Mama Malone


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

Premise

The series' main character was Renate Malone, an Italian-American woman married to an Irish-American man, 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 iconic 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

SeasonEpisodesStart DateEnd DateNielsen RankNielsen RatingTied With
1983-8413March 14, 1984July 21, 19848111.4"Whiz Kids"
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Note: The rating presented here comes from the TV ratings guide website, and May not be completely accurate.

Episodes

Reception

Mama Malone was poorly received critically and by audiences, owing to the characters drawing accusations of being stereotypical 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.