Jump to content

The Mothers-In-Law Complete Series DVD


Recommended Posts

  • 4 weeks later...

As I have mentioned before, I don't know if Eve Arden's mannerisms in this show was a deliberate mirror of the Lucy character, or could it have been the other way around ???

Lucy and Eve were friends, Our Miss Brooks was filmed at Desilu, Lucy was an institution that everybody imitated, including Eve. I especially loved the show where Eve was dancing and someone makes a comment about her and she shoots back, WELL, IT AIN'T LUCILLE BALL! Eve, when dying in real life made the comment that she was anxious to go join Lucy UP THERE.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you agree though that Eve's mannerisms in the show were almost identical to the Lucy character. I think they were. Not a bad thing though.

 

I don't think so, personally. Whether in Our Miss Brooks, The Mothers-in-Law, or any of her film and television appearances Eve always seemed to me to have a way of movement and carrying herself that was distinctly hers. For instance, take a look at the scene early in the M-i-L series when Eve and Kaye are trying to secretly re-arrange Jerry and Suzie's garage without each other knowing. Lucy would have played that scene in a completely different way.

 

Lucy seemed to have the ability to completely do away with her every day mannerisms and movement and play anything from the height of sophistication and elegance to something rubber-limbed and completely off the wall. Eve was never able to fully shake the natural elegance with which she carried herself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Re-watching this series currently. It's even funnier than it was 9 months ago!

 

So the writing wasn't the most original? At least it was funny!

Totally agree! Love Kaye. She and Eve together was pure genius. Only wish they had better plots and less "fighting" episodes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

A terrific article by M-i-L writer, discussing Lucy, Desi, Eve, Kaye, Bob and Madelyn appeared on Huffington Post, the other day. Check it out, it is a wonderful read:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peggy-elliott/lucy-and-dean-or-what-mak_b_3086486.html

 

Bonus points to Peggy Elliott for being at least partially responsible for one of my all-time favourite Kaye and Roger exchanges:

 

Kaye: And the presenter announces, "And the Academy Award for Best Performance of the Year goes to... Jerry Buell!" I RUSH TO THE STAGE--

Roger: YOU rush to the stage?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wonderful article, Brock; thanks for posting it.

 

What could be better than having Bob & Madelyn as writing mentors??? WOW.

 

Loved this "How To" summary: :lucyhaha:

 

"In writing sitcoms, everything started with a premise, which developed into a storyline, which became a first draft. There was an old rule: Act One, you get your character up a tree. Act Two, you throw rocks at him. Act Three, you get him down from the tree."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I enjoyed the DVD set very much indeed. Though Eve Arden was almost a clone of Lucy in speech and mannerisms - not a bad thing, but was it a conscious thing, or was it meant to be a Lucyesque performance

 

Nice to see Mary Jane in one of the last shows, pity Lucy, Gale or Viv couldn't have done guest spots

Vanda Barra pops up in a couple episodes.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to imdb, Peggy wrote just the one MIL episode: "My son, the Actor". She was 26 at the time.

She wrote for a handful of series including 2 eps for "Captain Nice", TLS's competition for a brief time, the last half of season 5; and the TV movie "Having Babies" with Desi, Jr. and an all-star cast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

We liked "the Mothers In Law" in Portland anyway!

 

This is from January 1969 and a month later NBC announced they were canceling it.

The article mentioned MIL was #30 nationally...still respectable.

Suspiciously missing from this list "Here's Lucy", unless it was pre-empted that week.

 

MoInLawRatings_zps7d0f8081.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Random question about MIL:

Was there a reason for the drastic set change in season 2? (Other than the fact that the first one looked like it was decorated by Helen Keller)

They moved studios in between seasons. I always thought it was weird that the second season set had two doors leading outside that were practically next to each other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

I couldn't agree more -- what a treasure! Great find.

Of course, watching and enjoying it brought up many questions I'll probably never get answers to, but maybe some of our "gurus" here on the board may know: For example, did it ever air? I noticed it had a beyond 25 - 26 minutes running time -- I think it actually went over 30 minutes! -- so if it did, it would have to have been edited.

 

Did it "bother" (slightly) anyone else that she played directly to the studio audience a few times?? While it was kinda...cute, for lack of a better word, it did break the proverbial "4th wall" and wasn't really necessary -- you could tell the audience present LOVED her!

 

Jane Dulo should have been offered her own show after this! Hysterical. I don't know if it was her chemistry with Richard Deacon or her delivery but --and I'd have to go back to watch it again to quote it exactly --but she had a line that was just something "plain" like, "That's what you think" or something and got a HUGE laugh! Priceless.

 

Cool to see Desilu veterans, the slightly older Jimmy Garrett chief among them, included in the supporting cast. Anyone else notice the future "Waltons" Ike Godsey in the role of a sailor that got into a fight with another sailor (familiar, but I can't place him/remember his name) to dance with Carol? So cool.

 

Curiously, the end credits listed everyone in the show with lines EXCEPT for the sailors in the dance hall sequence -- wonder what that was about??

 

Overall, it was a very funny show with great potential, a stellar supporting cast and a wonderful lead in Miss Channing. Wonder what the "suits" reason(s) were for not giving it a green light? Ahh, show biz....

cool.gif

 

 

 

I'm glad this thread, written before I was a member here, got bumped up because somehow I hadn't read it (probably thought I did - I have read and commented on TMIL threads on IMDb and elsewhere.   Your comments about The Carol Channing Show are spot on, I felt the same way about her "breaking the wall"  even as funny as she was.  I found it hard to believe that this wasn't picked up given it worked very well and Carol was at the peak of her career, the number one Broadway star and one of the most famous people in show business now it makes sense if she herself declined to go forward, especially with being offered a plum movie role in Millie which might have lead to her getting to film Hello Dolly (which likely wouldn't have happened had she been signed for a series) and possibly a real film career. 

 

Jane Dulo - priceless unsung comedienne.   Who can forget her  as the caustic old gal spouting venom from the window on Sha Na Na?  She was the best thing on that show. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...