Carol Burnett stopped guest-starring after the second season as she was divorcing the show's producer Joe Hamilton.
Vicki Lawrence is 16 years younger than Ken Berry and Carol Burnett, and 27 years younger than Betty White, all of whom portray her children.
Vinton's two teenage children, Buzz and Sonja, who appear on the show from 1983-1985 were written out of the show in 1986, and no explanation was ever given for their whereabouts (many probably assumed that both Buzz and Sonja went to college and lived on their own). In the 1990 season, when Vinton wants to have another child, he says that if it's a boy, he will name it Vinton Jr., forgetting that Buzz's real name is Vinton Jr.
Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence were big fans of Dorothy Lyman who portrayed flamboyant Opal Sue Gardner on the long-running soap opera All My Children (1970). It was Burnett who suggested Lyman for the role of Naomi Oates Harper. During the first season of 'Mama's Family,' Lyman continued to portray Opal. Every week, she flew from Los Angeles, where 'Mama's Family' was shot, to New York City where All My Children was filmed. Lyman left All My Children after NBC renewed 'Mama's Family' for a second season.