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Here's Lucy Season 5 . . . Reviews and first impressions!


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"Annoying Lucy" was only a trilogy?? What about "Sells Craig to Wayne Newton", "Phil Harris" "Johnny Carson"-just to name a few. My pick as the best of your trilogy is "john Wayne"; head and shoulders above the other two...at least there was SOME motivation for her zany actions: getting "carried away". I love it when she takes over the make-up session. I don't know of anyone else who likes that one as much as I do. It's harder to accept her braying along with petula during a recording session; or whatever she did to Sammy--don't remember other than it was annoying.

 

"John Wayne," "Sammy Davis," and "Petula Clark" are all pretty much the same episode. I think Petula is the best one because Lucy actually comes out on top at the end. She's not forceably removed from the studio. Lucy is really trying to help, although annoying everyone in the process. I think Petula is a very charming guest star. I definitely wouldn't call "Lucy and Petula Clark" a fantastic episode, but I think it is superior to the other two.

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"John Wayne," "Sammy Davis," and "Petula Clark" are all pretty much the same episode. I think Petula is the best one because Lucy actually comes out on top at the end. She's not forceably removed from the studio. Lucy is really trying to help, although annoying everyone in the process. I think Petula is a very charming guest star. I definitely wouldn't call "Lucy and Petula Clark" a fantastic episode, but I think it is superior to the other two.

Amen to that, even Drafted's better than the Sammy Davis unfunny episode.

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Lucy and the Franchise Fiasco--U I totally saw it coming when Uncle Harry put on his hat that Lucy filled with ice cream. And it was kind of like "Lucy is Kangaroo for a day" when she was forced to go out in public wearing an animal costume.

 

In Bob and Madelyn's defense, the original script included Lucy filling Harry's hat with yogurt but did not include Harry putting on the hat. It was one of those rare instances where the concepts written by B&M did not translate well through the production process. We're spoiled because so often everyone was in sync. This was a tough one to make happen. Bob and Madelyn were not happy with the results. I attended this filming live. For one thing, they couldn't get the yogurt machine to malfunction properly. The filming stopped for a long time as they tried to figure what to do. They settled on an air blower from the bottom blowing yogurt up in an attempt to simulate the problem, which you can see in the wide shot. That's why that scene is so choppy and includes all those obvious insert shorts.

 

Plot hole: unless Lucy WALKED all the way to the Fleetwood party, how did the penguins follow her? Did they have bus passes?

Those penguins would not cooperate! At one point filming was stopped before their appearance because they were squawking backstage. The last scene involved a lot of starting and stopping as the trainers tried to get the penguins to adhere to the script. The last shot was to be one penguin entering with skates on, but had to be was eliminated.

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Awesome! What was Lucy being like since it was a tough episode to get through? Also was it in July 1972?

 

She was a trooper. It was during the coffee shop booth discussion that a penguin squawked backstage and Lucy yelled 'cut' and laughed. It was 1972, but it had to have been September or October. It was quite some time before the show aired and it was weird with all that music inserted in the custard machine malfunction scene. I think it was better without.

Of the three shows I saw, not one of them had the office set.

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She was a trooper. It was during the coffee shop booth discussion that a penguin squawked backstage and Lucy yelled 'cut' and laughed. It was 1972, but it had to have been September or October. It was quite some time before the show aired and it was weird with all that music inserted in the custard machine malfunction scene. I think it was better without.

Of the three shows I saw, not one of them had the office set.

 

Neil -- The production date I have for "Franchise Fiasco" is Thursday, September 21, 1972... You must have been a teenager!

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Neil -- The production date I have for "Franchise Fiasco" is Thursday, September 21, 1972... You must have been a teenager!

 

Only Helen Kaiser and I know for sure.

Since you know production dates, the episode I saw before that was Don Knotts/Blind Date. Was that just the week before?

And while you're at it, when was the other show I attended "Cops and Robbers" filmed? Seems to me that was season 6.

These were all done on a Thursday afternoon. The ticket said 1:30-4:00 which was more time allotted than the other sitcoms done before an audience. Do you know when they stopped filming Thursday nights?

Madelyn told me that out of logistical necessity they filmed one in the afternoon instead of the evening and Lucy thought it worked out so well that they decided to switch to afternoons permanently.

 

I remember the filmings well. I witnessed Gale's screw up of Ben's name, calling him Harry, then trying to recover before Lucy cut, then got out of the booth. I understand now that she was having a little fun with Gale, but it was a little scary. I'd never seen that "Lucy" before. The transformation of Lucy to monster was done in real time while Don told his long story of his family names. This episode didn't present much Lucy clowning as Lucy (I don't count the end scene). There was one Lucy moment,all her own, that was cut. As the scene in a restaurant ended Lucy had put a full, long stalk of celery in her mouth just as she was to react to something being said before the fade out. She turned to look at whoever was talking, with the full stalk in her mouth. It was a cute little Lucy touch. I'll have to look at the show again because my recollection of seeing it first run is that the fade out happened a little too early to catch this.

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She was a trooper. It was during the coffee shop booth discussion that a penguin squawked backstage and Lucy yelled 'cut' and laughed. It was 1972, but it had to have been September or October. It was quite some time before the show aired and it was weird with all that music inserted in the custard machine malfunction scene. I think it was better without.

Of the three shows I saw, not one of them had the office set.

 

 

It was taped in September--I just read this in an earlier post. But HarryCarter says they wrapped up production on the season in August.

 

It's also a shame how there's lots of funny scenes that are left on the cutting room floor. Such as the celery scene and the scene in "Memoirs" where Lucy and Harry recall when Lucy "saved Harry's life" (and then he got a pickaxe up his ass!)

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Only Helen Kaiser and I know for sure.

Since you know production dates, the episode I saw before that was Don Knotts/Blind Date. Was that just the week before?

And while you're at it, when was the other show I attended "Cops and Robbers" filmed? Seems to me that was season 6.

These were all done on a Thursday afternoon. The ticket said 1:30-4:00 which was more time allotted than the other sitcoms done before an audience. Do you know when they stopped filming Thursday nights?

Madelyn told me that out of logistical necessity they filmed one in the afternoon instead of the evening and Lucy thought it worked out so well that they decided to switch to afternoons permanently.

 

I remember the filmings well. I witnessed Gale's screw up of Ben's name, calling him Harry, then trying to recover before Lucy cut, then got out of the booth. I understand now that she was having a little fun with Gale, but it was a little scary. I'd never seen that "Lucy" before. The transformation of Lucy to monster was done in real time while Don told his long story of his family names. This episode didn't present much Lucy clowning as Lucy (I don't count the end scene). There was one Lucy moment,all her own, that was cut. As the scene in a restaurant ended Lucy had put a full, long stalk of celery in her mouth just as she was to react to something being said before the fade out. She turned to look at whoever was talking, with the full stalk in her mouth. It was a cute little Lucy touch. I'll have to look at the show again because my recollection of seeing it first run is that the fade out happened a little too early to catch this.

 

 

 

Am not sure WHEN they started filming in the afternoons, but (believe it or not) one of the key reasons was DeDe and her girlfriends. They were all "up in years" at that point and did not like being out late at night. It cut a half-day out of the rehearsal schedule, but Lucy wanted DeDe at the filmings...

 

The Don Knotts ("Last Blind Date") episode was filmed two weeks before the penguin show, but on Friday, September 8. (It was Labor Day week, so they used a Tuesday-thru-Friday schedule.) The "Cops and Robbers" segment was filmed on July 6, 1973 (the first show of Season 6 to go before the cameras.)

 

T.

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It was taped in September--I just read this in an earlier post. But HarryCarter says they wrapped up production on the season in August.

 

It's also a shame how there's lots of funny scenes that are left on the cutting room floor. Such as the celery scene and the scene in "Memoirs" where Lucy and Harry recall when Lucy "saved Harry's life" (and then he got a pickaxe up his ass!)

 

I watched "Blind Date" and I was wrong. It wasn't a celery stalk. It was a long bread stick. But it was cut (the ending, not the stick). The episode is much better than I remember. From where I was sitting I couldn't see the monster scene very well and it plays OK but not a great ending to an otherwise funny show. I didn't come to appreciate Don Knotts's talents until much later.

Another episode that's better this time around is "Professor John Davidson". Lucy's great in her scenes but that's some of the worst conclusion jumping she's ever done--assuming John is an imposter?! You'd think the old professor might have told Lucy his name if he made a date with her. The ending with Gale dancing with the young co-ed and Lucy scolding him is a LOL moment. I wasn't a big fan of episodes that had long Lucy-less scenes. Lucie's eventually realized talents were just in their beginning stages here. The is the worst Kim hair-season. she didn't have this unflattering do in season 6, did she? Here's Lucy was NEVER able to portray a crowd of young people with any believability and this one is no exception. Another embarrassing example of old writers trying to write 'hip' by slipping 'groovy' and 'dig' into their scripts. This one is by Bob O'Brien and despite the set-up stretch, it's actually a pretty funny one when Lucy's onscreen. My nomination for least welcome recurring supporting player: Irwin Sharone. He's not much of an actor and he's not funny. Lucy must have liked him though because he kept popping up.

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I watched "Blind Date" and I was wrong. It wasn't a celery stalk. It was a long bread stick. But it was cut (the ending, not the stick). The episode is much better than I remember. From where I was sitting I couldn't see the monster scene very well and it plays OK but not a great ending to an otherwise funny show. I didn't come to appreciate Don Knotts's talents until much later.

Another episode that's better this time around is "Professor John Davidson". Lucy's great in her scenes but that's some of the worst conclusion jumping she's ever done--assuming John is an imposter?! You'd think the old professor might have told Lucy his name if he made a date with her. The ending with Gale dancing with the young co-ed and Lucy scolding him is a LOL moment. I wasn't a big fan of episodes that had long Lucy-less scenes. Lucie's eventually realized talents were just in their beginning stages here. The is the worst Kim hair-season. she didn't have this unflattering do in season 6, did she? Here's Lucy was NEVER able to portray a crowd of young people with any believability and this one is no exception. Another embarrassing example of old writers trying to write 'hip' by slipping 'groovy' and 'dig' into their scripts. This one is by Bob O'Brien and despite the set-up stretch, it's actually a pretty funny one when Lucy's onscreen. My nomination for least welcome recurring supporting player: Irwin Sharone. He's not much of an actor and he's not funny. Lucy must have liked him though because he kept popping up.

What part did he play so i can figure out who you're talking about? Still have not received my Amazon package.

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What part did he play so i can figure out who you're talking about? Still have not received my Amazon package.

 

You mean Irwin Charone? He's the goofy looking bald toothy guy with glasses that's in a lot of episodes. He's way over the top and IMO just not funny. He's the college dean in "John Davidson". imdb only lists 4 HL episodes but I know he did many more than that. He's 90 and still alive according to imdb

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Season 5 extras: these home movies are priceless. It's not clear if the Palm Springs footage is all from the same trip, but if so what an assortment of guests: Orson Welles, Jane Kean, Gordon and Sheila Macrae, Viv, Maury Thompson and NANCY KULP?!! The woman with Orson Welles looks familiar. Judging by the kids' ages I would say this is 1957 so Nancy would have recently done her ILL episode and Forever Darling. Also fascinating is the Hawaii footage which looks to be 1963 or 64. Gary wears his toupee while sunbathing in the Hawaii heat? Lucy looks fantastic in both scenes.

We saw a lot of the 'bloopers' on the Best of HL disc. I could have done without the Jerry Paris 'rape' reference. Do we know what episode they're doing? Included in the bloopers segment is Lucy doing an intro to a preview of the Burtons episode for the affiliates. She's cute, but is there some set up for her to be acting drunk?

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You mean Irwin Charone? He's the goofy looking bald toothy guy with glasses that's in a lot of episodes. He's way over the top and IMO just not funny. He's the college dean in "John Davidson". imdb only lists 4 HL episodes but I know he did many more than that. He's 90 and still alive according to imdb

I'll have to put on the Davidson ep to see who it is you mean.

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