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A Date for Lucy


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Having completed by tour of Here's Lucy Season One -- going straight through each episode and not skipping any installment whatsoever for the first time in years.. including Tennessee Ernie's "Fun" Farm, which was an excruciating experience in itself -- I found my opinions had changed on several episodes. Shelly was right. It is a very interesting experience going through them one by one. In the end, I found Season One to be far more solid than I had remembered or reframed, with several classics in the mix. Before this exercise, my vote for the overall best installment of the season would have gone to Lucy, The Process Server, followed by Lucy's Working Daughter.

 

Process Server is always a particularly satisfying episode. It is logical, the kids are used well, and the plot comes full circle with barely a wasted moment.

 

Now, however, I think my vote has to go to A Date for Lucy. While the plot is not nearly as grounded in reality as the other, it more than makes up for it in other ways. For one, Lucy and Cesar Romero work beautifully together but, more importantly, this is such a great showcase for Lucille Ball herself. Not only does she look great, but she probably performs some of her best physical work -- broad and subtle -- here than anywhere else in the season. Two examples that immediately spring to mind is Lucy trying to quietly count the diamonds in Barbara Morrison's bracelet, and her reaction after realizing she has wiped the cocktail sauce from the bracelet with the back of the woman's dress. Pitch perfect.

 

Thoughts on this episode? What gets your vote?

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People seem to like "A Date for Lucy" so I'm going to watch it again.  My favorites for the season are "Working Daughter" and "Craig's Drivers License".  I liked "Serves a Summons", a solid half-hour, much more of a cohesive plot than a lot of HLs.   I remember the preview commercial included Lucie's line "And no matter how much it hurts us, we're going to enjoy ourselves" delivered as if she got line reading coaching from Vanda Barra.  Our daily paper had extensive TV listings, giving a plot and review of episodes.  (I would love to have had that job.   Watching these episodes before they aired and writing two or three lines of my opinion).  Included at the top were the "Best Bets" of the evening, similar to TV Guide Close ups with a picture and a more extensive review. 

Four first season Here's Lucy's warranted Best Bets for the evening.  They were...

"Mod Mod Lucy"

"Visits Jack Benny in Palm Springs"  (2 Best Bets in a row.  HL was off and running!)

"Airport Chase"  (more for the novelty of Lucy on location than the quality of the show, i think)

AND

.................

.................

.................

......................

"TENNESSEE ERNIE'S FUN FARM".  That reviewer thought the Fun Farm commercial was hilarious!  Other remark I remember: "Lucille Ball has often said that a special need not be an hour long (she has???? when?), so tonight Here's Lucy offers what is, in effect, a half-hour special."  WHAT was this guy smoking??

 

Imagine my disappointment when I tuned in expecting a "Best Bet" and getting that episode.

 

By the way, during the rest of the series, I can only remember two other Here's Lucys warranting Best Bet status.  One is obvious "Meets the Burtons" and the other was.............any guesses?  It's an episode that makes MY HL Top Ten.

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Having completed by tour of Here's Lucy Season One -- going straight through each episode and not skipping any installment whatsoever for the first time in years.. including Tennessee Ernie's "Fun" Farm, which was an excruciating experience in itself -- I found my opinions had changed on several episodes. Shelly was right. It is a very interesting experience going through them one by one. In the end, I found Season One to be far more solid than I had remembered or reframed, with several classics in the mix. Before this exercise, my vote for the overall best installment of the season would have gone to Lucy, The Process Server, followed by Lucy's Working Daughter.

 

Process Server is always a particularly satisfying episode. It is logical, the kids are used well, and the plot comes full circle with barely a wasted moment.

 

Now, however, I think my vote has to go to A Date for Lucy. While the plot is not nearly as grounded in reality as the other, it more than makes up for it in other ways. For one, Lucy and Cesar Romero work beautifully together but, more importantly, this is such a great showcase for Lucille Ball herself. Not only does she look great, but she probably performs some of her best physical work -- broad and subtle -- here than anywhere else in the season. Two examples that immediately spring to mind is Lucy trying to quietly count the diamonds in Barbara Morrison's bracelet, and her reaction after realizing she has wiped the cocktail sauce from the bracelet with the back of the woman's dress. Pitch perfect.

 

Thoughts on this episode? What gets your vote?

I know, watching them one by one for all her series is a terrific idea, now that summer reruns are here, i'm starting also, but with The Lucy show as i see I Love Lucy as many as three times a day here now.

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At the end of the episode, Barbara Morrison as Lady Agatha Warren exclaims that Tony Rivera "looks just like Cesar Romero." There's also another joke that I wonder if was a joke referring to real life. Craig says Tony played drums with them and Lucy replies, "Just what I need, another drum player." It's a reference to Craig, but could also refer to her real life first husband.

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While I think "Lucy, The Fixer" is among Ball's personal best work ever, I get great enjoyment out of most of the installments mentioned above, especially " A Date For Lucy," which is a lot of fun. In terms of scripting, I've always found the heretofore unmentioned "Lucy, The Shopping Expert" to be an outstanding entry for all of the characters, with plenty of laughs as well.

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While I think "Lucy, The Fixer" is among Ball's personal best work ever, I get great enjoyment out of most of the installments mentioned above, especially " A Date For Lucy," which is a lot of fun. In terms of scripting, I've always found the heretofore unmentioned "Lucy, The Shopping Expert" to be an outstanding entry for all of the characters, with plenty of laughs as well.

 

I really enjoy "Shopping Expert" as well but, unfortunately, in my opinion, that nonsensical "publicity stunt" with the whipped cream at the end makes the episode end on a bum note.

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I really enjoy "Shopping Expert" as well but, unfortunately, in my opinion, that nonsensical "publicity stunt" with the whipped cream at the end makes the episode end on a bum note.

That's the dumbest publicity stunt ever concocted and makes ZERO sense.

 

Not to mention that the publicity stunt publicity man is IRWIN CHARONE!!!

 

Checked imdb, can never remember the spelling of his last name.  It says he did only FIVE Here's Lucys.  Sure seems like more.  AND he's still with us at 93!

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At the end of the episode, Barbara Morrison as Lady Agatha Warren exclaims that Tony Rivera "looks just like Cesar Romero." There's also another joke that I wonder if was a joke referring to real life. Craig says Tony played drums with them and Lucy replies, "Just what I need, another drum player." It's a reference to Craig, but could also refer to her real life first husband.

LOL!  I always thought it was, LOL!

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While I think "Lucy, The Fixer" is among Ball's personal best work ever, I get great enjoyment out of most of the installments mentioned above, especially " A Date For Lucy," which is a lot of fun. In terms of scripting, I've always found the heretofore unmentioned "Lucy, The Shopping Expert" to be an outstanding entry for all of the characters, with plenty of laughs as well.

Funny how it sometimes takes someone else to point out to us some exceptional work of hers, and it was Brock who made me wake up to the fact that Lucy the fixer is just brilliant slapstick homage to the great work of Laurel and hardy.  I always thought it was old fashioned and don't get me started on that cat in the wall business, LOL!

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Well I'll TELL you then.

It was "Lucy Meets Lucille Ball".

Pretty cool that the first two episodes of HL warranted Best Bet status as well as one of the last.

 

 

 

By the way, during the rest of the series, I can only remember two other Here's Lucys warranting Best Bet status.  One is obvious "Meets the Burtons" and the other was.............any guesses?  It's an episode that makes MY HL Top Ten.

 

Meta joke?

These new terms are coming too fast for me.  Usually by the time I hear them , they're already part of general lexicon.  Examples: "app", "hashtag".

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Well I'll TELL you then.

It was "Lucy Meets Lucille Ball".

Pretty cool that the first two episodes of HL warranted Best Bet status as well as one of the last.

 

 

These new terms are coming too fast for me.  Usually by the time I hear them , they're already part of general lexicon.  Examples: "app", "hashtag".

Oh i know the two you mention but had never heard Meta before.  I never enjoyed Lucy meets Lucy as much because Lucy has to play HAUGHTY Lucy Ball because if she played her as she really was, she'd be doing Lucy Carter.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Inspired by these posts, i watched this episode and it's a pretty good HL, especially when compared with the bulk of season 1.   Caesar is a fine guest star.

Lucy looks great at the party and even in her garage cleaning duds---when I think we're seeing her wigless.

Enjoyable all the way through, but the only LOL moment was when Lucy wiped her hands on the woman's dress.  An SOM (smile out loud) was when Barbara Morrison accuses Harry of being the thief.  "YOU!! I might have known.  You've got those beady eyes".

I thought somehow it would be explained why lowly secretary Lucy was invited to the prestigious Llewelyn affair.  It's not because of her working or familial relationship with "Mr. Carter" because initially neither of them know the other is going.

Another improbable bit.  Mary Jane: "I heard Mr. Carter is invited to the Llewelyn party".   How would MJ  a- know this and b- know this and not Lucy?  And just where would she have "heard" this?.  But this is a minor gripe.   HL was never known for bothering with such details.   Fred Fox/Seamon Jacobs scripts were never as clever as they should have been.

MJ doesn't seem quite as daffy as the later episodes.  Miss Croft was a very talented comedienne, but her talents are wasted on most of the TLS and HL's.   It wasn't until "The Lucy Book"  that I realized how late into the season she made her HL debut.  And with literally NO fanfare, indicative of what a nothing her character was.

The only equivalent waste of talent I can think of is taking one of the greatest comic characterizations in TV history (Pearl Bodine on "Beverly Hillbillies") and plunking her down as the dullest character in "Petticoat Junction".  If you want "homespun", hire Frances Bavier!    I would rather have seen Bea in a true spinoff,  as Pearl in her own series, which I think was the original idea because the series was announced first as "Country Cousins".

I don't suppose LBP ever entertained the idea of an MJ spinoff "Lewis on the Loose!"

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Inspired by these posts, i watched this episode and it's a pretty good HL, especially when compared with the bulk of season 1.   Caesar is a fine guest star.

Lucy looks great at the party and even in her garage cleaning duds---when I think we're seeing her wigless.

Enjoyable all the way through, but the only LOL moment was when Lucy wiped her hands on the woman's dress.  An SOM (smile out loud) was when Barbara Morrison accuses Harry of being the thief.  "YOU!! I might have known.  You've got those beady eyes".

I thought somehow it would be explained why lowly secretary Lucy was invited to the prestigious Llewelyn affair.  It's not because of her working or familial relationship with "Mr. Carter" because initially neither of them know the other is going.

Another improbable bit.  Mary Jane: "I heard Mr. Carter is invited to the Llewelyn party".   How would MJ  a- know this and b- know this and not Lucy?  And just where would she have "heard" this?.  But this is a minor gripe.   HL was never known for bothering with such details.   Fred Fox/Seamon Jacobs scripts were never as clever as they should have been.

MJ doesn't seem quite as daffy as the later episodes.  Miss Croft was a very talented comedienne, but her talents are wasted on most of the TLS and HL's.   It wasn't until "The Lucy Book"  that I realized how late into the season she made her HL debut.  And with literally NO fanfare, indicative of what a nothing her character was.

The only equivalent waste of talent I can think of is taking one of the greatest comic characterizations in TV history (Pearl Bodine on "Beverly Hillbillies") and plunking her down as the dullest character in "Petticoat Junction".  If you want "homespun", hire Frances Bavier!    I would rather have seen Bea in a true spinoff,  as Pearl in her own series, which I think was the original idea because the series was announced first as "Country Cousins".

I don't suppose LBP ever entertained the idea of an MJ spinoff "Lewis on the Loose!"

Lucy and the writers probably didn't want it to feel like they were replacing Viv, but they could have done a little more with the character.

I agree about Bea Benaderet and Petticoat Junction. Pearl was one of the best parts of TBH and could have carried her own series, especially if she had been the lead on PJ. Her death made that show even worse.

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Inspired by these posts, i watched this episode and it's a pretty good HL, especially when compared with the bulk of season 1.   Caesar is a fine guest star.

Lucy looks great at the party and even in her garage cleaning duds---when I think we're seeing her wigless.

Enjoyable all the way through, but the only LOL moment was when Lucy wiped her hands on the woman's dress.  An SOM (smile out loud) was when Barbara Morrison accuses Harry of being the thief.  "YOU!! I might have known.  You've got those beady eyes".

I thought somehow it would be explained why lowly secretary Lucy was invited to the prestigious Llewelyn affair.  It's not because of her working or familial relationship with "Mr. Carter" because initially neither of them know the other is going.

Another improbable bit.  Mary Jane: "I heard Mr. Carter is invited to the Llewelyn party".   How would MJ  a- know this and b- know this and not Lucy?  And just where would she have "heard" this?.  But this is a minor gripe.   HL was never known for bothering with such details.   Fred Fox/Seamon Jacobs scripts were never as clever as they should have been.

MJ doesn't seem quite as daffy as the later episodes.  Miss Croft was a very talented comedienne, but her talents are wasted on most of the TLS and HL's.   It wasn't until "The Lucy Book"  that I realized how late into the season she made her HL debut.  And with literally NO fanfare, indicative of what a nothing her character was.

The only equivalent waste of talent I can think of is taking one of the greatest comic characterizations in TV history (Pearl Bodine on "Beverly Hillbillies") and plunking her down as the dullest character in "Petticoat Junction".  If you want "homespun", hire Frances Bavier!    I would rather have seen Bea in a true spinoff,  as Pearl in her own series, which I think was the original idea because the series was announced first as "Country Cousins".

I don't suppose LBP ever entertained the idea of an MJ spinoff "Lewis on the Loose!"

I was surprised when i watched one Lucy show and it was written by Fox but with a different partner than SEMEN Jacobs.

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Lucy and the writers probably didn't want it to feel like they were replacing Viv, but they could have done a little more with the character.

I agree about Bea Benaderet and Petticoat Junction. Pearl was one of the best parts of TBH and could have carried her own series, especially if she had been the lead on PJ. Her death made that show even worse.

That was always the problem, even with Ann Sothern guesting, Lucy never wanted it to look like she was replacing Viv.  And i agree about Bea, that show was terrible while she was on it but a total waste of time without her.

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Inspired by these posts, i watched this episode and it's a pretty good HL, especially when compared with the bulk of season 1.   Caesar is a fine guest star.

Lucy looks great at the party and even in her garage cleaning duds---when I think we're seeing her wigless.

Enjoyable all the way through, but the only LOL moment was when Lucy wiped her hands on the woman's dress.  An SOM (smile out loud) was when Barbara Morrison accuses Harry of being the thief.  "YOU!! I might have known.  You've got those beady eyes".

I thought somehow it would be explained why lowly secretary Lucy was invited to the prestigious Llewelyn affair.  It's not because of her working or familial relationship with "Mr. Carter" because initially neither of them know the other is going.

Another improbable bit.  Mary Jane: "I heard Mr. Carter is invited to the Llewelyn party".   How would MJ  a- know this and b- know this and not Lucy?  And just where would she have "heard" this?.  But this is a minor gripe.   HL was never known for bothering with such details.   Fred Fox/Seamon Jacobs scripts were never as clever as they should have been.

MJ doesn't seem quite as daffy as the later episodes.  Miss Croft was a very talented comedienne, but her talents are wasted on most of the TLS and HL's.   It wasn't until "The Lucy Book"  that I realized how late into the season she made her HL debut.  And with literally NO fanfare, indicative of what a nothing her character was.

The only equivalent waste of talent I can think of is taking one of the greatest comic characterizations in TV history (Pearl Bodine on "Beverly Hillbillies") and plunking her down as the dullest character in "Petticoat Junction".  If you want "homespun", hire Frances Bavier!    I would rather have seen Bea in a true spinoff,  as Pearl in her own series, which I think was the original idea because the series was announced first as "Country Cousins".

I don't suppose LBP ever entertained the idea of an MJ spinoff "Lewis on the Loose!"

 

"A Date for Lucy" is, hands down, my favorite episode of S1.  I disagree that there is only one LOL moment.  Maybe you only laughed out loud once, but I do several times whenever I watch this episode.  The scene where Lucy meets her date for the first time makes me laugh; Lucy fishing for the jewelry in the shrimp cocktail makes me laugh ("I lost my shrimp"); her realization that she wiped her hands on the lady's dress; counting the woman's diamonds; the chase between Lucy and her date; and several others.

 

I do agree that it's odd that Lucy would be invited to this high society event, but I don't find it odd that Mary Jane would find out about Harry going before Lucy did.  After all, they work in the same building and Harry probably said something to one of his business acquaintances in the building (possibly Mary Jane's boss) in front of Mary Jane or one of her secretary friends.  And there was a very active gossip circuit in that building.

 

 

Lucy and the writers probably didn't want it to feel like they were replacing Viv, but they could have done a little more with the character.

I agree about Bea Benaderet and Petticoat Junction. Pearl was one of the best parts of TBH and could have carried her own series, especially if she had been the lead on PJ. Her death made that show even worse.

 

 

Mary Jane Croft was used for a very different purpose on this show than Vivian Vance.  She wasn't Lucy's second banana like Viv.  Usually her role on the show was simply to help set up the plot.  She would appear in an early scene in the episode, and maybe in the wrap-up or tag at the end, but generally would not involved in the main action.  Lucy would go off on her own, or with a guest star, and maybe Gale Gordon, and do those big comedy blocks.   People make a mistake of comparing Mary Jane to Vivian, remembering all those great comedy scenes between Lucy and Vivian.  But that's not fair because Mary Jane rarely was given the opportunity to do those big comedy scenes with Lucy.  There were only a couple times when she did participate in the main comedy scene: the Sheldon Leonard episode of TLS, and the "Not-So-Popular Mechanics" episode of HL.

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