Which films could Lucy Ball have made in her golden years?

Lucy in Interiors could have been spectacular.

Lucy wanted to play Emma in “Terms of Endearment “, but Gary told her she was too damn old. She threw hot coffee in his face.

She was offered the Angie Dickinson role in Dressed to Kill, the Julie Christie role in Don't Look Now, and Lana on Three's Company, she turned them all down. All three of them could've opened new doors for her.

She'd have been marvelous on a prime time soap like Falcon Crest or The Colbys.

She was offered the Miss Ellie role on Dallas when Barbara Bel Geddes decided to quit. Lucy turned it down and Donna Reed got the role, but for only one season because Bel Geddes decided to return. Reed felt humiliated for being treated so shabbily, then she died shortly after.

Gary to Lucy: "I told you so."

She looked haggard in the late '80s.

I would have preferred her to be on The Golden Girls in place of the uncharismatic Estelle Getty.

The Dustin Hoffman role in Tootsie.

One from the Heart

Elle Wood in Legally Blonde.

Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada.

Cher's role in Burlesque.

Don't knock Stone Pillow (now on Amazon Prime), OP!

She could have played Camilla Rhodes in the geriatric version of Mulholland Drive ... with Viv co-starring as Diane Selwyn ... and Ann Miller as, well, Ann Miller.

Which was the greater and grittier performance: Lucy's Florabelle or Fran's Fern?

[quote]Gary told her she was too damn old. She threw hot coffee in his face.

You call that hot?

[quote] A Passage to India

LUCY AS MRS. MOORE: "WAAAAAAAAH!!!"

ADELA: "Mrs. Moore, what's wrong?"

LUCY AS MRS. MOORE: "I sense a void where God should be after entering that cave!"

Could she have played Yentl?

Ordinary People, as Beth’s colder, more severe mother.

r17 = Mrs. Alfred Steele

I wish she'd played herself in a TV movie like Joan Rivers did.

As much as I loved Joan Blondell in Cassavetes’ Opening Night as the disapproving playwright tormenting Gena Rowlands, I wonder what Lucy might have done with the role if she had really cut loose and tapped her brittle, tough off-screen persona.

None of those films would’ve worked for Lucy. “Mame” was her last shot, for the movies. (That was a disaster, as everyone knows.) I think she would’ve been excellent in a “Hallmark Hall of Fame”, TV film. Those films were superb, a true television event.

My first criteria for those movies above is the one in which Lucy could fittingly cry "WAAAAAH" and so, "The Towering Inferno" it is.

Divine’s role in Pink Flamingos might have worked well.

Seriously, I could easily see Lucy having played Lisolette in The Towering Inferno. She would have been a harder, more fun-loving character who the audience knew had Astaire's character's number from the first scene, and she would have shoved the children out of the elevator to save her own hide, but honestly, she would have been great.

All the others, not so much. And she was dead before Driving Miss Daisy was done.

Reading Lucy Ball instead of Lucille Ball makes me laugh. Don't know why it amuses me so much, but it does.

Anyway, Lucille Ball should have retired from acting after I Love Lucy. She somehow ceased to understand acting at all after that and was just so unwatachably awful.

Godzilla

as a Stepford Wife

opposite Patty Duke in the role played by Rosemary Murphy in You'll Like My Mother (1972)

Requiem for a WAAAAH!

Who on earth thought she could pull of Travels with My Aunt after how she butchered Mame? Especially considering the flashback scenes where she had to pull off playing a schoolgirl.

She wanted to do Behind the Green Door, but Gary talked her out of it.

RONNIE: "Mother, Adela's hysterical! She's claimed Dr. Aziz tried to rape her in the Marabar Caves!"

LUCY AS MRS. MOORE: (does "the spider") "EUGGGGHHHH!!"

Maybe a remake of "The Gracie Allen Murder Case".

Deep Throat certain would have opened many film opportunities for her.

Somebody on Datalounge has a fixation on Lucille Ball. That's kind of sick.

None. She'd played Lucy for so many years, she forgot how to act or do anything different.

I'm picturing her as a Targaryen.

She was eager to do Dawson's 50- Load Weekend, but Gary...

Ethel in On Golden Pond, reteamed with Henry Fonda. To Jane Fonda's character: "Listen, kiddo ...."

Molly Ringwald's grandmother in some John Hughes movie. To Molly Ringwald's character: "Listen, kiddo ...."

The Joker in the Michael Keaton Batman.

Either female lead in Desperately Seeking Susan.

I could see her playing Miss Daisy if Miss Daisy was neither Jewish nor Southern. I can't believe there wasn't one gay man in 1970s Hollywood that didn't write at least one screenplay or weekly show with her in mind that would've been spectacular. I do think she would've done good with a slightly more comedic take on a Murder She Wrote type of show. And, like AL she could've had all her old Hollywood pals as guest stars.

She wouldn't have done well in any on the list because she was too worried about being 'Lucy'.

And R6, she looked haggard in the early 1970's.

The Ruth Gordon role in Rosemary's Baby.

I will say I'm surprised she didn't do one of those all-star disaster films, either the straight ones like The Towering Inferno, or especially the Airport spoofs.

And, I know others don't like them but I'm a fan of her two early sixties "adult" comedies with Bob Hope. They just feel chic and so of their time.

Harold & Maude. She’d be terrific in any of those George Burns movies from the ‘70s & ‘80s. A bisexual take on Grumpy Old Men. It would be sexy to see her romancing Sophia Loren and Ann Margret.

OP some of those movies were offered to her, but Gary Morton talked her out of it

R44 Do you mean in place of George Burns or paired with him? Because I think either could've worked. The Lucy character had more than a little Gracie in her.

But, I think if they had made Oh, God! with Lucy as God and John Ritter in the John Denver role, it would've been as good if not better than the version that was made. Especially given how much Lucille Ball loved John Ritter, she basically thought he was the second coming of the silent comedians.

She and Barbara Eden could have made an American television adaptation of Bergman's Autumn Sonata.

^ Or Bergman’s Persona. Lucy opposite Aunt Esther, LaWanda Page.

She would not have been able to really transform herself, which is why something like The Towering Inferno would have been all she could handle. If any of you have seen Stone Pillow (which by all accounts is a terrible movie, badly written, badly directed and Daphne Zuniga is horrible in it), Lucy fell back on all her old tropes. She pretty much played Florabelle like she was doing another Freddy the Freeloader sketch only this time without special guest star Red Skelton. You so wanted her to show you something other than Lucy but it just wasn't there.

The Acid Queen in [italic]Tommy[/italic]

You'd think a bigger star would have taken the Jennifer Jones role in Towering Inferno.

After the success of Helen Hayes in Airport and Shelley Winters in The Poseidon Adventure this was seen as another great comeback role for an actress.

They got Fred Astaire for the male older character. I wonder if the offered it to Ginger Rogers?

Jennifer Jones to me just never stole the movie like that character was supposed to (according to the AMC Behind the Scenes.)

I feel like the Fred Astaire character was the Helen Hayes/Shelley Winters role. Jennifer Jones was just there as another name. Her role was not as meaty as any of those others.

Demon Seed. I could just picture her getting raped by a computer.

I'm going to visit the national comedy museum and Lucy and Desi Arnez Museum in Jamestown NY later this week.

Also does anyone else think Alice was basically the Honeymooners set in a diner and Ralph Norton is a southern slut?

Along Came A Spider

I can't believe nobody has mentioned she she was seriously considered for Angela Lansbury's part of the evil mother in The Manchurian Candidate. She was Sinatra's first choice for the part. But producer/director John Frankenheimer had worked with Lansbury in the past and went with her.

^ The above is absolutely true and I've always wondered whether Lucy would have taken the part if it had been offered.

R58 it could’ve changed her image just as Elvis could’ve changed his if he had done A Star Is Born with Babs, but each were held back by fear their fans wouldn’t like it. And Elvis had to deal with an evil manager.

I'm wondering if Lucy could've handled a part in "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"? Or would she have refused to do so since she wouldn't have been the top banana?

I seriously cannot believe Sinatra wanted her for "The Manchurian Candidate", was he smoking crack at the time? Please tell me this is just a joke.

Been thinking of an even worse role than Mame Dennis for Lucy to play, and I believe I've done it: As the Princess Dragomiroff in "Murder on the Orient Express." Juxtaposing her and Wendy Hiller has had me chuckling for the last few minutes.

Could she have stepped into any of Elaine Stritch's roles?

Anything for her in "First Wives Club"?

None of these roles were "comebacks" for Fred, Jennifer or anyone else. It gave them something to do, act. Just like Love Boat, Fantasy Island and all the other shows that basically used semi-retired stars.

Lucy played Lucy for so long, that schtick was too embedded, and I really think she was too scared to actually attempt anything else.

[quote] I seriously cannot believe Sinatra wanted her for "The Manchurian Candidate", was he smoking crack at the time? Please tell me this is just a joke.

No, it's not a joke at all, it's a well known and well documented story. Just check Wiki, IMDB or Google.

Ball did several very well regarded noir films in the 40s before she became famous as a comedienne. I can easily see her her being considered for that part.

[quote] Anything for her in "First Wives Club"?

A eulogy. The bitch had been dead for seven years.

Ball was also pimped out by RKO to cinema house managers to help secure screenings of their films.

Lucy was a bitter, sour cunt. No idea why- and I knew her as a gayling through a dear friend.

The whole success or trying as an AR- ARnaz, RicARdo, CArmichael, CArter, BARkley, and having CArole Cook change her name from Mildred, makes no sense.

Thank God she didn't change that lousy movie to MARme.

She could have had Anne Bancroft's role in The Graduate.

I picked Cocoon -she could have played an alien.

I don't think Lucy would have done "Manchurian Candidate" since it might bring back in the public's eye that she had registered as a Communist to please her grandfather when she was very young and had been given grief around the time of "I Love Lucy".

She could have played Muzzy von Hosmere instead of Carol Channing in "Thoroughly Modern Millie". Lucy wouldn't mind getting (fake) shot out of a cannon.

She didn't just register as a Communist to please her grandfather; her activities went a lot deeper, but she simply denied them all a decade or two later, and that was enough for J. Edgar Hoover. From Wikipedia:

[quote] To sponsor the Communist Party's 1936 candidate for the California State Assembly's 57th District, Ball signed a certificate stating, "I am registered as affiliated with the Communist Party." The same year, the Communist Party of California appointed her to the state's Central Committee, according to records of the California Secretary of State. In 1937, Hollywood writer Rena Vale, a self-identified Communist, attended a class at an address identified to her as Ball's home according to her testimony given before the US House of Representatives' Special House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), on July 22, 1940.

The Geraldine Page role in The Beguiled

She did not have anywhere near the acting depth of Jessica Tandy. She never could have pulled off Driving Miss Daisy.

I’d love to have seen her take on Clarice Starling.

[quote]I could see her playing Miss Daisy if Miss Daisy was neither Jewish nor Southern.

I could see her playing Mr. Ed if Mr. Ed were neither male nor a horse.

R52 and like Winters and Hayes, Astaire was nominated for his performance in The Tedious Inferno ;

R71 Signing a petition isn't much deeper. And, I've never read that she is alleged to have held and classes/meetings or to even have attended, they were held in her house by her Grandfather but she wasn't there. She was either working or living the life of a starlet. However much she did, it was all about pleasing Fred Ball. She loved him, with good reason, and would do almost anything to keep him happy. And, at that time, being a Communist wasn't a big deal, it was considered basically an eccentricity. She was basically no different than people who learn just enough Q-anon to talk to a relative(but not argue), or parents that get into BLM to please their child.

[quote] She did not have anywhere near the acting depth of Jessica Tandy. She never could have pulled off Driving Miss Daisy.

Plus that whole being dead thing.

With the right director who would keep a tight rein, I think she could have been great in A Trip To Bountiful.

Lucy would not have worked in A Trip to Bountiful. You need to have sympathy for Carrie Watts. She needs to seem non-threatening and mistreated by her son and daughter-in-law. Not physically, of course, but they walk all over her and make her feel unwanted.

Lucy's smoker voice could never sound non-threatening. There is no way you wouldn't believe Lucy would be ruling that house from day one. And she could play meek all she wants, but her voice at that age would never make it believable.

I think Lucy could have been great in Manchurian Candidate. It would have been like MTM dong Ordinary People. Lucy could absolutely play cold and calculating.

She could have actually been great as Nurse Ratched.

I could also see her in the Maureen Stapleton role in "Interiors," though I cannot imagine her in the Geraldine Page role.

[quote]There is no way you wouldn't believe Lucy would be ruling that house from day one.

True. In fact that would be true of any film that Lucy appeared in.

That's part of what would have made her so good in the Manchurian Candidate.

I can see Lucie Arnaz as Joey. "I feel a real need to express something, but I don't know what it is I want to express. Or how to express it."

I am now consumed with the need for a Netflix series in which a Lucille Ball imitator stars in each of the movies in OP's poll, and more. I'm going to spend five minutes per day thinking about this until it manifests.

Not a film, but she'd have made a great Joanne in Company on Broadway. Right in her range, too.

R86 I wish the Puncy Players on youtube had done something like that, their 'late in life Lucy imitation' was brilliant. Sadly, I don't think they post anymore content.

R77 - Fred Ball was Lucy's brother, her grandfather was Fred Hunt. But you are correct, she had good reasons for trying to keep him happy: Wikipedia --

Balls' father was a telephone lineman for the Bell Telephone Company, and her mother was a concert pianist. Her father contracted typhoid fever while DeDe Ball was pregnant with younger brother Fred, and died in February 1915. Their mother met a Swedish Lutheran salesman named Edward (Ed) Peterson, and married him in 1918. Fred and his sister were raised by their grandparents. Their grandfather (Fred Hunt) was an eccentric socialist who enjoyed the theater and frequently took the family to vaudeville shows. He worked in the furniture industry. He often whittled toys and made doll furniture for his grandchildren. It was their grandfather who became a surrogate father through most of their childhood. Lucille, Fred and their mother all lived together with the Hunts for a time in Celoron. In 1927, a neighborhood child, Warner Erikson, was paralyzed by a shot accidentally fired from a gun Fred's grandfather had given him for his birthday. Erikson died five years later. The resultant publicity and lawsuit forced Mr. Hunt to sell his house and enter bankruptcy. He was even jailed for a time. After this incident (which was referred to in the family as "the break-up"), the family had to split and never lived together in one place again. Fred Hunt died in 1944.

R89 Yes sorry I got the names confused.

But, knowing how loyal Ball was to people, even to her determent especially on Life With Lucy. I completely buy her story that her communist activities were all about her loyalty to him not to Communism. If he had converted to Islam she probably would've converted.

Autumn Sonata

Eve Arden's character in GREASE.

Lucille Ball *IS* Margaret White

Diana Ross in The Wiz.

Lucy could've played the Bette Davis role in Scream Pretty Peggy, a schlocky Psycho ripoff made for TV in the 70s. As an added bonus, Desi Jr could've played her son in the Ted Bessell role.

Let's imagine her in a lead role in any film of the "psycho-biddy" genre, from Baby Jane on. She could have started a whole new career instead of slogging onward with the zany comedy routine.

How about a role in an Agatha Christie movie?

She wanted to audition for the role of Shug Avery in THE COLOR PURPLE, but Gary talked her out of it.

He had to stop her by coldcocking her when she insisted on going to Spielberg’s studio to audition.

Lauren Bacall's role in The Fan (1982)

1981, goddamnit! I had the BEST of both worlds! The #1 film AND the #1 stage musical!

But you only had hearts, NOT diamonds, Sally!

Could Lucy Ball have played Miss Hannigan?

The voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies.

Lucy as the Lezzy mafia overlord played by Shelly Winters in the Blaxploitation film "Cleopatra Jones." An exceptionally stunning scene for Lucy would be the finale where 6 foot something Black Supermodel /CIA Agent Tamara Dobson karate chops Lucy and throws her over the rail of a luxuriously tacky highrise apartment building.

Sally Field's mom in Norma Rae. It would have been a good character role for her.

Goldie Hawn's mother in Private Benjamin. Or they could have actually written in the character of Aunt Kissy instead of just mentioning her.

Or Eileen Brennan's role in Private Benjamin.

Way too old to play Captain Lewis. Lucy was 68 when PB was filmed.

Romancing the Stone

Can you imagine Lucy caterwauling, “A dingo ate my baby!”’

It’s been playing in my head for over an hour.

[quote] Can you imagine Lucy caterwauling, “A dingo ate my baby!”’

Yes, I can. Followed by her biggest Spider ever.

I can actually see her in the Maureen Stapleton role in Interiors. The character is obnoxious and overbearing and the opposite of Gerry Page's neurotic rejected wife. Lucy might have been fantastic.

It's too bad she didn't do a compete 180 and just done drama after Here's Lucy. No comedies, specials, or I'll-fated sitcoms. I think she would have blown people away once they got used to her not being "funny." She rested on her laurels (and rightfully so) as the grande dame of American television, yet I think she could have had a whole other career after TV.

R24- I don't know if it was mentioned on the thread about which actress would you want back but I would LOVE to have

Lucille Ball back

R113 I still think that if she had treated Lucy Calls The President as a pilot and came back in that format she could've had another successful sitcom. It was just different enough to be fresh and introducing topical humor could've made it feel more modern.

Fatal Attraction

9 1/2 Weeks

Basic Instinct

Sliver

Neil

humor isn't your thing r116

R117 and nor is it yours.

As Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

I wasn't trying for it r118.

^I’m sure that your level of cunty, bitchiness comes very naturally. Probably God’s way of balancing out your tendencies for wanting to fuck your mom.

Wow, R116/R121, he's right. Humor is NOT your thing.

R121 Actually it does. My mother is dead and cremated so fucking her is impossible. Oh, by what takes a cunt to know one cunt.

I could see her doing well in Butterflies are Free.

Agreed, R123. I wear my cunt proudly and show it off as much as possible. It’s been worth every penny I’ve paid for it.

R125 I thought you still had your junk.

Girls! Girls! You BOTH sound awful.

R127- You sound like Mrs. Garrett from The Facts Of Life.

Interiors because Woody would have gotten a performance out of her for the ages.

Lucy would never have given up her TV audience. Like Doris Day would have never given up her movie audience which then watched her on TV. They were massive and they were not going to anger them for the accolades of a few critics and comparatively fewer moviegoers. It would have been very foolish of them. Especially after Doris found out her husband had squandered her fortune and she needed all the good will she could get.

Lucille Ball as Mrs. Roper on Three's Company- back in the late 70's she mentioned how much she liked the show.

When All In The Family went on the air in 1971 she hated the show and thought it should be taken off the air. I could not see her as the Edith Bunker character though.

Crystal in Showgirls.

She lacked the warmth of Jean Stapleton. I can't see her in the role of Edith at all.

But it is funny to me she disliked the show, considering the dreck she was churning out at Here's Lucy.

I agree with others that Lucy lost all acting abilities after I Love Lucy. She might have been able to do guest star roles on selected television shows, those that basically have a unique episode each week so she doesn't have to fit in very much. No Golden Girls or Three's Company. But ok for things like Love Boat or Murder She Wrote. On and off with little real acting and minimal interactions with most of the other actors. A villian on Columbo would be pushing it.

Margaret White in Carrie?

She should've done a small role in Fresno, Carol Burnett's mini-series spoof of the primetime soaps. She could've been like when Falcon Crest would invite on Hollywood stars for Jane Wyman to toy with. She could just as been cunty and then murdered.

[quote] Interiors because Woody would have gotten a performance out of her for the ages.

Woody never got performances out of his actors. He simply hired good actors who understood the role and could make it happen without his involvement. Talk to any of the actors he's worked with and they will tell you his interactions with them were minimal at best.

Lucy might have been able to do Hollywood Squares but let's face it she was too bitter.

[quote]let's face it she was too bitter.

Or too loaded.

I wish she and Gary had done a reality show, and then on the first episode Gary talked her out of doing more episodes.

What's the fucking question? Get me another fucking drink.

Lucille Ball in Mommie Dearest

Of anything suggested in this thread so far, the Oh God franchise sounds like it would have worked best.

Lucy as God opposite John Ritter would have been comedy gold!

R143- The movie would have been called Oh Goddess

She could have played Alice Ghostley's role in Grease. It's a shame she didn't make more musicals.

Ball was always a limited actress. It was her miraculous good luck that she clicked with ILL. There was a reason she was known as Queen of the B’s. Movie audiences weren’t buying what she was selling. In the TCM podcast Lucie Arnaz seems to have a clear-eyed picture of of mother as a disappointed, bitter old woman. Unlike Liza and her “mama was terrific” nonsense.

Not to derail the Lucy Ball thread, but I recently read Viv's autobiography r146. I had no idea she was given the opportunity to study at RADA in the late 1930s. She passed it up because she'd recently met Phil Ober and didn't want to be separated from him, plus she knew she'd have to raise funds to attend and didn't want to be indebted to anyone

R146- A lot of queens here on datalounge are disappointed bitter OLD WOMEN so they can relate to Lucille Ball in her later years.

Barbra hung out on her 80th birthday with Don's daughter.

Couldn't Lucy have been turned loose on a Friday the 13th movie? or Halloween?

Lucy as Mrs. Vorhees would have been genius.

Especially if she had done the spider as Adrienne King lopped her head off.

Somebody mentioned that Lucy was considered for the Julie Christie role in Don't Look Now which I think would have been genius casting, especially if she had done the spider in both the final sequence as well as the infamous love scene with Donald Sutheland.

She could have filled in for Mercedes McCambridge's work in The Exorcist.

[quote]as well as the infamous love scene with Donald Sutheland.

Oh, dear.

Actually, Lucy owned the "Driving Miss Daisy" property for a while. She wanted to make it a "more fun" comedy and "take the unnecessary Jew stuff because "I'm not playing to the cheap asses in the Lower East Side."

She also trouble finding an acceptable black comedian, saying, "Pryor's on dope, Dick Gregory isn't funny, Redd Foxx is too funny, and Flip Wilson would end up in the car's back seat wearing my costume expecting me to drive."

She finally settled on Godfrey Cambridge because she had seen part of "Watermelon Man" and thought he was light-skinned because the scene she saw had him in white-man makeup. But she found out he had been dead for over 10 years.

What Gary talked her out of using Gale Gordon as a "crazy Irishman" to play the driver/best friend, she decided to drop the whole thing. "I hate the South anyway. If I'm going to be sticky down there I want it to be for the right reason.

Lucy died nine months before the movie was released, but on hearing that Jessica Tandy was playing her role Lucy said, "That old bald bitch? The only laugh she ever got was when Hume Cronyn saw her tits for the first time. Like two albino snakes."

What about Lucille as Aurora Greenway?

She would have been perfect as Marilla Cuthbert in the 1986 version of Anne Of Green Gables with Megan Fallows

Lucy as Beth in Ordinary People or as Gloria in Gloria, both from 1980.

Should also could have done the Eileen Brennan role in Private Benjamin.

Lucy in the Beatrice Straight role in Poltergeist with Lucie Arnaz as the mother (she dumbly turned that role down)

[quote] Should also could have done the Eileen Brennan role in Private Benjamin.

As mentioned, Lucy was pushing 70 when Private Benjamin was shot. There were no 70 year old Captains handling Basic Training in the Army.

[quote] Lucy in the Beatrice Straight role in Poltergeist with Lucie Arnaz as the mother (she dumbly turned that role down)

Is this true or just some more IMDB trivia bullshit? (And I'm not saying that against the poster, just I've seen these sort of unsubstantiated rumors take hold before.) I have heard Lucie Arnaz' name bandied about for several high profile roles that I just don't buy because A- she was never someone who would be at the top of anyone's list in terms of talent (because she had very little) and B- She was never that famous (outside of being Lucy's daughter).

The only thing she ever did of note that was a success for her was her stint in "They're Playing Our Song" on Broadway and even that didn't take her very far. The Jazz Singer was a flop and she got lousy reviews along with everyone else. Other than those two things (and her mother's sitcom), I can' think of one fucking thing Lucie Arnaz ever did (outside of Laurence Luckinbill) that got her any notice.

I read in that recent biography of Sue Mengers that Sue told Lucie not to take the part in Poltergeist because of all the mud and skeletons and stuff. Instead she told her to take some comedy (forget the name Mating Game maybe?)

Lucie did get a Golden Globe nom for Jazz Singer so she had some heat and Poltergeist was casting unknowns for the parents. Jobeth was bascially known as the naked woman from Kramer V. Kramer so I believe the book when it says Lucie was up for the part.

The Mating Game was done well in advance of Poltergeist, but probably a good choice for her no matter what since it's the movie she met her future husband on.

Lucy in the Zelda Rubinstein role in "Poltergeist"...

The suburban real estate madame in "Money On The Side".

Lucie Arnaz met Luckinbill while she was in TPOS and he was in Neil Simon's Chapter Two hence there first son was named Simon.

From the dates it looks like "Second Thoughts" was the movie Arnaz made instead of Poltergeist.

For some reason I always remembered that they'd met on the TV movie, but I stand corrected. Wow, Luckinbill is 88.

Sophies Choice.

As the Nazi Guard?

I just keep thinking of what an abomination Driving Miss Daisy would have been with Lucille in the role of Daisy.

As it stands, it's one of my favorite films. Tandy is excellent in it

R171 That was my role.

It would have been interesting if Lucille Ball had appeared on Saturday Night Live ca. 1977- as the host and appeared in the skits too.

That's one time machine trip I'd like to arrange r173

R174- and a surprise appearance of DL icon Vivian Vance

How about the Dr. Pepper commercials from the late 1970's- instead of James Naughton we'd have our Lucy singing- I'm a Pepper , he's a Pepper wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too, be a Pepper , drink Dr. Pepper- Lucy would be wearing the signature beige chino pants too while belting out the Dr. Pepper song.

If the CGI used in Benjamin Button had existed, she'd have been fantastic in Cher's role in Mask.

Fatal Attraction.

R178- I'm not sure I could endure seeing our Lucy TOPLESS in the bedroom scene.

Either role in My Dinner with Andre

She could have played OdH's role in Airport '77.

Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls.

The mom in ET.

The mom trapped in the car with the rabid St. Bernard attacking in Cujo.

So Lucy would have played Cujo, you're saying?

I doubt there are many true film fans here, just bitchy queens, but I could really see Lucy in Next Stop, Greenwich Village. I think she might have even won awards for it. She'd have been back in the good graces of the film industry. It might have changed the course of her career.

R186 No way could she better Shelley Winters in that role.

I would have loved to have seen her do Bette Davis's role in Burnt Offerings. Who could have been funnier and campier in that role than Bette? Lucy Ball.

No, Lucy would have been great in the Eileen Heckart role in the same film.

Shelley should have gotten a third Oscar for Next Stop, Greenwich Village. She was incredible in that film. At least a nomination, as she was way better than most of the nominees that year, including Beatrice Straight.

She should have just kept doing musicals till she got them right.

Can’t Stop the Music, Xanadu … perhaps Roller Bogie.

Who would she have played in Can't Stop the Music.

Besides the Leatherman, I mean.

The nearly-fired Valerie Perrine plays an ex model, Lucy was an ex model… what could be more obvious? Or perfect!

If you check out her 1970s specials, she seemed to be pushing herself some. Other than "Lucy Calls The President," most of them were very unlike the established Lucy character, especially "Happy Anniversary and Goodbye" and "What Now, Catherine Curtis."

R137 I could've seen her in Radio Days. Maybe as the wealthy society woman whose husband was cheating on her, but she was also cheating on him. They would've needed to beef the part up a little.

She had lousy taste in parts. Yours, Mine and Ours? She was an almost very rough looking 60 who gets pregnant? Those eggs had been powdered for years.

Maybe her personal bitterness took over and infected her artistry after I Love Lucy… but lord knows she was godawful in everything after that.

She might have been a woman who simply couldn’t function without penis?

Ball did one thing extraordinarily well, and at the right time. She was actually quite limited as a performer, and I would've preferred seeing her direct and/or produce projects. If only just out of curiosity on my part.

R197: "Maybe her personal bitterness took over and infected her artistry after I Love Lucy…"

MAYBE?

I've posted before, and met Lucy twice. There was an underlying bitter/nastiness to her, and I have no idea why. Because Desi cheated, her childhood? No idea, but that woman needed therapy.

I've got it. She could have played Olivia de Havilland's role in The Swarm. Imagine!

There is NO call for a spider face in a movie about BEES!

Where is her Phaedra? Her Lady Macbeth?

[quote]Who would she have played in Can't Stop the Music.

The Valerie Perrine role, of course.

The title of this thread is evidence that the proper stage name is very important.

Ball would've never made it far enough to even make it to television, had her name been "Lucy Ball" when she was at RKO and MGM.

Maybe she’d have got more publicity and attention if she’d gone by Lucy Balled?

R200- Maybe she was BITTER and NASTY because many over the hill women who were once pretty become bitches once their looks are gone.

Maybe if she’d got fat you could theorize that, but she was always attractive. (I mean, for her age and everything.) I don’t think that was her issue.

Honey, maybe attractive with a wig, tape and other stuff. She looked like a hag.

Beth in Little Women

Beth’s tearful death scene would have given Lucy a lot of “EUUUUGGGHHHH” opportunities.

Imagine Lucy Ball delivering the "Just give my daughter the drugs" line in Terms of Endearment!

And then imagine her hooking up with Jack!

Poseidon Adventure? As who, Linda Rogo? You sonofabitch!

Face it girls. Lucille was limited.

R214- LOL

but seriously she did play Lucy Ricardo wonderfully. I NEVER get tired of watching episodes of I Love Lucy

Trog.

1968s Berserk! She looked better with red hair than Joan Did

Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" - What a missed opportunity.

For some reason, I could see her pulling off the role in "Driving Miss Daisy". I think if she dialed it in right, she could have had an Academy Award performance.

Kinda like the Doris Day as Mrs. Robinson thing. I still think how amazing Day would have been in that role.

R219 I think Lucy would've been fun in the role of Mrs. Robinson. She did still have great legs up until she died.

But, Day would've been great, as well.

OP- She could have played Lucy Ricardo in the Towering Inferno- she would scream RICKY, THE BABY!

^ Or she could have wailed "Waaaaaaa" all the way down from the glass elevator

R222- LOL

Fantasize all you like but Lucille had two modes: ditzy airhead and pissed-off drill sergeant. She was never going to play any role that required depth or vulnerability.

If it had been shot a year earlier, could Lucy and Lucie have played The Shirley and Meryl roles in Postcards From the Edge? After all, Gary was already cast in it so he very well couldn't have talked them out of it.

[quote]R224 Fantasize all you like but Lucille had two modes: ditzy airhead and pissed-off drill sergeant.

Well what about PRIVATE BENJAMIN with a split screen?

If there was auto-tune in 1974 she would have been great in MAME.

lol A couple of weeks back I was browsing through Prime Video's library and the TV movie about the homeless woman is there.

Lucy's performance in Stone Pillow never got its due. She was a revelation as Clarabelle. The film should have been released as a feature but it's got to be tough to get backing when you only have Daphne Zuniga supporting.

Lucy couldn't even manage an Emmy or GoldenGlobe nomination for Stone Pillow, toots.