Details of How Parts of a Certain TV Program Named "Mama's Family" Were Broadcast in Southwest Alabama


WALA-TV and WKRG-TV in southwest Alabama used to broadcast the comedic TV program "Mama's Family" on a regular basis years after production on the program ended in 1990 (its first two series of episodes were produced between 1983 and 1984; its last four series of episodes were produced between 1986 and 1990). WALA-TV broadcast the program when it was being offered by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) from 1983 until 1985 (the station was affiliated with NBC at the time). WKRG-TV started broadcasting the program on a weekly basis after its was revived for broadcast syndication in 1986 (by September 1987, WKRG-TV had the program scheduled for broadcast on Saturday between 11:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.).

By 1992, WKRG-TV had "Mama's Family" scheduled for broadcast every Monday through Friday between 10:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., which meant any programming provided by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) during this time period was delayed by about 30 minutes. One of the reasons the program was broadcast in this time period from Monday through Friday was because WKRG-TV had a tradition of broadcasting syndicated comedic programs in the same time period such as "The Jeffersons", "Barney Miller", and "Taxi" since the mid 1980s. Another reason for the time period was because the comedies broadcast during the time period helped the station generate more advertising revenue from folks willing to advertise their products or services during the programs (WKRG-TV would stop this programming practice by Monday, April 3rd, 1995, when they started broadcasting CBS' live feeds of the variety program "The Late Show" at 10:35 p.m. on a regular basis).

WKRG-TV continued to broadcast "Mama's Family" on a regular basis until September 1993, when it was removed from their regular programming schedule and replaced by "Coach" (on Monday, September 20th), another comedic TV program. "Mama's Family" would return to local television by 1997 when WALA-TV got the local broadcasting rights to the program and added it to their regular programming schedule for Monday through Friday between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. Around the same time, the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), a cable TV and satellite TV programming service, added the program to their regular programming schedule also.

WALA-TV stopped broadcasting "Mama's Family" on a regular basis sometime between 2002 and 2004 before replacing it with "Everybody Loves Raymond", another situation comedy. Their last broadcast of the "Mama's Family" was on a Saturday as part of a programming stunt (or marathon) that consisted of several episodes in a row.

Local residents in the broadcast areas of WALA-TV and WKRG-TV would still have chances to access broadcasts of "Mama's Family" locally on cable TV and satellite TV since TBS would continue to broadcast the program on a regular basis until Thursday, August 24th, 2006, after their contract to broadcast the program expired. By then, TBS usually broadcast the program from Monday through Friday at 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. (TBS had previously broadcast the program from Monday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., and 9:05 a.m. and 9:35 a.m.).

Shortly before TBS stopped broadcasting "Mama's Family" on a regular basis, the national TV programming service Independent Television (previously called "PAX TV" until 2005; later renamed "ION Television" 2008) got the rights to broadcast it on a regular basis. They had planned on broadcasting it every Monday through Friday at 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. after broadcasting it for the first time as part of a programming stunt consisting of several episodes in a row on the evening of August 12th, 2006, which was a Saturday (Independent Television's programming was available only on satellite TV in southwest Alabama at the time, since the area was not served by an TV station affiliated with Independent Television).

In 2006, the national cable TV and satellite TV programming service Country Music Television (CMT) started broadcasting "Mama's Family" on an infrequent basis beginning with a marathon of episodes scheduled for December 30th from 4:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. Afterwards they would broadcast the program occasionally as part of a marathon stunt or infrequently between other programs until December 2008, when they had marathons for the program scheduled for the 27th, 28th, and 29th days of that month (the marathon on December 27 was scheduled to begin at 9:00 p.m. and end by 1:00 a.m. on the next day; the marathon later that day would begin at 9:00 p.m. also and end at 1:00 a.m. on the next day). By then, Independent Television had become ION Television and no longer had any plans to broadcast the program also after having removed it from their schedule in June 2008. By then, ION Television usually had the program scheduled for broadcast from Monday through Wednesday after taking away its Friday timeslot in June 2007 and its Thursday timeslot in April 2008.

By January 2016, a national TV programming service named Memorable Entertainment Television had started providing episodes of "Mama's Family" to stations affiliated with them on a regular basis, usually two per day from Monday through Friday between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. (they had provided one episode the previous month ("Santa Mama" on December 25th). WKRG-TV was one of those stations.

You may learn more about "Mama's Family" on the following pages on the World Wide Web:

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