Any News on the Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Lugoff]

The way things have been going lately, this doesn't surprise me. However, several years ago some cable channel (I think it might have been Nick at Nite) showed these uncut (except for the first one, of course), so it's hard for me to believe they couldn't find uncut versions of these somewhere (and it's been said here that even the first, 75-minute one still exists.)

 

[PaulP]

With the care taken with the six seasons of the main show, I doubt they'd cheat us now.

 

[AlanP]

I remember as a child seeing the original version of Hedda Hopper, sitting in the living room in Connecticut, with Lucy and then it faded into the cruise.
It was great, and it also, ended with them sitting in the living room in Connecticut. It was a repeat during the summer of 66. And I was 8 years old.
I remember it vividly, as I had never seen the hour long series. And I watched the rest of them that whole summer. I was enthralled.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I don't know what to say. The hour shows were rerun in the summers of 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967 -- but not in 1966. And the Hedda Hopper parts of that episode were never seen after their first showing in 1957. They were always cut from the summer reruns (even though she was listed in the cast in TV Guide.)

 

[Brian W.]

Yeah, Tallulah was pretty out of control, I hear. Reminds me of the story Marlon Brando told in his autobiography about Tallulah having him fired from a play they were doing together, before he was famous.

She kept making advances at him outside of the show, and he kept... making excuses. But every night, they had to kiss in the play, and every night she would worm her tongue into his mouth. He tried clamping his lips shut, but somehow she always managed to snake her tongue in between his lips and halfway down his throat. He said it was cold and slimy and tasted nasty.

So he started keeping a glass of mouthwash and a bucket offstage, and would rinse his mouth out immediately after that scene. But Tallulah found out about the mouthwash, was offended, and demanded he be fired.

Then a couple weeks later he had an audition for some new play called "Streetcar Named Desire"...

 

[AlanP]

The worst episode, was the Howard Duff and Ida Lupino one.
The Mertzes were cut out of that one...........

 

[Jeff#]

If you really want Tallulah Bankhead to get on your nerves listen to her on The Big Show -- a big-budgeted 90 minute radio variety series she hosted for 2 seasons in the early 1950s! I first heard it this year, from downloading the Mp3 files of many of the available broadcasts. It was an entertaining program though, and you could always hear the guest stars (most noteably Fred Allen) frequently make fun of her.

 

[CIULLOCAMNY]

The series will make its long awaited DVD debut some time in early 2007. A box set of all 13 one hour (really around 52 or 53 minutes) episodes called seasons 7,8 and 9 will be released. Some home movies that were filmed by an audience member is supposedly also included as well as an I LOVE LUCY feature film, which supposedly are 3 episodes edited together with never before seen footage. There is one episode though that I hope that CBS/Paramount will restore and that's the very first one. The premiere episode "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" originally ran 75 minutes. The premiere episode "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" contained the first ever TV crossover. Ann Sothern guest starred playing her Susie McNamera character from her series "Private Secretary" (1953), which had ended a few months before. And Cesar Romero plays Ricky's friend. Desi had a lot of power on the network back then. He asked CBS executives if he can use up 15 minutes more into the next hour which belonged to the International Steel Hour program. The execs agreed and the first Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour was actually an Hour and 15 minutes. The episode was obviously was cut down later on for syndication. Lopped off were the opening scenes where Hedda Hopper comes to the Ricardos' Connecticut home and learns all about how Ricky and Lucy first met in Havana. The episode ends with Hedda Hopper as well, and these scenes were lopped off as well. There is also an extended scene with Lucy and Ann (Sothern) in a jail cell and they appeared to get snookered beyond belief after drinking some funny water. This scene was also cut short for the syndicated version. For the syndicated episode, Desi had to do a voice over narration to set up the plot whereas the Hopper scenes had already explained it. Let's hope that this box set gives us the best of both worlds. The 75 minute version DOES EXIST. It ran at the Broadcast Museum of Radio & TV in NYC a number of years ago. It was Desi's personal 16mm film print. As the story goes, Desi had 16mm prints made for him personally - of all of the shows.

 

[MatthewA]

Lucy had prints of her own at one time. If I recall correctly, she had them transferred to video in the late 1970s. The guy who transferred them to video kept dubs for himself, and these telecines have been circulating as bootlegs for years.

 

[Brandy681]

Yes that is really good information, thanks! I also did not know that "The Lucy-Desi comedy Hour ran for so long after "I Love Lucy." We were also wondering why she looked quite older in "The Lucy Show," as it was made not long after "The Lusy-Desi Comedy Hour, or during and she looked a bit older. I love "The Lucy Show," but it was kinda depressing that she started to age some and then as "The Lucy Show" progressed her voice started to change some too and she sounded hoarse a lot. I still really like "The Lucy Show" and wished they would start making the box sets. I have a lot of scrambled lucy show epsiodes and some episodes repeat on all the discs and the quality is of course poor and so I haven't seen many of The Lucy Shows. Everytime I see a new Lucy Show dvd in the store I will pick one up, but when I get it home it is repeat episodes that I allready have. I have waisted a lot of money on repeat shows (as many people have) and just wish they would bring us quality discs that we can watch!

 

[Ron Lee Green]

Brandy, there are 30 episodes of The Lucy Show currently in the public domain. Here is a link to the thread which talks about the different releases and episode titles:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...d.php?t=187308

 

[Brandy681]

Wow! I absolutely did not know that, I had no idea. As a matter of fact I just ordered a 30 episode on 3 dvd set of "The Lucy Show" on Amazon (and just got it home) and I did not know that! They had a lot of the 8 episodes on one disc and they were about the same price as what I paid for this 30 episode, so that is why I ordered this for only $9.99. I actually have watched maybe 5 episodes on the set so far and 4 are the episodes that I have allready seen before. I will know not to waist my time on anymore than that I have all 30! Here are the episodes. 1. Lucy The Starmaker 2. Lucy Meets Robert Goulet 3. Lucy Gets A Roomate 4. Lucy and Carol Burnett In Palm Springs 5. Main Street USA 6. Lucy gets Jack Benny Account 7. Lucys 8. Lucys Barbershop Quartet 8. Lucy And Viv Put In A Shower 9. Lucy And The French Movie Star 10 /Disc 2
1. Lucy Meets John Wayne 2. Lucy And The Flight Manager 3. Lucy And Paul Winchell 4. Lucy flies to London 5. Lucy Meets Sheldon Leonard 6. Lucy And The Efficiency Expert
7. Mooney The Monkey 8. Lucy And The Ring A Ding Ding
9. Lucy Meets Tennessee Ernie Ford 10. Lucy Gets Caught In The Draft Disc 3/ 1. Lucy And George Burns 2. Lucy Meets The Berles 3. Lucy The Bean Queen 4. Lucy Meets The Law 5. Lucy Gets Trapped 6. Lucy, The Babysitter 7. Lucy Meets Pat Collins 8. Little Old Lady 9. Viv Visits Lucy 10. Lucy And The Submarine. Thanks so much more for the information!