Raytown, Missouri

Raytown is a city in Jackson County, Missouri, United States, and is a suburb of Kansas City. The population was at 29,526 in 2010 census. The mayor of Raytown is Michael McDonough.

History

The area where Raytown now lies was developed throughout the 19th century and early 20th century as pioneers moved westward along the Three Trails in search of available fertile lands and water. It was added to the state of Missouri at a cost of $800 by a treaty signed in 1826. Jackson County, named after President Andrew Jackson, was formed in 1827. A large area of the county, Township 49, was accidentally not offered for sale when the other townships were, and so was called "The Lost Township". People moved into the township and squatted until the township was surveyed and the land sold in 1843.

The pioneers and travelers moving westward down the Three Trails discovered an area of high, wooded ridges, in the Raytown area, that reminded them of their former homes in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The land was named Blue Ridge, with the bordering bodies of waters called the Big Blue and the Little Blue rivers.

Mama's Family

Mama's Family is an American television sitcom starring Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper (Mama). The series is a spin-off of a recurring series of comedy sketches on The Carol Burnett Show (1974–78) and Carol Burnett & Company (1979) called "The Family". That led to the made-for-TV movie, Eunice, and finally the television series.

The show's theme song is "Bless My Happy Home" by Peter Matz (music) and Vicki Lawrence (lyrics). The show's producers chose to use an instrumental version.

Mama's Family originally aired on NBC, debuting on January 22, 1983. After several timeslot changes and subsequent drop in ratings the network cancelled the series, the final episode airing on April 7, 1984. NBC broadcast reruns until September 1985.

Two years after its cancellation, original series producer Joe Hamilton Productions (JHP) decided to follow a lead that several other programs at the time had set and revive Mama's Family for first-run syndication on local stations across the United States. The revived series, produced by JHP and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures, premiered on September 27, 1986. The syndicated version garnered substantially higher ratings than did its network version, eventually becoming the highest rated sitcom in first-run syndication. Its four season-run ended on February 24, 1990.