The Weirdness of I LOVE LUCY

Didn't she once successfully impersonate an armchair

People weren't as bright in the 1950s, OP. It's a fact.

LOL, R1, yes she did!

OP, it wasn't just Ricky who was easily fooled by Lucy's disguises. Ethel couldn't even recognize that it Lucy under that short "Italian" wig.

I'd like to apologize for all of my typos.

Her strange unmoving hair

The expensive looking 'New Look' ensembles she wore- didn't look like they came from the salary of a struggling bandleader

Olllllllld Fred and not so old Ethel

Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

Her complaints about getting heavy or old, when she looked perfect

My complete inability to assign color to the setting. Don't show me a photo of 1950's Lucy with red hair and blue eyes, I can't take it. It needs to be in shades of black and gray

Maybe Ricky and Ethyl had facial blindness.

It's okay, r4.

This thread and others make me think that Datalounge is basically a secret underground civilization of people who have never seen the actual world above. The only clues they have to it are some ancient videotapes of the complete series of "I Love Lucy" and "The Golden Girls," and they watch these over and over again, obsessing about them, going over every last detail, and wondering just how life in the sunlit world above can possibly correspond to the details of what they're seeing on the holy videotapes.

It is sort of adorable when someone discovers a show for the first time. Oh my gosh, that Julia is such a pistol!

The dildo on the nightstand always seemed a bit too conspicuous, as if Lucy and Ricky made use of it.

I was surprised that Ball allowed them to make jokes about her not being a natural redhead. I would think since it was essential to her image that she would want people to think she was, especially back then.

Did they ever show the bathroom?

The shower and the sink were shown a few times, but never the toilet bowl.

They never even mentioned the bathroom. They were not allowed.

It's called SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF, ya maroons.

Miss Lucille Ball did not poop. She was a comedy icon.

What religion, if any, did the Arnazes practice. I'd assume they were nominally Catholic. And the Mertzes? Jewish? Lutheran? East 68th borders on Yorkville which at the time was heavily German and Hungarian, so maybe they were some kind of Protestant.

Obviously, they were Aetheists, R17. GOD does not make an armchair--people BECOME the armchair.

OP is the one standing by himself in the corner at parties.

I always thought it was weird that Ricky was a bandleader who worked at a night club, yet he always went off to work in the morning in a business suit after eating a breakfast Lucy would fix him - as if he had a 9 to 5 job.

I always figured Ricky was just humoring Lucy and pretending not to recognize her. I know he did that a few times at least.

Rehearsals, R20? But then again, they had to make his profession palatable to Middle America. A lifestyle of rising at noon and working until 2:00 am at a nightclub was way too exotic and bohemian, plus he was Cuban!

I think he got up later in the am than you think. She just fixed breakfast at 10 or 11.

I also thought it was weird how Lucy belonged to all these women's clubs - like she lived in the suburbs. Where did she meet all these other housewives?

it is a TV show folks.

R22, I've thought of rehearsals too but it was clear he was going to the club early in the morning since it was always standard weekday breakfast time. And it doesn't seem as if he'd need to spend all day rehearsing.

Oh, another thing I always thought was weird was how often Ricky would let Fred and Ethel perform their little retro song and dance numbers at the Tropicana, like anybody anywhere at any time would ever have considered that nightclub entertainment.

By the time Ricky bought the club he had reason to leave in the morning. Earlier he was having an affair with a showgirl.

Unfortunately 623 East 68th, their address, would be somewhere in the East River. So they may have been Tugboat Fundamentalists.

But R26 Fred and Ethel were ex-showbiz folk who happened to be friends of the Ricardos. And Ethel had the voice of an angel:

R15 & R25 = "does not play well with others"

Did anyone ever give Lucy shit for marrying a cuban? I imagine that was a big deal. Did his family ever visit? Did he have some cholo cousin who threatened to cut Lucy's face off?

I don't care about the weirdness. Lucy could SING.

R31 a Cuban would not have a cholo cousin.

well Lucy's mom always called Ricky, Nicky, so maybe she thought he was Italian.

That's hilarious R32

I know, I'm just being pithy.

I refuse to believe Fred and Ethel ever fucked. My mind just cannot go there.

R36 you sound like you have a lisp.

Did Fred and Ethel have kids?

r39 no. I thought I read somewhere that they were going to give them a son who had moved out West. But I guess they the producers decided not to do it.

His family members visited in one episode AND the Ricardos went to Cuba in another. The scene where Lucy sees Che Guevara at El Marrón Derby is classic.

On several occasions, when Ricky is yelling at her for some reason or another, Lucy cringes as if he is going to hit her, and calls him "sir": "yessir, yessir." It makes me uncomfortable.

If Lucy had been cured of her compulsive lying, every single episode would have ended at the 45 second mark.

R42, he spanked her several times during the show's run:

Most of the early episodes were virtually line by line copies of "My Favorite Husband" radio series.

This took place in a small town and that gives a lot of the early script a suburban feel. In that show Lucy's character was Liz and she was married to a low level vice president of a bank. The Fred character was the bank president.

Liz was the Lucy character and the Ethel character was split between Katie the maid and the bank president's wife, who both schemed with Liz.

Were Mr. Mooney and Mrs. Carmichael in love?

So in subsequent shows with Mr. Mooney, the bank guy... she got that idea from the radio show too?

Lucy is possibly the most spoilt, self-centred and selfish character ever created for a mainstream TV show. In real life, she woud have been knocked on her ass in 5 minutes flat by anyone coming into contact with her. In one episode I remember her running into the bedroom and having a tantrum like a 3 year old when she thought Fred had bought Ethel a fur coat and then ripping it off Ethel when told it was hers. Ghastly person.

[quote]So in subsequent shows with Mr. Mooney, the bank guy... she got that idea from the radio show too?

Probably, Gale Gordon played the bank president on radio and Bea Benaderet played the bank president's wife.

Katie the maid from the radio show wasn't used in the TV show because they wanted to show Ricky as still upcoming through the ranks. While on the radio show the Cugats as they were called the first season were very high class socialites. After the first season the name was changed to Liz and George Cooper and they were made middle class suburban.

I thought Lucille Ball and Richard Denning (from radio) made a better husband and wife. Though most of the scripts from radio were taken line for line, sometimes more mature stuff was left out or changed.

Like I recall on the radio Liz goes to George, (While they're straightening their books), "Oh look George, Little Women is on top of Little Men, and right next to the is a pamphlet."

That would've never made it to TV.

And since the radio show couldn't rely on site gags, most of the wife fooling the husband with a 'stache, routine was not written.

I think the show holds up pretty well considering how old it is. Still makes me laugh.

She also disguised herself as a clay sculpted head, which was very creepy, like frightening decapitation.

[quote]In real life, she woud have been knocked on her ass in 5 minutes flat by anyone coming into contact with her

That's what makes the episode with Tallulah Bankhead so strangely satisfying--for once (the only time?) a character reacts to Lucy's idiocy with recognizable emotions.

Just how old was Ethel? What was the age difference between her and Frd?

Why was Fred, a real estate owner and landlord, always freeloading off of the Ricardos?

When they knew they were presenting some totally impossible story twist or dialog they would have Ethel say "Lucy, no one will ever believe that!" to disarm the moment...and it worked.

I don't think Fred was as old as he looked, because he went on to play the grandfather, or uncle, on "My Three Sons" in the 1960s and he still looked the same!

R53, Fred was plain CHEAP! They often made reference to, and made fun of, his cheapness.

I don't know what their age diff was supposed to be, but VV was made up to look older, and was forbidden from losing weight (or encouraged to gain, I forget which...).

[quote] What religion, if any, did the Arnazes practice.

Or the Ricardos, for that matter.

R11 it was a constant theme on the show. In one show specifically there is a fire in the building and Lucy risks all to get her henna rinse out of the bathroom - which was shown - I think they just couldn't show a toilet.

Well OP you must have just gone apoplectic when an eight foot loaf of bread came out of a two foot oven and Ethel just happened to have a loggers saw just outside on the porch.

I heart r8. The best thing EVER written about the Datalounge.

"Lucy is possibly the most spoilt, self-centred and selfish character ever created"

As I looked at his post, I couldn't help but wonder. . ."Has this person never seen 'Sex and the City'?"

For a more realistic approach to NY life during the 1950s, check out "The Goldbergs". This show was actually ahead of it's time. I guess today it would be considered a drama-dy. It was not a full blown comedy show.

Even though the mom, Molly, didn't work, she presented herself as a strong, caring and intelligent woman she was more than just a housewife. Molly also didn't treat her kids like cretins. The kids also weren't presented as the usual stereotypes of 50s teens.

The children, a boy and girl, who both looked quite Waspy and I think were played by Irish Americans, were both going to college, which was also unusual for that time. The female child wasn't being groomed to be a wife and mother.

In one episode, the daughter was shown dating a much older man, she also stressed to her parents that marriage was not a priority for her at that point in her life, that kind of dialog was unheard of back then.

The uncle, who lived with them, thought nothing of parading around in an apron, I guess it was normal for him, as he did most of their cooking.

This show was actually very progressive considering the time it was on the air, mid 1950s or earlier.

The show has been on Jewish Life TV for the past few years. JLTV also air Soupy Sales' old show, which was hilarious.

ILL stayed within the confines of its comedy genre and Lucille Ball was completely committed to everything she did - which allowed for the audience's total suspension of disbelief... unlike, say, The Brady Bunch.

R63 gets it.

Lucy didn't PRETEND to be an armchair. She BECAME the armchair.

[quote]Just how old was Ethel?

In the episode about Ethel's birthday, Ethel asks Lucy to help her give hints to Fred that she has a birthday coming up.

The girls say Speedy Cleaners is having a 40th birthday and Goldblatts deli is having a 50th birthday celebration.

Fred let's us know Ethel is older than the Speedy Cleaners but younger than Goldblatts Delicattesen. So we know Ethel is between 40 and 50.

[quote]Lucy: All I did was intimate that she was a little hippy. But, on second glance, she HAS got the biggest 'potamus I've ever seen!

It's funny how Ricky verbally abused her, and constantly threatened to beat the shit out of her.

Henna cannot change a dark brunette into a bright redhead.

R55, William Frawley, who played "Fred," was born in 1887, which made him in his '60s when he did "I Love Lucy" (1951-1957).

[quote]Just how old was Ethel? What was the age difference between her and Frd?(sic)

Vivian Vance ("Ethel") was born in 1909, which gave her and Frawley a 22-year age difference. Now, Vance gained weight and dressed frumpy to make her believably Fred's wife and, I'm guessing, to age her up a bit, so the character Ethel was probably not meant to be that much younger than Fred. Certainly not 2 decades.

[quote]"Oh look George, Little Women is on top of Little Men, and right next to the is a pamphlet."

Could explain what that last part means?

I also am always amazed at how they played Ricky threatening to beat the shit out of Lucy for laughs.

[quote]Could explain what that last part means?

Doctors would give out little pamphlets on marital relations to newlyweds or couples having difficulty in the bedroom. I have the one from 1929 from my grandparents.

It's really all about the woman allowing the man's pleasure, btw.

I have a hard time imaging Lucy taking the fierce Cuban pounding Ricky must have thrown her nightly - or him being able to get off looking into that face.

Oh c'mon Lucy was in her movie days was very beautiful. She hardened up a bit by the time the show started, but she was still pretty and her voice hadn't turned yet. Ricky was probably fucking some showgirls as well.

Still, he seemed like he'd want to pound some snatch, and she seemed so restrained and icy.

[quote]I also am always amazed at how they played Ricky threatening to beat the shit out of Lucy for laughs.

Have you not see "The Honeymooners"? Scroll down for a good laugh.

Well, Katie Holmes impersoated a contented, happy wife, and Tom Cruise didn't notice that she wasn't.

And that turned out to be hilarious.

"On several occasions, when Ricky is yelling at her for some reason or another, Lucy cringes as if he is going to hit her, and calls him "sir": "yessir, yessir." It makes me uncomfortable."

This was the FIFTIES. In the fifties, the man of the house was his wife's Lord and Master. He brought in the money to support the household and gave his wifie an "allowance" (well, some men did) to buy household necessities and maybe a dress or hat now and then. The wife had to have her husband's permission to do all manner of things. ILL certainly exaggerated this scenario, but it was basically the way most marriages operated back then.

Wow, R49 -- you heard Lucy's radio show? That makes you even older than I am -- & we're both still alive!

[quote]she seemed so restrained and icy.

According to a documentary about Lucille and Desi in which they interviewed Lucie Arnez daughter, they had a fantastic sex life and Ricky would seduce her back into bed when she was ready to call it quits over his cheating. Basically, they were sexually perfect for each other and were the love of each others lives.

So, what you're saying R78, is that Lucie and Desi Jr. had to endure listening to those two having sex.

Considering that they lived on a huge rancho in Santa Clarita that's some noisy doo-whaps.

EEWWWW...

No wonder Lucie has led a fringey entertainment life and Desi got involved with those Urantia kooks.

What is Urantia?

No, you have to strip the color and then henna it.

R8 is correct.

R79, the last thing Lucie Arnaz has led is a "fringey entertainment life, idiot. She has conquered every medium in the industry, especially Broadway. She is one of the few beloved stars who has never had a bad word said about her - until your asinine post, of course.

I still wonder what Ricky is saying when he say starts yelling in Spanish. His usual rant start off like "mira caseda cosa......" and the rest is gibberish. What's he saying?

Thanks for the thread, OP, but it's "lie down," not "lay down."

I read several times that Lucille Ball took Desi Arnaz's death very hard. They kept in contact through the years and always spoke fondly of each other, and she sort of went downhill after that.

So much was a suspension of disbelief and yet I thoroughly understood Lucy's craving for John Wayne's footrpints and bought into her stealing them from Grauman's forecourt. And getting her foot stuck in the bucket of cement when she tried to replace them.

How many of you as kids got your notion of what Hollywood was like based on viewings of the the Ricardos' California trip?

I don't know why he didn't let her in the show. She was funny as hell at home.

[quote]"Oh look George, Little Women is on top of Little Men, and right next to them is a pamphlet."

I think that means that they gave birth to the pamphlet. Two books made a smaller version of a book, i.e., a pamphlet.

Do you think Lucy and Desi shaved their pubes?

I don't know is she shaved, but Lucy died her pubes red to match mine.

[quote]I don't know why he didn't let her in the show. She was funny as hell at home.

With all due respect to R8, that's what Sophia Petrillo said when Blanche and Rose were having their "I Love Lucy" marathon: "I never cared for that show. Every single episode, Lucy said the same thing, 'Ricky, why can't I be in the show? Ricky, why can't I be in the show?' Why couldn't she be in the show? The woman was a riot at home. His shows at the club stank. What's so entertaining about a Cuban beating a drum?"

R85, see my post at R4.

No r48 in my book that title belongs to Carrie Bradshaw.

[quote]I was surprised that Ball allowed them to make jokes about her not being a natural redhead.

When the show started, she had only been a redhead for about 12 years. She was originally a brunette, became a platinum blonde in the early 30s and went red in the late 30s. She went red as a career move because it would make her stand out and make her a good casting choice for color movies.

I know she was not a natural redhead. I'm just surprised she allowed them to joke about it 'cause I figured she wanted people to think she really was.

Lucy was actually very beautiful in her early days in Hollywood. She always thought of herself as unattractive.

Someone once posted here on DL that she had a number of abortions in her early days, which made it difficult for her to conceive later on.

I love the Lucy/Desi home movies.

[quote]"Oh look George, Little Women is on top of Little Men, and right next to the is a pamphlet." Could explain what that last part means?

It means the books were having sex and the pamplet (which is a little book) was the result.

Lucy's own hair color didn't factor at all into the jokes. On radio My Favorite Husband did the hair color jokes and you couldn't see the color, it was just something written for a character not Lucille Ball specifically.

Example from the My Favorite Husband radio show where Liz and Iris wore the same dress to a show but didn't tell each other. This was later copied on I Love Lucy, with Lucy and Ethel.

Liz) Yeah well you're fat

Iris) Well you dye your hair

Liz) That don't make you any thinner

MARY at r83!!

(And can you remind us which movies Lucie conquered the film industry with?)

I don't think Lucy made any color films for Goldwyn or at RKO in the 30s so her hair color was sort of a moot point. It was when she went to MGM in the early 40s that she became "Technicolor Tessie" and her redheadedness was promoted, as well as her sapphire blue eyes.

On the other hand, Clara Bow was the famous redhead of silent films and yet has anyone ever seen a color still of Clara?

If you want to see Lucy as a blonde, check out The Three Stooges short "Three Little Pigskins."

I first saw this when I was about 7 years old, and even then, I knew the gravelly voiced kept woman was really Lucy.

There's also the episode where Lucy genuinely believed that Ricky was going to murder her.

They had the smallest couch ever. At least in the first season.

In the earlier episodes Lucy and Ricky share a bed but later they have separate beds. Why is that? Seems regressive.

The episode that R104 referenced was the first one I ever saw (did not watch Lucy until adulthood). I could not believe there was a (fake) gun in it, that Desi points at Lucy. What was kinda funny is the face that Lucy makes when she overhears that one of Desi's "replacements" for her is named "Theodore".

Yeah R106, I noticed in that murder episode from the first season they get into bed together. And it jumped out because on Dick Van Dyke they had separate beds, and I'm pretty sure DVD came later.

"and I'm pretty sure DVD came later."

Oh Rob.

You young people have to understand that early TV was much like the pre-code era of films. Much more permissive because the moral authorities didn't take the mediumm seriously and hadn't yet realized how much it might be a bad influence on society. Censorship didn't much come into play until the mid-50s.

Lucy also turned herself into a complete statue for the very last ILL show.

Their bedroom was a treasure trove of things that Lucy needed to make a point. She kept about 20 kids in it for one show about Edward Everett Horton having a crush on her.

She kept a baby elephant in it for the pickpocket show.

There were thousands of mayo jars and two big shopping carts in the episode about making them millionaires with Aunt Martha's old fashioned mayo.

All her costumes for various episodes resided in that bedroom too. She might come out of there as a ballerina in full costume or as Tallulah Bankhead complete with wig and long fur coat and cigarette holder.

The absolute worst episodes were the Florida shows. (Except for them getting part way there with Elsa.)

The murder episode although not the pilot, was the first episode. listen to how Ethel explains about being the landlord and such.

I want the couch they had on today's episode. guess it would be Danish Modern but it only had one arm and the other side was rounded.

Why did Lucy's voice change so much between this series and the show with Mr. Mooney. It was more than just aging. Was she a smoker?

The pilot I believe is the one in which Lucy has to lose weight to fit into the costume vacated by another girl in Ricky's act.

She and Ricky sing the fabulous "Cuban Pete" at the end of it with Lucy bumping and grinding to the beat.

There's also the hilarious bit in which Lucy is waiting to audition with the other girls and she tries to make her rather frau-ish outfit look sexier....this is truly hilarious and all Lucy....no dialogue!

But in those first 2 episodes it's clear that they hadn't figured out yet how best to flatter Lucy with makeup and lighting. She (and Viv) look rather grotesque.

The furniture that the Applebys had that Lucy referred to as "a bad dream you'd have after eating too much Chinese food" looks exactly like the stuff they sell at West End, overlapping squares chair included. The Applebys were sixty years ahead of their time.

(quote)The absolute worst episodes were the Florida shows. (Except for them getting part way there with Elsa.)

There are no "worst" shows, only ones a little less funny. I aways wondered if Bobby the Bellboy (who by the way played a milkman in another episode) of the Hollywood Hotel would service Cornel Wilde manually when he delivered the paper into the bathroom while Mr Wilde was bathing.

Lucy wasn't nearly as good as Joan Davis.

I loved the one episode (don't know if it was pre or post Hayes) where Lucy and Ethel go to some old lady's apartment and the old lady says "you aren't those Kinsey folks are you?".

I like I Love Lucy but I hate all the comedy crap you have to sit through so you can hear Ricky sing

I hate that you have to endure the crap of Ricky singing to get to the comedy.

[quote Why did Lucy's voice change so much between this series and the show with Mr. Mooney. It was more than just aging. Was she a smoker?]

Did you ever actually watch the show?

Does anyone remember where Lucy schemes to get something out of Ricky and Ricky outsmarts her and Lucy goes "Whaaaaaaa" and Ricky give in?

The sponsor was Phillip Morris.

That single bed in the early episode was actually twin beds pushed together. You may notice the sheet seam where the two beds are joined.

w&w for r8. Thanks for the laugh.

There was an episode,r12, involving a fish, that showed Fred and Ethel's bathroom and maybe Lucy and Ricky's.

r126

That was in a hotel in Florida

I can't get over what a vain narcissist Lucy was written to be.

There's the episode when they get a new car for the trip to CA. When she hears that the car is blue, Lucy says "that color will look fabulous with my hair". Other eps have her making statements how good she'll look with this hat/that dress. In the ep when their club is voting for a new president and Lucy wants the job over Ethel, she says the person who gets the position has to make a good appearance. She had a very high opinion of herself.

Did the Mertzes own the building and the lot on which it sat or was it a land lease situation in which they just owned the building and leased the land from someone?

r129 = attempted thread killer

She was Theda Bara, R11, the VAMP, not Tallulah Bankhead.

She could well have done both, but the Cousin Ernie (Tennessee Ernie Ford) episode was Theda Bara.

I think she was Tallulah in another episode. Lucy was known among friends for her Bankhead imitation.

Speaking of the Applebys, Caroline Appleby - played by Doris Singleton - just died last month, well into her 90s.

[quote]Why did Lucy's voice change so much between this series and the show with Mr. Mooney. It was more than just aging. Was she a smoker?

I think only Bette Davis was more well-known as being a smoker than Lucy was. Lucy smoked unfiltered cigs like a chimney until just a couple of years before her death, when her doctors finally forced her to quit.

Who is the implicated "I" in I LOVE LUCY?

I cannot stop watching the video r32 posted. Hilarious! Or should I say, wundaful!

Yeah, r127, as I was writing that I thought it was when they were fishing and Lucy wanted the guys to think they had caught a big fish.

Now I'm reminded of the ep where Lucy insists on going hunting with Ricky and she has Ethel behind the scenes making sure she really shined as an outdoors woman. Great episode.

r136 the I refers to Ricky

I thought the I was the audience.

The Tallulah Bankhead episode was flawless. Tallaulah was the only one who could steal a scene from Lucy and be funnier. She was quite a talent.

no r140 the show theme does have lyrics and in the song Ricky sings .."I love Lucy and she loves me, were has happy as two can be....."

It was also an interesting way of giving Desi Arnaz first billing while identifying Lucy, the star, by name.

After 50 + years, I LOVE LUCY continues to astonish. Only it and the LITTLE RASCALS still elicit genuine laughs from me, even after having seen these episodes hundreds of times. They leave the contemporary catastrophes that pass themselves off "sit-coms" choking in their dust. Yes, their writing and the playing are genius but it's their humanity and heart that keep them evergreen and meaningful.

R144, do you wanna contribute to the topic at hand?

I know what you mean R144, I feel the same way about "The Munsters" and "Car 51, Where Are You?" Tug Tug on the ole heart strings.

I noticed they ate a lot of roast beef on I Love Lucy.

It was awful the way Lucy dumped that kid of hers on whoever 'cause she couldn't be bothered with it. She was the first in line of a long line, of TV mothers that did this.

It's weird how much Lucy and Debra Messing lookalike.

Yes, r149, Debra would be the first to tell you that, too!

Oh, dear Datalounge. I love you, you bitches. But I was just thinking about how, if Smash doesn't make it to Season 3, I should make my return to the world of sitcoms. And, given my LOVE for Lucy, maybe I could re-do I Love Lucy. The husband? So easy. Ricky Martin. Fred? John Goodman is a shoo-in? But for Ethel. Ethel. . .Someone frumpy. Someone dumpy. Someone old. . .

Jennifer Aniston will do.

By the way, Datalounge? What cunts you are.

Is that why Messing dyes her hair red? Because facially there is a very striking resemblance.

In the Seance episode, every time Lucy says Gemini, she pronounces it like Jiminy (as in Cricket).

Mr. Merriwether was a fag.

You know that the old lady who asks: "Say, You're name ain't Kinsey, is it?" turned into Lucy's Mother in future episodes, right?

Before heading out to California, Lucy was trying to teach Ethel how to drive. In the episode with Lucy going hunting and fishing with Ricky, Ethel had no problem with driving a station wagon to the camp site.

R149, back in October 2001 Entertainment Weekly did a cover story on "Will & Grace" and they had Messing and McCormack dressed up as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.

I was only able to find this one photo from the shoot, but it'll do:

I Love Lucy

I Married Joan

I Remember Mama

Our Miss Brooks

My Little Margie

My Friend Irma

(I) Love That Bob

Most 1950s sitcoms' titles began with possessive pronouns, real or implied.

I worship Eve Arden and Ann Sothern, but I was amazed how lame their respective sitcoms were (OUR MISS BROOKS and PRIVATE SECRETARY). The writing was poor with no oppertunity for these ladies to let rip the same sort of classic zingers they displayed in dozens of movies.

More weirdness: Ricky's publicist plants stories in the paper about Ricky fucking his dancers.

I agree r158! I also loved Eve Arden and Ann Sothern and those shows as a kid but seeing them now on youtube or DVDs....they do not hold up. Very forced and tedious humor and slow pacing.

I Married Joan is slightly better, almost as good as ILL but only because of Joan Davis' brilliance. She was obviously more of a natural comic than Lucy, she just didn't have the great writers. I thought Jim Backus was a great foil and even sorta sexy as Judge Bradley Stevens.

I also still find Love That Bob pretty funny. The cast, including Bob Cummings, Rosemary deCamp and Dwayne Hickman and, of course, Ann B Davis played so well off each other. And whenever Nancy Kulp showed up as man-crazy bird watcher Pamela Livingstone, the shows really soared.

Love That Bob benefited from the same producers/writers as Burns and Allen which IMHO is the only 50s sitcom that still stands up to, if not surpasses ILL, even today.

You know the harpist - the only female in the band - was a whore. She got away with it because Lucy didn't know about her trick pelvis and trick jaw.

Lucky, lucky the lucky show

(Staring Lucy)

Lucky, lucky the lucky show

If you were Lucy, you'd have money

And you'd be lucky

The lucky show

Starring Vivian Williams and Vance Frawley

I loved it when Ann Sothern's Susie McNamara from Private Secretary was revealed to be Lucille McGillicuddy's bff on the The Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour in the Havana episode where Lucy meets Ricky.

Ann and Lucy must have gone back quite a few years together in real life. I guess they were both contract players at MGM in the 1940s but I wonder if they were both at RKO in the 1930s?

They both made a lot of B pictures and then became much bigger (and richer) stars through TV in the 1950s.

Lucy was always trying to lez up Ann and Viv and even the Merm, who was a lez.

They all used to laugh in her smoke covered face

Yes, Ann Sothern and Lucy were at RKO at the same time during the 1930s. Both signed with MGM later, in the 1940s.

You were right about the Goldbergs show! I watched a random episode and it was all about women getting higher education. One girl graduated college cum laude in psychology. The father tells the mother that had she studied psychology she would have become a pHd because of her keen interests. I only watched the first few minutes and already it was relevant!

The Goldbergs were always donating money to Israel so they could develop nukes.

Mrs Goldberg was like 'Go to college, to help the Stein (Einstein) make bomba for the Israel.'

She talked about how the Jews were repressed not mentioning the Palestinians they stole land from.

Huh?

The Goldburgs were so unrealistic.

At her height of popularity, Gertrude Berg (Molly Goldberg) was the second most popular woman in America, after Eleanor Roosevelt.

Today is apparently Vivian Vance's birthday.

The best thing about THE MOTHERS IN LAW is that it makes you realize what geniuses Viv and Lucy were; how great they were as a team. Eve and Kaye are both terrific actors, but they get defeated over and over again by their scripts. You watch and think, "oh this would be so much better with Lucille and Vivian...oh Viv would have gotten that laugh she just missed."

Eve isn't even as good at reading her lines off the cue cards as Lucy was.

Today would have been Vivian's 103rd birthday. Lucy would've been 101 on August 6.

Not my favorite episode but my favorite few seconds of Lucy is when she once again busted in on the act. She's dressed as an Indian and doing a duet with Ricky. "Come here...." "Ahhhhhhh Uhhhhh Uhhh..." And she's wearing the baby on her back.

For R173. I've never watched much "I Love Lucy," but your description of that scene sounded hilarious and I had to see if someone had uploaded it. They did, bless their hearts! It's so funny when the band members laugh at Lucy's "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh uh-uh" after Desi tells her to "Cooooooooooooooooooome heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere."

Most seasons are on cbs.com now. Damn they still stand up. I just watched the Paris episode where the gendarme interrogates Lucy via a chain of translators (French --> German --> Spanish --> English). A wry commentary on the Tower of Babel that is modern Europe? Or waaaaaaaaahhh!

[quote]At her height of popularity, Gertrude Berg (Molly Goldberg) was the second most popular woman in America

And disco was at the height of it's popularity in 1978. It still sucked then and now.

What's your point? Other than people don't know what is good?

[quote]I've never watched much "I Love Lucy,"

WHAT??!! Oh holy fucking shit. It's like you're not even... gay.

Poor Mrs. Goldberg. She had a hit show and then Roy Cohn sent her to the electric chair.

Gertrude Berg, who portrayed Molly, was apparently a real piece of work. She could be a total ball busting cunt when she wanted her way. She has a distinct notion for how to play that character and NEVER took direction. She also wrote the scripts or RE-wrote lines when she thought she could improve. She was not a beloved person in "real life," at all.

r179 where do you get your information? I'm not necessarily doubting you, just interested to know your sources.

i was going to write the same thing. Where did u get ur info?

Starting at 2:10 another flash of Lucy's brilliance. I've seen it elevenseventybillion times and still crack up and would love to hang with Lucy Ricardo.

There was a supposedly wonderful documentary about Gertrude Beg and The Goldbergs TV series a few years ago but I can't imagine it wasn't mostly very complimentary.

[quote]She could be a total ball busting cunt when she wanted her way

What an antisemitic thing to say. Racist

R179 here. DOCUMENTARY film about The Goldbergs. Explained about the DEMANDING Miss Goldberg.

[R41] They had to put up with a lot of prejudice in their personal lives. Desi was a sharp businessman but initially he was looked down upon, and no one thought the audience would buy them as a couple.

r182, thank you for posting the ballet class clip.

I've only seen it about 400 times but it is still so hilarious and absolute proof of Lucy's pure comic genius. She has just a couple of lines but it's the physical comedy that only she could do in that inimitable way. That is something she just simply lost after ILL.

And also wonderful seeing Mary Wickes as the French instructor with such a different look than her usual spinsterish old maid.

My all time fave episode is from the LA season where Lucy is in Don Loper's fashion show with "celebrity wives" like Sheila MacRae, Mrs. William Holden, Mrs. Dean Martin (the second one, the blonde), and Mrs. Forrest Tucker! She has to wear a tweed suit with a bad sunburn.

R160 I loved the post. ANYTIME Nancy Kulp tried to play man crazy, is funny as hell all by itself. I can say the same about Ann B Davis ( Ann B Eatin at the "Y")

Was Don Loper gay?

my fave part of the Ballet show was when Mary said lets go to the (bar)barre and Lucy said "good I could use a drink".

Noon, Mrs. Ricardo.

NOOOOOOON!!!!

Disappearing Santa! WTF?!

Don's wife was one of the models.

Loper was gay as a picnic basket.

Did no one live above the Ricardos? I'm thinking about the episode where Rick and Jean Valjean Raymand unload a dozen or so bullets into the ceiling in order to trick Lucy into thinking Ricky has been murdered. Pretty cruel.

But honestly, Lucy was more upset about the fur coat.

Yes in the first apartment Mrs Trumbull among others, lived above the Ricardos.

Speaking of Nancy Kulp, she had a role in the London episode of Lucy with probably the worst British accent on film after Keanu Reeves.

Oh yes, I remember that episode with Nancy as the London hotel maid teaching Lucy and Ethel how to bow to the Queen, should they happen to run into her. She and her cockney accent are indeed cringe-inducing here (Nancy, not the Queen).

Nancy hadn't yet found her niche as the man-hungry spinster.

Lucy just asked Ethel if she was going to let Fred " Jew you out of some roast beef." WTF

Ethel just told Lucy, "No, but keep licking my snatch anyway."

I'm watching the episode 'Lucy Gets a Black Eye'. Fred and Ethel are listening outside of the door and think that Ricky is beating the shit out of Lucy. Do they rush into help? Nope. Ethel says, 'lets leave them alone at a time like this.'

bump

We're all odd, aren't we?

I love the women from mars episode. Originally they were supposed to be lesbian Martians - "It's a muu-muu" was part of Lucy and Viv's private snatch talk - Lucy would put her lips against Viv's vulva and say that phrase and it always gave Viv an orgasm. But CBS wouldn't okay the script. Lucy kept the phrase in and CBS was none the wiser.

What about the John Wayne episode. When Lucy got the cement caught on her foot, she tried to pretend she was sleeping in the Mertz' room. Ricky WANTED LUCY BACK HOME RIGHT NOW. He even had to come to the Mertz' to get her. I guess after being around all those starlets, Ricky needed to squeeze one out into the Redhead and it couldn't wait.

How about the episode when Lucy was jealous of Jeannie. And they shoved Lucy into that tight ass dress. And Lucy looked passable, until they put her next to Jeannie and she aged like 350 years.

And you can notice William Frawley pants going "up" when he gets next to Jeanie.

Barbara Eden said, Desi was always trying to make her, but she told him she was young enough to be his daughter. But that only made him hotter for her.

Seems pretty obvious to me that Bill Frawley was gay. The ultra-macho pretentions, the brief failed marriage...

I watched an episode last night when the girls of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League were trying to organize a dance to replenish the treasury's coffers (for goodness knows what reason; the club never had more than 6 member, and all were office holders - including joint presidents).

Lucy was gossiping with the girls about a fight between a couple and asked "Did [husband] really give [wife] a black eye?" and had a good old laugh saying it.

I can't find it on YouTube but my favorite one liner from the show was the washing machine episode. The machine was out on Lucy's terrace and both Ethel and Lucy thought they bought it and it belonged to them. They're pushing and pulling for a while saying things like "it's mine, no it's mine, let go of my machine."

Then it falls off the terrace and smashes to the ground. Without skipping a beat Lucy turns to Ethel and says "Ethel, look what happened to your washing machine!". It just fucking kills me every time.

Bump

I will stop everything and watch any time the episode with Lucy and the Cheese Baby on the Flight Home from Italy Episode is on.

THe dialogue between Lucy and Mary Jane Croft is absolutely priceless.

[quote]Barbara Eden said, Desi was always trying to make her, but she told him she was young enough to be his daughter. But that only made him hotter for her.

And she spent the week trying to avoid him. She also said in her autobiography that Lucy was amazing to her and even hand sewed beads on her dress and told the costumer and make-up people to make Barbara as gorgeous as possible.

I liked the episode where Lucy and Ethel got dates with other men and Ricky and Fred were all like "Thank God, finally we can express our true sexuality for each other."

My favorite episode is where they make mayonnaise. Oh Lucy claims it's mayonnaise, but she had to employee THOUSANDS of young horny men to watch blue films, in order for her to get it.

Yes, I like that episode, too, r215.

"Aunt Martha's Old-Fashioned Spermadressing."

Aunt Martha got the ingredients by feeding the young boys Old Fashions

R210

There are tears in my eyes I'm laughing so hard just READING about that scene and that line. It's still so fucking funny.

Thanks for reminding me.

I like it when Lucy accidentally calls Ricky, Diseasi. Desi got the clap so much that he was always diseased and that is what Lucy called him.

I liked it when the boys were watching the fights and the bell rings. Fred rushes out the door to by some root beer (yeah right ROOT beer).

Anyway Lucy looks at Ethel and says, "Does he think he can get all the way to the drug store and back in three minutes"?

Ethel says "He's got himself trained so he can do ANYTHING in less than three minutes"

And Lucy says "You mean like take a dump"?

And Ethel looks at Lucy and says sarcastically, "Yeah you scat whore, that's what I mean, take a dump."

A Lucy thread brings out some nutcases. "A dump" wow. It might have been funnier if you wrote pinched a dookey.

I'm watching the one where Ricky and Fred try to teach the girls how to play golf.

I've seen this episode a million times, but I'm really focused on how fake the background is there. A big wall mural of trees and some fake grass is supposed to pass for a golf course.

[quote]A big wall mural of trees and some fake grass is supposed to pass for a golf course.

And it does.

What do the members of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League actually do? Do they go see Wednesday matinees or do they just sit around the house and talk about what's going on around town?

I couldn't get Desi's hands off of me!

R224 the wednesday fine arts league would sit, gossip, and then draw straws to see who would henna rinse Lucy's pussy.

r225

Yeah Desi JUNIOR.

That is because Lucy was such a drunk she kept forgetting to feed the kid, so he latch on to anything with breasts.

They have to mentioned the bathroom! As a matter of fact the episode where she gets a job to pay for a dress by babysitting 2 bratty twins she tells him to "march through the living room, into the BATHROOM and go wash your hands!" Just FYI :)

Lusy looks her best in the Ethel's Hometown episode when she's onstage.

And what a great showpiece for Vivian Vance as well. Definitely one of my favorites.

She could also put on a pair of suspenders, wear a straw boater and chew tobacco and people thought she was a man.

The washing machine episode had several great moments. When Ethel and Fred try to buy the machine back, Ethel comes to the Ricardos apartment dripping with sweetness and coos "Hi" when she enters.

When Lucy and Ethel are playing push/pull with the washing machine, Mrs. Trumbel asks what they're doing: Ethel: We're moving Mrs. Ricardo's washing maching in front of her apartment. Lucy: No, we're moving Mrs. Mertz' washing maching in front of her apartment. Mrs. Trumbel: Well, if you don't mind my saying so, you're doing it the hard way.

Did Lucy like black people?

[quote]My all time fave episode is from the LA season where Lucy is in Don Loper's fashion show with "celebrity wives" like Sheila MacRae, Mrs. William Holden, Mrs. Dean Martin (the second one, the blonde), and Mrs. Forrest Tucker!

What about ME?

I've always loved the operetta episode. And I hate musicals.

R188 Notice how Mrs. Forrest Tucker can barely walk? Those rumors about his endowment must've been twoo!

RE: Lucy and Ricky's house in the country. It was supposed to be this huge house on several acres in Westport, CT, complete with guest house and chicken coops, yet it was awfully small. I understand that they probably needed an open floor plan in order to film more easily, but in reality, any large country house would have had a separate living room and formal dining room. Instead it looked like the floor plan for an oversized loft. It really made no sense.

"I Love Lucy" represents nothing more than a charming piece of Americana. It's characters were just that - characters - & not necessarily meant to be over-evaluated nor dissected. It was fun for the sake of fun. As for things/ events being plausible, again, just roll with it; after all, that's what those "fun four" did...so why shouldn't the rest of the world? Step outside the box & accept the stretch... laugh, have fun &, above all else, simply Love Lucy. :)

As much as I love seeing Lucy wrestling with the little Italian lady in the grape vat, what really makes me laugh is her taking off her shoes to blend in with the rest of the ladies. She steps on the stone path and discovers that it is hot as hell and hops from stone to stone before jumping on the side of the vat. If you watch closely, you can see that she almost tips over into the vat after jumping on it and the scene is cut short.

Then her great relief after stepping into the water bucket to cleanse her feet before going into the vat, where hilarity ensues.

I also love Lucy and Ethel going into their Italian actress mode with the "Arrivederci mi amore, arrivederci" whilst mussing their hair.

r 225 Me too.

How about the episode where Lucy accompanies Fred on the Staten Island Ferry in the hope of "curing" his seasickness in preparation for sailing to Europe?

And gets punch drunk on Fred's seasick pills so that she barely makes it in time to obtain her passport from that grumpy guy who often appeared as a grumpy guy in 1950s TV?

Didn't you all want to sail to Europe on an ocean liner?

I don't think it starts that way R84. I ran it through several online translators and they say that what you wrote means..."looks Caseda thing." That said, like you I always wondered what Ricky was saying too.

I wonder if it was real Spanish or just made up words as not to offend any Spanish speaking audience. Although I imagine made up Spanish would be more offensive but who knows how they thought back in the 50s.

"Mira que tiene cosa la mujer esta."

John Wayne looked pretty good shirtless. Nice thick, beefy muscular body...the body of a former pro athlete. It's not pertinent to the conversation at hand, but I did want to add that.

"The Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour in the Havana episode where Lucy meets Ricky."

I finally saw that episode and wondered how they made Lucy looks so much younger than she normally looked. Was it just keeping her hair down? She was looking pretty matronly around that time.

Was the Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour where they meet in Havana shot after ILL was completed, like the other hour long episodes?

Somehow, I've always thought that it was a special done while they were still doing ILL.

In any case, I believe it was the first of the hour long episodes.

Yeah it was the first of the hour longs, followed by the hysterical Tallullah ep. These were shot soon after ILL ended. Lucy had already started looking hard by the final season of ILL, but she took on a really hard look when she started sporting that hideous new hairdo that made her look ten years older.

The grapes episode looks more painful than funny.

great reading below:

Watched the entire home movies. Very sad. For all their money and fame I think they were very unhappy people and I feel bad for Lucie and Desi Jr.

Lucy was a card carrying commie.

Interesting fact that made my whole world make sense: in the fashion episode in Paris, where Lucy wears the pail as a hat, one of the models who later sports that look is Cher's mother.

Did anyone pick up on this from the OP?

[quote]or that weirdly huge book called How To Keep Your Honeymoon From Ending that was very specific and despite being enormous quickly answered its title in a matter of sentences.

Aren't ALL self-help books exactly like that? Catchy title, zero content.

How come no one pointed out what a lousy mother Lucy was?

In real or reel life?

Lucy wasn't a lousy mother. She suffered what is known as tv mother syndrome. The kid gets trotted out as a prop then goes down for his numerous naps. Downton Abbey does this too.

It's highly possible William Frawley was gay, but no one ever confirmed it , including himself. I personally think he was gay just because he never married after one brief marriage, never had kids, and was never photographed on any dates. You won't find pics of him with any woman. Much like Rock Hudson. We don't know much of anything about Frawley's love life, and that's highly unusual for a celebrity, even back then.

He and Viv hated each other in real life. Maybe she didn't like being paired with an older gay guy as her husband? You wont see any photos of them together after they left I love Lucy.

Some say Viv's last husband in real life was a gay man. I wonder if she knew?

[quote]How come no one pointed out what a lousy mother Lucy was?

Aw, Lucy was a doting mother who didn't even want to send Little Ricky to nursery school. And she didn't even punish the little guy when he almost killed those hundreds of chickens.

[quote]This thread and others make me think that Datalounge is basically a secret underground civilization of people who have never seen the actual world above. The only clues they have to it are some ancient videotapes of the complete series of "I Love Lucy" and "The Golden Girls," and they watch these over and over again, obsessing about them, going over every last detail, and wondering just how life in the sunlit world above can possibly correspond to the details of what they're seeing on the holy videotapes.

I always read the last couple of pages on this thread, so I decided to read it from the beginning and I can't get past the first page because I'm still laughing at this from R8.

Viv's last husband was indeed gay, and she knew about it before they married. That's one of the reasons she wanted to move to Connecticut - to get him away from the temptations of LA and SF (where he lived and had a job as a book publisher). Eventually, they did wind up back in the SF Bay Area.

What they had in common was a sense of humor, and a genuine appreciation for each other.

[quote]What they had in common was a sense of humor, and a genuine appreciation for each other.

*Nodding my head* That's exactly right, R259. This describes Mark and me to a T.

It was weird that Lucy and Ricky's child spoke with a Louisiana accent.

This is going to make people who love Lucy & Desi cry. These are real home movies.

OP is old. No one says, "when I lie down" anymore unless you lived in the 1950s. My mother says that and she is 75.

Well? It's true!

ILL is still one of the all time best. The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy were both very good and they make today's shows look awful.

R262 WTF...Lucy and Desi in a pool with Lucy Jr's child?

Lucy Arnaz married the father of that child in 1980. So that clip was shot sometime in the 1980s? I'm surprised.

(and yes it did bring a tear to my eyes)

Lucy was a bitch. Once when Gary was yelling at DeeDee to shut up, (DeeDee or Didi was Lucy's mother) DeeDee hauled off and kicked him in the crotch.

Gary didn't flinch and Lucy comes up and says "What did you expect, he has no balls."

It was the only laugh "Here's Lucy" ever got.

I can't wait until about 2045. Then R263 is going to be old (if he's lucky) and maybe he'll realize what an asshole he was.

Marry me r59

I always assumed Ricky went to work around 10 AM or 11. Why would you assume it was earlier?

[quote]People weren't as bright in the 1950s, OP. It's a fact.

No one challenged that statement when it was written in 2012. I wonder if he feels the same way after November, 2016?

How did they afford that huge house in the country on a bandleader's salary?

By the time they'd moved to Westport Ct. (a pretty far schlep to commute), Ricky had been to Hollywood and made the (shelved) Don Juan movie and did occasional tv endorsements. He also owned the newly-named Club Babalu, and was no longer just an employee of The Tropicana. He was a minor celebrity by the final seasons. He got a mortgage like everybody else, and real estate wasn't priced so obscenely back then, most people still rented.

They sold eggs and Lucy turned tricks.

My Favorite Husband was more realistic, for instance, George (Ricky) recognizes Liz right away.

One big difference is that Desi refused to show Ricky in a bad light. In the original IRS script, George cheats on his taxes, but Desi insisted on changing it because it would mean Ricky was crooked.

Fred and Ethel were each other's beards

Every plot point of ILL is practically the same ::Lucy thinks Ricky is cheating. Lucy wants to be in the show. Lucy spent too much money and is overdrawn. Lucy and Ricky are feuding with the Mertzes:: There you go. The entire series in a nutshell.

r276 = Bea Benaderet