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Broadcast Order vs. Production Order


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When I was a kid and first got ahold of my mom's copy of Bart Andrews' "The Lucy Book", I was very confused by the way he laid out the episodes. They were arranged by broadcast order yet numbered in production order. I didn't get it at the time, and scratched my head each time I saw "...trying to murder her" numbered 1 but positioned 4th.

 

Whenever I refer to episode numbers, I usually stick to production order. Though "Nightclub" was the first to be aired, I never think of it as the first episode, even though it's the first show people could've seen. "Murder Her" will always be the first episode to me. I usually only prefer airdate order if episodes had to be produced out of order for scheduling reasons (aka Dancing Star and Harpo Marx). Anyone else have a preference for how they're laid out?

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Yes, production order. On Here's Lucy the episodes were never in order, they were all over the place. In season 3 especially, they seemed to tape all the episodes featuring Craig first, but spread them out when they aired. The Hawaii episodes aired in February 1971 as the season finale but they were shot at the beginning of the season 8 months earlier, in JUNE 1970! I guess LBP wanted the season finale to have Craig as he apparently already left for college in the fall of 1970 and in 1971. 

 

Also, the pregnant Lucy Ricardo production order makes my mind go insane. I guess when they found out she was preg--I mean, EXPECTING, they did "flashback" episodes before she was showing, shot before the baby episodes, to air while Ball was on maternity leave. Funny how when she discovers she's pregnant, she's already really showing. lol. I still can't wrap my mind around how they did it. 

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----Funny how when she discovers she's pregnant, she's already really showing---

And blockhead Ricky doesn't notice and has to told!

 

Season 3's schedule was all thrown out of kilter because of the Burtons.  If Lucy and Gary hadn't had their chance meeting with Liz and Dick, I wonder what the season opener would have been.  Probably "Skydiver", a lackluster episode except for the last scene with Lucy's incredible stunt. 

 

I think delaying "Murder" was a good idea because they still had production kinks to work out--which they did in record time, but I would have picked "Be a Pal" instead of "Nightclub". 

Yes, production order. On Here's Lucy the episodes were never in order, they were all over the place. In season 3 especially, they seemed to tape all the episodes featuring Craig first, but spread them out when they aired. The Hawaii episodes aired in February 1971 as the season finale but they were shot at the beginning of the season 8 months earlier, in JUNE 1970! I guess LBP wanted the season finale to have Craig as he apparently already left for college in the fall of 1970 and in 1971. 

 

Also, the pregnant Lucy Ricardo production order makes my mind go insane. I guess when they found out she was preg--I mean, EXPECTING, they did "flashback" episodes before she was showing, shot before the baby episodes, to air while Ball was on maternity leave. Funny how when she discovers she's pregnant, she's already really showing. lol. I still can't wrap my mind around how they did it. 

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I tend to think in production order, but I use broadcast order in written discussions about the series because that's what was officially presented. 

 

As for "The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub", I actually think that despite its silly premise, the episode serves as a great introduction to the four characters, better even than "Be A Pal" and particularly, "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Murder Her", which is an evidently problematic production both aesthetically and narratively. Knowing more about the Mertzes, their relationship with each other, and their individual relationships with the Ricardos, sets the template immediately and thus enhances what we see of them in the other early episodes ahead, in which Lucy and Ricky are generally much better defined than Fred and Ethel. 

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I tend to think in production order, but I use broadcast order in written discussions about the series because that's what was officially presented. 

 

As for "The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub", I actually think that despite its silly premise, the episode serves as a great introduction to the four characters, better even than "Be A Pal" and particularly, "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Murder Her", which is an evidently problematic production both aesthetically and narratively. Knowing more about the Mertzes, their relationship with each other, and their individual relationships with the Ricardos, sets the template immediately and thus enhances what we see of them in the other early episodes ahead, in which Lucy and Ricky are generally much better defined than Fred and Ethel.

 

All good points. "Murder Her" would not have been a good choice to air first. Do we really want the first glimpse of Lucy and Ricky to entail her thinking he's trying to kill her? Yes, it's painfully obvious to the audience that's not the case, and her love of mystery novels is feeding her overactive imagination, but still it could give a bad impression.

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Production order because that is what was presented to me initially. And in some cases it feels odd to watch certain episodes that aren't in production order. A good example with that is placing "Lucy Thinks Ricky is Trying Murder Her" as the fourth episode as it quite evident that it looks and even sounds like the oldest episode which it is. Another example is presenting "Lucy, the Disc Jockey" instead of "Lucy and the Old Mansion" as the last episode from the Vivian Era of The Lucy Show. Vivian doesn't get much screen time in that particular episode and it feels just weird to see Vivian exit the show like that.

 

I don't know how TBS aired I Love Lucy but I do know that Nick-at-Nite aired it in production order with the exception of pregnancy shows. So they started out the cycle with "Lucy Thinks Ricky is Trying to Murder Her" and began the pregnancy shows with "Lucy Is Enciente". With TV Land they aired I Love Lucy in broadcast order with the new cycle starting with "The Girls Want To Go To a Nightclub". And that struck me as odd given the fact that at the time both Nick-at-Nite and TV Land were owned by the same company. In regards to The Lucy Show, I believe it was aired in production order by Nick-at-Nite; however, I am not 100% sure on that. I know for sure that RTN ran it that way but they skipped the first season and began the cycle with "Lucy Goes Duck Hunting". And with Here's Lucy, PAX-TV aired it out of order when they began airing it. But after about two months or so, the gears were switched and they went by production order. And Cozi TV currently airs Here's Lucy in production order.

 

  

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