Mama's Family - "Cat's Meow"

Original Air Date: November 8, 1986
Directed by: Dave Powers

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!

Synopsis: Iola (Beverly Archer) is depressed when her mean kitty Midnight passes away. Then she surprises everyone by having the animal freeze-dried.

Cat Corpse: We never see Midnight the cat before his passing, so we can’t really call a Kitty Carnage Warning here. We do hear a lot about Midnight being a mean and feisty cat; one who attacks the mailman and bites Mama (Vicki Lawrence) when she tried to pet him. The episode gets darkly crazy when Iola comes over and tells Mama she has a surprise. She then brings in the freeze-dried Midnight on a blanket in a basket. The fake black long-haired Persian prop used here looks so ludicrous it’s hard not to find the situation funny.

Mama's Family - Cat's Meow - Iola Beverly Archer holding freeze-dried black cat Midnight

The cat is not only preserved but has been fitted to meow when petted!

Mama's Family - Cat's Meow - Iola Beverly Archer and Mama Vicki Lawrence looking at freeze-dried black cat Midnight

This leads to some confusion when Vinton (Ken Berry) falls on the dead cat while carrying a locked trunk he just bought with Naomi (Dorothy Lyman) and Bubba (Allan Kayser) into the house. The cat’s electronic meow goes off and gets weak, leading Vinton to believe he killed Midnight himself. The trio bury the cat in the back yard and then end up having to dig it back up to give it to Iola. Of course she is not happy with her destroyed, dirty dead cat.

Mama's Family - Cat's Meow - Vinton Ken Berry holding freeze-dried black cat Midnight between Naomi Dorothy Lyman and Bubba Allan Kayser

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): Facing the prospect of having to pay Iola to fix Midnight, Vinton and the others turn to the trunk they bought. Iola wonders how they think it could hold anything valuable with a hole in the side. But when they open the trunk they find a real treasure . . . a mama cat and her kittens. Just by chance the first kitten they pull out is a black long-haired Persian. Iola falls in love and names the kitten Sunshine, since mama said “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. He took away your Midnight but he gave you a little Sunshine.”

Mama's Family - Cat's Meow - Iola Beverly Archer and Mama Vicki Lawrence holding black Persian kitten Sunshine

Mama's Family - Cat's Meow - close up of black Persian kitten Sunshine

Mama's Family - Cat's Meow - Iola Beverly Archer holding black Persian kitten Sunshine with Mama Vicki Lawrence

Mama's Family - Cat's Meow - Iola Beverly Archer holding up black Persian kitten Midnight

Bubba, Naomi and Vinton pull three more kittens out of the trunk; a white, a gray and another black Persian. They ask Mama if they can keep them and Mama says she guesses it would be okay. “I took you all in. What’s a few more strays?”