Mama

Mama

Papa / ... (10 episodes, 1949-1957)

Katrin

Nels / ... (8 episodes, 1949-1956)

Dagmar / ... (7 episodes, 1949-1956)

Aunt Jenny

T.R. Ryan (5 episodes, 1949-1957)

Early live episodes were sponsored by Maxwell House coffee. These episodes usually featured only two commercial breaks, one after the opening titles and one before the closing credits, the latter being a cast commercial. The product was noted as "already a favorite in Mama's time".

This show was one of the best-loved early TV comedies but unfortunately was broadcast live and the vast majority of the episodes were never recorded. This was a huge financial mistake that would finally dawn on the bean counters at CBS after the success of I Love Lucy (1951). CBS (and sponsor Maxwell House Coffee) finally relented to the added cost and the series was committed to film at the very end of production (ironically not enough episodes were filmed to enable profitable rerun syndication). Sadly, while older fans remember this series fondly, most of the heart-warming stories of the Hansens' white house on Steiner Street are lost to posterity.

Famous for the annual Christmas episode where Papa (Judson Laire) told daughter Dagmar how the animals were given the gift of speech each Christmas Eve as a reward for protecting Baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

Katrin Hansen: This old album makes me remember so many things in the past. San Francisco and the house on Steiner Street where I was born. It brings back memories of my cousins, aunts, and uncles; all the boys and girls I grew up with. And I remember my family as we were then. My brother Nels, my little sister Dagmar, and of course, Papa. But most of all when I look back to those days so long ago, most of all, I remember Mama.