I don’t know about anyone else but I had no idea we were anywhere near Lucy’s 100th birthday. I guess I have gotten older than I thought. I am not old enough to have watched “I Love Lucy” in the original run but I do remember growing up watching episodes of “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy” in their original run. The aggravation she put Gale Gordon through was a riot. I know it was after this that I began enjoying her at her best by watching “I Love Lucy” reruns.
She and Vivian Vance were perfect together. The number of wonderfully, ridiculous situations she put herself in and the genius of her performances have really not been equaled since then. (The only person I would say has come close would be Carol Burnett.) In addition to being so talented she was a remarkably savvy businesswoman at a time when women didn’t get much respect in show business. She and Desi were the first to film there show rather than perform it live and they also insisted on having a real audience in the studio. The filming of sitcoms is still done in much the same way to this day.
Happy Birthday and thanks for all the fun and laughter Lucy!
It’s impossible to believe that Lucy could be 100 years old! Everyone in my generation remembers when she was pregnant! (Only that word couldn’t be said on TV.) I think my favorite “I Love Lucy” moment was the “mirror reflection” routine with Harpo Marx. I also like the time her nose caught on fire and she dunked it in her coffee. I have heard that that was not in the script at all.
Let’s celebrate Lucy’s 100th all day long with grapes and chocolate candy!
I can remember, back before DVR and video recorders, the biggest joy of staying home sick from school as a kid was to be able to see those re-runs of I Love Lucy. I think I have seen every episode probably 50 times if not more.
I was both fortunate and unfortunate enough to see the rehearsals and filming of one episode of Lucy’s last TV series, the short-lived “Life With Lucy”.
Fortunate in that it was good to see her at work - changing lines (and terrifying a woman writer in front of an audience) on the spot, but unfortunate in that Lucy had aged quite a bit, and was somewhat of a nasty person on set, not only with the writer(s), but also with the other actors. She had a lot riding on that show, and I understand that, but you could tell it was not a happy place to work.
Still - the original I Love Lucy show was comic genius, and the woman knew what worked, and kept the quality high for many seasons.
ME-TV is running a marathon and I like the “I Love Lucy” episodes but the “Lucy Show” episodes are awful. I just finished watching when Carol Burnett and Lucy try to become stewardesses. This is just embarrassing to watch Lucille Ball try to pass herself off as a young girl. It is really hard whenever Carol comes into a scene with Lucy. Lucy goes from looking decent to suddenly looking very old.
I’m watching The Long, Long Trailer, one of my favorite movies ever. I hope TCM shows her other two best movies, DuBarry Was A Lady, and Five Came Back (the first a Technicolor musical and the second a real nail biter about a downed plane in the Amazon).
I’m 35 and it’s been well over 20 years since I watched an episode of I Love Lucy. I’m not here to thread crap, I recognize how important Lucille Ball is to television history and the creation of the modern sitcom. Heck, I even liked the show back when I did watch it. However, it’s been over 50 years since the last episode of I Love Lucy went off the air. I suspect almost all popular entertainers simply fade from public consciousness given enough time. It’ll happen to the Beatles and Elvis one of these days. Well, John Wilkes Booth cemented his immortality I guess. That dude could act.
I still get a stomach-ache from laughing at the episode where little Ricky is born and big Ricky has to go to the hospital dressed like some sort of a tribal headhunter. I don’t know that there’s ever been a better father’s waiting room sitcom scene than that.
The first 3 seasons where Lucy lived in Danfield, NY with her kids & Vivian & her son are pretty good; especially the 1st season. The California episodes tend to be pretty bad; it’s practically a completely different show. Eventually it degenerates into half-hour comedy sketches. I’ve recentely discovered Here’s Lucy thanks to Netflix. It’s pretty good, but not as good as her earlier material. Desi Arnaz Jr was quite the hottie so that helps.
I remember watching I Love Lucy reruns in the 1970s and thinking how old those B/W episodes looked.
It is kind of depressing to think that the Cheers and Cosby Show reruns that I occasionally watch are just as old as the I Love Lucy reruns were in the 1970’s. Really depressing. and MASH* reruns are 10 yrs older. Ugh, I am getting old.
I wonder how “I Love Lucy” would have turned out if Gale Gordon and Bea Bendaret had been casted as the Mertz’s as Ball wanted. She always wanted to work with people she knew but both were in other shows. Probably not as good since Frawley and Vance had a loathing for each other that showed on the screen. Ball ended up appreciating Vance, saying later in life that when she watched “I Love Lucy”, she always looked at Vance to see what she was doing.
And we should say something about how Cuban like Desi Arnaz did end up as the main male character. People disparaged Arnaz as a bongo player with a bad accent but he clearly was a smart man and much of sitcom followed what he created.
It’s unfortunate if the legacy of the show is fading…Nick at Nite/TV Land should really get back to basics and reintroduce it to the new generations. As far as I’m concerned, “I Love Lucy” still holds up very well.
I didn’t like the way “Lucy” was treated in the sitcom. Giving Desi the “yes sir, no sir”, Desi demanding dinner and other things on time or ELSE! I know this was in the '50s and things were different then, but I was raised in the '50s and my parents were nothing like that.
Hm. I guess times change…
