Lucille Ball, the Post-I Love Lucy Thread (5 Viewers)

[Richard Kaufman]

Without Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball was nothing but annoying.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

So it actually aired with that title, albeit briefly?

No, that's an often-repeated error from some book. I remember (as if it were last week) watching the first episode on the night of Monday, Oct. 1, 1962 and it was called The Lucy Show from Day One.

I think this error might have come from the fact that, for some reason, TV Guide listed the show as "Lucille Ball". I just checked the New York Times for that date and it's The Lucy Show in the TV listings.

By the way, it was the highest-rated show of that week - as it had been predicted it would be - but it never hit #1 again. Apparently a lot of people weren't thrilled with what they saw.

As for the deterioration in quality of Lucy's TV career as the years went by - it's now generally acknowledged that Desi Arnaz and Jess Oppenheimer were the real master minds behind I Love Lucy and Lucy, although definitely a great comic actress, didn't really know how to put a show together. Besides, making her cousin the producer and her clueless second husband the executive producer didn't really help matters.

 

[Emcee]

but it never hit #1 again

But The Lucy Show was still a big ratings winner. During its six seasons, the series never placed lower than #8 in the annual tallying of TV shows.

 

[Emcee]

it was called The Lucy Show from Day One.

I read somewhere once that the "earliest scripts" were called The Lucille Ball Show, but the show never aired as such.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I don't intend to sound mean, but Lucy got decreasingly funny with each successive show. I don't know if it was the writing, the eras in which they appeared, or my increasing maturity and desire for something smarter and more sophisticated like Mary Tyler Moore. Maybe a combination of all three.

I've always like the 1st three seasons of Here's Lucy better than the Lucy Show.

 

[Emcee]

I've always like the 1st three seasons of Here's Lucy better than the Lucy Show.

The first seasons of Here's Lucy were actually pretty good.

 

[Wiseguy]

The first seasons of Here's Lucy were actually pretty good.

The Mannix episode with Mike Conners was good. Silly and amusing but not stupid or insulting to the Mannix series. I have it on the Here's Lucy Best of Collection, from MPI not Paramount. I believe at least one episode has a Warners logo at the end.

 

[Wiseguy]

Yeah, Lucy really liked Charles Lane, but I've read he was only used on THE LUCY SHOW because Gale Gordon was unavailable when the show started. Once Gale Gordon was free, Charles Lane was out. I'm sure it also helped that Charles Lane had near-paralyzing stage fright and a terrible time of flubbing his lines while filming. He did better with single camera shows. He left THE LUCY SHOW and ended up have a running role on PETTICOAT JUNCTION as Homer Bedloe, the stick-in-the-mud that popped up occasionally to do his best to get the Hooterville Cannonball closed down.

Charles Lane didn't seem to have any problems on Soap (3 cameras in front of an audience).

 

[KPmusmag]

The Mannix episode with Mike Conners was good. Silly and amusing but not stupid or insulting to the Mannix series. I have it on the Here's Lucy Best of Collection, from MPI not Paramount. I believe at least one episode has a Warners logo at the end.

Here's Lucy was never Paramount, The Lucy Show was; when she left Paramount to go to Universal, she set up her own company separate from Paramount and retitled and reformulated The Lucy Show into Here's Lucy.

 

[Wiseguy]

Here's Lucy was never Paramount, The Lucy Show was; when she left Paramount to go to Universal, she set up her own company separate from Paramount and retitled and reformulated The Lucy Show into Here's Lucy.

The first episode on the DVD (Lucy and the Great Airport Chase, the 18th episode of season one and the only first-season episode included) has a 1968 copyright notice by Desilu, even though Desilu no longer existed, followed by a Paramount logo, the same featured on the third season of Star Trek in the same season. If the show was "never Paramount" how and why was the logo included?

 

[Garysb]

I am surprised that Lucille Ball's episode of the Desilu Playhouse, where she played K.O. Kitty in a show that had nothing to do with "Lucy," was never included in any of the various "I Love Lucy" DVD/Blu Ray sets. It was recorded during the Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour period and she most likely still looks and sounds like Lucy Ricardo. I have no idea whether its good but I would love to see it.

The other episode of the Playhouse I would like to see is the Desilu Revue where Lucy and Desi are playing themselves but acting like Lucy and Ricky. Poor copies are available on the internet but I would like to see it looking good.

 

[KPmusmag]

The first episode on the DVD (Lucy and the Great Airport Chase, the 18th episode of season one and the only first-season episode included) has a 1968 copyright notice by Desilu, even though Desilu no longer existed, followed by a Paramount logo, the same featured on the third season of Star Trek in the same season. If the show was "never Paramount" how and why was the logo included?

Sorry, I thought we were talking home video releases - I meant that Here's Lucy has never been released by Paramount/CBS home video. My understanding is the entire series ended up being under control of Lucille Ball Productions. I apologize for being imprecise.

 

[ponset]