The Lucy Show: The Official Third Season ... comes out November 30th, 2010! (1 Viewer)

[Joe Lugoff]

I agree about the Las Vegas episode.


I was 15 when it was first on, and I had already noticed that season that the show was deteriorating.


After seeing the Las Vegas episode, I thought, "Whew, they're back on track again! That was a good one."

It didn't last long.

 

[Mark Y]

Just picked up Season 3 yesterday -- I had a Best Buy gift card and happened to stumble on Seasons 2 and 3, and chose 3. (So far this is the only set I've picked up.)


A few random thoughts off the top of my head, after watching one episode and some of the extras...


Question -- at what point did The Lucy Show start airing in color (originally, during its prime time network run)? Seeing the show opening brought back a memory of watching the show when I was a young kid -- by that time, it was syndicated and I was seeing it on a local TV station in reruns. I do remember the show opening, though I hadn't seen it in decades; I remember watching it in the 1970s and some time after that, they changed the intros on these episodes to one from a later season (by that time they were probably airing on Nick At Nite). Anyway -- this seemed weirder to me last night than it did 30 years ago, although I do remember noticing it (even if I didn't think much about it at the time) -- the clips in the show opening are a mix of color and B&W clips, and then when the writer credits appear at the top of the show proper, it's over a B&W clip as well. Again, I certainly remember seeing this in color in 1970s syndication -- but in the original network run, was this season originally seen in B&W? If that was the case, then it may make more sense as it all would have been B&W anyway and no one would have noticed. (As far as the reruns go, I don't remember seeing the earlier B&W episodes on our local station in Chicago until the late 1970s, 1978-79 or so -- that doesn't necessarily mean they weren't shown before then, but that's the first time I remember seeing them. They had the animated opening with Lucy and Viv caricatures. In the last five years or so, I saw an episode from the first season on a local station with the later "kalaidescope" intro, but in B&W.)


I have fond memories of watching The Lucy Show and enjoyed it as a kid. But as another member pointed out earlier in this thread, I saw The Lucy Show (and Here's Lucy) before I ever watched I Love Lucy, and there may be something to the idea of liking the show better and enjoying it more when the comparison to the earlier classic series is not part of the equation. (Also, first seeing it as a kid probably helped too.) When I saw The Lucy Show in local syndicated daytime reruns, it was airing alongside shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, That Girl and Mayberry R.F.D. The context might make all the difference.


Not having seen many of the episodes in a few decades, what stands out in my memory are certain moments -- one on an airplane when they hand out gum to the passengers, Lucy starts chewing it, and then overhears someone say "it's for your ears." So she takes it out of her mouth and sticks it in her ears. The stewardess then continues, "we find that chewing the gum helps prevent your ears from popping..." (That's in one of the later public-domain episodes.) I also remembered a moment where Lucy had a valuable old coin (a vintage penny) and accidentally dropped it down a sewer. She was sitting on the curb crying, then a police officer comes by and asks what's wrong. "I lost my penny," she whines. Funny stuff when I was 9 or 10 years old. I'm not as well-versed in Lucy as some other folks here -- I scanned the contents of this set and sure enough, I found that episode. It was cool to see it again (though I found it less funny than I remembered) and they did a really nice job on this set -- color and sound are great, I love how they added original network intros and commercial billboards as extras, etc. (Lucy DVDs in general tend to have really cool extras.) But you know, I'm not sure this show would do anything for me if I didn't remember watching it as a young kid.


Watching some of those vintage network openings and closings also reminded me of seeing the reruns in the 1970s -- they would be 16mm film prints, and a lot of times, the audio would be muted out towards the very end of the show opening, and other times you'd get a little piece of an announcer's voice-over starting to say "brought to you by..." Nice to see the rest of these and find out who they were "brought to you by." They seem to have done their homework, too -- I notice some specifically are identified as being from repeat showings (the specific sponsors probably differed sometimes).


Anyway, just a few random observations -- I thought maybe that might be of interest regarding the question of how some could enjoy The Lucy Show when others view it as so vastly inferior to I Love Lucy.

 

[JohnMor]

Originally Posted by Mark Y

Question -- at what point did The Lucy Show start airing in color (originally, during its prime time network run)? Seeing the show opening brought back a memory of watching the show when I was a young kid -- by that time, it was syndicated and I was seeing it on a local TV station in reruns. I do remember the show opening, though I hadn't seen it in decades; I remember watching it in the 1970s and some time after that, they changed the intros on these episodes to one from a later season (by that time they were probably airing on Nick At Nite). Anyway -- this seemed weirder to me last night than it did 30 years ago, although I do remember noticing it (even if I didn't think much about it at the time) -- the clips in the show opening are a mix of color and B&W clips, and then when the writer credits appear at the top of the show proper, it's over a B&W clip as well. Again, I certainly remember seeing this in color in 1970s syndication -- but in the original network run, was this season originally seen in B&W? If that was the case, then it may make more sense as it all would have been B&W anyway and no one would have noticed. (As far as the reruns go, I don't remember seeing the earlier B&W episodes on our local station in Chicago until the late 1970s, 1978-79 or so -- that doesn't necessarily mean they weren't shown before then, but that's the first time I remember seeing them. They had the animated opening with Lucy and Viv caricatures. In the last five years or so, I saw an episode from the first season on a local station with the later "kalaidescope" intro, but in B&W.)

The first season was filmed (and obviously then aired) in black & white. The second and third seasons were both filmed in color, but aired in black & white. Desilu filmed them in color as it was believed that would help in the sale to syndication, even though CBS was airing them initially in black & white. Starting with season four, the series was aired in color. The black and white clips in the S3 opening are all from season one, hence there were no color shots of those moments to be used in the opening credits. Although, ironically, the seaon two credits used some color stills from season one episodes.

 

[Mark Y]

Thanks! Of course, after I posted my question I then pulled out the first disc and watched the short explanation about color on there -- I'll have to pick up the other sets at some point. Your description of the second season intro sounds vaguely familiar too, I'll probably remember it once I see it. I wonder if that one oddball "lost" opening (that was only on a few episodes in their network run) will be there when they get to those...

Originally Posted by JohnMor

Question -- at what point did The Lucy Show start airing in color (originally, during its prime time network run)? Seeing the show opening brought back a memory of watching the show when I was a young kid -- by that time, it was syndicated and I was seeing it on a local TV station in reruns. I do remember the show opening, though I hadn't seen it in decades; I remember watching it in the 1970s and some time after that, they changed the intros on these episodes to one from a later season (by that time they were probably airing on Nick At Nite). Anyway -- this seemed weirder to me last night than it did 30 years ago, although I do remember noticing it (even if I didn't think much about it at the time) -- the clips in the show opening are a mix of color and B&W clips, and then when the writer credits appear at the top of the show proper, it's over a B&W clip as well. Again, I certainly remember seeing this in color in 1970s syndication -- but in the original network run, was this season originally seen in B&W? If that was the case, then it may make more sense as it all would have been B&W anyway and no one would have noticed. (As far as the reruns go, I don't remember seeing the earlier B&W episodes on our local station in Chicago until the late 1970s, 1978-79 or so -- that doesn't necessarily mean they weren't shown before then, but that's the first time I remember seeing them. They had the animated opening with Lucy and Viv caricatures. In the last five years or so, I saw an episode from the first season on a local station with the later "kalaidescope" intro, but in B&W.)

The first season was filmed (and obviously then aired) in black & white. The second and third seasons were both filmed in color, but aired in black & white. Desilu filmed them in color as it was believed that would help in the sale to syndication, even though CBS was airing them initially in black & white. Starting with season four, the series was aired in color. The black and white clips in the S3 opening are all from season one, hence there were no color shots of those moments to be used in the opening credits. Although, ironically, the seaon two credits used some color stills from season one episodes.
[/QUOTE]

 

[JohnMor]

Here's a link to trhe Season 2 opening, although not as pristine and beautiful as it appears on the dvds.

 

[FrancisP]

Originally Posted by Joe Lugoff

"The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy" were similar to "Green Acres" in that they could get very surrealistic. If you're not sure what that means, look it up. If you don't think Lucy's shows got surrealistic, then we must live in two different Universes. (Just think of the episode where she gets super strength; or she gets drafted into the Marines. It's stupid enough that they force a woman to be drafted with the men, but she never once says she's way too OLD! That would have got her out immediately.)


According to the books, Joan Blondell was going to replace Vivian Vance as Lucy's new chubby, blonde, wise-cracking sidekick. The problem was she couldn't stand working with Lucille Ball and quit after two episodes -- she stormed off the set at the conclusion of the second episode and never came back.


Then it was to be Ann Sothern, but Lucy wouldn't let her have equal star billing.


Vivian had quit for many reasons, including that Lucy wouldn't give her a raise.


Lucille Ball was very talented, but she wasn't easy to get along with in real life.

I agree that the one where she gets super strength is a little over the top. However I loved the one where Lucy gets drafted.

 

[Theodore J. Mooney]

Originally Posted by FrancisP/forum/thread/304433/the-lucy-show-...-comes-out-november-30th-2010/30#post_3767169

 

[Mark Y]

Originally Posted by JohnMor

I remember that, thanks!