Fifty years ago on Feb. 9, Archie Bunker met his match in 5-foot-2, 125-pound Zara Cully, who was born and raised in Worcester.
Despite being a distinguished actress, drama coach, director and writer with a career spanning five decades, Cully will always be best remembered as Olivia “Mother Jefferson” Jefferson on the hit CBS sitcom “The Jeffersons.”
But it was on Feb. 9, 1974, that Cully first played Mother Jefferson on the “All in the Family” episode titled “Lionel’s Engagement.” This week marks the 50th anniversary of the airing of Cully’s “All in the Family” debut. She was 82 at the time.
And, her memorable introduction went something like this.“Hey there (George) Jefferson, that ain’t very nice talking that way to your little mammy,” Bunker (Carroll O’Connor) said.
Waiting for the audience’s laughter to subside, Mrs. Jefferson rolls her eyes and then roars, “Who you calling mammy? … Don’t you dare call me mammy! I’m nobody’s mammy! I’m his mother. Now, if you got anything to say to me, you call me Mrs. Jefferson.”
With that quick verbal exchange, a memorable television character was born.
The cast of “The Jeffersons” in 1975. At bottom right is Zara Cully, who was born and raised in Worcester. She played Olivia “Mother Jefferson” Jefferson on the CBS TV sitcom. “The Jeffersons.” The cast included, first row from left. Paul Benedict, Isabel Sanford, Sherman Hemsley and Cully; and second row, from left, Franklin Cover, Roxie Roker, Belinda Tolbert and Damon Evans.
Stealing every scene
When “The Jeffersons” was “movin’ on up, to the East Side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky,” not only did Cully finally get “a piece of the pie,” she became an overnight sensation in her 80s.
With her precise manner of speaking, perfectly coiffed hair and sheer elegance, Cully stole every scene that she was in. She was a sassy, classy, petite lady who could stand toe-to-toe with Archie Bunker .
Whether taking a little nap or nip in the form of a Bloody Mary that she claimed she drank “for the vitamins,” Cully added lightness to the show as she needled her daughter-in-law Louise “Weezie” Jefferson (Isabel Sanford), spoiled her grandson, Lionel (first played by Mike Evans and later Damon Evans; no relation), and proclaimed that her dry-cleaning mogul son, George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), could do no wrong.
When she was 82, Zara Cully, who was born and raised in Worcester, became an overnight sensation playing Olivia “Mother Jefferson” Jefferson on the hit CBS TV sitcom “The Jeffersons.”
Larger than life
Acclaimed as being “one of the world’s greatest elocutionists” in the 1940s in New York City, Cully did not achieve real fame until “The Jeffersons.” Cully portrayed Mother Jefferson on the “All in the Family” spinoff series, from the show’s debut on Jan. 18, 1975, until her death three years later on Feb. 28, 1978.
Larger than life on the small screen, Mother Jefferson died with Cully, despite the show continuing seven more seasons.
In an interview for the Archive of American Television, Sanford spoke about the classically trained actress who played her mean but always funny mother-in-law.