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Here's Lucy: Season Four -- Reviews and First Impressions


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Oh yeah, this is where gary pulled a Fred Mertz and went catatonic when he saw the gardener's bill. Lucie just pulled the bill out of his hands and put it in her pocket and Desi jr's just standing there stunned thinking dad would never have done that.

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:marionstrong:

 

Oh yeah? Well try these additional Season Four musical numbers on for size:

 

- Lucy and Dinah singing on the ski lift

- Shine On Harvest Moon in Astronauts

- The brilliant type writer scene in Lucy's Replacement

- and, of course, the even more brilliant Musical Bank Robbery sequence in "Candid Camera"

 

Shows Lucy gets involved in:

 

- Harry's Encino production of Gone With The Wind

- The third act of All Nun Band

 

But I think we can agree that Lucy's Lucky Day NEVER happened. ;) I'll deny it if you will.

 

I don't know how you treat your elders in Canada, but this is the UNITED STATES and I have my RIGHTS!

 

I was actually talking about a full-blown choreographed and costumed, pre-recorded and sometimes dubbed extravaganza like "Unemployment Follies" or "Generation Gap". Kim has a few (unfortunately!) in the last two seasons but I can't think of one Lucy's involved in unless you count "Eddie Albert".

 

I risk being pelted with chimp poop, but I don't this "Lucky Day" is all THAT bad...compared to the real duffers of the season like the aforementioned "Jungle". But even that one doesn't bug me as much as "Bonus Bounces". With a title like "Lucy in the Jungle" you pretty much know what you're in for. But "BB" has virtually nothing in the plot that makes sense! It's as if the chimp from "Lucky Day" borrowed Martin Ragaway's typewriter and churned one out! (And I'm talking about a script, not a BM, but in this case they're synonymous.)

I'll be re-watching these of course, but my memory of "Few Extra Dollars" is that she's a bit too harsh and her treatment of Harry borders on sadistic. I remember a day of show ad that featured a Here's Lucy still and the narrator saying "Lucy joins a carnival to get a raise in pay. Tonight on Here's Lucy"..Huh?...Well that's as good a summary as any, I guess.

This was also the season that I remember the live action commercial that always ran right before or after "HL"'s lead-in "Gunsmoke"'s closing credits.

These usually featured the best physical bit-scene. "Dollars" showed the dunk tank. "Sublets the Office/Cox" showed Lucy's flawless slide and skate entrance. (IMO the only good bits from these eps) "Dinah": what else but skiing down the stairs. "Replacement": Lucy typing to music. "Mountain Climber": Lucy confronts the bear. "Mannix" Lucy-Mannix tied to the chair hop. I was hoping that these would surface as extras.

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I will post a whole whack of pictures tomorrow, I promise. I budgeted my work time like Lucy's money this week apparently and now I'm backed up!

BACKED UP? Maybe YOU should sample those Ducoclax or whatever they're called that you kept taljking about in that other thread? LOL! Thanks for posting the pics, Sunday's fine, i'll be at the accountant for my income tax tomorrow morning and then work till Midnight.

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Here's my review -- so far -- on the this new, fantastic DVD set:

 

Garret and George at GAB Entertainment have done another stellar job with the Here’s Lucy Season Four release. Although I haven’t watched all of the episode introductions yet, what I have seen so far is fantastic. Lucie’s introductions appear to have been filmed in the same sitting as the previous release. I watched the intro to Kim Cuts You-Know-Who’s Apron Strings first and am glad to report that Alan Oppenheimer still looks essentially the same. It must be all the organics! He spends a great deal of his time talking about Susan Tolsky (Hello?) and Lucie seems to imply that she was... enamoured with her British racing star beau from the episode. The intro from Kim Hamilton for Lucy & Flip Go Legit is great too. She seems to have great admiration for Lucy. Kaye’s intro to Italian Bombshell is short but sweet, and what it lacks in length is made up in the fact that she says, “a long-a long-a time†twice and performs an abbreviated impromptu musical number. LOL

 

Onto the special features...

 

The first up is a 15 minute featurette entitled “Here’s Harry: Remembering Gale Gordonâ€, which is a wonderful tribute to Gale. Nobody featured in the featurtte has a bad word to say about him and as a huge Gale fan it was very heartening to see and hear. They talk about his professionalism, his sense of humour on and off the set, being “game†for anything (Lucie’s words), fitting into HL’s “over-the-top†sense of humour (Doris’ words), clips of some of Harry Carter’s finest/funniest/best musical and dance moments, and so forth. Two of my favourite segments of the featurette are compilations of his cartwheels and a re-creation of a reel Lucy had made highlighting all the times Gale got soaked or a water cooler jug in the crotch through the course of the series. Wonderful stuff! I also enjoy Lucie and Desi’s brief analysis of and insight into Gale’s comedy style. They would definitely know better than anyone! I’m so glad they also included the more tender moments shared by Lucy and Harry that came on the scene when Bob and Madelyn came back on board. And a special thanks to Garret and George for plugging the Gale site at the end of the piece! Interviewees include Lucie, Desi, Carole Cook, Doris Singleton, Kaye Ballard, Anita Mann, Jim Bates, Lola Fisher, and Shirley Anthony (Lucy & Danny Thomas, Lucy & Joan Rivers Do Jury Duty).

 

Next up is the regular Let’s Talk To Lucy feature, this time featuring THREE – count ‘em! – episodes of Lucy interviewing Dinah Shore. These are wonderful as always, even though they don’t integrate the same bells and whistles that they had in the Dean Martin releases. Hell, it is just great hearing these as the ladies clearly had such high regard for each other and talked about everything under the sun from art to their kids (of particular note was Lucy’s discussion that she used to ask Lucie and Desi WHY they wanted to be friends with the people they brought through the Roxbury door). Oddly enough they seemed to talk very little of their professional lives.

 

After Dinah’s episodes comes what I think will probably be the general favourite feature of many people here – Lucy on The Pearl Bailey Show. It is not the complete episode but it is a colour copy of Lucy’s guest appearance and she looks sensational and performs wonderfully. She makes a grand entrance like Gale’s entrance in Generation Gap, except instead of being carried in my “amazonsâ€, Lucy is carried in by Pearl’s ushers in a grand evening gown throwing furs to the audience. She has some patter with Pearl once she eventually gets to the stage. The second featured segment includes Lucy singing and Dancing in a patriotic musical number (“Grand Old Flagâ€?) and is joined at the end again by Pearl. The quality of the video has deteriorated with this, but it is still highly watchable and fantastic to see!

 

After a segment of Lucy filming a commercial for the Australian carrier of HL and the regular slide show, comes the always spectacular “Treasures From Lucy’s Vaultâ€. In Season Four’s offering, we’re treated to a section featuring two lengthy Westinghouse Commercials featuring Lucy, Desi, Viv, and Bill (These commercials have been featured in the Goodtimes videos, but it is great to see them here again), a segment called “Lucy On The Farm†which features home movies of Lucy and Gary horseback riding with Arthur Godfrey (and his wife?) at Godfrey’s sprawling Virginia ranch, a segment called “Lucy Hits The Slopesâ€, with Lucy, Gary, and Lucie in and around Snowmass, skiing, tobogganing, etc., , joined by someone who bears a resemblance to Jack Donohue* (I think everyone will get a kick out of Lucy and Lucie going down the hill together on the same toboggan!), and finally (well, this part came first, but I wanted to save the best for last!) “Lucy & Family At Home†which features home movies of Lucy, Gary, Lucie, and Desi (and a Tinker) clowning around in the front yard and back yard of Roxbury. (Claude, you may never recover!). It is great to see all four of them having such a great time together – Lucy even performs a little dance routine with her kids, and Gary and Lucie have their own time step routine! After watching the Arnaz-Morton Clan frolicking (LITERALLY) on their front lawn in full view of passers-by, I can’t help but think bus tours of the movie stars’ homes must have been a lot more fun back in the day. Try and imagine driving down the street and seeing Lucille Ball, Lucie Arnaz, and Desi Arnaz Jr., doing the can-can at the side of the road! A wonderful clip, although I’m curious as to who the kid skipping down the front path is as Gary drives them all away in a limo. I did not realise the front lawn of Roxbury was so lush... once upon a time. :(

 

The special features section concludes with the syndication promos as usual (this section could have benefited from being able to select the promos individually rather than going through it chapter by chapter and hoping for the best), the original sponsor billboards and tags for Lever Brothers (Twice As Nice shampoo, Pepsodent (with zirconium silicate!), Close-Up Toothpaste, Lifebuoy (watch for their commercials within HL episodes!) etc) and Oscar Meyer, production files as read by Wanda, trailers for other MPI releases, and a special “message†from Kaye guilting you into buying her (spectacular) audio book! LOL

 

I hope everyone who hasn't already reserves their judgement on HL as a series until the can see Season Four in its entirety. With Bob and Madelyn on board the series really enters its Golden Age. The only episodic duds here can be blamed on the animals, and there are some truly classic episodes here, including the criminally underappreciated Won't You Calm Down, Dan Dailey? and the musical bank robbery sequence in Lucy & Candid Camera.

 

Brock, when George told me about the Gale tribute, I knew you'd be tickled. Glad it turned out as good as it sounded!! ;)

 

(And I'm getting such a kick out of your "pickaxe" gif!! (BTW - Do you need a special program or something to make those?? I've never figured out how to to do those, despite several ideas I've had to make my own). Thanks! :D

 

I just got a notice that my copy's shipped (from DeepDiscountDVD), which is kinda weird, isn't it, since its release date isn't till next Tuesday?? Hmmm.... Stay tuned! :rolleyes:

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DeepDiscount has sent me stuff a week or so early, too; wish I had ordered my copy through them!

Well, it may seem early but according to the estimated shipping info given, they take longer than Amazon, although the prices of the two were pretty neck and neck so, we shall see. ;)
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Yeah, delays delays delays, any SCUSE will do while i'm dying here and with this cockamamie new set up that drives me crazy too, LOL! I did type in Lucy Ball in Images of Lucy and got to see some more Roxbury shots that people have put up, God, i even found two minutes of the Streisand interview by Lucy on Let's Talk to Lucy, just incredible what's OUT THERE for us to find, lots of new pics also, must be fromt those new books.

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I guess the most shocking thing is that she had these flowers and trees all over the damned property and Lee tannen telling us she had plastic flowers inside the house, that must have been when she was alone with gary much later as when she had the kids there she sure went all out with decor and this beautifully landscaped lot. I mean everybody has a diving board over the pool but a grotto, a slide and these flower pots everywhere??? It looks like the Roxbury street Botanical Gardens.

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Did you guys see that photo of the house after she died and before gary and the kids sold it? The trees and bushes haven't been kept up with and they are overtaking the property, you can barely see the windows and doors. Check Lucille Ball, IMAGES, like 40 or more pages of pics and it's near the end. Looks so much better HERE!

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Here you go!

 

roxburyDVD1.jpgThe infamous Richard Widmark W A L L in the background.

 

roxburyDVD2.jpgA game of follow the leader at their age?

 

roxburyDVD3.jpgThey do reruns in pics too?

 

roxburyDVD4.jpgYou're right Brock, the house across the street is beautiful.

 

roxburyDVD5.jpgHad no idea the Stewart house next door was W H I T E !

 

roxburyDVD6.jpgLoads of pics with the shutters having glitches in them.

 

roxburyDVD7.jpgLucy? In a limo? Wonder what the occasion was?

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The house across the street is the one she was supposed to buy but went nuts for the one at 1000 North Roxbury instead which wasn't even for sale. I wonder why she has so many tulips on the property, here they don't last long enough for people to use them so much. Could it be that they did not have air conditioning and therefore that's why the windows are always open? The lushness of the backyard and all those flowers and greenery makes it so appealing, i see TWO dogs in that first shot, not just a Tinker but another one on the ground. It must have been a personal day as she doesn't seem to be wearing her eyelashes. God were cars ever that ugly? So, that table and chairs was not off the dining room of the house but rather in front of the pool house then? Seen her do many a photo shoot there with the kids at the pool. One of the shots i saw in Images of Lucille Ball was of the house but before all the big renovations in the late fifties, whereas these are from the late sixties.

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I agree, the cars are ugly but the dogs are absolutely gorgeous! This would have to be around 1966/1967? Desi looks a little bit younger than his first appearance in Here's Lucy, so I'm guessing 1967...........any takers?

 

 

Anyone see any 'evidence' of lilac bushes; supposedly, her childhood, as well as adult, favorite? Perhaps, California weather is not appropriate climate for the bushes....ANYONE???? Thanks...

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Anyone see any 'evidence' of lilac bushes; supposedly, her childhood, as well as adult, favorite? Perhaps, California weather is not appropriate climate for the bushes....ANYONE???? Thanks...

I think she once said that people were forever sending her some but yes, in that unsuitable California climate, they just never TOOK properly and so she had none. They're going to bloom like crazy here in a few weeks but last for so little time, they're everywhere here, i even have some where i live and think of her everytime i see some around town, they are so fragrant and beautiful, that smell is just incredible, they should make a cologne with that scent.

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