Bubba Higgins (Allan Kayser) was born to Ed Higgins (Harvey Korman) and Eunice Harper Higgins (Carol Burnett). As a teenager he ended up in reform school for joy-riding in a car. He was released from reform school only to find that his mother and father had moved out of state to Florida. They made no arrangements for him to join them and, in fact, did not tell him they were leaving. His grandmother, Thelma Crowley Harper (Vicki Lawrence Schultz), took him in. He finished high school and then attended Raytown Junior College.