There are several connections between "Mama's Family" and "Golden Girls," the most obvious ones being that both aired on NBC, and Rue McClanahan and Betty White starred in both shows.
But watching a Golden Girls episode last night when Dorothy was signing "Hard Hearted Hannah" in a bar, it got me thinking about some of the other similarities that popped up in the two shows. The ones I can remember:
* Earl Boen played Reverend Lloyd Meechum in four episodes, beginning with "The Wedding" and popping again occasionally throughout both lives of the show. He also played a priest in two episodes of Golden Girls, including their series finale when Dorothy gets married.
* Mama, Fran, Ellen et al. singing "Hard Hearted Hannah" during Part 1 of The Wedding is one of the funniest moments of that episode, IMO. Then nine years later, it pops up in the Golden Girls episode "Journey to the Center of Attention" during the final season when Dorothy sings it at the bar Blanche frequents.
* Ken Berry made a guest appearance in the final season of Golden Girls as an old boyfriend of Rose from St. Olaf. To a Mama's Family fan, the scene where he and Rose kiss might come off as bizarre considering the Vint-Ellen relationship we know. By then, however, it had been over five years since they'd played siblings.
There also is a scene in that same episode that includes only Ken, Betty and Rue - all the Mama's Family alums in one place.
* Murray Hamilton played Uncle Roy during the second season of Mama's Family, then Blanche's father in Golden Girls in one of his final roles before dying of cancer. Coincidentally, Rue McClanahan was not on "Mama Cries Uncle."
There might be other connections, but I can't think of them offhand.