Based on characters from "The Carol Burnett Show," this was the film which led to the series "Mama's Family."

Moments in four different years in the lives of the Harper family beginning with 1955 as a hopeful Eunice prepares to go to a party, and her brother Phillip, a recent college graduate, departs for New York In 1963, a married Eunice and her husband Ed Higgins help Mama welcome novelist Phillip home for a visit. In 1973, a divorced Eunice is living with Mama. In 1978, Eunice, Ellen, and Phillip return from Mama's funeral and Eunice makes a painful realization about her life.—Anonymous