"The Cosby Mysteries" made sense for the time, IMO. His sitcom had just ended, he still had a huge following with older audiences, and between Andy Griffith, Carroll O'Conner, Tom Bosley, and Dick Van Dyke, it was all the rage for former sitcom stars to become crimefighters (which you could even say stretched as far back as Buddy Ebsen as my boy Barnaby Jones).
And then there's "Life with Lucy" lol The whole thing makes me sad because you watch the opening credits, and it's all this stuff about living life to the fullest, aging with dignity and grace, keeping that fighting spirit, staying open to new ideas and experiences, etc. and you can tell Lucy was really ready to be "back." The show flops hard, and people were not very kind about it, plus Desi dies just a few weeks after it's cancelled. It's no wonder she just wanted to be left alone at that point.
I've read that they were trying to get her to do something more like Golden Girls, and while I hope it wasn't a complete rip-off, I think it could have been a different story for her final series. Back when they were developing "Here's Lucy," it was a conscious decision to go in a new direction by having it be Lucy as the mother of teenagers, and I personally think that worked very well for the most part. Lucy as a grandmother, not so much, which is why I guess they leaned once again on "Lucy pisses Gale Gordon off" as the basic premise.
I'm not sure what would have been a good set-up for her in 1986. Maybe something like "Waiting for God," with her and Gale finally working together in cahoots to piss other people off. That way, the whole idea of them being too old for the slapstick but still getting into trouble anyway would be part of the plot.
By
All My Shadows ·
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.