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LIFE WITH LUCY Coming to DVD Oct. 8 2019


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11 hours ago, Freddie2 said:

The FIRST thing I thought when I saw that cover art was that Mot’s would be so much better. In fact, when I first saw this post, I thought it was a joke! LWL on DVD is a luxury I didn’t think would come at this point. If it’s through CBS/Paramount, what are the chances we could see the show in “film” form and not just “edited to tape” which looks kinda shoddy. It’s crazy to think that all of Lucy’s weekly series are finally available!!

As great as it'd be seeing the show remastered from the original film elements, I wouldn't count on it. I doubt the cost of that would be worth it from a business perspective. 

Plus, who knows what condition the film elements are in today? I hope, but doubt, they would've been given the same care as "top tier" shows in their vaults. 

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I'm just thrilled, tickled and yet even a bit surprised (happily) that this title is even being released.  If it's put out by the "professionals" at CBS' home video division -- and I'm assuming Tom Watson & company -- even if only on a consultant basis -- is involved, that the end result will most likely be the best possible quality release they can put out... and let's face it, this release is "gravy", we're fortunate it's even seeing the light of day and after 30 years (!), ANYTHING will be better than the blurry, grainy bootlegs I hear (ahem) have been floating around out there all these years so overall I just say....AMEN and bring 'em on! :HALKING:

I was hoping that the handful of LWL's that were put on Time/Life's big "Lucy" collection was a "test case" not to mention good sign that perhaps this would ultimately happen.  Glad I never quite gave up hope. :peachonthebeach:

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12 hours ago, Mot Morenzi said:

As great as it'd be seeing the show remastered from the original film elements, I wouldn't count on it. I doubt the cost of that would be worth it from a business perspective. 

Plus, who knows what condition the film elements are in today? I hope, but doubt, they would've been given the same care as "top tier" shows in their vaults. 

I found this comment from Jonathan Angus on FB:

"The film could not be located but they did noise reduction and sharpening enhancement. These should definitely look better than the Time Life release."

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On 7/27/2019 at 2:53 PM, Mot Morenzi said:

I found this comment from Jonathan Angus on FB:

"The film could not be located but they did noise reduction and sharpening enhancement. These should definitely look better than the Time Life release."

Too bad Dan Cahn isn't around when you need him! :lucywow:

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On 7/27/2019 at 5:53 PM, Mot Morenzi said:

I found this comment from Jonathan Angus on FB:

"The film could not be located but they did noise reduction and sharpening enhancement. These should definitely look better than the Time Life release."

If the original film couldn't be located then what source is it coming from? :lucyhmm:

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2 hours ago, nertz2mertz said:

If the original film couldn't be located then what source is it coming from? :lucyhmm:

Life With Lucy was shot on film but transferred and edited onto tape, as were most shows of the era. Therefore, the masters were always tape sources. That's what they'll be using. 

The original film elements were purely raw materials and the episodes would've had to have been reassembled from them, which probably would've been cost prohibitive. Alas, they appear lost, so the issue's moot. 

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Some ideas for bonus features (purely satirical):

  • Life Without Lucy: Lost pilot for the unrealized 1990 reboot
  • No One Remembers: Ruta Lee disses the series
  • "She Smoked A Lot!" - Jenny Lewis Remembers Life With Lucy
  • Spelling Disaster: How Aaron Spelling f*cked everything up!
  • Looking Puffy: The Lucy Book author Geoffery Mark Fidelman critiques each episode
  • Cut Mary Jane Croft scenes, fresh from Gary Morton's vault
  • "Every Day is Better Than Before" music video by Cardi B
  • Lucille Ball cue card scans
  • Gale Gordon hair and makeup tests
  • 18 never-before-seen Bungle Abbey script outlines
  • The Ellen Burstyn Show pilot
  • Jaws II trailer
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On 7/30/2019 at 5:42 PM, Mot Morenzi said:

Life With Lucy was shot on film but transferred and edited onto tape, as were most shows of the era. Therefore, the masters were always tape sources. That's what they'll be using. 

The original film elements were purely raw materials and the episodes would've had to have been reassembled from them, which probably would've been cost prohibitive. Alas, they appear lost, so the issue's moot. 

:lucyeww:

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On August 1, 2019 at 4:52 PM, Mot Morenzi said:

Some ideas for bonus features (purely satirical):

  • Life Without Lucy: Lost pilot for the unrealized 1990 reboot
  • No One Remembers: Ruta Lee disses the series
  • "She Smoked A Lot!" - Jenny Lewis Remembers Life With Lucy
  • Spelling Disaster: How Aaron Spelling f*cked everything up!
  • Looking Puffy: The Lucy Book author Geoffery Mark Fidelman critiques each episode
  • Cut Mary Jane Croft scenes, fresh from Gary Morton's vault
  • "Every Day is Better Than Before" music video by Cardi B
  • Lucille Ball cue card scans
  • Gale Gordon hair and makeup tests
  • 18 never-before-seen Bungle Abbey script outlines
  • The Ellen Burstyn Show pilot
  • Jaws II trailer
  • "Ladies Who Lunch (aka 'Stritchie Doesn't Live Here Anymore')", the unaired crossover between LWL and Ellen Burstyn, in which Lucy Barker's old pal Sydney Brewer (Stritch) comes to visit after being kicked out of her daughter's house when she offended a dinner guest (in a previous Ellen Burstyn episode featuring Marge Champion) and tries to help out at the hardware store while she gets back into Ellen's good graces. Lucy sets up a luncheon with Sydney and Ellen, but doesn't tell either one who the other guests will be. She brings along Curtis for support, but the whole thing ends in a food fight with Curtis getting covered in pea soup, provided by a sassy waitress (Diane Ladd).
  • "One... Two... Three..." Gary Morton's entire warmup act, complete with unresponsive audience reactions!
  • Select episodes available in CrummyVision™, so new viewers can enjoy the series in the fuzzy, blurry, near-unwatchable quality that so many fans have had to deal with for three decades!
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On ‎8‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 6:24 PM, Mot Morenzi said:

In a departure from previous CBS Lucy releases, Tom Watson just confirmed that this set will present the episodes in production order, as opposed to broadcast (or intended broadcast) order.

Thank goodness!!! I hope this doesn't get changed. I wished they did ALL of her TV series in production order (instead of doing it by airdate) on the DVD sets. For me, it just doesn't seem right watching them out of order on the DVD sets. If only they would release ALL 507 Lucy episodes in the digital/streaming format. That would enable us to watch them in any order that we want.  

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6 hours ago, Harrison said:

Thank goodness!!! I hope this doesn't get changed. I wished they did ALL of her TV series in production order (instead of doing it by airdate) on the DVD sets. For me, it just doesn't seem right watching them out of order on the DVD sets. If only they would release ALL 507 Lucy episodes in the digital/streaming format. That would enable us to watch them in any order that we want.  

Except in some cases broadcast order makes more sense / is intentional. "Harpo Marx" was shot before "The Dancing Star" but takes place afterwards story wise. You wouldn't want to watch those out of order.

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16 hours ago, Freddie2 said:
  • "Ladies Who Lunch (aka 'Stritchie Doesn't Live Here Anymore')", the unaired crossover between LWL and Ellen Burstyn, in which Lucy Barker's old pal Sydney Brewer (Stritch) comes to visit after being kicked out of her daughter's house when she offended a dinner guest (in a previous Ellen Burstyn episode featuring Marge Champion) and tries to help out at the hardware store while she gets back into Ellen's good graces. Lucy sets up a luncheon with Sydney and Ellen, but doesn't tell either one who the other guests will be. She brings along Curtis for support, but the whole thing ends in a food fight with Curtis getting covered in pea soup, provided by a sassy waitress (Diane Ladd).
  • "One... Two... Three..." Gary Morton's entire warmup act, complete with unresponsive audience reactions!
  • Select episodes available in CrummyVision™, so new viewers can enjoy the series in the fuzzy, blurry, near-unwatchable quality that so many fans have had to deal with for three decades!

These are great! I especially love Gary's warm-up act and CrummyVision! 

  • Candy Moore and Lucie Arnaz screentests for Margo
  • Phil Vandervoort's Unauthorized Audience Home Movies ("Get outta here, you're divorced!")
  • Omitted Sid Gould as "Sam Barker" cameo
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3 hours ago, Mot Morenzi said:

Omitted Sid Gould as "Sam McGibbon" cameo---don't you mean Sam BARKER?

Vanda can't understand why husband Sid is not more excited being cast as Sam Barker.  Sid "I happen to know that Sam DIES before the pilot even starts". 

You're right that Geoffrey "GodBlessIm4WritingItAnyway" Fidelman does seem obsessed with the bags under Lucy's eyes---also her WEIGHT, two things I had never noticed and don't care about. 

I too am dying to hear the Lucie Arnaz theme (written with Cy Coleman?).  There's nothing particularly wrong with "Every Day....".  But there's nothing right about it either.  It has virtually nothing to do with the series.   I wonder if Lucie's was more Lucy-centric as it should have been. 

I thought the first Ellen Burstyn Show was good.  The pilot was shot on film.  Then when the series was picked up the subsequent episodes were shot on videotape which gave it an artificial feel.  I'd almost forgotten that Elaine Stritch was Ellen's mother.  What a great addition Elaine would have made to Life with Lucy.  When something fails, everyone is there with "I told you so"'s.  I wish LWL's premise had centered on Lucy and a group of her contemporaries (Elaine as one of them) , rather than the home life with Ted, Margo and the kids.   Think of all the still-capable 1986 actresses that could have played Lucy's friends! Poor Larry and Ann: stuck with the Mo-In-Law Susie/Jerry roles.  No discernible characters as written.  Most of the then-current young actors didn't have the comedic background to insert characterization and laughs where none existed on the page.   People like Verna Felton, Elvia Allman, Doris PackerJay Novello were just inherently FUNNY (...I can't think of any actors Ted/Margo/Susie/Jerry's ages that were this skilled, but there must have been SOME). These pros could make straight lines or exposition lines seem funny. (Good example: veteran Ruth Kobart in the hardware store scene)  In the premiere ep, it looks like Larry is TRYING but his character gets blander in subsequent episodes.     I watched the first episode again recently and it was much better than I remember.   Some pretty good lines.  The ending with the suds almost worked and might have succeeded--without that one shot that shows the suds coming from an additional source, spoiling the bit by reminding us "oh, this is all fake".     LWL presented such Catch-22s.  People expected Lucy-type of comedy from a Lucy project but then were critical when that's what it was.   One more thing:  Lucy's dancing to "Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs" (was this a REAL group?): her movements are so fluid and limber unlike any 75 year old I've ever known.  Older people on TV were (and are) rarely treated as anything other than the butt of old people jokes. 

For those of us who lived through it, Life with Lucy was a remarkable experience.  Hopeful with anticipation but ultimately bittersweet for sure.  I'll never forget the day a friend called me in May of 1986 and said "You'll NEVER guess what I just read in USA Today"...He made me try.  I didn't guess.   

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Oops. For some reason, I was thinking Sam was Curtis's brother, not business partner. Wouldn't THAT have made Ted and Margo's marriage more interesting!

That's part of the problem with this series - the premise was both weak yet convoluted. I'm always having to redraw the family tree in my head to sort out all the connections.

I personally don't think McGibbon was the best surname for the family. It doesn't roll off the tongue, and something with fewer syllables might've been easier for Gale and Lucy to say with more flow. 

I just rewatched the first episode and agree with you about Larry and Ann - they were given the thankless Suzie/Jerry roles. You can tell they were trying but just didn't have much to work with. As for the kids, they're about as generic as sitcom kids can get. Jenny Lewis was apparently pushed into being a child actor by her mother and never really enjoyed it. When an interviewer told her a few years back that he'd never seen her TV work, she responded, "You're not missing much."

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As much as I enjoyed seeing Gale, and the fact that he, at 80,  was more than up to the task, casting him may have been a bad idea.  By 1986, I Love Lucy was still revered.  The Lucy Show, less so.  It was still being syndicated but usually not in prime hours.  Here's Lucy, even less.  HL's syndication life was pretty short considering.   The Lucy-Gale relationship was not what the general public thought of as classic "Lucy".  Gale was always the utmost professional. When he had a good script, he could shine brightly.  The only truly great Lucy-Gale year was 2nd season TLS.  With B&M at the helm, the relationship between Lucy and Gale was well-defined.  His frustration with fellow Danfield-ite Lucy was motivated.  Even if Gale did not have a great script, he could still shine.  With a bad script, he did what he could, never giving less than 100%.  But when an actor gives 100% to a bad script, it can make him/her look bad, unfair as that is. 

If they were going to stick with the LWL family premise, I think having a Curtis McGibbon was a good idea.  If not Gale, what do you think about Jackie Coogan for the role?  Someone who worked on the show (Stu Shostak maybe?) told me the network hated the hardware store story lines.  It did seem to figure in less and less.

More casting suggestions:  Ted & Margo played by RG Brown and Ruth Buzzi and NO kids.  The running gag could be someone asking Ruth if they have children and Ruth answering "No......but we're TRYING" followed by a close-up of RG with a 'please God, help me' look directly into the camera.  This may have been a little too risqué for Lucy, but I would have lol'd every time!

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The hardware store was hardly the best idea, and was never executed that well. They ran out of ideas for that one fast. No wonder it figured less in the plots of later episodes. It would've made much more sense to have Lucy and Curtis retired and constantly finding new things to do. That would've given them much more leeway. 

I'm glad you mentioned Ruth Kobart's appearance in the first episode. She voiced the villain in the first ever computer game I played, so her distinctive voice has long been etched into my memory. 

Ruth Buzzi would've been a great casting choice as Lucy's daughter. I LOL'd at your concept of her and R.G. Brown as a married couple.

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6 minutes ago, Mot Morenzi said:

The hardware store was hardly the best idea, and was never executed that well. They ran out of ideas for that one fast. No wonder if figured less in the plots of later episodes. It would've made much more sense to have Lucy and Curtis retired and constantly finding new things to do. That would've given them much more leeway. 

I'm glad you mentioned Ruth Kobart's appearance in the first episode. She voiced the villain in the first ever computer game I played, so her distinctive voice has long been etched into my memory. 

Ruth Buzzi would've been a great casting choice as Lucy's daughter. I LOL'd at your concept of her and R.G. Brown as a married couple.

Margo may have gotten suspicious when at the mention of Hal King, it's TED who squeals and jumps up and down on the couch. 

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14 hours ago, rspeterson3 said:

Cool! I'll wait till it shows up on Amazon. :HALKING:

If you take the UPC code from the Best Buy listing (032429328076) and google it, you see several other places on line where it is also listed for pre-order -- at varying prices -- despite a release date of October, including DeepDiscount.com and ShopTCM.com among a few others. 

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1 hour ago, JoeySoCal said:

Cool! I'll wait till it shows up on Amazon. :HALKING:

If you take the UPC code from the Best Buy listing (032429328076) and google it, you see several other places on line where it is also listed for pre-order -- at varying prices -- despite a release date of October, including DeepDiscount.com and ShopTCM.com among a few others. 

Same here - I’m all about Amazon even though they should pay their share of taxes 😀

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