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I can't remember if other homages have done it consistently, but I really like that the apartment has the light shining through the windows on the back walls. It's a little touch like that that tells you this is coming from genuine fans.

Broadway notables John Stamos, Christine Pedi and more take social distancing into a new realm, recreating Lucy, the Crusader.

"I could practically smell the Axe Body Spray" 😇 Thanks for giving me a much needed laugh today! You're funny!

The edited versions of the "lost" episodes of "TCBS" (playing on MeTV) as well as the previously syndicated "Carol Burnett and Friends" shows are on Amazon now. I've watched many "Family" sketches, skipping much other material as it does not hold up nearly as well.

Official promo:

The Irving jokes actually started back on The Lucy Show. One of Lucy's roommate applicants was Irving, as was one of the co-owners of Mary Jane's mink stole, and Jack Benny's gorilla was played by an Irving. I'd forgotten the pattern continued onto Here's Lucy. I suppose if Milt had been involved in Life With Lucy, Gale Gordon would've been playing Irving McGibbon!

Ah. I suppose they had their reasons for waiting until the end to do it. A lot of Lucy parodies have a tendency to do that, I've noticed. Very interesting. Nice to see the recreations are in B&W, I'll admit. Lucie looks delightful!

All I can say for "Astronauts", that AT LEAST Here's Lucy was trying to be topical. Quarantining astronauts who returned from the moon was a thing. So the set-up holds promise. But then what? Nothing as I recall. All I can remember is the group singing "Silvery Moon" a couple of times for no real reason. I do not remember Lucy being horny for them! But maybe it was subtext that went over my head. Women hogging the bathroom was a standard sitcom joke. Missed opportunity: "his" fellow stuntmen wondering why Ironman Carmichael spent so much time in the bathroom. The writers of "Astronauts" were Larry Rhine and Lou Derman who wrote 9 HLs and not a good one in the bunch, all varying degrees of dreadful.....They're responsible for "Lucy in the Jungle" (the house exchange, not the Gorboona), "Mountain Climber" with Tony Randall (and THAT BEAR), but worst of all "Ma Parker". I don't know if it was Milt's input but HL seemed to think the name Irving was funny. I'm not sure I have enough beer in the house to sit through "Astronauts" again. I have never seen a Big Bang Theory episode. I thought it was considered good in general.

Shock, the Australian company that released I Love Lucy here back in 2016, has clearly expanded their licensing deal with CBS. On April 1st, they issued The Lucy Show, Life With Lucy and the colourised I Love Lucy set for the first time down under. Exciting news for all Australian Lucy fans who need an isolation diversion! (I must admit, the substantially larger package for The Lucy Show, though not as shelf-friendly as its U.S. counterpart, has me intrigued.) http://www.shock.com.au/index.php?file=c-products&type=cat&cnm=lucy&cid=169

I don't drink much because my teeth/gums are sensitive to alcohol, but I am so giving this a try! Like you, the only time I saw this episode was when I first got the DVD. My memory is hazy, but I remember laughing out loud more times than I usually do with HL.

After an evening of (marginally) hard work and a LOT of beer, I decided to put on "Lucy and The Astronauts", because of the obvious quarantine/isolation themes. I also decided (as I occasionally do) to write down my thoughts on a notepad as I watch the episode. Normally, I'd compile these into a barely cohesive mini-essay and share it on here, but tonight I figure I'll just give highlights from the various bullet points I scribbled down. It feels like a concise way of discussing an episode. NOTE: This is an episode I think I've only seen once; when I bought the fourth season DVD at Jamestown in ~2012. All bullet points are in chronological order and are phrased as closely as I can interpret them from my drunken handwriting. Where was the stock footage from? TIRED opening- scared Lucy Poor Harry is so lonely he has to stop at Lucy's to show off his uniform Narration/framing device feels like a Paul Henning show Is that Doctor the Doctor (Harry's Doctor?) Lucy is horny for astronauts WHY establishing shot of ship when they walked into a trailer Why DO women spend so much time in the bathroom The doctor is definitely the psychiatrist- Ray Rodgers? Roy Roberts? WILLIE THE GRABBER President is never named- syndication worry? Nobody has ever been so excited about Nixon BOAT OR TRAILER? I have slept in places like this Lucy causing drama- IRVING- who the fuck is Irving? Wood paneling WHO is this for? Now I know why I haven't seen this show in 7 years Only explanation for laughter- asbestos in studio audience I would fire these writers At least they get the World Series in quarantine Why is Harry in orange? Still more watchable than Big Bang Theory, I guess Hopefully I'm not too inebriated and my little observations are interesting/funny to somePlease stay safe during this bonkers situation, folks.

Though the creative team insists the show is coming to its natural end, rumours of a feud between Debra Messing and Megan Mullally seem to have some truth in them. Mullally did an interview a few months back where she spoke of an unnamed "bully" at work who had turned others against her. Take this with a grain of salt, obviously, but one tabloid suggested Megan regretted bringing the show back. I haven't watched any of this season, but it's widely reported Mullally has been largely isolated from the rest of the cast onscreen and even skipped two episodes - have either of those aired yet? I lost interest in the show middle of last season and haven't tuned back in since. With a few exceptions, I was finding the episodes more painful than funny. A rewatch of the original 8 seasons didn't help - I enjoyed them more when I was younger than I do now.

No, she didn't. It's just more of a "you weren't 18 registering to vote for the first time. You were a full fledged adult with a career and should have seen how this might not have been the best thing to do." Lucy was a smart women. But also very trusting of others. She said she'd sign contracts and studio things she needed to without reading if she saw Desi had. Now then she was in her 40s. But we all did things in our 20s when we were young and dumb. This was hers. Thankfully Desi worked his ass off to get that Communist thing to blow over.

The Amateur Hour- Haven't watched this one in awhile. Working with kids every day, I find Lucy's line delivery of "All right, sit down!" totally relatable! Ricky Loses His Voice- The musical performances in this one are among my favorite of the series.

The thing I like about it is it's very real. I bet you could totally think of a time you were at a party, dinner, social event trying to be all sophisticated and ended up putting too much in your mouth, struggling with some too complicated finger food and trying to look all cool and calm.

This movie seems to be taking so long to get going, it wouldn't be surprising to me to hear they are "shoveling the picture" a la Don Juan.....

Okay, thoughts on my "Skate" rewatch: For one thing, at first I tried to watch the episode up on Hulu, which has ILL, TLS, and HL all available. To my surprise, they're missing a few episodes here and there, for whatever reason, so I pulled out my DVD. I guess it must have been awhile since I watched TLS on DVD, because the wonderful menu opening really made me smile. Right away I find it funny that Lucy and Viv are schlepping around in pajamas and curlers, yet they're all done up in makeup and blue eye shadow that reminds me of my 8th grade homeroom teacher. This episode isn't the greatest. IMO the second season is better written but way more forgettable than the third- which got the lowest ratings of any TLS season (a shocking 8th place!). Even though it hasn't been broadcast in color yet, there are some nice touches- specifically in the scene at the store where Lucy is in blue and Viv is in red. Speaking of the store, I did some number crunching. The moose calls appear to cost $2.98, or $24.74 in today's money! Viv's bill of $8.50 would be $70.56 and Lucy's, at $59.60, comes out to $494.77! The store's owner, Mr. Carlyle, was 80 years old at the time- making him born in 1884. And on the subject of birthdays, I Googled Sitting Bull and discovered that nobody knows his actual birthday, so who knows what Jerry was on about. That is one ugly-ass country club. For such a swanky affair, it looks like a middle school dance. I could practically smell the Axe Body Spray. There's some real visual value that's lost by not having Lucy's scarf billow behind her. I wonder if the music was dubbed in later for editing purposes. It would've been awkward with the scene going on in silence. For my money, Viv is the real MVP of the episode. Lucy is great as always, but I found myself enjoying Viv most of all. In the store scene, just look at the way she walks out with that moose head- it's brilliant physical comedy. Lastly, I actually have my own "Good Skate" kind of story. My senior year of high school, for Halloween I was talked into dressing as Christopher Robin for the day with a group of friends who were doing Winnie The Pooh characters. As we all know, Christopher Robin has red shoes. The only person we knew who had red shoes was my friend's younger brother, a good three or four sizes smaller than me. I went through the seven hour school day wearing them and I can definitely relate to Lucy's distress. My feet weren't exactly swollen, but holy cow were they sore.

That's correct. CBS has been clamping down harder in the last 10 years or so -- which baffles me because one would think they would endorse all efforts to keep one of their most reliable cash cows relevant and engaging with audiences.

Oh, is that why the likes of Suzanne LaRusch and Diane Vincent tend to do Lucy-esque material rather than actual bits? I remember when Suzanne was on "The Next Best Thing" it was Fresher Farm's Fermented Fennel instead of Vitametavegamin.

I'd imagine most of those were parodies. Have any shows ever recreated scenes line for line, though?

Per Lucie's Instagram they are shooting today. This is BIG news. All the cast members are posting it to their Instagrams. I think this is going to be one of the most watched ones of the season if not the entire reboot.

Singer-songwriter John Prine has died from COVID-19 complications. I knew I was going to lose a few people to the virus, but this is the first one that really, really hurts.