvey but their accents were just pure ham.

I don't care as long as no one talks like Jodie in NELL.

Vicki is a horrible actress. How did she even have a career?

[quote]You don't have to be Southern to have a Country accent.

Agreed. Once you get south of Kankakee, Illinois, people start having that country twang. Like Dinah Shore, never had a southern accent but she had a "TWANG" in the way she talked that was sort of southern.

[quote]Vicki is a horrible actress. How did she even have a career?

She was the only one who was willing to work with that horrible homewrecker Carol Burnett.

Vicki looks amazing at 72 in a recent photo with Carol Burnett.

I wanted Bubba’s sperms in my mouth!

Is Vicki Lawrence a brilliant actress with a huge range?

No.

Is she a gifted comedienne who is capable of being hysterically funny and even quite touching given the right role and material?

Yes.

The original "Family" sketches are brilliant....dark, weird little plays about family dysfunction. Lawrence was excellent playing Mama in those sketches despite the fact she was in her 20s playing a woman in her late 60s. It oddly works.

The series, "Mama's Family" is a pale and feeble copy of that material. It's modestly enjoyable at times for its broad humor and corn but it really has very little to do with the sketches created on the Burnett show.

It's supposed to be 'that's the night that the lights went out in Jordan.' That's how good her accent was.

Texans, Oklahomos, and parts of Kansas might have twangs. Southerners do not.

Native Southerner here. Vicki’s accent is not bad and it does sound like what one might hear in different parts of the South in the late 70s. I think it became more exaggerated on the series “Mama’s Family”.

r51

Wrong - See Reba McEntire

R53, Reba is from Oklahoma. Please reread what I wrote.

R51 Southerners do have twang. I for one have a strange sort of mixture of Low-country drawl and Appalachian Twang. And, I can code switch depending on my surroundings, it's not only a black thing. If I'm in Charleston I can sound like I was born on Rainbow Row. If I'm in the mountains you'd swear I was born in a holler.

There's not "one" Southern accent.

R56 True, just as there is no "one" British accent.

Odd...I only remember Bubba and not his accent

I like Florence Jean Castleberry’s Texan accent

You would have thought some clever gay TV producer could have found a vehicle for Allan "Bubba" Kayser and Gary "WKRP" Sandy after their respective hit shows ended.

"The Basket Brothers' Mystery Hour" as part of a revised "NBC SUNDAY NIGHT MYSTERY" wheel.

Good ole boys (and brothers!) solvin' crimes on the mean streets of some vague Southern-ish city, wearing hella tight jeans with at least one obligatory locker room scene per episode.

R59, early on, Flo was supposed to be from Alabama, just like Polly Holliday. I have no idea why they changed her origin to Texas, but given her penchant for cowboys and Cadillacs adorned with longhorns, it made more sense.

Non Southerners seem to have better accents than the real ones.

I imagine that's because many actors from The South try hard to erase their original dialects. Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Johnny Depp, et cetera come to mind.

Joanne Woodward always had atrocious Southern accents, THE LONG, HOT SUMMER & THE FUGITIVE KIND, she was awful.

Some recent examples of bad ones. Leonardo DiCaprio's Southern (Louisiana?) planter accent in Django Unchained is one of the worst I've heard. He sounded like a drunk Colonial Sanders. Megan Fox's accent was awful in Jonah Hex (and she's from Tennessee?). Jessica Simpson was bad in Dukes of Hazzard (she's from Texas?).

R63 Don Knotts had to get rid of his original accent to be an actor and then when it would have been useful on the Andy Griffith show it was mostly gone.

Kim Basinger has a slight Southern drawl that comes out at times. Matthew McConaughey and Lucas Black are the two few actors who willfully never lost their original accents

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