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Mama's Boy aired from September 1987 until August 1988 on NBC.
Mama's Boy, together with Beverly Hills Butz, was intended by NBC as a " designated series" to be shown once a month until a suitable place emerged for it on the schedule. The show's premiere telecast ranked 4th for the week, but network executives were not impressed with previews of the next 5 episodes. The series cancellation was announced in October, and the remaining programs were aired sporadically during the remainder of the season.
Bruce Weitz ( late of Hill Street Blues) starred as Manhattan newspaper columnist Jake McCaskey, whose widowed mother , Molly ( Nancy Walker), moved in with him. Also featured was Dan Hedaya as Jake's friend Mickey.
A Review From The New York Times
TV: A NEW NBC COMEDY SERIES
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: September 19, 1987
The new season offers no ''special previews'' this weekend, but as the networks go through their ingenious scheduling contortions, NBC has come up with something called a ''designated hitter.'' This is a show that will be broadcast monthly and then, ratings permitting, be ready to move into a weekly slot if required. The term comes, of course, from baseball, although something from a Las Vegas crapshoot might be more appropriate.
''Mama's Boy,'' on NBC at 9:30 this evening, is a designated hitter. Starring Bruce Weitz, formerly of ''Hill Street Blues,'' and Nancy Walker, veteran comedian and the quicker-picker-upper lady in paper towel commercials, the sitcom gives us a middle-aged magazine writer who lives with his aging mother. In the show's pilot, Molly, the mama, suddenly shows up from Florida in Jake McCasky's Manhattan apartment, explaining that she has money troubles. The scene is thus set for the mildly swinging Jake to become a little boy again as mama tells him what to wear and eat.
As it happens, the pilot won't be seen tonight. Witt-Thomas Productions obviously sensed a pronounced flatness in the execution and has hastily prepared a replacement. This episode, which was not available for preview, will have Jake receiving a Bachelor of the Year award, being interviewed by a very attractive writer and having to admit that he is still living with mommy. Perhaps the performances can work miracles with the basic premise. In any event, ''Mama's Boy'' has a terrific lead-in: ''The Golden Girls,'' also from Witt-Thomas Productions
A Review from USA TODAY
TV PREVIEW/BY MONICA COLLINS
Put them all together, they spell awful
Gutless. That's Mama's boy.
A supposed comedy about a middle-aged man living with his mother, this show is cowardly and ashamed of itself.
Instead of confidantly forging ahead to do what a TV comedy should do -provide a couple of laughs, for starters-Mama's Boy uses its entire first episode to clumsily prove two things: the guy isn't gay and he's proud to live with mother.
While Mama's Boy makes all sorts of excuses, there is no excuse for it.
Bruce Weitz plays Jake, the mama's boy. And Nancy Walker-the queen of TV smother-mothers -is mom. They're an odd coupling. Both of them short. Walker definately the funnier of the two.
But any chemistry they have is rendered nil by Mama's Boy's overreaction to itself.
Jake has what he regards as a man's-man job-as a crusading newspaper columnist. In his off-hours, he hangs out with two gorillas inclined to talk about women in terms of " bazongas."
Their sexist blather is rude and offensive, filling an artless void only to prove that these guys like women.
They don't. They obviously despise women.
In the premiere episode , Jake is nominated by a magazine to be " bachelor of the year." When the comely reporter comes to his house to interview him, he's afraid to tell her he lives with mom.
Mother understands. She too, thinks its odd when middle-aged men live with their mothers.
Jake decides he's being too sensitive about his domestic situation. So when he wins the award he gives a speech about how real men can still love their moms.
" I live with my mother," he declares. " And if that makes me a mama's boy, it's a label I'll wear proudly. Like a medal of honor."
Oh, please. Real men, real TV comedies don't have to prove it with speeches that mask annoying insecurity.
Mama's Boy is a so-called designated hitter on the NBC schedule. This means it only airs once a month. Once is more than enough.
An Article from The Orlando Sentinel
'Mama's Boy' Copes With Two Mothers
September 18, 1987|By Jay Bobbin, Tribune TV log
To a certain extent, it wouldn't be inaccurate to call the snarling, leg- biting Detective Mick Belker of Hill Street Blues a ''mama's boy.''
In his Emmy Award-winning role on that acclaimed series, Bruce Weitz spent a lot of time on a police-precinct telephone, conversing with -- but usually whining at -- Belker's never-seen mother.
Now, in his new series, Weitz takes what seems to be a logical step. Mama's Boy -- one of NBC's ''designated hitters'' that will air once monthly, for starters -- premieres Saturday at 9:30 p.m. on WESH-Channel 2, and it casts Weitz as an unmarried, middle-aged newspaper columnist struggling to cope with his live-in mother (Nancy Walker).
Mama's Boy holds a special personal interest for Weitz. ''I have a very stormy, passionate and wonderful relationship with my own mother,'' he said. ''And that's why the relationship in this show interests me.
''I'm not saying that it will be the same relationship, but I'm familiar enough with the subject. I've taken a great enough interest in it to think I can portray it well and to help create something that could be very special.'' Weitz adds another thought that he feels should mean success for the show: ''Everybody has some kind of relationship with their mother.''
Weitz admits that winding down from seven years on a filmed drama and going into a comedy taped before a live studio audience has been a big adjustment. ''There's an opening scene in the pilot for Mama's Boy where I'm supposed to take a bite of pizza and swallow it.
''I hadn't been in front of an audience in a while, and I was so nervous that the pizza got caught in my throat. We had to stop, but after that, I had it reasonably under control.''
A Review from The Orlando Sentinel
Mama Moves In, 'Boy' Has Blues
September 19, 1987|By Greg Dawson, Sentinel television critic
Mama's Boy has ''Excedrin headache'' written all over it. Bruce Weitz, who played the testy Belker on Hill Street Blues, teams up with Nancy Walker, who was Rhoda Morgenstern's kvetchy mother.
Recently widowed Molly (Walker) moves in with her newspaper-columnist son Jake (Weitz) and the fun begins. Jake's horrified girlfriend flees down the fire escape dressed only in her nightshirt. Molly starts emptying ashtrays and straightening rugs in a Freudian frenzy.
''Oh my God, he lives like a pig . . . you drink too much coffee. That's what killed your father'' etc.
The producers say Jake is a New York columnist ''in the mold of Jimmy Breslin.'' Please. Breslin would toss this buttinski out on her ear.
Enough already!
Mama's Boy premieres tonight at 9:30 on WESH-Channel 2.
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