rspeterson3 Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 Hey guys -- kind of new to the forum. Used to be on the old site as Sigmapi30. Was wondering if anyone knew if we'd be lucky enough to get Life with Lucy on dvd? I know the show isn't as popular but I'd love to have it!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 Well, ignore the other thread. Welcome BACK! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 When they get desperate for something new of Lucy's to release, they'll probably get around to Life with Lucy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted November 23, 2014 Report Share Posted November 23, 2014 It occurred to me that Life With Lucy was the only one of her series that started off a network night and did not have a network lead in. I wonder if it might have done better on another night sandwiched between other comedies. Monday night was out because of that blasted ABC Monday Football. ABC was not about to fool around with their only winning night: Tuesday with Who's the Boss, Growing Pains and Moonlighting, the only ABC shows in the top 20 (the top 30 contained only 2 more: Football and a weakening Dynasty). They had a Friday comedy block Lucy could have fit into. None of the Friday ABC 1986 comedies were hugely successful but did well enough that most made it back the next season. On the other hand there was no reason to think LWL wouldn't at least have won its time slot. The competition was very weak. ABC had not had a series that started out the season at 8pm Saturdays that made it in several years (and wouldn't have in the future). On the subject of time slots: As far as I know, I Love Lucy is the only network show to remain in its original time slot through its entire run. I checked "Cosby Show" and it moved from 8 to 8:30 during the last part of its final season. The Lucy Show-Here's Lucy remained Monday at 8:30 or 9:00 through its entire run, which is also something of a record. I wonder if there was ever an urge by CBS to move it to another night to shore up a weak schedule. Glad they didn't. TLS had only one season where the time slot was actually switched to 9. HL moved from 8:30 to 9 out of necessity. The 7:30 half hour was eliminated from the network's schedules. The reason: an FCC mandate to make the playing field more level for independent producers. (Can you imagine the government caring?). While it did give us The Muppet Show, most of the shows stations bought were cheap game shows, not what the drafters of the bill had in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreddieMertz Posted November 23, 2014 Report Share Posted November 23, 2014 I think LWL would have done a good job on ABCs comedy Friday nights that had Full House, Perfect Strangers etc. but I believe those came a bit later. I think the show would have had success if it aired in syndication. It worked for Mamas Family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajrich17901 Posted November 24, 2014 Report Share Posted November 24, 2014 They need to stop slacking, everything else has already been released..give us Life With Lucy restored already -__- I refuse to buy those horrible quality bootlegs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 I think LWL would have done a good job on ABCs comedy Friday nights that had Full House, Perfect Strangers etc. but I believe those came a bit later. I think the show would have had success if it aired in syndication. It worked for Mamas Family. Interesting theories; sadly, we'll never know if it would have fared better if aired in a different timeslot. And as for adding it to ABC's "TGIF" line-up, Perfect Strangers was not only airing when LWL aired, but LB was such a big fan of it and its stars that Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn Baker attended a LWL filming and were photographed with The Lady afterward backstage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted November 26, 2014 Report Share Posted November 26, 2014 If it had followed Who's the Boos which was a modest hit, it would have built up a following, especially after their first great one, the Audrey Meadows one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 I'm with Gary. It was totally unfair what was written about Lucy and good for him for calling critics out on it. Now as far as how good that Ritter episode was that's a whole different topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 I'm with Gary. It was totally unfair what was written about Lucy and good for him for calling critics out on it. Now as far as how good that Ritter episode was that's a whole different topic. Wow, gary defending his pay cheque er i mean his wife, nice. Agree with you about Ritter's ep though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreddieMertz Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Well Gary was the Executive Producer after all. Of course he needed a bigger salary than Lucy. He made that show what it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Well Gary was the Executive Producer after all. Of course he needed a bigger salary than Lucy. He made that show what it was. OUCH, but so true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 In Mike Stern’s very nice book he talks about a time him and Tom were in Lucy's dressing room during Life With Lucy. She was doing an interview with a woman from Jamestown (of all places) about coming back to TV. As this woman was on the phone Lucy twice would hold the receiver over her head and mouth the word "bitch" to the guys. At one point Lucy threw the phone down, started to cry and ran out of the dressing room. Tom took over the call and Mike went to go find her on the lot. Mike finds her and she is walking down one of the studio streets in tears. The woman on the phone apparently was really laying into Lucy about her age, calling her too old, asking her why she was still working. He says he tried to comfort her but she kept crying. As they passed the mill on the lot Lucy said is there any place in there to kill myself (not that she would). Mike gets her back to the stage and calls Gary that he needs to come down and talk to her. The rest of the day then went fine as she came back to the stage ready to rehearse. So you take this story and what was mentioned in that clipping and any other negative press we have come across over the years about this time and it was so unfair how she was treated. How this woman managed to get through the end of that year is amazing. It wasn't just the loss of a show, it wasn't just the loss of an ex husband but it was losing her whole identity. She lost her soul mate the love of her life, her work in her best medium doing what she loved for over 35 years, she thought she lost her fans and she was constantly being reminded that she was old, too old to do what she lived to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irene Kampen Tripp Posted December 19, 2014 Report Share Posted December 19, 2014 OMG I'M FREAKING CRYING... Can you see Betty White being treated like that? Joan Rivers? WTHell is wrong with those people? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 OMG I'M FREAKING CRYING... Can you see Betty White being treated like that? Joan Rivers? WTHell is wrong with those people? But it was a different time, older celebs were treated like lepers for being old, there was rampant ageism in Hollywood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 From 1989 they couldn't even leave this alone after she died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irene Kampen Tripp Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 That exists not just in Hollywood ... but the phone interview...THAT is just horse shit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted December 20, 2014 Report Share Posted December 20, 2014 From 1989 they couldn't even leave this alone after she died. I wish there was a HATE THIS next to the LIKE THIS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mot Morenzi Posted February 14, 2015 Report Share Posted February 14, 2015 That article made a sad yet interesting point. LWL may have had it's problems, but nobody gave her or the creative team time to figure things out. The show was showing signs of improvement. Had they gotten to carry on, who knows what we might have seen. I truly believe that had the show gotten a fair shake, the audience would've learned to love the "new" Lucy as much as the old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted February 14, 2015 Report Share Posted February 14, 2015 That article made a sad yet interesting point. LWL may have had it's problems, but nobody gave her or the creative team time to figure things out. The show was showing signs of improvement. Had they gotten to carry on, who knows what we might have seen. I truly believe that had the show gotten a fair shake, the audience would've learned to love the "new" Lucy as much as the old. EXACTLY, first of all NOT leading off the night but with a hit lead in instead. Then, you're right, doctoring the show to make it better, like keeping Audrey Meadows as her sister for instance and then maybe asking the writers to write FUNNY material would have helped also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 I had a thought the other day. The timeline of Life With Lucy seems to date to early 1986 when Aaron ran into the Morton’s out one night and told them he had 1 last project he needed to develop for ABC and proposed the show to them. We know that Lucy found out about Desi’s cancer in early March of that year. So how likely was her decision to return to a show based on how she perceived the future? Maybe she knew that she needed a project to keep occupied and off his impending death. If it wasn’t the sole factor I think it might have been a large contributing factor to doing the show. I’m very curious as to how she went from 10 years of saying I’ll never do another series again to saying yes to this. I know bringing her old team back was a motivating factor (apparently Gary did this in secret without telling her), and her wanting to work was too, but it wasn’t like she couldn’t get work. I think that maybe she looked at it as getting back into her old routine again. If she was in her normal routine she had for 25 years and was doing what she was familiar with again surrounded by those she knew well she could cope with his death better. It’s just so sad that the whole thing backfired and probably left her in a worse emotional state then if she just did another movie or something. At least she would think he still had fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddie2 Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 She definitely wanted to go back to the glory days. All the accounts from people who worked on the show say that she was energetic and happy in the early weeks of the show. Stone Pillow had been fairly successful and her movie career wasn't taking off like she thought. Cosby had just made a big comeback and ABC was desperate enough to fulfill all her demands. Not to mention what you said about keeping her mind off Desi. The timing probably seemed right. I think the show would have been far more successful if it had been produced for syndication, airing in rotation with her other four shows. If it was on nowadays, it would have a much better chance of survival through Netflix and cable, not to mention the big TV reboot craze. Maybe if it had premiered a couple of years later it would have been picked up by Nick@Nite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleRickyII Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 I've thought before that Desi's health might have been a factor in her deciding to go back on the air. And I agree with Freddie2 that it would have done better if produced for syndication or cable (or aired on a night other than Friday or Saturday). Still the Beaver ran for several years on TBS and was pretty terrible. In early 1986, I remember reading an item in the newspaper that CBS had approached Lucy and Desi about doing an I Love Lucy reunion special a la Return to Mayberry, but they turned it down because, according to Lucy, they wanted the Mertzes written off as having passed away, and she refused to do a show where those characters were killed off. That, to me, did not seem legitimate or plausible. It seemed to me that Lucy was really making an excuse (covering) for the fact that Desi was seriously ill and could not do the special. A month or two after that, Life with Lucy was announced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 I've thought before that Desi's health might have been a factor in her deciding to go back on the air. And I agree with Freddie2 that it would have done better if produced for syndication or cable (or aired on a night other than Friday or Saturday). Still the Beaver ran for several years on TBS and was pretty terrible. In early 1986, I remember reading an item in the newspaper that CBS had approached Lucy and Desi about doing an I Love Lucy reunion special a la Return to Mayberry, but they turned it down because, according to Lucy, they wanted the Mertzes written off as having passed away, and she refused to do a show where those characters were killed off. That, to me, did not seem legitimate or plausible. It seemed to me that Lucy was really making an excuse (covering) for the fact that Desi was seriously ill and could not do the special. A month or two after that, Life with Lucy was announced. If i had a dollar for every time Lucy covered up the REAL story with one made up . . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleRickyII Posted June 16, 2015 Report Share Posted June 16, 2015 If i had a dollar for every time Lucy covered up the REAL story with one made up . . . . LOL! But in this case she did it with totally good intentions, to protect Desi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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