❤I Love Lucy! Always have….Always will!! She brought joy to my childhood in the 50’s (I am 73) . It is 2024 and I still find happiness in watching her. I especially loved her when she and Viv shared a house. These were hysterical!! Thank you, Lucy, for being you! I love you and thank you for all you have given the world. ❤
Absolutely, Lucy was aging so the shtick that worked in her younger years was no longer funny. A big mistake she had was allowing her old writers to write in modern day. They should have been consulting and advisory capacity to allow classic Lucy to be modernized. The show while adorable felt like a 1960s show in 1986
I remember when I was a child, watching I love Lucy and all the instruments she played. That's where my attraction to music came from, her Conguero Husband. I wasn't even born yet when I love Lucy started. I appreciate having and watching all of her/their DVD's 📀. Thank you for sharing this. 💫
Didn't liked the idea about the audience clapping for for no reason. Lucy balanced on one foot - audience clapped, Lucy walked upstairs - audience clapped .
The huge success of the 50s show seemed to have cemented her into the same type of character and surroundings. She was afraid to broaden her horizons and take a chance. She kept the same persona in all of her shows. Obviously by this 80s endeavor the staleness was what sunk the show. She was always repeating what she already did. She didn’t want to mess with the formula.
Exactly. I think most people knew this, but feigned ignorance out of their love for her from 30 years prior. The show was horrible, with the same formula and physical comedy. She should've stopped while she was ahead.
Good analysis. Her career started to go downhill after ILL. There were more personal reasons than business reasons as to why she continued to rewash ILL over the years. Her divorce shattered her and affected her so much in so many areas in her life... in the 60's, she tried to turn her second husband into a producer and a business man like Desi (he had no talent so it never happened). She never wanted to let go of the 50's which according to her was the best time of her life. Bless her, nevertheless her intentions were always in the right place.
With ABC giving Lucy the keys and full executive control, no one saw the show until it aired and while it did well for the first week, the ratings sunk consistently afterwards as Lucy even begged folks to give it time to gel and come together. They offered her writers from shows that ended but Lucy wanted her people and while that loyalty is admirable, they should have ben advisers and consultants at best given it was a new era. ABC felt this was going to be their Cosby and they had high hopes for the show but even Cosby had handlers who worked with him on The Cosby Show were all were part of the success. They tried with the short lived Redd Foxx Show and even gave it a chance to recreate itself midway to no avail but folks wanted to see a mature aged Fred Sanford style as they were used to do that. Amen worked because Sherman and producers turned Deacon Frye into a religious version of George Jefferson even though Sherman felt that Frye was more educated and couth than Jefferson but kept the same elements that folks loved. Sherman said that it takes good writing to go with good acting. You cant have good acting and horrible writing which is why Goode Behavior failed, he said the writers were horrible.
The little boy was discovered in Jell-O ads. He grew up to be a high school teacher and died at 27 of a rare condition. His parents endowed a scholarship named for him.
@@KahlessTheUnforgettable Urban myth: From Wikipedia, In March 2005, after complaining of a sore back, Amelio was diagnosed with a bacterial infection of the heart valve. His condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 1 April 2005, at age 27, in Boston, Massachusetts from an infection.[1] In his memory, Amelio's father established the Philip J. Amelio, II Scholarship Fund, offered to impoverished schoolchildren who reside in the Pine Plains Central School District and the Duanesburg Central School District to help them maintain their education.
Yes to all the other observations, but I didn't feel that GG 'yelled' ALL his lines. In fact, his soft and critical "Lucille..." is perfection. You can really see the understanding and adoration between the two-and a play-off craft honed over decades. I only wish it was just the two... with every other scene cut.
Lucy wanted the actors to “yell” their lines. Back in the 50s and 60s where technology was not so advanced, actors “yelled” their lines so the microphones can pick them up. Technology had come a long way so by 1989 nobody needed to yell any more because microphones were much more sensitive. Lucy still insisted to do it the old fashioned way.
My thoughts have always been this show was comedy gold when it was her in the hardware store. If they had recentered the show more about stories there and cut down the family aspect I think it would have been a hit.
I think the show was doomed from the start. The landscape had changed to much in the 12 yrs that Ball had been away. All of her previous shows were in an era where primetime all played to middle America (sappy sweet, family oriented, tug at the heart strings) By the 70's networks had begun to push the envelope (MASH, All in the family, etc). All Ball did was " get the old gange together' Previous co-star (Gale was 80), previous writers, who's previous scripts, slapstick was written for aa much younger ball vs an over 70 ball. In addition, casting is a great gife (Norman Lear/Bill Asher), LWL cast had 0 chemistry. The she quickly reverted to building an episode around a famous guess star.
@@hardren101 - What happened to her with this show is a tale that could be told with other "legacy" comics as they got longer in the tooth. Much has been written about the decline of "The Benny Hill Show" in the UK in the 1980's; the performances were pretty much wooden compared with his earlier shows, the endless repetition of gags reaching the rote, phoning-it-in, "been-there-done-that" stage. Lucy's old friend Bob Hope long ago went to the "going through the motions" phase in his career with his numerous TV specials, the last in 1996. The last few years of Jackie Gleason's variety show was laden with gimmicks - including a series of color "Honeymooners" episodes with celebrity guest stars like Maureen O'Hara, Bert Parks and even Milton Berle! Johnny Carson clearly knew when to quit - hanging up his microphone for good when he did his last "Tonight Show" on May 22, 1992. Also, one wonders how much: a) Lucy breaking her right leg in 1972 while skiing, and b) the aftermath of her filming "Stone Pillow," affected her timing and health. Neither she nor Mr. Gordon, I'm sure you'll agree, were spring chickens.
Lucy knew how to make her show. It was pretty funny and she had that big ridiculous fire extinguisher joke at the end. But if the show was just her and Curtis at the hardware store it would have went on longer
I really think that Lucy & Gale are wonderful. The son, daughter and the grandkids are all annoying overactors. The writing seems flat, and the directing is too dull. I will always LOVE LUCY.
Audiences by this time were looking for wit which Lucy's character simply did not have. Gale And Lucy could have pulled it off even at there age in 1986....the real issue to me is the writing and scripts they were given.
They had the right idea of them being grandparents at their ages. The family could have been recast as they did not fit in the mold at all. The irony is that Lucy and Gail both had connections to them as those are their children. I think better concept given you had the era of grandparents raising grandchildren would have been the two of them raising teenagers who lived near each other. You saw new school, old school and it could have gotten about 3 seasons
The son in law is the worst. He is not acting natural and hard to watch him. I agree with the comment not a good fit and they know chemistry is everything.
Would you believe me if I told you that Tim and Eric did work on the show. I know, I know; "But they were children at the time the show aired." That's were you're wrong. The rabbit holes goes deeper, my friend.
Not her best, but it was great to see her again. As always, she would do anything. Her prime was I Love Lucy. To do a show at 75 took guts and courage. Which she had.
Hand to God, the fire extinguisher bit had me in tears laughing when I first saw it a few years ago. It just perpetually kept getting more and more absurd. Absolute classic Lucy. 🤣👏👏👏👏
I’m one of the biggest Lucy fans on the planet. I wish that this series had been more successful just for her sake. From what I’ve read, she was hurt with the reviews. She specifically said something to the effect that the critics dug at her for even TRYING another series. I’ve read them. They were written by vultures.
Had the network given the series more time for the characters to develop and the actors to get in the groove with the writers, I think this show would have excelled.
Yeah, poor Miss Ball, she deserved SO much better. On top of that, Desi was dying from lung cancer. I think they were trying to retool the series with the Audrey Meadows episode. She would’ve been Lucy’s comic foil just as Vivian Vance had been years before. It’s too bad Viv had already been gone for 7 years at this point. I’m sure she would’ve made an appearance!
It was a terrible show. Badly written, and the supporting cast was very poor. Lucy was just too old to do her comedy routines anymore. The critics were right. The show was awful.
Lucy is funny and a great comedian and actress as always. The thing is the other people like her daughter and son-in-law are not funny or not a good fit to act with Lucy. Imagine old Vivian with old Lucy. That would have been a great show. I am glad Gale Gordon is in this show.
Curtis says he didn't bring a gift to Lucy because he didn't think of her as family but isn't the real reason is that he didn't know she was going to be there.
After all these years of I Love Lucy reruns... I just learned today from randomly flipping through Pluto TV that there's other shows with the same character. I got some catching up (and some 'splaining) to do! And then I did a deep dive research so I am now here. I find it hard to believe anything with Lucy can be as bad as the reviews say... already the Tuna Casserole bit had me "role-ing"! Ok I'll stop. Thank you for uploading. I first looked for streaming but it is nowhere, and I imagine the DVD is out of print and pricey.
1:27 Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis also wrote episodes of the original I Love Lucy. They even were mentioned in one episode when a pregnant Lucy was tossing baby names around, two of the names she had in mind were Bob and Madelyn!
I can see why this show didn't work. Other than Lucy and Gale, the other actors are pretty well unknown even today. Never heard of them. Madelyn Pugh-Davis and Bob Carroll were employed by Lucy 30+ years before this on her black and white shows. Their time as writers had quite clearly passed. Lucy was a legend - she could make material work - but if you're gonna do Lucy in the 80s, it has to be Lucy Ricardo again. Or Lucy Carmichael. That's who she was to the public. If you're gonna reinvent her a third time, it has to be really good, and this just totally wasn't.
At her age, folks would have welcomed Lucy as a married grandmother with grandkids. They missed the opportunity to marry her and Gale and have them dealing with aging, their married child moving in with their child as this was a thing in the 80s and trying to make things work. The married child needed to be someone with a name for that era or someone who was hottie. Storylines had to be more realistic with some silliness in them. Amen did a good job of this as they were funny and slapstick was used to for laugh enhancers not just create them for lame scripts
I believe that Lucy was hesitant to do this, but Gary Morton encouraged her to do it. He was also an executive producer. From then on, Lucy was on board, and she suffered terribly after is failed. It was the first time she was criticized just for coming back. She never did a show again. I believe that with better writers and better actors, and a role written for her age, this could have worked. RIP Lucille.
This originally caught my attention when I saw it on a list of the 50 worst shows in the history of television. Not sure if I would go that far given all the terrible shows that have failed over the years, but this definitely didn’t turn out well. I read that her only television appearance after this show was at the 1989 Academy Awards when she presented with Bob Hope. She would receive one last standing ovation there before passing a month later. RIP to Lucy.
This was the first time a show of hers was abruptly canceled and harshly critiqued so she was not used that at all. One her colleagues remembered her crying saying she had never in her almost 30 plus years of television had she been fired. At the beginning of this series, she was full of life and joy as she was coming back to do what she loved which was television. She stated, she loved to entertain and missed it greatly in retirement so she was looking forward to reconnecting with fans and even creating new ones with a new generation. Sadly, she overplayed her hand. While her formulas worked for that era, she was a relic of the past in this era.
Just proves lightening doesn't strike twice. If this show was about Lucy the seventy-something person in a realistic situation, not relying on hackneyed slapstick and corny jokes, it might have made it.
Sherman took his time when he selected Amen as stated his agent was receiving many calls for him to do so many pilots and be featured as a side character on some shows that did premiere and ultimately ended. He says you have to know who you are and what works for the time in which you are performing in. He stated, he had many shows who wanted to give him a wife and young kids and he was like, there are enough family shows, adults need some shows for them. You see one family, you see them all and many times the scripts are recycled from canceled shows, lol. Della pointed out with Royal Family which was a hit until Redd Foxx died is that they took elements of characters both of them played, made them an elderly couple with a grown child with grandchildren to show the era of young divorced parents moving back home. Many things in Al Royal had resemblance to Fred Sanford but more middle class than working class.
Larry Anderson was also a magician, but not related to another famous magician turned actor Harry Anderson (Night Court fame), although they both have an uncanny resemblance to each other.
after watching i can see the potential but i looked it up and saw it started at the same time as golden girls i think that it was no competition for golden girls
I Love Lucy will always remain in my heart and affections. As much as I love Lucille Ball, watching this sitcom tugs at my sensibilities. It seems forced and doesn't compare to what Lucy had achieved in the I Love Lucy episodes with Desi.
Because it was forced, and foolish. Frankly, she was too old to be doing the same gags/comedy from 30 years prior: the world had changed, and her original audience had grown up. It was extremely stiff.
Clive James once said that at a certain point the very famous come to think they are beloved for who they are rather than for what they do. That's the only explanation for Ball believing this was a good idea.
The network was drowning & needed a fresh breath of air & thought Lucy could do it for them. They all tried & Lucy sure wanted this. But it just didn't work. Trying to relive the earlier days & trying too hard.
ABC did something similar with Redd Foxx with the Redd Foxx Show in the previous season and retooled the show midway in the short season but it still didn't work. They were hoping that they could do what NBC did with Cosby with former stars of the past. Foxx was always Fred Sanford to the public and with his last show, they had a Fred Sanford style grandfather with a wife who allowed a divorced daughter who had the name Elizabeth in it. The biggest mistake with this show is that ABC let Lucy run the show without any testing, oversight or anything, they bet the house on her and even felt that giving Ellen Burstyn a series afterwards would create a power hour that failed. Burstyn was sadly tied to Life with Lucy so her show needed Lucy do well.
Wow, I just finished watching all of "The Lucy Show", and this is a glaring drop in talent. I am so confused as to how they selected the parents and children for this show. The audience being over eager to applaud and laugh makes it worse. Disappointing.
I always felt the show got better when it focused on Lucy and Gale Gordon running the store. If they had retooled the show and dropped the family and made it more store centric I think it would have done much better
Watching at least Lucy and Gale Gordon, it feels like the 60s are still alive from The Lucy Show- yet put within the context of an 80s sitcom that just doesn't quite feel up to par with those two in a way- not to put down the rest of the show. It does seem a little over acted otherwise though in a way I can see some comments saying, which would have been fine within it's own self as maybe it was just a different style in the 80s- not bad, but Lucy and Gale are tv legends/master comedians... maybe it would have been better if they were a couple living in the same house and the family came to visit.. or something where they were the main focus even more... maybe it was just the 80s - things got a little different then- not all bad, but sometimes borderline cheesy. Which again isn't bad per se, but the essence of 50s and 60s television and time periods really brought out Lucy and then Gale all the more... I think it was just hard to find the right context merging the past with the present. In theory it was a good idea... I think they should have given it more time as anything with Lucy or Gale is worth watching... I think it got cut too short and needing to find a way to merge with changing times and audiences... it's still pretty cute, heart warming and just as good as anything on in the 80s... Lucy is nostalgic at any rate even...
Yes, something should have been tweaked, and it could have been more like Mr. Belvedere for example... or even Full House? I feel bad for Lucy, she was so great all around and struggled early in her career too... but she will always be the Queen of Comedy all around!
They should have hired Larry Gelbart (who was one of the writers for M*A*S*H). He was offered the job and indicated that he would be glad to accept it. But Lucy was too loyal to those that she felt comfortable with from the 1950s, and the show suffered as a result.
Horrid series! The actor playing the husband can't act... this is apparent with the delivery of his first lines. This is just sad for Lucy. I wish she had not made this program.
That also applies to the saccharine wife and the plastic 2 kids plus the store help. With the exception of Gordon makes this sitcom doomed from the start
Yeah but she could do it. It blows my mind because my Mom was a chain smoker too and died at 62 from COPD, watching Lucy move like that just freaks me out. Goes to show that smoking is Russian roulette for people, took my Mom far too young but Lucy lived until her 80’s. Moral of the story, don’t smoke or quit before it’s too late.
Smoking took a toll on all of them from Audrey Meadows, Gale Gordon, Desi Arnez, and Lucy. I don't think Vivian Vance smoked but she did have breast cancer which is common for women sadly.
I haven't seen much of this show. But all it needed was a few changes and it could have really taken off. Lucy needed a few zany friends/sidekicks. The soundtrack should have been just a little bit more 80's up to-date style. And her character needed a little more wild backstories. Think a mix of Mona from Who's the Boss, Miss Frizzle from The Magic School Bus, and a dash of Mr. Johnson from Albott Elementary.
I just found it and watched episode 1. I felt the same. The premise of the episode is great, it feels like very poor direction to me. What was also noticeably lacking was the little audio stingers between scene transitions, and scenes go on too long. It feels like a Lucy show but hollow inside.
The Papermoon blog on Lucille Ball got a couple of things wrong. First it says that Curtis is Lucy's brother-in-law. No he wasn't as Curtis was the father of her daughter's husband. The other thing on Lucy being a widow here it says she was also a widow in The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy. However she wasn't a widow in The Lucy Show as she was instead a divorcee.
In The Lucy Show, Lucy Carmichael was indeed a widow; Vivian was a divorcee (though in the book the show was based on, both characters were divorcees). But the network felt that viewers would interpret it as Lucy having divorced Ricky, so she was a widow.
She needed a Viv, as the producers came to understand too late. Lucy did comic business, be it dialogue or slapstick, best with a foil who could dish it out as well as take it. Gordon had to be semi-simpatico in the family set-up, whereas his previous roles had been as a butt to be aggravated. He could not sub for a woman. Without a partner, Lucy had to double up on the 'wacky young at heart' stuff, and it became embarrassing to see this old lady overplaying to keep the younger viewers the advertisers wanted watching. The way Gordon's first confrontation with Lucy is signaled and delayed, and his superb reactions during the 'reveal', make it seem as if he was the star. And since he was getting almost $100,000 an episode in 2023 money, why not? Morton & Co grasped the necessity of a female accomplice and signed Audrey Meadows from 'The Honeymooners', but it was too late. Besides, older viewers might have resented anyone after Viv. Among other things, this effort- not bad, only not good enough for Lucy- is confirmation that Ball and Vance had been the greatest female double act in screen history. All that said, Lucy's way with a line or a reaction remain marvelously precise; her timing was the best, and her exchanges with Not-Mr-Mooney are a joy, with her latter-day gravelly voice adding to the sharpness. It was only by her own lofty standard that the comeback was an anti- climax. Bad Ball is better than 90% of the domestic sitcoms that walked the trail Desi, Lucy, Fred and Ethel blazed.
The only good episode was the John Ritter one... Also, Lucy and Gale were fairly good throughout the six episodes they filmed, its just that the writing and direction of the series was terrible and it seemed very dated.. Some of the gig bits were ok, but way too many.. Lucy going on a date would have been a great storyline or Gale meeting a girlfriend.. Also, Lucy hiring some of her old co-stars from her past shows into this show would have been good too.. So many missed opportunity..
It’s sad, had Vivian Vance still been alive, they probably would’ve done it together! I wonder if they tried getting a hold of Mary Jane or Doris Singleton to appear if it would’ve lasted longer.
I thought the Audrey Meadows episode was the best of the series followed by Worlds Greatest Grandma. The writing seemed more mature for elderly seasoned performers not the typical jokes and gags meant for younger folks. Even the late Valerie Harper fought that on her show saying she wanted to be more realistic similar to her work on the Mary Tyler Moore Show not just 80s cheesy fantasy which the producers wanted so badly that resulted in her being fired and suing them and winning.
This was made 30 years after the original I love Lucy, now in 2023, this is 37 years in the past. Not sure why this got so many bad reviews. It is just as funny as Full House or anything else back then.
“Full House” “worked” because the whole cast-including the kids-were decent and worked well together, while it also appealed to kids. No kid was going to flock to this on Saturday Night (when Facts of Life was against it). Problem was, this sitcom was not something adults would want to watch either because it wasn’t mature enough (and few want to see an elderly person do such physical comedy).. This really didn’t have a good target audience. Sitcoms with kids generally appealed to kids (except for “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which brilliantly changed that up a decade later). These kids are so in the background, they serve no point, Idk why they were on here. The whole show is so disjointed.
I love Lucy but there comes a time when you gotta know when to stop. Regardless of how bad this was, her legacy as the best comedienne is forever cemented in tv history & in my heart.
Agreed, and that applies not only to actors/actresses, but everyone in all careers. The day you die, someone is going to take your job and replace you. She let Gary talk her into this mess while Desi was dying.
Lucy should done The Golden Girls, she would fit in perfectly should done a guest star here and there. But got stuck with sad show. First time watching Gale just annoying him screaming and i dont find him funny at all. Lucy was left holding a show all on her own with mediocre cast.
@@ddlee202257Totally. She’s why this particular show bombed; insisted on the same stale gags and fool-hearted personality and the writers who were relics from her past. Had she been down for a more grown-up sitcom where she wasn’t queen bee it may have been a hit.
The family aspect was never a hallmark of Lucy’s previous sitcoms, so it’s odd that the show is built around a family here. I know that sounds weird but Little Ricky was a tiny portion of I Love Lucy, the kids were completely abandoned in The Lucy Show, and Here’s Lucy got stronger once Kim grew up and Craig disappeared! Lucy needed a strong female she could be in cahoots with just like Viv, Rosie Harrigan, Kim, Mary Jane, and Carol. Lucy and Gale in a retirement home with maybe Mary Jane Croft, Mary Wickes, and Audrey Meadows would have been more fun. The hardware store could still figure in for additional story opportunities. The biggest issue with the series is the old-fashioned scripts and production from Bob Carroll Jr and Madelyn Davis. Both had produced and written for the last 8 years of popular sitcom ALICE, but that bordered on the unwatchable most of the time. The acting from the Ann Dusenberry and Larry Anderson is just horrible. It’s very broad as if they had watched a collection of Lucy episodes from the 50s and 60s and decided to emulate that style of acting. But if they had regrouped after cancellation, the series could have been revamped for syndication.
The 80s was a family era so it was tons of family oriented shows on at the time to show different families from single parents, blended families, adopted children, etc. Lucy jumped right into such and the family was casted poorly beyond the children. Lucy and Curtis should have been a retired married couple with Curtis taking on day to day operations of the hardware store they owned as he wanted something to do after retiring. Lucy would still be working but she would be convinced it would be time to retire when she saw a much younger woman who understood the company. They could have dealt with aging issues in a humorous way and even having their children with grandkids move in after being evicted due to hardships and having to deal with a house full of folks again. Lucy would be happy, Curtis would be like, we just cant keep this place empty, lol.
I was thinking about that: revamped for syndication. It was a popular outlet at the time for sitcoms that didn’t make it more than a year or two on ABC, NBC, or CBS primetime. I doubt Lucy would have _ever_ gone for not being on one of the Big Three. Revamped would have also meant canning her vision and her handpicked writers she knew from ILL.
@@katvtay Fox may have grabbed this for their initial lineup in 1987 as she would have brought her big name to their startup network but given they were edgy and wanted to do what others weren't doing, I am sure they would have told Lucy, we love you but enjoy your retirement.
@@HomeRuleNews I almost added Fox into my post! As I typed “Big Three,” I wondered, how would Lucy have felt if Fox came knocking? I scrapped that idea because I don’t think they’d have touched this with a 10 ft poll in 1987 with all the problems with it that unfolded in 1986.
This show was already dated when it premiered. Fact is, she and the writers were just recycling the same stuff from her three previous shows. She'd been playing "Lucy Ricardo" for 500ish episodes, what more could they do with the character?
In my opinion, this show was doomed from the beginning, because she was trying too hard to make lightning strike twice. It was the 80's, so what had worked for her in the 50's/60's, was rather outdated by this time. I give her credit for trying another series, but it wasn't the same with Desi. I think she would've had a far longer (and richer) acting career doing a dramatic series or more movie roles (like "Yours, Mine and Ours" from 1968), rather than looking a fool like this and getting abysmal ratings. Gary Morton was a solid man for her, but he wasn't Desi: she never got the happiness in the end that she gave everyone else.
I totally agree with your assessment of the show. I grew up watching I Love Lucy reruns on CBS and in syndication. I also loved The Lucy Show as a child but, by the time I was a teenager, the later episodes of Lucy's second series were already becoming a bit out of step with the times. Kids and young people were switching over to to shows like Laugh-In in the late 60s and early 70s. That said, Lucy remained an icon beloved by everyone. I just remember wishing she hadn't agreed to do Life with Lucy, although I understand the strong desire to try to revisit the best years of her life. If Lucy and Gary Morton had gone with the writers from M.A.S.H. as had been recommended by Aaron Spelling, it might have had a chance. Also, not sure who thought it was a good idea to dress Lucy like Olivia Newton John in the Physical video from 1982. Leg warmers and head bands had gone out of style by 1984, and I sure don't remember any grandmothers wearing outfits like that in 1986.
@@brenttravis46651984??? No they didn't ! Shit , Jim McMahon was famously wearing his headband into 1987. You must have lived in East Bumfuk, cause the youthful elder craze started in the 80s, and I saw elderly in their workout gear all the time.
Technically the 4th lightning strike. Remember The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy? When the was a kid I was confused by her multiple shows and the fact that Vivian Vance kept showing up but her name changed. Nothing gods a candle to the original show with Desi Arnaz! That was chemistry!
This would have been a good show if they didn't makr her so ditsy. You can tell Lucy time was over. I know so many have said it but the jokes reminds me of the Lucy show and this didnt work for this show.. lucy and gale time was over
They really should have matured Lucy at this point as those gags of being an airhead woman who meant well was not believable for an elderly woman. They could have did more gags like Lucy having to use modern technology at the time such as asking for a record collection when everyone was using cassette tapes. I think they missed the boat on not making Lucy and Gale a married retired elderly couple. A good episode could have been Gale was already retired and was convincing Lucy to finally retire. They could have made her business executive who couldn't let go but was agreed it was time to move on, that could have been a good first two episodes.
Im surprised they went with this unknown unfunny cast. Golden Girls worked because of great writing but also they had a great cast of more then one known star
This really isn't that much worse than the typical 1980s sitcom trash. Horrible writing, inane storylines, studio audience whopping it up over jokes that barely rate a chuckle. Most 80s shows are unwatchable today, this one is just marginally worse than the typical fare.
Agreed. An actress of her stature (and age), deserved to have a solid storyline and top-tier writing within the first 6 episodes, so that the audience could bond with the characters and the show. This horrendous show and Desi's death, permanently broke her heart and ender her career.
Even tough this show was a complete flop, it's sweet wse her and Gale Gordon together again. He was part if her shows dxept fovI love Lucy though hecwas supposed to play Fred Mertz in it but he was involved in another project
I don't think that's true I thought I remember I was born in 1973 that Lucille Ball worked up to the day she died in 1989 wrong please let me know I didn't know her personally but I just don't want her from television and reruns from the 1980s
@@JasonBender-mo6qv Lucy retired after this show failed. She was only on an awards show a month before her death in 1989, she fell from the public eye as she felt no one loved her no more and she was fired, something that never happened to her, she took it hard according to many sources of folks who knew her.
@@HomeRuleNewsI didn’t realize until today this show got the ax within a few weeks of Desi’s death. What a horrible time for Lucy. I wish this sitcom could have been made totally differently. Lucy and Gale with a different cast and better writers perhaps could have had a hit similar to “The Golden Girls.” What a pity. Fortunately, most don’t remember this, and her other body of work is well-regarded, especially “I Love Lucy.”
To be fair to the little boy, he quit acting to finish school and be a teacher. Tragically. He died at age 27 in 2005. The girl steadily acted and seems to be in a band as of late. The father still gets steady work. The mom is awful and blessedly quit acting eventually. It’s not surprising to be in a failed sitcom and never become a household name. That’s showbiz. Then of course, Gale was 80 and went back to retirement.
@@katvtay TV party did a good article about this show using interviews from various folks who worked on the set and talked about how they had to tape Lucys wrinkles under her wig, deal with her mood swings as she was getting little sleep as she would stay up all night talking with Desi who was dying and dealing with critics who felt Lucy was just a relic who should be a memory not still in our faces. ABC to their demise, gave Lucy so much control that they didn't do a test episode, let her do all the casting, create the storylines, no audience testing, they felt it was a hit just waiting for the air. Sadly, the Ellen Burtsyn Show fate was tied to Lucy so it was a two for one deal. I think Burstyn could have been better for NBC paired with Valerie under a branding of women in charge hour, or something like that. Valerie was a hit until the tensions happened.
❤I Love Lucy! Always have….Always will!! She brought joy to my childhood in the 50’s (I am 73) . It is 2024 and I still find happiness in watching her. I especially loved her when she and Viv shared a house. These were hysterical!! Thank you, Lucy, for being you! I love you and thank you for all you have given the world. ❤
Fact was times had changed. We all loved Lucy. She was an iconic legend. She was now, just too old and people weren't buy that same type of comedy.
A room filling up with foam. 🙄
Absolutely, Lucy was aging so the shtick that worked in her younger years was no longer funny. A big mistake she had was allowing her old writers to write in modern day. They should have been consulting and advisory capacity to allow classic Lucy to be modernized. The show while adorable felt like a 1960s show in 1986
She never should have done this show; it was ill-fated from the get go.
I adore Lucy...,❤️
Old or young...
She's unforgettable.
Ill watch her till my last day..!
Same
I remember when I was a child, watching I love Lucy and all the instruments she played. That's where my attraction to music came from, her Conguero Husband. I wasn't even born yet when I love Lucy started. I appreciate having and watching all of her/their DVD's 📀.
Thank you for sharing this. 💫
Why didn’t someone stop the mom from SHOUTING ALL HER LINES!!??
Agreed! Ugh.
I love Lucy in anything, she's funny no matter what 😅😂😅😂 I love Lucille Ball.
Didn't liked the idea about the audience clapping for for no reason. Lucy balanced on one foot - audience clapped, Lucy walked upstairs - audience clapped .
She smoked so many cigs - they should have clapped everytime she breathed clean air!
@@dmer-zy3rb🤣🤣🤣
LMAO Frfr it's pretty ridiculous.
The granddaughter is the same child who kidnapped Rose's teddy bear fernando on "The Golden Girls"
And Jenny Lewis is a successful singer in recent years.
*I knew that girl looked familiar, but I couldn't place her. Thanks again, Venus!* 😉
I picked up on that too
The huge success of the 50s show seemed to have cemented her into the same type of character and surroundings. She was afraid to broaden her horizons and take a chance. She kept the same persona in all of her shows. Obviously by this 80s endeavor the staleness was what sunk the show. She was always repeating what she already did. She didn’t want to mess with the formula.
Exactly. I think most people knew this, but feigned ignorance out of their love for her from 30 years prior. The show was horrible, with the same formula and physical comedy. She should've stopped while she was ahead.
Bingo!
Absolutely agree and with great respect to her but she needn't to move on to the 80s.
Good analysis. Her career started to go downhill after ILL. There were more personal reasons than business reasons as to why she continued to rewash ILL over the years. Her divorce shattered her and affected her so much in so many areas in her life... in the 60's, she tried to turn her second husband into a producer and a business man like Desi (he had no talent so it never happened). She never wanted to let go of the 50's which according to her was the best time of her life. Bless her, nevertheless her intentions were always in the right place.
With ABC giving Lucy the keys and full executive control, no one saw the show until it aired and while it did well for the first week, the ratings sunk consistently afterwards as Lucy even begged folks to give it time to gel and come together. They offered her writers from shows that ended but Lucy wanted her people and while that loyalty is admirable, they should have ben advisers and consultants at best given it was a new era.
ABC felt this was going to be their Cosby and they had high hopes for the show but even Cosby had handlers who worked with him on The Cosby Show were all were part of the success. They tried with the short lived Redd Foxx Show and even gave it a chance to recreate itself midway to no avail but folks wanted to see a mature aged Fred Sanford style as they were used to do that. Amen worked because Sherman and producers turned Deacon Frye into a religious version of George Jefferson even though Sherman felt that Frye was more educated and couth than Jefferson but kept the same elements that folks loved.
Sherman said that it takes good writing to go with good acting. You cant have good acting and horrible writing which is why Goode Behavior failed, he said the writers were horrible.
The little boy was discovered in Jell-O ads. He grew up to be a high school teacher and died at 27 of a rare condition. His parents endowed a scholarship named for him.
Fun Fact: He died from a rare sensitivity to the rendered bovine marrow used in the production of Jell-O! 🐄
@@KahlessTheUnforgettable Urban myth: From Wikipedia, In March 2005, after complaining of a sore back, Amelio was diagnosed with a bacterial infection of the heart valve. His condition deteriorated rapidly and he died on 1 April 2005, at age 27, in Boston, Massachusetts from an infection.[1] In his memory, Amelio's father established the Philip J. Amelio, II Scholarship Fund, offered to impoverished schoolchildren who reside in the Pine Plains Central School District and the Duanesburg Central School District to help them maintain their education.
Yes to all the other observations, but I didn't feel that GG 'yelled' ALL his lines. In fact, his soft and critical "Lucille..." is perfection. You can really see the understanding and adoration between the two-and a play-off craft honed over decades. I only wish it was just the two... with every other scene cut.
Lucy wanted the actors to “yell” their lines.
Back in the 50s and 60s where technology was not so advanced, actors “yelled” their lines so the microphones can pick them up.
Technology had come a long way so by 1989 nobody needed to yell any more because microphones were much more sensitive. Lucy still insisted to do it the old fashioned way.
Never mistake dementia for genius.
@@Chrisoula17 Richard Burton recounted his experience as a Lucy guest star. She taught him how to do comedy, he said: shout everything.
thanks so much for finally uploading this in good quality! the previous versions have been pretty awful.,. thank you!
My thoughts have always been this show was comedy gold when it was her in the hardware store. If they had recentered the show more about stories there and cut down the family aspect I think it would have been a hit.
I think the show was doomed from the start. The landscape had changed to much in the 12 yrs that Ball had been away. All of her previous shows were in an era where primetime all played to middle America (sappy sweet, family oriented, tug at the heart strings) By the 70's networks had begun to push the envelope (MASH, All in the family, etc). All Ball did was " get the old gange together' Previous co-star (Gale was 80), previous writers, who's previous scripts, slapstick was written for aa much younger ball vs an over 70 ball. In addition, casting is a great gife (Norman Lear/Bill Asher), LWL cast had 0 chemistry. The she quickly reverted to building an episode around a famous guess star.
@@hardren101 - What happened to her with this show is a tale that could be told with other "legacy" comics as they got longer in the tooth. Much has been written about the decline of "The Benny Hill Show" in the UK in the 1980's; the performances were pretty much wooden compared with his earlier shows, the endless repetition of gags reaching the rote, phoning-it-in, "been-there-done-that" stage. Lucy's old friend Bob Hope long ago went to the "going through the motions" phase in his career with his numerous TV specials, the last in 1996. The last few years of Jackie Gleason's variety show was laden with gimmicks - including a series of color "Honeymooners" episodes with celebrity guest stars like Maureen O'Hara, Bert Parks and even Milton Berle! Johnny Carson clearly knew when to quit - hanging up his microphone for good when he did his last "Tonight Show" on May 22, 1992.
Also, one wonders how much: a) Lucy breaking her right leg in 1972 while skiing, and b) the aftermath of her filming "Stone Pillow," affected her timing and health. Neither she nor Mr. Gordon, I'm sure you'll agree, were spring chickens.
So dumb.
Horrible. How anyone could read that script and think it was good is unreal.
A show about a hardware store? Major bore to me….zzzzz
Lucy knew how to make her show. It was pretty funny and she had that big ridiculous fire extinguisher joke at the end. But if the show was just her and Curtis at the hardware store it would have went on longer
The little boy was my high school friend and college roommate, Phil Amelio. Sadly, he passed away in 2005. He was a great guy!
*Wow, sorry to hear that. My condolences.*
I really think that Lucy & Gale are wonderful. The son, daughter and the grandkids are all annoying overactors. The writing seems flat, and the directing is too dull. I will always LOVE LUCY.
Gale Gordon is an annoying overactor.And he`s as bad as the rest at yelling his lines!
It was a terrible show.
I loved Gale in the previous Lucy shows he appeared in. Here you can tell they directed him to over-act, that's a no-brainer.
@@susancross5192I found my people. I've never understood the love for Gale Gordon.
Unintentionally hilarious!
Audiences by this time were looking for wit which Lucy's character simply did not have. Gale And Lucy could have pulled it off even at there age in 1986....the real issue to me is the writing and scripts they were given.
Well it was written by the SAME people who wrote ILL.
Actually Linda Morris & Vic Rauseo wrote better scripts with some wit. But it wasn’t enough to save the series.
It was a terrible show.
Lucy was on her last leg and looks tired and not into it
They had the right idea of them being grandparents at their ages. The family could have been recast as they did not fit in the mold at all. The irony is that Lucy and Gail both had connections to them as those are their children. I think better concept given you had the era of grandparents raising grandchildren would have been the two of them raising teenagers who lived near each other. You saw new school, old school and it could have gotten about 3 seasons
The son in law is the worst. He is not acting natural and hard to watch him. I agree with the comment not a good fit and they know chemistry is everything.
This feels more like a Tim & Eric sketch than a real TV sitcom.
yes , like if you went to an alternative universe to watch a show with Lucy this would be it .
#fortheloveofmoney
Would you believe me if I told you that Tim and Eric did work on the show. I know, I know; "But they were children at the time the show aired." That's were you're wrong. The rabbit holes goes deeper, my friend.
A great show!
Not her best, but it was great to see her again. As always, she would do anything. Her prime was I Love Lucy. To do a show at 75 took guts and courage. Which she had.
Her grandmother you mean...
Lucy was a VERY brave woman, yes
I would’ve loved Lucy to be my grandma. ❤
Yeah, nothing like a grandma that stinks up the house with cigarettes and booze.
Hand to God, the fire extinguisher bit had me in tears laughing when I first saw it a few years ago. It just perpetually kept getting more and more absurd. Absolute classic Lucy. 🤣👏👏👏👏
🦗
My mom and I truly love Lucy!
It’s not bad and she seems like she was up to the physical comedy. Maybe ABC should have done these shows as specials and not committed to a series
ive never ever seen this show before wth lol i like it
It was sad that this was her finale. She was still a great comedienne, but her talents would have been better served in a different situation.
I’m one of the biggest Lucy fans on the planet. I wish that this series had been more successful just for her sake. From what I’ve read, she was hurt with the reviews. She specifically said something to the effect that the critics dug at her for even TRYING another series. I’ve read them. They were written by vultures.
Had the network given the series more time for the characters to develop and the actors to get in the groove with the writers, I think this show would have excelled.
Me to I’m a really big fan :-)
Yeah, poor Miss Ball, she deserved SO much better. On top of that, Desi was dying from lung cancer. I think they were trying to retool the series with the Audrey Meadows episode. She would’ve been Lucy’s comic foil just as Vivian Vance had been years before. It’s too bad Viv had already been gone for 7 years at this point. I’m sure she would’ve made an appearance!
It was a terrible show. Badly written, and the supporting cast was very poor. Lucy was just too old to do her comedy routines anymore. The critics were right. The show was awful.
@@stevarino1989 Fun fact: Vivian Vance died 7 years before this show aired. Intentionally. She desperately wanted to be free of Ms. Ball.
Lucy is funny and a great comedian and actress as always. The thing is the other people like her daughter and son-in-law are not funny or not a good fit to act with Lucy. Imagine old Vivian with old Lucy. That would have been a great show. I am glad Gale Gordon is in this show.
I agree.....l've seen better acting in high school plays
Brilliant and brave.
Trite and sad.
The opening credits alone scream failure.
Facts. Both Lucy and the audience were too old for these ridiculous, played-out gags.
Curtis says he didn't bring a gift to Lucy because he didn't think of her as family but isn't the real reason is that he didn't know she was going to be there.
No matter what show, "Mister Mooney" is stuck with Lucy.
cool
After all these years of I Love Lucy reruns... I just learned today from randomly flipping through Pluto TV that there's other shows with the same character. I got some catching up (and some 'splaining) to do! And then I did a deep dive research so I am now here. I find it hard to believe anything with Lucy can be as bad as the reviews say... already the Tuna Casserole bit had me "role-ing"! Ok I'll stop. Thank you for uploading. I first looked for streaming but it is nowhere, and I imagine the DVD is out of print and pricey.
It’s not the same character.
Feels as if they we’re trying to replicate ‘Two Close for Comfort’
You have to admit, a 75 year old Lucy in a jogging suit, running and dancing is quite awesome. Go Lucy!!!!
I agree!!
I agree, negative folks go Away!
Yea it was , but she was 75 at the time and people thought doing physical stunts like that will hurt her
I wish the show had stayed on. I'm not used to Lucy giving up. She was always in great shape
I slso think Gale Gordon really belonged here too. He's always going to complain even on the beaches of Waikiki
1:27 Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis also wrote episodes of the original I Love Lucy. They even were mentioned in one episode when a pregnant Lucy was tossing baby names around, two of the names she had in mind were Bob and Madelyn!
I can see why this show didn't work. Other than Lucy and Gale, the other actors are pretty well unknown even today. Never heard of them. Madelyn Pugh-Davis and Bob Carroll were employed by Lucy 30+ years before this on her black and white shows. Their time as writers had quite clearly passed. Lucy was a legend - she could make material work - but if you're gonna do Lucy in the 80s, it has to be Lucy Ricardo again. Or Lucy Carmichael. That's who she was to the public. If you're gonna reinvent her a third time, it has to be really good, and this just totally wasn't.
At her age, folks would have welcomed Lucy as a married grandmother with grandkids. They missed the opportunity to marry her and Gale and have them dealing with aging, their married child moving in with their child as this was a thing in the 80s and trying to make things work. The married child needed to be someone with a name for that era or someone who was hottie. Storylines had to be more realistic with some silliness in them. Amen did a good job of this as they were funny and slapstick was used to for laugh enhancers not just create them for lame scripts
I believe that Lucy was hesitant to do this, but Gary Morton encouraged her to do it. He was also an executive producer. From then on, Lucy was on board, and she suffered terribly after is failed. It was the first time she was criticized just for coming back. She never did a show again. I believe that with better writers and better actors, and a role written for her age, this could have worked. RIP Lucille.
This originally caught my attention when I saw it on a list of the 50 worst shows in the history of television.
Not sure if I would go that far given all the terrible shows that have failed over the years, but this definitely didn’t turn out well.
I read that her only television appearance after this show was at the 1989 Academy Awards when she presented with Bob Hope.
She would receive one last standing ovation there before passing a month later.
RIP to Lucy.
This was the first time a show of hers was abruptly canceled and harshly critiqued so she was not used that at all.
One her colleagues remembered her crying saying she had never in her almost 30 plus years of television had she been fired.
At the beginning of this series, she was full of life and joy as she was coming back to do what she loved which was television. She stated, she loved to entertain and missed it greatly in retirement so she was looking forward to reconnecting with fans and even creating new ones with a new generation. Sadly, she overplayed her hand. While her formulas worked for that era, she was a relic of the past in this era.
I'm 18 minutes in and I don't know why this wasn't a success.
Looosy. You came out with a flop. You've got some splainin to do.
Just proves lightening doesn't strike twice. If this show was about Lucy the seventy-something person in a realistic situation, not relying on hackneyed slapstick and corny jokes, it might have made it.
Sherman took his time when he selected Amen as stated his agent was receiving many calls for him to do so many pilots and be featured as a side character on some shows that did premiere and ultimately ended. He says you have to know who you are and what works for the time in which you are performing in. He stated, he had many shows who wanted to give him a wife and young kids and he was like, there are enough family shows, adults need some shows for them. You see one family, you see them all and many times the scripts are recycled from canceled shows, lol.
Della pointed out with Royal Family which was a hit until Redd Foxx died is that they took elements of characters both of them played, made them an elderly couple with a grown child with grandchildren to show the era of young divorced parents moving back home. Many things in Al Royal had resemblance to Fred Sanford but more middle class than working class.
It's supposed to be Top Jimmy and The Rhythm Pigs. A Band Van Halen wrote a song about.
Larry Anderson was also a magician, but not related to another famous magician turned actor Harry Anderson (Night Court fame), although they both have an uncanny resemblance to each other.
Lucy and Gale never lost their magic. The concept and the rest of the cast were horrible.
It's gold, aged and refined with water, fire and trumpets.
after watching i can see the potential but i looked it up and saw it started at the same time as golden girls i think that it was no competition for golden girls
I Love Lucy will always remain in my heart and affections. As much as I love Lucille Ball, watching this sitcom tugs at my sensibilities. It seems forced and doesn't compare to what Lucy had achieved in the I Love Lucy episodes with Desi.
Because it was forced, and foolish. Frankly, she was too old to be doing the same gags/comedy from 30 years prior: the world had changed, and her original audience had grown up. It was extremely stiff.
I did love Lucy, but the only thing I loved about this show was the opening theme by Eydie Gorme.
Clive James once said that at a certain point the very famous come to think they are beloved for who they are rather than for what they do. That's the only explanation for Ball believing this was a good idea.
she didn't really want her to do it, the creator and her awful second husband convinced her to do it.
Little Becky played Daisy, The Sunshine Cadet on The Golden Girls who took Rose's bear and held it for ransome, lol.
Jenny Lewis
The network was drowning & needed a fresh breath of air & thought Lucy could do it for them. They all tried & Lucy sure wanted this. But it just didn't work. Trying to relive the earlier days & trying too hard.
Bingo.
ABC did something similar with Redd Foxx with the Redd Foxx Show in the previous season and retooled the show midway in the short season but it still didn't work. They were hoping that they could do what NBC did with Cosby with former stars of the past. Foxx was always Fred Sanford to the public and with his last show, they had a Fred Sanford style grandfather with a wife who allowed a divorced daughter who had the name Elizabeth in it.
The biggest mistake with this show is that ABC let Lucy run the show without any testing, oversight or anything, they bet the house on her and even felt that giving Ellen Burstyn a series afterwards would create a power hour that failed. Burstyn was sadly tied to Life with Lucy so her show needed Lucy do well.
Omg
Went to the well too many times. Retire gracefully.
she was the best!
Wow, I just finished watching all of "The Lucy Show", and this is a glaring drop in talent. I am so confused as to how they selected the parents and children for this show.
The audience being over eager to applaud and laugh makes it worse.
Disappointing.
I always felt the show got better when it focused on Lucy and Gale Gordon running the store. If they had retooled the show and dropped the family and made it more store centric I think it would have done much better
"I Love Lucy" and "The Lucy Show" were comedy classics. "Life with Lucy" was a great big dud. It was badly written and it wasn't funny.
@@SymphonyBrahms ~ You're not kidding!
Omgosh Gale Gordon 👀
The theme song was great,Edie Gorme should have issued a single,it would have been a hit.
Watching at least Lucy and Gale Gordon, it feels like the 60s are still alive from The Lucy Show- yet put within the context of an 80s sitcom that just doesn't quite feel up to par with those two in a way- not to put down the rest of the show. It does seem a little over acted otherwise though in a way I can see some comments saying, which would have been fine within it's own self as maybe it was just a different style in the 80s- not bad, but Lucy and Gale are tv legends/master comedians... maybe it would have been better if they were a couple living in the same house and the family came to visit.. or something where they were the main focus even more... maybe it was just the 80s - things got a little different then- not all bad, but sometimes borderline cheesy. Which again isn't bad per se, but the essence of 50s and 60s television and time periods really brought out Lucy and then Gale all the more... I think it was just hard to find the right context merging the past with the present. In theory it was a good idea... I think they should have given it more time as anything with Lucy or Gale is worth watching... I think it got cut too short and needing to find a way to merge with changing times and audiences... it's still pretty cute, heart warming and just as good as anything on in the 80s... Lucy is nostalgic at any rate even...
Yes, something should have been tweaked, and it could have been more like Mr. Belvedere for example... or even Full House? I feel bad for Lucy, she was so great all around and struggled early in her career too... but she will always be the Queen of Comedy all around!
They should have hired Larry Gelbart (who was one of the writers for M*A*S*H). He was offered the job and indicated that he would be glad to accept it. But Lucy was too loyal to those that she felt comfortable with from the 1950s, and the show suffered as a result.
Horrid series! The actor playing the husband can't act... this is apparent with the delivery of his first lines. This is just sad for Lucy. I wish she had not made this program.
That also applies to the saccharine wife and the plastic 2 kids plus the store help. With the exception of Gordon makes this sitcom doomed from the start
@@renesagahon4477Sadly you are right. I hate being negative, but I have to be here.
The idea that chain-smoking Lucy was a health and fitness fanatic … now that’s comedy.
Well she made it to 77. According to the obese modern Americans she should of been dead from lung cancer by 55yo at the latest.
Yeah but she could do it. It blows my mind because my Mom was a chain smoker too and died at 62 from COPD, watching Lucy move like that just freaks me out. Goes to show that smoking is Russian roulette for people, took my Mom far too young but Lucy lived until her 80’s. Moral of the story, don’t smoke or quit before it’s too late.
Smoking took a toll on all of them from Audrey Meadows, Gale Gordon, Desi Arnez, and Lucy. I don't think Vivian Vance smoked but she did have breast cancer which is common for women sadly.
I haven't seen much of this show. But all it needed was a few changes and it could have really taken off. Lucy needed a few zany friends/sidekicks. The soundtrack should have been just a little bit more 80's up to-date style. And her character needed a little more wild backstories. Think a mix of Mona from Who's the Boss, Miss Frizzle from The Magic School Bus, and a dash of Mr. Johnson from Albott Elementary.
I just found it and watched episode 1. I felt the same. The premise of the episode is great, it feels like very poor direction to me. What was also noticeably lacking was the little audio stingers between scene transitions, and scenes go on too long. It feels like a Lucy show but hollow inside.
This really was a great show.
ouch
That show was a flop because times had changed. A bad ending to an incredible legacy.
Perfectly Dreadful.. I can see why they cancelled it after just a few episodes
I wonder if she ever considered being a sidekick for a TV series... But sidekick for who would be the question... 🧐
thought i was a huge fan of lucille ball but had no idea she did a show in her older age smh
Gale Gordon and Lucille ball have work together since i love Lucy
The Papermoon blog on Lucille Ball got a couple of things wrong.
First it says that Curtis is Lucy's brother-in-law. No he wasn't as Curtis was the father of her daughter's husband.
The other thing on Lucy being a widow here it says she was also a widow in The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy.
However she wasn't a widow in The Lucy Show as she was instead a divorcee.
In The Lucy Show, Lucy Carmichael was indeed a widow; Vivian was a divorcee (though in the book the show was based on, both characters were divorcees). But the network felt that viewers would interpret it as Lucy having divorced Ricky, so she was a widow.
She needed a Viv, as the producers came to understand too late. Lucy did comic business, be it dialogue or slapstick, best with a foil who could dish it out as well as take it. Gordon had to be semi-simpatico in the family set-up, whereas his previous roles had been as a butt to be aggravated. He could not sub for a woman.
Without a partner, Lucy had to double up on the 'wacky young at heart' stuff, and it became embarrassing to see this old lady overplaying to keep the younger viewers the advertisers wanted watching.
The way Gordon's first confrontation with Lucy is signaled and delayed, and his superb reactions during the 'reveal', make it seem as if he was the star. And since he was getting almost $100,000 an episode in 2023 money, why not?
Morton & Co grasped the necessity of a female accomplice and signed Audrey Meadows from 'The Honeymooners', but it was too late. Besides, older viewers might have resented anyone after Viv. Among other things, this effort- not bad, only not good enough for Lucy- is confirmation that Ball and Vance had been the greatest female double act in screen history.
All that said, Lucy's way with a line or a reaction remain marvelously precise; her timing was the best, and her exchanges with Not-Mr-Mooney are a joy, with her latter-day gravelly voice adding to the sharpness. It was only by her own lofty standard that the comeback was an anti- climax. Bad Ball is better than 90% of the domestic sitcoms that walked the trail Desi, Lucy, Fred and Ethel blazed.
Wrong. Meadows was offered a role as a continuing character, but said no.
Good lord what a cast of NPC's.
Gale Gordon really shows his stuff here. The shoe never should have been canceled so quickly, it was pure ageism.
You are absolutely correct! I love Gale and Lucy together.
Ageism wasn't the problem. The show was really terrible.
They canceled his shoes?! Wow! Does Hollywood have no shame?! 👞
aging actors rarely know when to throw in the towel.
The credits are very "Full House" font.
The only good episode was the John Ritter one... Also, Lucy and Gale were fairly good throughout the six episodes they filmed, its just that the writing and direction of the series was terrible and it seemed very dated.. Some of the gig bits were ok, but way too many.. Lucy going on a date would have been a great storyline or Gale meeting a girlfriend.. Also, Lucy hiring some of her old co-stars from her past shows into this show would have been good too.. So many missed opportunity..
It’s sad, had Vivian Vance still been alive, they probably would’ve done it together! I wonder if they tried getting a hold of Mary Jane or Doris Singleton to appear if it would’ve lasted longer.
It was a terrible show.
I thought the Audrey Meadows episode was the best of the series followed by Worlds Greatest Grandma. The writing seemed more mature for elderly seasoned performers not the typical jokes and gags meant for younger folks. Even the late Valerie Harper fought that on her show saying she wanted to be more realistic similar to her work on the Mary Tyler Moore Show not just 80s cheesy fantasy which the producers wanted so badly that resulted in her being fired and suing them and winning.
I can't understand why this show was canceled, and ANYTHING with Lucy is funny.
The gags and the schtick were old and played-out, the writing was terrible, and her heart wasn't really in it: Desi was dying at the time.
It was a terrible show.
This was made 30 years after the original I love Lucy, now in 2023, this is 37 years in the past. Not sure why this got so many bad reviews. It is just as funny as Full House or anything else back then.
Then why was it cancelled after only 8 episodes?
Funny as Full House? We all love Lucy, but this show was a dud.
“Full House” “worked” because the whole cast-including the kids-were decent and worked well together, while it also appealed to kids. No kid was going to flock to this on Saturday Night (when Facts of Life was against it). Problem was, this sitcom was not something adults would want to watch either because it wasn’t mature enough (and few want to see an elderly person do such physical comedy).. This really didn’t have a good target audience. Sitcoms with kids generally appealed to kids (except for “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which brilliantly changed that up a decade later). These kids are so in the background, they serve no point, Idk why they were on here. The whole show is so disjointed.
I hope I'm that active at 75
Gale's entrance gets a bigger hand than Lucy's.
Actually, her entrance received a bigger and longer audience reception. They had to edit it down for airtime.
johnny
I love Lucy but there comes a time when you gotta know when to stop. Regardless of how bad this was, her legacy as the best comedienne is forever cemented in tv history & in my heart.
Agreed, and that applies not only to actors/actresses, but everyone in all careers. The day you die, someone is going to take your job and replace you. She let Gary talk her into this mess while Desi was dying.
13:23 I thought he never blew a line.
Katherine Poirier
Éric Chouteau
Lucy should done The Golden Girls, she would fit in perfectly should done a guest star here and there. But got stuck with sad show. First time watching Gale just annoying him screaming and i dont find him funny at all. Lucy was left holding a show all on her own with mediocre cast.
Lucy playing "second" billing to a comedy show such as The Golden Girls? Her ego would not allow it! IMHO
@@ddlee202257Totally. She’s why this particular show bombed; insisted on the same stale gags and fool-hearted personality and the writers who were relics from her past. Had she been down for a more grown-up sitcom where she wasn’t queen bee it may have been a hit.
The family aspect was never a hallmark of Lucy’s previous sitcoms, so it’s odd that the show is built around a family here. I know that sounds weird but Little Ricky was a tiny portion of I Love Lucy, the kids were completely abandoned in The Lucy Show, and Here’s Lucy got stronger once Kim grew up and Craig disappeared! Lucy needed a strong female she could be in cahoots with just like Viv, Rosie Harrigan, Kim, Mary Jane, and Carol.
Lucy and Gale in a retirement home with maybe Mary Jane Croft, Mary Wickes, and Audrey Meadows would have been more fun. The hardware store could still figure in for additional story opportunities.
The biggest issue with the series is the old-fashioned scripts and production from Bob Carroll Jr and Madelyn Davis. Both had produced and written for the last 8 years of popular sitcom ALICE, but that bordered on the unwatchable most of the time.
The acting from the Ann Dusenberry and Larry Anderson is just horrible. It’s very broad as if they had watched a collection of Lucy episodes from the 50s and 60s and decided to emulate that style of acting.
But if they had regrouped after cancellation, the series could have been revamped for syndication.
The 80s was a family era so it was tons of family oriented shows on at the time to show different families from single parents, blended families, adopted children, etc. Lucy jumped right into such and the family was casted poorly beyond the children.
Lucy and Curtis should have been a retired married couple with Curtis taking on day to day operations of the hardware store they owned as he wanted something to do after retiring. Lucy would still be working but she would be convinced it would be time to retire when she saw a much younger woman who understood the company. They could have dealt with aging issues in a humorous way and even having their children with grandkids move in after being evicted due to hardships and having to deal with a house full of folks again. Lucy would be happy, Curtis would be like, we just cant keep this place empty, lol.
I was thinking about that: revamped for syndication. It was a popular outlet at the time for sitcoms that didn’t make it more than a year or two on ABC, NBC, or CBS primetime. I doubt Lucy would have _ever_ gone for not being on one of the Big Three. Revamped would have also meant canning her vision and her handpicked writers she knew from ILL.
@@katvtay Fox may have grabbed this for their initial lineup in 1987 as she would have brought her big name to their startup network but given they were edgy and wanted to do what others weren't doing, I am sure they would have told Lucy, we love you but enjoy your retirement.
@@HomeRuleNews I almost added Fox into my post! As I typed “Big Three,” I wondered, how would Lucy have felt if Fox came knocking? I scrapped that idea because I don’t think they’d have touched this with a 10 ft poll in 1987 with all the problems with it that unfolded in 1986.
This show was already dated when it premiered. Fact is, she and the writers were just recycling the same stuff from her three previous shows. She'd been playing "Lucy Ricardo" for 500ish episodes, what more could they do with the character?
Lucy s grand kids would be in their twenties at her age.
DOES ANYONE WHO SANG THIS TUNE SONDED LIKE LUCIE ARNAS
I think this is Eydie Gormé
Lucy is the only good part of this
She's the WORST part of this, using recycled jokes/gags from thirty years ago. No wonder this turkey was cancelled after 8 episodes.
love lucille ball to death
In my opinion, this show was doomed from the beginning, because she was trying too hard to make lightning strike twice. It was the 80's, so what had worked for her in the 50's/60's, was rather outdated by this time. I give her credit for trying another series, but it wasn't the same with Desi. I think she would've had a far longer (and richer) acting career doing a dramatic series or more movie roles (like "Yours, Mine and Ours" from 1968), rather than looking a fool like this and getting abysmal ratings. Gary Morton was a solid man for her, but he wasn't Desi: she never got the happiness in the end that she gave everyone else.
I totally agree with your assessment of the show. I grew up watching I Love Lucy reruns on CBS and in syndication. I also loved The Lucy Show as a child but, by the time I was a teenager, the later episodes of Lucy's second series were already becoming a bit out of step with the times. Kids and young people were switching over to to shows like Laugh-In in the late 60s and early 70s. That said, Lucy remained an icon beloved by everyone. I just remember wishing she hadn't agreed to do Life with Lucy, although I understand the strong desire to try to revisit the best years of her life. If Lucy and Gary Morton had gone with the writers from M.A.S.H. as had been recommended by Aaron Spelling, it might have had a chance. Also, not sure who thought it was a good idea to dress Lucy like Olivia Newton John in the Physical video from 1982. Leg warmers and head bands had gone out of style by 1984, and I sure don't remember any grandmothers wearing outfits like that in 1986.
@@brenttravis46651984??? No they didn't ! Shit , Jim McMahon was famously wearing his headband into 1987.
You must have lived in East Bumfuk, cause the youthful elder craze started in the 80s, and I saw elderly in their workout gear all the time.
This show needed the writers from The Golden Girls to rework the story and dialogue.
Technically the 4th lightning strike. Remember The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy? When the was a kid I was confused by her multiple shows and the fact that Vivian Vance kept showing up but her name changed. Nothing gods a candle to the original show with Desi Arnaz! That was chemistry!
Hi
She should have been on The Golden Girls instead.
This would have been a good show if they didn't makr her so ditsy. You can tell Lucy time was over. I know so many have said it but the jokes reminds me of the Lucy show and this didnt work for this show.. lucy and gale time was over
They really should have matured Lucy at this point as those gags of being an airhead woman who meant well was not believable for an elderly woman. They could have did more gags like Lucy having to use modern technology at the time such as asking for a record collection when everyone was using cassette tapes.
I think they missed the boat on not making Lucy and Gale a married retired elderly couple. A good episode could have been Gale was already retired and was convincing Lucy to finally retire. They could have made her business executive who couldn't let go but was agreed it was time to move on, that could have been a good first two episodes.
Im surprised they went with this unknown unfunny cast. Golden Girls worked because of great writing but also they had a great cast of more then one known star
The actress who played Lucy's daughter just shouts all her lines quite loudly. Very annoying. Didn't the director notice?
This really isn't that much worse than the typical 1980s sitcom trash. Horrible writing, inane storylines, studio audience whopping it up over jokes that barely rate a chuckle. Most 80s shows are unwatchable today, this one is just marginally worse than the typical fare.
Agreed. An actress of her stature (and age), deserved to have a solid storyline and top-tier writing within the first 6 episodes, so that the audience could bond with the characters and the show. This horrendous show and Desi's death, permanently broke her heart and ender her career.
Even tough this show was a complete flop, it's sweet wse her and Gale Gordon together again. He was part if her shows dxept fovI love Lucy though hecwas supposed to play Fred Mertz in it but he was involved in another project
It's wasn't the same without Dezi
All co-stars who never worked again
I don't think that's true I thought I remember I was born in 1973 that Lucille Ball worked up to the day she died in 1989 wrong please let me know I didn't know her personally but I just don't want her from television and reruns from the 1980s
@@JasonBender-mo6qv Lucy retired after this show failed. She was only on an awards show a month before her death in 1989, she fell from the public eye as she felt no one loved her no more and she was fired, something that never happened to her, she took it hard according to many sources of folks who knew her.
@@HomeRuleNewsI didn’t realize until today this show got the ax within a few weeks of Desi’s death. What a horrible time for Lucy. I wish this sitcom could have been made totally differently. Lucy and Gale with a different cast and better writers perhaps could have had a hit similar to “The Golden Girls.” What a pity. Fortunately, most don’t remember this, and her other body of work is well-regarded, especially “I Love Lucy.”
To be fair to the little boy, he quit acting to finish school and be a teacher. Tragically. He died at age 27 in 2005. The girl steadily acted and seems to be in a band as of late. The father still gets steady work. The mom is awful and blessedly quit acting eventually. It’s not surprising to be in a failed sitcom and never become a household name. That’s showbiz.
Then of course, Gale was 80 and went back to retirement.
@@katvtay TV party did a good article about this show using interviews from various folks who worked on the set and talked about how they had to tape Lucys wrinkles under her wig, deal with her mood swings as she was getting little sleep as she would stay up all night talking with Desi who was dying and dealing with critics who felt Lucy was just a relic who should be a memory not still in our faces.
ABC to their demise, gave Lucy so much control that they didn't do a test episode, let her do all the casting, create the storylines, no audience testing, they felt it was a hit just waiting for the air. Sadly, the Ellen Burtsyn Show fate was tied to Lucy so it was a two for one deal. I think Burstyn could have been better for NBC paired with Valerie under a branding of women in charge hour, or something like that. Valerie was a hit until the tensions happened.