This post is more a rave than a rant, but in keeping with the way I have been doing things, we will keep it as a rant.
If you fondly remember The Lucy Show--the series that Lucille Ball did after I Love Lucy and her marriage to Desi Arnaz ended--than you are in luck! MPI Video has just released the entire first season of the show on DVD.
No, this show was never, never up to the comedic standards--and trailblazing techniques--of the I Love Lucy show. The Lucy Show--and later, Here's Lucy, which is also being released in the season by season format by MPI at a later date--were basically off-shoots of the character Arnaz and Ball created for Lucy on I Love Lucy--the scatterbrained lady with ultimately, a heart of gold.
In The Lucy Show, Ball and during the first three seasons, her ultimate comic foil, Vivian Vance--Ethel from I Love Lucy--go it alone without steady males in their lives, and looking at this show nearly 50 years after the first season was produced, they carry it off very well.
They get into similar comedic scrapes like they did on their previous series, and yes, the ladies are a bit older here, but the show is corny, dated and very, very funny, all at the same time.
They certainly don't make sitcoms like this anymore!
The Lucy Show was a virtual family affair for Ball, as the show was not only executive produced by former husband Arnaz (she married comic Gary Morton during these years), but both Lucie Arnaz and Desi Jr. can be seen on the show from time to time if you look hard enough.
The one drawback is the kids on the show. They are cloying, annoying, and can't act at all, but I guess you get the good with the bad here. I will bet that Lucy realized this when The Lucy Show ended its run, because on Here's Lucy, her kids co-starred with her.
All in all, a fine package. For Lucy fans who have been stuck with third-rate DVD versions of these shows in the past, this release is a revelation.
By the way, there are many extras on the DVD, including a wide-ranging interview with Lucie Arnaz where she talks about everything from her participation in show to the uneasiness she felt with her mom, father and stepfather on the set at the same time. And Lucie looks terrific, by the way, as she talks candidly about many things, especially about here mom.
Also, you get to see an early Dick Martin, who played Lucy's next door neighbor--and quasi love interest--on the show.
If there is one DVD for you to get that's out right now, this is it!
So now that you are done reading this entry, scoot over to http://www.mpihomevideo.com/ or amazon.com and pick this DVD up. You will not regret it.
The only regret that I have is this: why did it take so long for this to come out?
I remember seeing the Lucy Show before I Love Lucy ( Born in 1957 I Love Lucy was before my time and i didn't catch up on the reruns until later in the 60's ). I thought the Lucy Show was funnier, probably because of the slapstick gags, something us under 10 kids loved. :)
ReplyDeleteI know that since I was also born in 1957, I Love Lucy was somewhat before my time too. I used to watch both shows in reruns (at least the early Lucy Show seasons) on the local New York CBS affiliate, which showed them during the early 1960s.
ReplyDeleteAs I got older, I got to stay up later, and I watch the final season or two of The Lucy Show on Monday nights when it was originally broadcast. I also watched Here's Lucy when it was originally on, but I may have watched both in reruns during the summer, because there was so much on on Monday nights way back when--The Monkees, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In to name a few--that I would have needed three TVs going at once to watch them all in the original show dates.
But as far back as I can remember, I have watched all the comic incarnations of Lucy--yes, I watched Life With Lucy too--and she still makes me laugh all these years later.