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Lucy on the Big Screen on Her Birthday!


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Fathom Events will be screening five colorized I Love Lucy episodes plus a featurette on the colorization process at movie theaters across the country August 6!

One of the most beloved TV series of all time, I Love Lucyis coming to movie theaters for a one-night-only event in honor of Lucille Ball‘s birthday (she would’ve been 108 this August!). EW can reveal that Fathom Events and CBS Home Entertainment are paying tribute to the legendary comedian with I Love Lucy: A Colorized Celebration on Aug. 6, Ball’s birthday.

Fans can visit participating movie theaters for the chance to view five colorized episodes of the sitcom I Love Lucy, as well as an accompanying featurette, Redhead Tales, Colorizing I Love Lucy,  about the colorization process and how much it’s changed over the years. The process was conducted using the real costumes, props, sets, and other vintage material for reference wherever possible.

“Almost everyone has seen and been captivated by I Love Lucy – but even the biggest Lucy fan has rarely had an experience like this: Seeing Lucy on the big screen and laughing alongside fellow fans in a movie theater,” said Fathom Events CEO Ray Nutt in a statement.

The five episodes they will feature are: 1954’s “The Million Dollar Idea,” where Lucy (Ball) and Ethel (Vivian Vance) go into business together making salad dressing; 1952’s “Lucy Does a TV Commercial,” the infamous ‘Vitameatavegemin’ episode, ranked the No. 2 television episode of all time by TV Guide; 1952’s “Pioneer Women,” where Lucy, Ethel, Fred (Wiliam Frawley), and Ricky (Desi Arnaz) make a bet to see whether the women or the men can go longer without using anything invented before 1900; 1952’s iconic “Job Switching” where Lucy and Ethel go to work in a candy factory; and 1955’s “L.A. At Last!,” the first of the show’s memorable Hollywood episodes where Lucy has a disastrous encounter with William Holden.

“We are excited to be exhibiting this timeless franchise in a new manner and hope to bring a new generation of fans to one of the greatest comedies in television history,” said Ken Ross, EVP and general manager of CBS Home Entertainment, in a statement.

CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment are also bringing I Love Lucy: Colorized Collection to DVD Aug. 13, which include 16 full-length colorized episodes of I Love Lucy, including those screened during the special celebration event.

Fans can purchase tickets beginning Friday, June 7 on the Fathom Events website or at participating theater box offices. The screening will occur at participating theaters nationwide for one night only, Aug. 6, at 7 p.m. local time.

 

https://ew.com/tv/2019/06/05/i-love-lucy-theaters-lucille-ball-birthday/

 

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I love when new Lucy stuff comes out of left field. This is awesome. I have 2 theaters near me that do Fathom Events.  One is a bit farther away but always runs the shows correctly. The other theater is 5 mins away and is a hot mess when it comes to anything Fathom Events. Hopefully the good theater has it. 

I also saw something about a free poster, gotta find that info.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Two interviews with Lucie about the upcoming colorization event and more:

Today.com: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjSgMWY6qzjAhVFJ80KHVGOBMIQzPwBegQIARAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.today.com%2Fpopculture%2Flucie-arnaz-reveals-tidbits-5-her-mom-s-classic-i-t157873&psig=AOvVaw0NDqqg08yUBymcgju1p0kL&ust=1562933245562901

A lengthy interview with Closer Magazine. I love that the first thing she says is “They had a great divorce” after last year’s “horrible divorce” misquote.

https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/lucille-ball-and-desi-arnazs-daughter-talks-legacy-of-i-love-lucy/

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the links. The Closer article was a good read. 

In the today show one there's this: "My dad had some great physical comedy in this episode," said Arnaz. "Unfortunately, he slipped on some rice in one scene and broke a couple of ribs. That did not stop the show, though.

First time I think I heard about this. I know the second fall in that scene was a "hey, this got a laugh the first time, let's try that again."

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I'll be there.

There was a period of time in the late 70s and early 80s when ILL was not being run on local television.  An odd little theater The Bagdad Backstage ran a couple of 50s TV nights as their "midnight movie".  Two of those featured ILL episodes: "Phipps" and "In Palm Springs".  It was great to be present for the audience reaction.  The Backstage was literally that.  The Bagdad had at one time been a vaudeville house and there were still pulleys for scenery and a high ceiling.  The chairs in the theater were couches and bean-bag chairs.  The Bagdad is incidentally where Mame had a 4-month run in 1974 with a big mural of Lucy as Mame covering one side of the theater. 

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3 hours ago, Luvsbway said:

Thanks for the links. The Closer article was a good read. 

In the today show one there's this: "My dad had some great physical comedy in this episode," said Arnaz. "Unfortunately, he slipped on some rice in one scene and broke a couple of ribs. That did not stop the show, though.

First time I think I heard about this. I know the second fall in that scene was a "hey, this got a laugh the first time, let's try that again."

I think Lucie’s mistaken there. She also says it was from Pioneer Women instead of Job Switching. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's the pre-festival Lucy party. I saw some people were going. I have 2 locations showing it in my area. I opted for the theater with the reclining seats. Right now 1/3 of the theater is sold. I got the first ticket and so far I have no one sitting in front or next to me. I think what will be most interesting is to see what Lucy fans exist in my area, as I know NONE. 

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I rounded up a group of about 10 friends and fans heading to our closest theater here in Michigan tomorrow! Between this and the impending LWL release, this is probably the biggest year for a Lucy fan since the I Love Lucy "Ultimate Editions" came out on Blu Ray (still waiting on the rest of them, though:lucy1:). 

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As thrilled as I am for this event, I gotta say that I would take the colorized "Dancing Star"/"Harpo Marx" over "Pioneer Women" any day. I really hope that the episodes are shown in series order. The Fathom Events website lists "Pioneer" at the end, and I really think it's the weakest of the selections. Granted, all of the episodes are amazing so I really shouldn't complain. 

 

Incidentally, while perusing the internet for articles about today's feature presentation, I found this new piece from Decider, which I simultaneously hate and love:

https://decider.com/2019/08/06/i-love-lucy-is-the-broad-city-of-the-50s/

Right off the bat- it feels like the writer is trying to spoon-feed ILL to those dreaded Millennials. It's just bizarre to me that he thinks something like Broad City would be more recognizable than I Love Lucy. I'm a part of "Generation Z", and I don't know anybody who watches Broad City, but I could rattle off a ton of people my age and a bit older who are Lucy fans (not as hardcore as myself, but fans nonetheless). At the same time, I love the fact that he attempts to make the show relatable to younger folks; using an underrated episode to boot! 

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I can NOT stand Broad City. I tried, gave it 3 episodes. It's just 2 girls doing gross out humor. Maybe that's what the kids are in to these days but when I watch something funny I want it to be generally funny, with jokes, not something I might snicker at. Amy Schumer went down hill fast when she went past shining a light on female hypocrisy, which i did find funny, to let's see if I can be as gross as the male comics. Who by the way, I don't like either. I skipped Amy at the festival last year because I really didn't need to pay $70 to hear about her vagina. From what I heard I didn't miss much. 

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What a fun night!

My sold out screening had technical problems at the beginning. The audience was sitting in the dark in front of a black screen for about 20 minutes when suddenly the friendly face of Rick Carl appeared on screen. About a minute of the middle of the featurette played and then suddenly stopped. Then the featurette started from the beginning and there were no additional issues. 

The crowd was incredibly diverse. Every type of person you could imagine was there. Everybody seemed to be having a wonderful time. A group of women were wearing red wigs, although they looked more Little Mermaid than Lucy. It was fun hearing people saying favorite lines too. My two favorite moments: there was audience applause when the Vitameatavegamin set appeared and, later, for Frank Nelson. I think The Million Dollar Idea looked the best. Of course, that was the most recently colorized.

The featurette was incredibly well done and informative. It was great to see Tom, Rick, and Jonathan on screen. I think the audience really connected with them. I loved seeing the difference between the 1990 Christmas show colorization and the more recent one and I loved seeing a brief clip of Kiddie Parties, Inc. on the big screen.

The theater said they were not sent any posters. They gave everyone a free pass for a future movie because of the issues tonight.

I hope they do this again!

 

 

 

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I can't thank the folks behind this event enough! Everyone in my crew who had one wore some type of Lucy shirt. I had on my Fred t-shirt- purchased at the Jamestown gift shop, of course. For the duration of "Redhead Tales" and the start of "TV Commercial", the image wasn't properly aligned on the screen, but thankfully someone stepped out and said something pretty quickly. Towards the end there were a few glitches, but other than that, everything was great. I immediately grimaced when Scott Mantz appeared before the presentation. This might sound mean, but there's something about that guy's demeanor- and certainly his movie reviews- that sets my tith on edge like few others can do.

The crowd I was in didn't applaud much, but boy did we all laugh! I can't remember the last time I laughed so much. You can see these episodes a hundred times and they'll still leave you on the floor. After the screening, when I was talking to some friends who hadn't attended, one of them commented on how I was acting "eerily cheerful". Three hours of Lucy will do that to a person!  My souvenir poster now has a very proud place on my wall. :peachonthebeach:

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Another thing that I've thought of post-screening: With ILL's most famous episodes, it usually comes down to a legendary scene or two. Like "TV Commercial" or "LA", there are certain blocks of comedy and visuals that have cemented themselves into history. What we don't always think about is how these outrageous scenes were so brilliantly set up by the writers. It's not just a scene of Lucy getting drunk, it's Lucy not knowing she's slowly getting drunk after shirking Ricky's authority and scheming her way into the studio to do the live commercial without his knowledge. Absolutely every great moment came about logically from densely-plotted scripts that were connected to the characters' motivation and the more I think about it the more I love it. I never imagine that my appreciation for the show could get any deeper, but it seems to happen every day.

 

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Sold out crowd at our theater in Florida. Lots of Lucy T shirt wearers in the crowd and a few women dressed like Lucy!  No technical difficulties and we got our poster. Loved the amazing details in the clothes. Lucy never looked lovelier (as Fred would say ....well... I can't argue with that......). I am glad they didn't tinker with the opening and closing music and of course loved hearing "I Love Lucy is a Desilu Production" blaring through the theater. I like the opening heart sequence someone did on Youtube better but other than that an A+. The mini documentary was excellent as well. Good to see Tom Watson. I remember when he started up the We Love Lucy fanclub back in the 1970s and still have all of the hand made magazines he made back then. They might be worth a fortune by now.

 

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My reaction from last night was, wow!  A sell out crowd at my theatre. The feature on the colorization was excellent. It answered every question I ever had and more. Loved seeing a bit of Rick’s apartment as I had only heard about it before. The technical aspects were really interesting, and I know many of us knew that at times colors were changed, but to see it visually talked about was great, especially the part where they ended up with 2 pink dresses and had to change Viv’s.  I’m also happy they addressed the critics. I’m still a purist but I agree with everything that was said. Excellent work guys. Be proud.

 As for the shows themselves, just wonderful. We’ve said it before but in color you pick up all the small details. Even more so when it’s HUGE. A thread pull on Lucy's shirt at the Brown Derby, addresses written on the order cards for the salad dressing. What struck me was how much I laughed at others laughing. That’s when a shared experience really clicks. They just lost it during the Brown Derby.

 The crowd was a mix of older people and families with kids or teenagers at my theatre. I thought I was home free with open seats on either side of me but a woman and her kid came after the feature was over. And the kid must have had a bottomless bag of popcorn as she crunched away for 2 whole episodes. And I did have to tell the mother to put her phone away, as did the usher an hour later. Lady, just watch and enjoy the genius happening on the huge screen in front of you. The manager handed out the posters before the show and I snagged a few extras after. I also talked to him a bit after the show and said they did a great job showing the event (I’ve been to some badly done fathomevents). He was happy to hear that and surprised at the huge turn out. Totally beat out 5 people for the Met Opera screenings. A few people loved my red polkadot dress and wanted pictures. Ran into some people who had been to Jamestown over the years. Lots of people in Lucy t-shirts.  A little girl next to me was getting the answers right in the pre-show trivia. Even found out that a local organization was giving away tickets via Facebook.  Just a fun time!

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