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Where You Know Lopez vs Lopez Guest Star Vicki Lawrence From
She's kind of a comedy legend.
Vicki Lawrence is coming back to Lopez vs Lopez! The actress, who originated the role of Ruthie Van Bryan in Season 2, Episode 1 ("Lopez vs Sobriety"), will reprise her role in an upcoming pivotal episode. Take a look back at her incredible multi-decade career, here.
The incredible way Vicki Lawrence got her start on The Carol Burnett Show
As Lawrence entered high school, Carol Burnett was one of the most popular larger-than-life comedy performers on television. And Lawrence happened to look...a lot like Burnett. Every time she met one of her new classmates, she heard "over and over" that she looked like Burnett, even after Lawrence cut her hair short.
“At my mom’s urging, I wrote her a fan letter and told her that I looked like her, that I watched her on television, and that I’d love to meet her someday,” Lawrence later told PBS. She enclosed in the letter an article about an upcoming pageant that she was competing in. “[Burnett] took my dad’s name out of the article, found us in the phone booth and called me after school,” Lawrence explained.
RELATED: The Shocking Way Carol Burnett Found Out She's Related to SNL's Bill Hader
Burnett saw the pageant and the two later met, months later, when Lawrence stopped by the maternity ward where Burnett was resting with her newborn; the nurses let her in because, thanks to the resemblance, they assumed Lawrence and Burnett were related.
Eventually, Burnett invited Lawrence to audition for a show that ended up becoming The Carol Burnett Show, thinking it might be fun and interesting to have a lookalike in the cast to play Burnett's younger sister or other characters. Lawrence went on to appear in nearly all of The Carol Burnett Show's 279 episodes, and remains close friends with Burnett to this day.
"Mama"
Lawrence's most popular character on The Carol Burnett Show was Thelma "Mama" Harper, a cantankerous middle-aged woman with a grey perm. She was so popular that Lawrence played her in her own spin-off, Mama's Family, for six seasons. Though she was famous for her "old lady" character, Lawrence was barely into her 40s when Mama's Family wrapped.
Lawrence's singing career and "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia"
Lawrence released a handful of albums in the 1970s, but her biggest hit by far was "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia," a Southern gothic murder ballad written by her then-husband Bobby Russell and released in 1972. The single reached number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the following year and went gold, selling over a million copies. It's since been covered by Happy's Place star and former The Voice Coach Reba McEntire.
Vicki Lawrence's further career, from daytime talk to Lopez vs Lopez
After launching her career on The Carol Burnett Show, Lawrence made appearances on many of the major '70s TV staples, including The Love Boat, Laverne & Shirley, Murder, She Wrote, and Roseanne. She briefly hosted a daytime talk show, Vicki!, in the early '90s, and lent her voice to children's shows and cartoons.
She might be recognizable to younger fans for her work on Hannah Montana, playing Miley's grandmother Mamaw Ruthie in several episodes. Her character on Lopez vs Lopez also happens to be named Ruthie, and will return in the November 1 episode! Tune in!
