The Lucille Ball (and her TV series) Thread--From I Love Lucy to Life With Lucy

[MissLlanviewPA]

I had originally thought of creating a Lucille Ball thread on its own, just one that dealt with her whole career and life, TV or otherwise. But since she is obviously most known for her work on TV, I thought it was time to start a thread dedicated to each of her TV shows, from the beginning (I Love Lucy) to the end (Life with Lucy).

Of course, these shows (especially I Love Lucy) should probably have their own threads .

Show openings below!

I Love Lucy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juNSYH7RveY

I couldn't find The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour opening on its own.

The Lucy Show (two examples--there are more):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTX8HT5JPzg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z82cI4LXVgo

Here's Lucy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2FHESxH6qs

Life with Lucy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1berfXs2eC8

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Life With Lucy - what a terrible way to go out. The entire run was up at one point on YouTube, and just awful, you can see why it was such a big flop. A lot of that "typical Lucy stuff" that worked in the 50's and 60's just seemed so out of place in an 80's sitcom.

[quartermainefan]

I was never a huge fan of I Love Lucy but the bit with William Holden and the nose was classic.

[DRW50]

I Love Lucy has a better ensemble cast and some hilarious, hilarious moments, but it's also very sexist, which hampers some of my enjoyment. In that sense I prefer her other two sitcoms, even if nothing compares to the chemistry she had with Desi.

Lucy is one of those people where, the more I read about their life (she was essentially a very lonely and unhappy woman for most of her life), the more it affected my view of her shows. It's difficult for me to watch them now.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

She always said she wasn't a funny person, it was all down to the writers who gave her such wonderful material to play off of.

[DRW50]

It's funny, one of the first places I ever "saw" her was that TV-movie with Frances Fisher and Maurice Benard, which I learned years later was disliked by her family. I'm sure it was inaccurate, but most of the sadness in Fisher's performance seems accurate.

I read somewhere that her last years were spent with her husband going off all the time to play golf.

Perhaps she was one of those people who mostly found happiness through the public anyway. At least she always had that. There was a story about how after the '89 Oscars she and Bob Hope were standing outside, and she was doing high kicks for the crowd.

[DRW50]

This was one of my favorite scenes (it's poor quality but this clip was taken down several times - those versions were better quality).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nMrIjBBov8

Desi redid this song when he hosted SNL decades later. SNL could have made a huge joke of him but they treated him very respectfully, perhaps because in those years they still had integrity.

[MissLlanviewPA]

Lucie Arnaz was interviewed for TV Legends series a few years ago, which means a lot of talk about all of her parents' shows. Some very fascinating stuff here.

http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/lucie-arnaz#

[SFK]

I guess I never gave it too much thought, but did Lucy or anyone ever talk about how she never had a husband in her series after ILL? I'm assuming it had something to do with the audience not being able to accept her with anyone other than Desi.

[SFK]

I forget which talk show he was on, but Martin Short told an anecdote about sitting behind Lucy and Gary on a flight. She turned around and snapped at him because he had apparently kicked the back of her seat. Gary cussed him out.

[SFK]

What a television event the night that came on. Nico's big break! I remember thinking that FF seemed much older than MB than the real Lucy and Desi. Two scenes I remember most are Lucy very coolly half-smiling and smoking a cigrette as they watched dailies of the show, as they were really trying to show that she wasn't Lucy Ricardo, and the latina showgirl coming to Desi's dressing room touching her breasts saying that they hurt and she wanted papi to rub it. Desi's like, "Okay. *closes dressing room door*"

[Eric83]

I love I Love Lucy. Piggybacking off Dr. Carl's comment about the show being sexist I must say one episode I considered racist was "The Indian Show". I will elaborate on that and also talk favorite eoisodes and scenes when I get to sit down at a computer (on phone now.)

[Eric83]

Ok I am a serious I Love Lucy fanatic. LOL! From like ages 6-11 I really watched reruns of the show EVERYDAY. They seriously never got old to me. I was kind of disappointed when I later discovered that Lucy and Desi had gotten divorced. I thought they had always stayed together.

As for my previous remark about the episode "The Indian Show" what rubbed me the wrong way was how they acted like Indians were barbaric creatures that attacked the poor, innocent settlers. It really was not a big deal but that's just how I viewed the episode in later years. Though putting that aside the moment that begins at 3:09 in this clip made me LMAO over and over and over again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMpL6y7LJoY

And of course I LOVE the Vitametavegamin episode. Seriously that is so hilarious.

Man I just loved the chemistry between Lucy and Ricky, and I sometimes would just be like watching their scenes. I am embarrassed to admit that I cried when Ricky sang the "I Love Lucy" theme to Lucy in the episode Lucy's Last Birthday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fn7PKzf5tk

I am going to have to read through an ILL episode guide because there are just too many moments I am thinking of in my head right now and need to narrow down my faves or I will be here all night.

love this blooper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bViswHmi6E

[Chris B]

I Love Lucy was one of my favorite shows growing up, but I haven't revisited it as an adult. I'm sure it would hold up incredibly well, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I bought some of those Best Of sets for The Lucy Show, so I've seen it, but I didn't love that show. Creatively it seemed so unsure of itself, especially those later season episodes which I HATED. This thread has inspired me to watch Here's Lucy, since it's on Hulu and it is pretty fantastic. For it's time period it's a funny sitcom, her kids are both good actors and I like the setup. Random, but the show also has really nice sets. I've only watched the first two episodes so far, but I'm really impressed.

[All My Shadows]

I loved ILL growing up as well, as I guess so many of us have over the decades. No matter how old I get or how my TV tastes change, nothing says classic TV to me more than a good Lucy episode. I love all the usual suspects -- Job Switching, Lucy Does a TV Commercial, Lucy Goes to the Hospital (Ricky's "The tiiiiiiiime hahzzz come." STILL cracks me up!), the California/Europe trips, etc, but I can pretty much watch any episode of the series, even the Connecticut episodes.

The Lucy Show -- I started watching this when a local station aired it every afternoon for a year or so, and I liked it, though not as much as ILL. They only showed the color episodes, which basically amounted to Lucy and her zany antics getting on Mr. Mooney's nerves. Fun, but it really wasn't the same with just one person for her to act off of. I've seen some of the earlier episodes on MeTV recently, I like those a lot better.

I came across a few episodes of Here's Lucy on YouTube a while back, and the concept of Lucy as mother to teenagers worked REALLY well! I wish Me would pick it up for at least a limited run some time (or just to air on their Sunday afternoon showcase block). There's a really cool mix of classic Lucy comedy and Brady/Patridge-style storylines that just gelled very well.