Mama

This show was one of the best-loved early television comedies, but the kinescopes made of the live episodes were thrown out after broadcast. This was a huge financial mistake that would finally dawn on the bean counters at CBS after the success of I Love Lucy (1951). CBS (and sponsor Maxwell House Coffee) finally relented to the added cost, and the series was committed to film at the end of production (ironically, not enough episodes were filmed to enable profitable rerun syndication). Sadly, while older fans remember this series fondly, most of the heart-warming stories of the Hansens' white house on Steiner Street are lost to posterity.

Featured in Television Land (1971)