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'I Love Lucy' is a terrible show

Mot Morenzi

By Mot Morenzi,
in The Danfield Tribune

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I do greatly respect Barbra Streisand, not only for her voice and her strong will, and the many facets of her talent, but also for her activism. 

 

 

So I'm not alone on that.  :)

 

 

I hate when they do that!  That's one of the things that bugs me about "The Ricardos Visit Cuba" and "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana": There are scenes when Ricky and other Cubans are talking to one another in English . . . and they're in Cuba!  They could have put subtitles and keep it real.  It's even more appropriate to do that when the film is a biography of an actual person.

 

 

Exactly!  That's a more succinct way of expressing the feelings I have about both Ms. Streisand and Ms. Dion.  I'm blown away by their voices, but I don't want to listen to them because I don't like the songs they sing.  :)

 

 

Thank you.  :)

Yeah, forgot about Ms Streisand's activism, started in the Civil Rights day and goes on in these Gay Rights days.  Have this terrific book on her decorating skills too, the woman can do anything, but she's a perfectionist and some people can take that from a Dustin Hoffman but not Babs, Milton Berle yes, but Lucy, no.  Who portrayed Celine in that tv movie anyway?  One of the great things about Canada being somewhat Bilingual is that we have actors who can do the same film in French and also have another version in English.  And I happen to have a compilation of every song Streisand ever did, you telling me there are no songs at all in there that you like???  

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Mot Morenzi Rookie

Mot Morenzi

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Yeah, forgot about Ms Streisand's activism, started in the Civil Rights day and goes on in these Gay Rights days.  Have this terrific book on her decorating skills too, the woman can do anything, but she's a perfectionist and some people can take that from a Dustin Hoffman but not Babs, Milton Berle yes, but Lucy, no.  Who portrayed Celine in that tv movie anyway?  One of the great things about Canada being somewhat Bilingual is that we have actors who can do the same film in French and also have another version in English.  An d I happen to have a compilation of every song Streisand ever did, you telling me there are no songs at all in there that you like???

 

Christine Ghawi. She's relatively new. Trish O'Brien did the singing as they couldn't license the actual Celine recordings, but she was a very good vocal double. I know there was controversy over the film being in English instead of French and being shot in Toronto instead of Quebec, but still a beautiful film that made me respect her.

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Christine Ghawi. She's relatively new. Trish O'Brien did the singing as they couldn't license the actual Celine recordings, but she was a very good vocal double. I know there was controversy over the film being in English instead of French and being shot in Toronto instead of Quebec, but still a beautiful film that made me respect her.

O I C, that old rivalry between Montreal and Toronto again huh?  Not to mention the one with English and French.  I hate French so much that I never even saw this movie, heard of it though.

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One other comment I'd like to add to this discussion.  I was remembering yesterday one of the first times I realized there were people out there who hate I Love Lucy.  It was back in the '90s, someone had posted on a chat site (called a "newsgroup" back in those days) about how awful this show is, and how unfunny Lucille Ball was, calling her character a "caterwauling child-woman."  I got into it with this person, who pointed to The Drew Carey Show as a great example of fine comedy.  I remember making the point that I Love Lucy had been on the air more than five decades by that point, with no signs of going away, and I was finding it very hard to imagine that 50 years down the road people would still be watching The Drew Carey Show, much less even remember it.

 

Well here we are in 2013.  Drew Carey these days is now hosting a morning game show that I don't think too many people watch.  I don't remember the last time I've seen his The Drew Carey Show on broadcast television -- some years ago? -- but I do remember the last time I saw I Love Lucy on the air: it was just this morning.  It's been 18 years since The Drew Carey Show first went on the air. Has it already become a forgotten relic of the past?

 

Out of curiosity, I checked to see how successful I'd be at getting ahold of The Drew Carey Show since I don't think it's being broadcast in my area.  It turns out that season one of The Drew Carey Show was put on DVD in 2007, and no other seasons have ever been released before or since.  The only other thing available is a DVD sampler from 2005 that contained six "representative" episodes from four seasons of the series.  So that's it.  The show had a long run -- nine seasons -- but all that's available now is a single season and a small handful of other episodes.  That's it.  Heck, Here's Lucy is available in its entirety!  I'd really love to rub that in that guy's face now!

 

For another comparison, I went to the sitcomsonline website, which has message boards for pretty much every sitcom that ever lasted more than a season.  For The Drew Carey Show, there are a total of 132 threads and 507 posts (the last one posted 5 and 1/2 months ago).  Compare that to the I Love Lucy message board, which has 2,699 threads and 32,949 posts!  Yeah, that's right: for every single Drew Carey Show post, there are 65 for I Love Lucy!  And if that's not enough, the Here's Lucy message board has 325 threads and 2,017 posts.  LOL!  Four times as many posts for Here's Lucy as for The Drew Carey Show!  Hahahaha!!!  And The Lucy Show has 603 threads and 3,778 posts.  Yeah, I'd really love to rub all that in that guy's face now.  :HALKING:

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Luvsbway Newbie

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I laugh that you bring up The Drew Carey Show. I interned on it back in 99' so I will always remember it. But every Tuesday night when I would stand on that stage at Warner Brothers next to the audience bleachers and behind the 4 film cameras I would always think, I Love Lucy started this all.

 

I haven't seen an episode in years and wasn't really a fan of it, although I had watched it. I just wanted to work on a sitcom and that one panned out.

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LittleRickyII Newbie

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I laugh that you bring up The Drew Carey Show. I interned on it back in 99' so I will always remember it. But every Tuesday night when I would stand on that stage at Warner Brothers next to the audience bleachers and behind the 4 film cameras I would always think, I Love Lucy started this all.

 

I haven't seen an episode in years and wasn't really a fan of it, although I had watched it. I just wanted to work on a sitcom and that one panned out.

 

Well it had to be a cool experience for you.  I hope I didn't insult you with the comparison, but that was an actual argument.  I wish I knew how to track down that old discussion.  I'm sure I'd get a kick.

 

Fine comedy no. Fine comedy isn't crafted by having a team of writers rewrite the scene they just shot, holding an audience captive so they can get better laughs on the second take. Unfortunally all sitcoms now days do this.

 

Yeah, I went to tapings of three sitcoms years ago: Empty Nest, Coach and some horrible show called Malibu that I wound up being corralled into by mistake (thought I was going to see Candid Camera) and got locked in and they wouldn't let me out.  After those experiences I decided I never wanted to be in the studio audience ever again for another sitcom.  Of the three, Coach was okay.  It took about two hours.  But those other two shows took about four hours!  Four hours to tape a 20-25 minute show?  Beforehand, I thought it would be like going to see a Lucy show: we'd be in and out within an hour and it would be fun.  Instead, it was horribly, painfully boring.

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No offense taken. It was an experience to say the least. I knew that if it was 10pm and they were ordering pizza it was going to be a long night. They would use the pizza to keep the audience. Being in the audience there was no escape is painful. The coolness factor wears off after an hour. I was glad I was on the set and could move about, grab food from craft service and chat with people.

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Wow!  At least they did that.  Those tapings I attended they offered nothing. We were simply their hostages.

I can't believe they actually do that, keep people locked in, I could NEVER go to something like that, i'd panic just at the thought of being a prisoner there.  I watched Drew Carey a few times, it was always the same, can't believe Craig Ferguson played his boss.  Wonder whatever happened to Mimi.  Or the actress who played her I mean.  This show was so so but that Whose Line is it Anyway was worse to me, could NEVER watch crap like that.  I think you may be wrong about Drew hosting The Price Is Right, I think that show still has quite an audience and it's been on forever. 

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It's very interesting for me to read others experiences going to sitcom filmings, as I've been doing it over the years as long as I can remember... the more recent ones, as cited in some of the examples above, have more often than not have gone from anticipation and fun to -- and I hate to use this word but can't think of a better one -- boring, tedious and extended way, way too long.... and whenever that happens, I can't help wonder "What would Lucy & Desi think of how the process has changed to the point where the audience is not taken into account, being held captive for hours on end and having to do retake after retake rather than doing it the way they used to, as "live" (like a play) as possible?" 

 

In my experience, the ultimately most "tedious" film nights have been for those that were pilots (e.g. Tom Papa's sitcom, Reba's Malibu Country, etc.), as they want -- unsurprisingly -- to get the show "just right" and as polished as possible.... but oh, does it make for a looooooooooong evening!

 

Which is not to say I haven't had some very cool experiences over the years, and it is interesting to note how belabored the process has become..... for one example, I once went to a mid-run filming of Will & Grace, which took if memory serves, 4 - 5 hours, and they did exactly as you described, re-wrote lines & jokes throughout the evening if they felt something didn't "work"; conversely, a year or two later I went to one of the "live" episodes they did and what a difference -- like night and day! -- to see that fold out before you since it was truly live:  no retakes, no stopping for flubs, etc. etc.  Except for the waiting in line part (the only excruciating part of the whole process to me! ;)), I think we were in and out of there in under 40 minutes! Heaven! :D

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He was the more talkative one. He had acted at that theater back in the 50s and they hung pics of him in the lobby. He got a kick out of that.

Every time I've seen him, he seems very hyper and quite funny.  Whereas gary could put anybody to sleep pronto.  He makes Perry Como seem like Mr excitement.

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 I think you may be wrong about Drew hosting The Price Is Right, I think that show still has quite an audience and it's been on forever. 

 

I actually don't know what the ratings are for The Price Is Right.  The ratings may be fine, although it doesn't need great ratings because the show is basically an hour-long commercial. But I wasn't trying to imply that it doesn't do well, just that it's a step down from starring in a prime time series.

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I actually don't know what the ratings are for The Price Is Right.  The ratings may be fine, although it doesn't need great ratings because the show is basically an hour-long commercial. But I wasn't trying to imply that it doesn't do well, just that it's a step down from starring in a prime time series.

Oh ok, but surely you know lots of people wanted that job when Bob retired, and I was quite surprised to see Drew get it, of all people.  Whoever saw this guy as host of a game show???

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Actually, he did another one briefly before he got TPIR gig...forgot what it was called but I liked it a lot....it was also on CBS so probably his "audition"/test for the "Price" job... Now what the heck was the name of that thing?? ;)

Power of 10.  Never saw it so I forgot all about it, you're right.

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