One of the earliest dramedy series was also one of the most popular; we’re talking late 40s here, folks, when TV sets were—gasp!—black and white and a lot of programming was live (sadly no bloopers or outtakes). Mama traced its lineage to a book by Kathryn Forbes titled Mama’s Bank Account, a memoir about a tight-knit immigrant family in turn of the (20th) century San Francisco. A playwright adapted the book for the stage, then a movie was made based on the play and finally the TV series came into existence.

The narrator and principal character was Katrin Hansen, a young Norwegian girl but Mama Marta was the true center of every story. Mama ruled her brood—Katrin, brother Nels, sister Dagmar and Papa Lars—with love and practicality. The first rule of Mama was that you couldn’t pull a fast one on Mama; coincidentally, those were the second through the thirtieth rules as well. The Hansen family was very close and their togetherness could surmount the toughest problem and revel in all of life’s funny little moments. Whether dealing with Katrin’s teen angst or Nels’s behavior, Mama always displayed fairness, discipline and limitless understanding. Norway should canonize her as a saint, that’s how fantastically cool the woman was.

The Hansen household attracted all sorts of colorful characters that were part of the can or belonged to the family’s circle of friends. A few recurring roles included Aunt Jenny, Uncle Chris, Uncle Gunnar, Ingeborg and T.R. Ryan. They came and went and usually communed around the family’s table, partaking of the big pot of Maxwell House coffee that sat in the center (hooray for product placement!).

CBS hadn’t realized how popular the series was until they tried to cancel it, which incurred the wrath of Mama’s many, many fans.  To placate the bloodthirsty throng screaming for their blood, network executives agreed to produce 13 new episodes and air them on Saturday afternoons. These episodes were committed to film, instead of broadcast live, so they are the only part of Mama that remains today.