“Here’s Lucy” premiered 54 years ago, today! 9/23/1968

I still remember the DL poster who got nightmares from the puppet as a child

R1 it’s pretty creepy lol

Desi Arnaz, Jr.

He's dreamy.

Opening footage...

R4 that’s The Lucy Show

oops

I would have let 1970s Desi Arnaz Jr use me any way he pleased.

"“Here’s Lucy” premiered 54 years ago, today! "

On this auspicious occasion I would like to thank Gary, for NOT talking me out of it

I have fond memories of this. It was the only show my mom allowed me to stay up past 8 pm to watch.

Look at that fur.

^ Did your mother hate you?

I had peak Desi Jr. Jealous bitches?

^ LIAR!!

Jealoush.

^ Thank you, my drunk typing is a little rusty

I remember sitting on the floor with my older sisters (the parents got the chairs) and watching this every week. It was actually about grade school level humor, very broad. I knew it wasn't as funny as The Lucy Show, which was favorite of her 4 sitcoms.

Not bad gams for a puppet. I'd like to pull her strings.

I prefer to watch

HERE’S JUICY!

Liza was really a chicken hawk.

Desi Jr. was only 17 in 1970 when they were dating in the picture at r12.

Liza was 24 in 1970.

I always enjoyed Here's Lucy. It was entertaining enough on Monday nights. Seemed to pair decently with Mayberry RFD.

And Desi was so gorgeous to look at. I couldn't take my eyes off him, even though I was much, much, much to young to understand what it meant.

In the 90s they used to show reruns sometimes on channel 31 in Brooklyn. Not sure what the channel was called now, can’t remember, but remember channel 31. I was a kid and my mother would watch it in the morning during summer and I would watch with her. I found Desi Jr. so handsome. Looking at him now, he was handsome but I see his father in him so much.

@r20, "And Desi was so gorgeous to look at. I couldn't take my eyes off him, even though I was much, much, much to young to understand what it meant. "

Desi is 2 years older than me, I understood completely what it meant 😛

Channel 31 in NY in the 90s was PAX TV, which was later changed to ION TV, although ION always owned it. They just changed the name.

And to think, Gale Gordan is still alive!

Gale Gordon would be 116 years old IF he were still alive.

But he's not alive. He said sayanora at age 89 in 1995.

That makes him deader than Abe Vigoda.

^ He looks good for 116 🤔

Gale had a hot ass but couldn't live forever.

By this stage, her shows were no longer funny. I think many people, including my own family watched "Here's Lucy" out of habit and loyalty to Lucy.

I don't understand why she called them all "Lucy", even though Ricardo, Carmichael and Carter were meant to be different characters.

Gale was 80 to Lucy's 75 when they starred together in Life with Lucy in 1986.

@r30, Continuity, although they had different names they were all "Lucy"

[quote]Continuity

Ego.

I was a newborn.

So which elder gay owns the original Lucy marionette featured in the clip?

Must be the equivalent of Indian Jones' quest for the Holy Grail, or a piece of the 'true Cross'

^ Was that real? I always thought it was an animation

Other than ILL itself, the other three were basically the same show.

^ The one with Vivian Vance and the kids was alright, but after that they were all cringe fests 😬 Of course, I was only 8, so what do I know?

[quote]I still remember the DL poster who got nightmares from the puppet as a child

I still remember the DL poster who acted out every marionette step of the "Here's Lucy" opening

then followed it up by imitating Doris Day in the opening to her show

He said his mother went to bed that night in tears...

This series was very uneven with many terrible episodes outnumbering the occasional gems. But I like it anyway. Pure comfort tv for this elder gay.

It's pretty terrible but it was a guilty pleasure when most of the sitcoms became socially significant.

I want Mr. Mooney to still be alive.

Do you mean Mr. Money ?

R35 - Jim Brochu might have it.

Its actually a stop motion figure...similar to Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Someone somewhere must have it. I would assume Lucy would have wanted it. But those figures show up every so often at Hollywood memorabilia auctions. Theyre not very big...id say Lucy was probably between 6" and 10".

Even OJ made a cameo appearance! Gale Gordon’s skittishness was an omen.

She looked like Harpo Marx there, not in a good way.

It’s a stop-motion puppet, not a marionette. Here’s one of the disembodied heads. It was recently auctioned off. I wonder who has this thing somewhere in their house? Lady Elaine vibes. Yeeek…

Hide it in a closet.

^ No way, it'll drink all your bourbon and chain smoke

^ And then bitch at you for having a smelly house and no booze

I would bid on that Lucy head.

It's no "Life With Lucy".

I thought all of Lucy's characters (Ricardo, Carmichael, Carter, Barker) had the "ar" sound as a nod to "Arnaz".

Lucille would say beginning into her run on Broadway in "Wildcat," following her post-Lucy Ricardo sitcom years, that she realized her audiences wanted her 'Lucy' character more and more, and so that's what she ultimately decided to give them, and continuing to latch onto that belief and persona in all her subsequent iterations when she returned to her CBS TV series during the 1960s and early '70s.

Beginning even with 1962's "The Lucy Show," it was said that but for the different character name, situation and supposed adaptation by Desilu Productions from the book "Life Without George," the Lucy Carmichael show was written and intended basically to be a continuation of Ball's 1950s 'Lucy Ricardo" personality.

^ She killed Ricky, Fred and Little Ricky 😢

[quote]Doris Singleton, who played Carolyn Appleby on I Love Lucy, has said she was originally going to be a series regular on the show as Harry Carter's secretary, but the idea was dropped when Lucy brought her children on board with the show.

That doesn’t seem to make sense, since Lucille played Harry secretary, and what do the kids have anything to do with it?

Wow, Gale Gordon really was able to put up with her shit to continue working with her for all those years.

I guess it was a paycheck. Where was he going to go?

^ Exactly, there's only so many parts for a loud, blustery grump to go around. A steady 30 year gig is hard to come by in Hollywood

R48 - the concluding scene from "Lucy Goes to Saudi Arabia."

R52 I would bid on some Nancy Reagan head. I hear good things about it.

^ "That broad could suck the chrome off a Cadillac"

The title of the show was a cry for help.

Has anyone reached Vanda Barra for comment?

Lucille Ball said she was a firm believer in nepotism.

Hal King tried to update Lucy's makeup in the late 60s and early 70s for this show.

But when he overdrew her lips with the lighter/nude shades of lipstick it was too close to the color of her pancake foundation, and it created this weird muddy upper-lip look.

And Lucy insisted on wearing a lot of white-vinyl go-go boots

....

@r65, I remember a Movie magazine got a hold of one of Desi Jr.'s pay stubs from the show and printed it. It was $17,000 for one episode, which in 1968 was equal to about 3 Cadillacs. I about died

Gordon had to really up the obnoxiousness on HL because Lucy had become so unbearable. The writers were already understanding that in The Lucy Show and started making Lucy the butt of jokes: Lucy: That container has too big a mouth. Viv: That makes two of you. When Gordon got to Lucy Calls The President, he was almost likable. I said almost. But one thing he could never fake was any type of paternal feeling. Even the episode where he plays a judge and has Angela Cartwright sit on his lap, he seems intolerant. whereas William Frawley seemed like he cared for Little Ricky, even though the reverse was probably true in real life.

Lucy called the shots on all her shows. She quit The Lucy Show because she sold Desilu Productions and wouldn’t star in a show she didn’t own. She also refused to do another show unless her two kids were with her.

^ Surprisingly her kids became a draw for younger viewers who had pretty much abandoned Lucy. Smart move on her part

Desi really was the Orson Welles of television - a pioneer in many ways - and Lucy respected that greatly. Then she marries Gary, a D-list comic nobody whose only daily chore was playing golf at Hillcrest followed by a 2-hour nap. Here's Lucy was a way for Ball to give him a legitimate job telling Hollywood, and herself, that she wasn't married to a loser leech.

Except Gary was a faithful non-drunk. Desi the opposite. Gary may not have been as exciting as Desi, but he was home every night. Lucy was happier

R71 Yes, that's the only reason I was watching , to see her kids.

^ Me too, as long as Desi was on 😛

Desi Jr. bailed after three seasons (halfway through the run.) He returned for one episode in Season 5, but other than that, it was just Lucy, Gale, and Lucie for last three years.

Isn’t that because he went to college?

^ No, Patty and Liza had him chained in the attic 😜

I always wished the show starred the Lucy puppet instead of the real Lucy.

I

How did Lucy manage to scare off Liza and Patty?

^ Seriously? The woman who scared Joan Crawford into a drunken stupor?

"... And they call ME a bitch"

R1 when I was a little kid, I LOVED there Here's Lucy puppet. I wished the whole show was puppets!

Lucille was set for Berserk until...

[quote] ^ She killed Ricky, Fred and Little Ricky 😢

It was justified in Fred's case. That old drunk terrorized our lady of the DL, Viv, for years!

^ Oh, Baloney, everyone terrorized Viv. It's how we relaxed after taping a show 😱

Don't look at me! She always trips on the stairs!

Charles Lane was on The Lucy Show, had trouble with line memorization apparently... and eventually was replaced by Gale Gordon

As a kid I always remember how good Charles Lane was, and how insufferable Gale Gordon became...

My understanding is that Lucy always wanted Gale Gordon for her nemesis on The Lucy Show. But Gale Gordon wasn't available due to his commitment to Dennis the Menace. So, Charles Lane was cast in the role of the nemesis.

As soon as Dennis the Menace was canceled, Gale was available. Lucy fired Charles and hired Gale.

R25- He never seemed particularly heterosexual to me.

Lucy Carmichael from The Lucy Show would kicked the ass of Lucy Carter from Here's Lucy

R79- That's a such a datalounge ( and FUNNY) thing to say.

I recall Donny Osmond and Eve Plumb guest starring together in an episode.

Charles Lane was on "I Love Lucy" as well (four episodes), and was a semi-regular on "Petticoat Junction." He had almost 400 credits between 1930 and 2015, and live to be 102. He was in such classics as "You Can't Take It With You," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and "It's A Wonderful Life," and was a guest star in just about every television series made. Truly an amazing career.

r90

Those 6 bare feet guys, flaming much??

Tonight I watched an episode of Here's Lucy from Season 2 where Patty Andrews guest starred and Lucy strong armed her into taking herself and her two untalented children to perform together at a 1969 version of Comic-Con (a convention of Andrews Sisters fans, I shit you not).

There was no actual plot to the episode and all I could focus on was Lucie's old nose.

Are all the episodes this dire? How did this thing last 6 seasons?

^ I think momentum mostly. People just watched "Lucy" every week out of habit. It didn't matter how bad it was it's just what you did

I kept waiting for the Andrews Sisters fans to riot. They paid good money and got ONE Andrews Sister, an old crone who can't sing, and two nepotism babies. If I was there, I would have Sebastian Venabled Patty. Sure, at that point, LaVerne was toe up, but what, Maxene was too busy eating beaver to greet her fans?

Gale Gorden was also a terrible replacement for Joseph Kearns on Dennis the Menace. Kearns played the curmudgeon well, but underneath his rough exterior lurked real warmth and avuncular affection for Dennis. Conversely, Gordon just seemed to hate him.

^^^ Gordon

R95 - Here's Lucy was dire but I watched.

Now I know what North Koreans go through having the Dear Leader piped into their homes 4 hours a day and having no other channel to change to.

"Here's Lucy" was the loudest sitcom ever. Lucy and Gale Gordon yelled at the top of their lungs constantly. It gave me a headache.

^ Lucy never did understand microphones, audio and speakers. She was Vaudeville and was taught to project to the last row and that's what everyone on her show had to do. Hit your mark and scream your line

I was reading about that Charles Lane. He and Lucy where good friends. Even after she fired him for missing his lines they remained friends until she died. That's how powerful Lucy was, I would have kicked her butt 😠

She wasn't "powerful". that's the lie that her worshipers keep pushing. If they were friends, she would have had him back or done something else. She sabotaged her actual long-term friendships like the one with Ann Sothern.

^ That's my point, she WAS powerful in that people still wanted to be friends with her even after she treated them like shit

She OWNED Desilu. That is power

The best thing Desi ever did vis-à-vis Lucille's career was offer Vivian Vance the Ethel role after seeing her in Voice of the Turtle at the La Jolla playhouse. (I doubt Lucille would have consented to hiring her.) No one ever complemented Lucille like Vivian. She was perfect. She knew exactly how to play the supporting role without ever moving too far into the spotlight, and she had a warmth that Lucille's other costars (Gale Gordon, Mary Jane Croft) lacked. Lucy without Viv is too much Lucy, at least to me. She needed a costar who could effectively dilute some of that Luciness, and Vivian pulled it off with aplomb.

In some ways, I think Viv was as much responsible for Lucille's enduring success as Lucille herself.

I love Lucy.

It's the perfect title. I grew up in the 80s and I watched Lucy throughout my entire childhood in I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, and I just absolutely love her. And yes, Vivian. And although I don't think of them as immediately, also Ricky and Fred. All of them are like family in some part of my psyche.

The later shows paled but Lucille always played Lucy and she's *the best* sitcom character. She's batshit crazy and totally selfish and self-absorbed and yet so lovable.

R104 She bought RKO—her former employer—and created Desilu with Desi and she co-ran that operation and the two of them made it the biggest studio in Hollywood. That is fucking amazing.

And what a revenge fantasy, to buy the whole company that fired you, change its name and make it into something better in your own name.

But people today mostly don't know what Desilu and RKO were, how humongous they were.

I think people should emphasize that what we now know as Paramount once was Desilu Studios.

Lucy had zip to do with buying anything and she delegated even the project development side of Desilu to others. She retirned Desilu to mprofitability by no longer getting new shows on the air and running the place as a rental lot.

@r107 "But people today mostly don't know what Desilu and RKO were, how humongous they were. "

True, I forget that people today may not realize that at the end of every good sitcom this was the last thing you saw... Lucy owned that lock, stock and barrel

R108 That's not what I've read. I have read that Lucille preferred Desi to run the business, which he did, but she was nevertheless involved in decisions, and then when his alcoholism made him incompetent, she did fulfill her top executive run the studio out of obligation and ultimately made good decisions despite hating having to be a businessperson.

I think she was a businessperson despite herself. She learned the whole industry inside and out. She worked as a model, a chorus girl and dancer, a background player and a sidekick and a lead. All her friends worked in various capacities in the industry, in front of cameras like Ginger Rogers and behind the scenes. She did radio, she produced her own series masterfully, she acted masterfully as a comic despite having little sense of humor. I think she thought of herself as a comic and an artist and in reality she was an expert technician and businessperson.

She saved us from the chopping block... Even if she had no idea what we were about

R94- They were ALL Paul Lyndes.

Love this. Lucy GSD.

Oh, I forgot to mention- the Patty Andrews episode of Here's Lucy also featured Gary Morton as the Emcee of the "show" they did as the Andrews Sisters (with Desi Jr as Bing Crosby, no idea why). Gary barely had anything to do and had I not recognized him, I would have assumed it was a rando extra.

[quote]I was reading about that Charles Lane. He and Lucy where good friends. Even after she fired him for missing his lines they remained friends until she died.

As someone else mentioned, Charles Lane was not fired because he couldn't remember his lines. He was fired because Gale Gordon, whom Lucy had wanted all along, became available when "Dennis the Menace" was canceled. Years earlier, Lucy also wanted Gordon to play Fred Mertz, but, again, he wasn't available at that time. Charles Lane worked constantly for many years after his one season on "The Lucy Show," including his recurring role as Homer Bedloe on "Petticoat Junction." If word had gotten out that he had trouble memorizing lines, he never would have worked as much as he did.

R102, Lucille Ball was never in vaudeville, so that’s not where her shouting technique came from.

^ Per Wiki...

" According to The Lucy Book by Geoffrey Fidelman, Lane was let go because he had trouble reciting his lines correctly. However, Lane was in reality a placeholder for Ball's original choice, Gale Gordon, who joined the program in 1963 as Mr. Mooney after he was free from other contractual obligations"

@r116, Where did Lucy's shouting technique come from?

Lucy may not of been in Vaudeville per se, but she was heavily influenced to the point of her and Desi actually having a Vaudeville act they took on the road...

I remember reading an interview with Daphne Zuniga, who played a young social worker in Lucy's TV movie "Stone Pillow" that was published just before it was shown. Zuniga, of course, was asked about what it was like to work with the great Lucy. She said that Ball told her she was speaking too softly and needed to be louder. For a TV movie, mind you, not for a summer stock production in a converted barn. So it seems Lucy really didn't understand sound technology. The reason I remembered it is because I always hated the way she and Gale Gordon shouted constantly.

@r119, *she* and Desi 🙄

[quote] She worked as a model, a chorus girl and dancer

When was she a "chorus girl and dancer", r110?

[quote]model

Is that what they called it back then?

@r122

"Ball's career began in 1929 when she landed work as a model. Shortly thereafter, she began her performing career on Broadway using the stage name Diane (or Dianne) Belmont. She later appeared in films in the 1930s and 1940s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures, being cast as a chorus girl or in similar roles"

Decades, a mesothelioma/Camp Lejeune channel, is showing an "Our Miss Brooks" marathon this weekend. Gale Gordon stank up that show, also. He certainly made a very small talent go a long way.

"Cast as a chorus girl" isn't the same as *being* a chorus girl, r124. She has *one* 1934 credit as a "chorus girl" and I'd question the amount of dancing she actually did in it.

@r125, I hear he could do a mean cartwheel 🙄

@r126, "She has *one* 1934 credit as a "chorus girl"

"When was she a "chorus girl and dancer", [R110]? "

Looks like you did your own research and found the answer. Good for you 🙂

Look, there's even a picture...

@r122, "When was she a "chorus girl and dancer",

Looks like she was both in 1944

She got to be a chorus girl in an episode of "I Love Lucy."

Lucille Ball - Chorus Girl in Kid Millions

Lucille Ball - Model

She was neither, r130, she had the lead role.

^ Can you prove you're a real person?... We'll wait

What proof would you like, r135?

"She was neither, [R130], she had the lead role."

She played the part of... Wait for it...

A SINGER and a DANCER. Which required her to SING and DANCE 🤦‍♂️

Girls! Girls!

^ She was in that too...

Her voice was dubbed, r137 and I'd like to see what actual dancing she did in it. I'm letting this go. I'm not saying she *couldn't* dance, but she never was a traditional chorus girl/dancer doing intricate steps. She moved well and was graceful at ballroom, but she was never going to be cast as Peggy Sawyer. I love Lucy and still enjoy seeing her dance.

^ I think you're Dee Plorable Trumper who never let a fact get in the way of a preconceived notion

How so, r141?

Because I think it therefore it's true and you have yet to prove me wrong

And I have all afternoon to play this silly game with you 🙂

Fine, r143. You've yet to show a single video of Lucy dancing with other chorus girls (as a chorus girl). IMDB info links don't prove your point. I never said she wasn't a model. The pic at r133 isn't even from her modeling days as Diane Belmont. It's Lucille Ball in a studio publicity shot.

Ok, sit right there, don't you move... Be right back

Can I wipe your ass while I'm at it, then make you a sandwich?

Fine, r145, I tried to have a rational discussion. Have a nice day.

This thread is PEAK DL

Queens in caftans, screaming at each other...

@r145, Don't go... I love talking to idiots

I've got that kind of shitty sandwich ready for you 💩

Desi Sr was so handsome when younger. But I think he had a small pee pee. There's never any VPL or stuffed crouch shots.

Don't you mean Desi Jr r150?

^ Yeah, we all know Desi Sr. had a nice Cuban pinga 😜

[quote]I think people should emphasize that what we now know as Paramount once was Desilu Studios.

Paramount, and its predecessor, Famous Players, existed long before anyone had ever heard of Lucille Ball or Desi Arnaz. So what we now know as Paramount we've always known as Paramount. But you're correct in saying that Paramount owns the old Desilu catalogue. When Gulf+Western acquired Desilu, they renamed it Paramount Television. They absorbed Desilu's former RKO-Gower studios into Paramount's adjacent lot. But the other Desilu properties (the original Motion Picture Center on Cahuenga and RKO-Pathé in Culver City) do not belong to Paramount.

Miss R113, if you are still reading this thread, that was absolutely FABULOUS! I watched it twice. So fascinating how a show is filmed. She really went at it about camera closeup and shadows. Respectfully but determined to understand. How in the world did you find that? Any more?

Even the royal family sat down to watch Lucy. At 1:07:40

Here's Lucy is high art compared to Lucy Calls the President.

"Here's Lucy" isn't even high art compared with "Life With Lucy."

R113, that video was utterly fascinating.

I was surprised and gratified to see that Desi was still around even in the Here's Lucy days, even if he was just hanging around with his kids. I know that Lucy and Desi remained friendly after their divorce, and I believe they were the loves of each other's lives. So it still irks me that she would publicly denigrate Desi in interviews, when he was the man who made the business deal that set them up for the rest of their lives, and who innovated the three camera method of shooting television. He deserved better treatment.

If you look carefully, you can tell how Lucy's face looks different. During rehearsals, she is wearing the wig but does not have her skin pulled back, so she looks a bit more like her actual age. When the audience is there and the cameras are rolling, she has the full drag on and that skin is pulled tight.

Other than that, my only observation is that this video is a great document of what a control freak she was. I think she would have been very challenging to work with, constantly questioning the lighting, camera angles, and every little detail.

Contract players knew that if they didn't hit their marks they were finished. Ball was hardly the only one like this---a director once said Donna Reed had the best sense of a set of anyone he had met. Reed played a more active role in her show than Ball did during the Desi era and she didn't act like she was an ingenue.

[quote] I recall Donny Osmond and Eve Plumb guest starring together in an episode.

And one of the "lost" episodes had Robert Reed as Uncle Harry's new roommate, Jimmy. Lucy didn't know why Uncle Harry needed a roommate for his one-bedroom apartment.

Uncle Harry was a cheerleader in college...ya know what fags those guys are, right Dubya?

R39, that was me! A deep bow of gratitude for remembering! Also, the little gay wannabe set designer stacked up coffee table books to create Doris’ spiral staircase!

I wish Lucille Ball had guested on mothers in law.

....

[quote]"Here's Lucy" premiered 54 years ago

And it has certainly held up after all these years.

[quote] She worked as a model, a chorus girl and dancer

In addition to part time hooker at Polly Adler's place and communist subversive

They should do a movie about that.

r166...your ignorance is showing...

r167 = Deb Messing trying to get a job