What episodes are you watching on "Here's Lucy"?

[JoeySanJoaquin]

There was at least one 17 year old doing that: the real life Lucie Arnaz.

Touché   

[Freddie2]

Other Woman and NG as RN.

Something I notice about post-broken leg episodes are that they frequently have Lucy filling the role of the “reactor”. The Lucy character is probably at her all-time least wacky. There are many times where she seems to be the only sane person in the building. Ain’t THAT a change of pace! 

[Luvsbway]

Won't You Calm Down Dan Dailey. So hard to make any sense of what goes on in this episode because I don't even know how to watch this with a different mind set. When she sits on his lap and says, "I've seen this in the comic strips" I want to yell back, or sexual harrasment lawsuits. 

Also wasn't Betty Grable divorced from Harry by this time? Why is his name brought up?

 

[Neil]

12 hours ago, Freddie2 said:

Other Woman and NG as RN.

Something I notice about post-broken leg episodes are that they frequently have Lucy filling the role of the “reactor”. The Lucy character is probably at her all-time least wacky. There are many times where she seems to be the only sane person in the building. Ain’t THAT a change of pace! 

A poll of HL viewers several years ago (to commemorate the first Here's Lucy 24 episode "best of" DVD release ) "NG as RN" was voted the best episode of the series and I agree.  It shouldn't have been--in that there should have been many more episodes like this charming and funny half-hour.  "Did anyone else have the beef hash?" has to be the funniest line ever uttered in all 144 episodes!  BTW, FEW of the top 24 episodes as voted for in the poll made it the "best of" DVD set.  Whoever picked these episodes was using a different yardstick than quality. 

[Freddie2]

Late Night Music-Heavy Marathon:

Lucy and The Andrews Sisters

Patty Andrews seemed to have a really good sense of humor and you get the feeling that she’s enjoying herself. Apparently the studio audience reaction to this episode was so big that it had to be edited down. “Elroy Sherwood” is hilarious! I wish they’d used him again. For all the songs included in the medley, I could have named like five more that would have fit in. The Andrews Sisters had A LOT of hits.

Won’t You Calm Down, Dan Dailey?

Talk about sexual harrasment! Harry and Dan Dailey make a good team. Gale in drag feels like it came from the writers sitting around saying “What haven’t we done to him yet?”. The little musical interludes are cute and I wish there’d been more. Characters breaking into fully-orchestrated, choreographed song and dance numbers on a multi-camera sitcom is something that you could never get away with today.

Lucy and Phil Harris Strike Up The Band

Going right from season four to this, one of the final entries of the series, I was kind of surprised by how much Gale had aged. I always assumed he was in pretty good shape for most of his life, but at least between ‘72 and ‘74, he certainly let himself go gray and put on a couple pounds. I really love Phil Harris. Next to Jack, he’s probably my favorite of Jack Benny’s stable of performers. I think he threw in some ad-libs. During the performance, his mouth is clearly not saying what the ADR is saying. Quote from my dad about that performance: “They just made up for twenty years of having no minority characters with that one song!”. Art getting criticized for not being all-inclusive is an annoyance we still have today, but this feels very out of touch. I love it.

Lucy Gives Eddie Albert The Old Song and Dance

I believe this is the first episode of Here’s Lucy I saw. You can only imagine how seven-year-old-me flipped my lid when I unexpectedly saw MJC, Jerry Hausner and Doris Singleton in living, garish 70s color! I find it very hard to believe that there’s another tall, kooky redhead running around Hollywood after celebrities. Speaking of running, Doris’s Dingaling Dash has to be in my top ten moments from the entire series. It’s just so perfect.

[Brock]

I'm curious  as to how Eddie Albert was your very first Here's Lucy experience. Was this on PAX? What did seven-year-old you make of it?

[Freddie2]

14 hours ago, Brock said:

I'm curious  as to how Eddie Albert was your very first Here's Lucy experience. Was this on PAX? What did seven-year-old you make of it?

How’s this for being young: I saw it on YouTube! A few season six episodes were up way back when, including Cops and Robbers, which I vividly remember being drawn away from on a summer night to go outside and catch lightning bugs with other small people such as myself. To be honest, I probably appreciate different quirky qualities of Here’s Lucy more today than I did when I was less discerning about entertainment (still discerning, mind you, just less so; I at least had enough sense to watch Lucy). At the time, the biggest distinction between this and ILL was that HL was in color. I probably didn’t really know who Gale Gordon was. 

I don’t think season six was on DVD at all at that time, so it’s entirely possible the episodes I saw were recorded off of PAX. I would watch them on my family’s desktop computer- the only one in the house! Oy, How times have changed!

[Luvsbway]

Over on Tumblr there is a great page detailing many Here's Lucy episodes. For the episode Milton Berle is the Life of the Party the guests are listed. There is a couple Helen and Bob Maruer. Apparently they were named after Lucy's inlaws. So I know Helen was Gary's mom's name but the last name is throwing me off as shouldn't it be Goldaper? Maybe I'm missing a bit of family history here. Did Gary's parents get divorced and Bob is his stepdad?

Quote

 

[HarryCarter]

1 hour ago, Luvsbway said:

Over on Tumblr there is a great page detailing many Here's Lucy episodes. For the episode Milton Berle is the Life of the Party the guests are listed. There is a couple Helen and Bob Maruer. Apparently they were named after Lucy's inlaws. So I know Helen was Gary's mom's name but the last name is throwing me off as shouldn't it be Goldaper? Maybe I'm missing a bit of family history here. Did Gary's parents get divorced and Bob is his stepdad?

 

Helen and Bob Mauer were Gary's sister and brother-in-law. They were also mentioned in Lucy the Good Skate. 

[Luvsbway]

27 minutes ago, HarryCarter said:

 

Helen and Bob Mauer were Gary's sister and brother-in-law. They were also mentioned in Lucy the Good Skate. 

Thanks. What was Gary's mom's name? All I can remember was Helen as far as his family goes.

[HarryCarter]

27 minutes ago, Luvsbway said:

Thanks. What was Gary's mom's name? All I can remember was Helen as far as his family goes.

Gary's mother was Rose Goldaper. 

[HarryCarter]

I've always wondered how Lucy Carter was friends with the Maurers, a couple around Kim's age. They weren't neighbors because they were stuck in freeway traffic before Lucy's party. 

[RodMcK1]

I recently watch "Lucy Runs the Rapids" on Amazon prime.  

Lucy punctures and thereby deflates the inflatable raft, so the Carters camp on the riverbank overnight.  The current pulls Lucy into the river as she's sleeping on an air mattress inside a sleeping bag.  And when the rest of the family goes to save Lucy, the raft is fully inflated again.  There must have been a patch kit off camera.

[Neil]

On 2/21/2018 at 10:29 AM, RodMcK1 said:

I recently watch "Lucy Runs the Rapids" on Amazon prime.  

Lucy punctures and thereby deflates the inflatable raft, so the Carters camp on the riverbank overnight.  The current pulls Lucy into the river as she's sleeping on an air mattress inside a sleeping bag.  And when the rest of the family goes to save Lucy, the raft is fully inflated again.  There must have been a patch kit off camera.

"Runs the Rapids" is probably the best of the location shows, but that's not saying much.   All of them are short on plot and truly funny comedy.  I don't know where they found this writer Gene Thompson, or why they chose him.  His only HL contributions were these location shows.  The clip I always found remarkable was part of the DVD bonus footage: Lucy the trouper, swimming around the frigid river waiting for the shot set-up, saying "It's SOOO cold" and I'm sure it was.   All four of them, including 63 year old Gale Gordon leapt into the frigid water.  These location shows held so much promise and were such a disappointment.   But at least they were TRYING for something different. 

Here's an interesting poll question: what is your favorite "season premiere" episode of TLS or HL.  Despite the high profile 1970 "Burtons" episode, my favorite is probably the HL 5th season "Lucy's Big Break", though "Lucy Waits up for Chris" and "Lucy as Cleopatra" are not far behind. 

[Freddie2]

18 hours ago, Neil said:

 

Here's an interesting poll question: what is your favorite "season premiere" episode of TLS or HL.  Despite the high profile 1970 "Burtons" episode, my favorite is probably the HL 5th season "Lucy's Big Break", though "Lucy Waits up for Chris" and "Lucy as Cleopatra" are not far behind. 

I really like all of the TLS premieres- save for maybe Marineland. Lucy Meets The Berles is certainly one of the most laugh-out-loud funny episodes of the entire series, maybe the entire Lucy Canon. There’s a special kind of energy to that episode. I think Lucy gets entrance applause TWICE. 

The George Burns premiere from the season before also has a lot of energy to it. It’s not necessarily the funniest, but it’s very entertaining. When Lucy and George are doing the act at the end of the show in front of the blue curtain, you feel like you’re in the studio audience.

As far as HL, I really like Lucy and Flip Go Legit. I believe Mannix was actually the first episode filmed for that season, but really all of those episodes from the beginning of season four, when Bob and Madelyn made their return, have a definite spark to them.

[Brock]

Upon watching Lucy & Eva Gabor (Season 1) on Tuesday night, something jumped out at me I had never noticed before and I wonder if it was a flub. 

When Lucy and the kids are setting up their intruder-deterrent system, the following exchange takes place:

Craig: Or this one either!

Lucy: And nobody's going to get through that door or they're really going to get it! Oh! You know something? (Pause) Nobody is going to interrupt you until you finish that script. 

It's that bolded part that jumped. They cut to that line, it adds nothing to what they've already discussed, certainly doesn't go with the flow, and Lucy pauses to think. Does anyone have the original script to compare it to? It sounds to me like it was either tacked on from a different take, or, perhaps LB forgot her line and adlibbed something to fill in the dead air. 

Thoughts?

[RodMcK1]

“Lucy and Her All-Nun Band” on Amazon. At about 2:06 in, a camera is in the shot for about half second.

[Neil]

"Where is My Wandering Mother Tonight?"  is a NEAR perfect episode, so very late in the run of the series.  My big problem with the show (as I have stated MORE than one time) is that Kim invites Lucy over for the weekend but then has a date with Brian on Saturday night.   Just what does she expect weekend-invitee Lucy to do during said date?   This could have been taken care of with a few lines of  'misunderstanding' dialogue when Kim extends the invite.   Bob and Madelyn were usually so particular about that sort of thing.  I love the running B&M gag of calls to Harry always waking him up. Culminating in this, the last, one with Kim doing the calling "I'm sorry Uncle Harry. Did I wake you?"  "You can't help it, dear. It's in the blood."  Even with sub-standard material (of which he got PLENTY), I don't recall a bad Gale Gordon performance.  When he's got great material, as he does in this one, he shines. 

Re: the all-important set up.  Likewise "Franchise Fiasco" and the malfunctioning yogurt dispenser.  It would have been a more logical payoff if when Mary Jane enters, Lucy is under the machine with a hammer trying to fix it (ala Wildcat and the Stutz) as she explains away "George and Lynn"'s absence.  Those insertions of logic really do make a difference.  Lucy on the runaway electric mattress would have been funny regardless but think about how much more satisfying it was when, with 10 seconds of dialogue, it was established that the newly waxed floor was so slippery Jerry could slide across it.  

[Freddie2]

"Lucy Gives Eddie Albert The Old Song and Dance" is a ridiculously entertaining episode- and a ridiculously long title. It comes from my very favorite season of Here's Lucy, and one of the best post-ILL seasons, period. Sure, the premise and the jokes are well-worn, but when they're being delivered by so many "ghosts" of Lucy shows past, it feels like a knowing nod to the wonderful formula that was coming to a close after a quarter century. At a time when series finales weren't really a thing, let alone the forethought and fan service that goes into tying up loose ends during the final seasons of today's long-running shows, Here's Lucy has a surprising amount of closure during its last year. This episode alone has appearances from MJC, Doris Singleton, and Jerry Hausner, and what I can only assume is a veiled reference to Richard Widmark's grapefruits and maybe even Bob and Madelyn bringing back the Long, Long Trail from "TV Antenna". It probably wasn't intentional, but when old timer Eddie Albert jokes about the X-Rated material he expects from his new script and Mary Jane mentions how a 20s themed show would be old fashioned, it feels like the show is acknowledging how it's undoubtably entertainment of another era.

A few other stray things I noticed:

-When Mary Jane makes her Englebert Humperdinck joke and goes into a wheezing laugh, it looks like Lucy is caught off guard, and possibly ad libs "You silly goose". If this really was unplanned, I love it, and I love the fact that it shows how Mary Jane could elevate material. 

-Lucy reaches into her purse to show Eddie Albert a picture of Dean Martin's knobby knees. Obviously this was the payoff to the earlier line about "The Dingaling" possibly having a gun in her purse, but I would at least like to know why and how Lucy Carter carries a picture of Dean Martin's exposed knees with her.

-I wish we could see Mary Jane and Vanda's "Crime and Punishment" routine. 

-Lucy's own voice is featured in "Makin' Whoopee", and it's absolutely fine, proving once again that Mame's problems lie elsewhere.

-At Eddie Albert's house, when he tries to tell Lucy that he doesn't want to do the show, she immediately launches into a fast paced mish-mash of dialogue about how wonderful and adorable he is while walking out the door. On the surface, one could assume that it's just the ditzy Lucy character not being able to read the room, but Lucy's performance suggests otherwise. Lucy is too experienced a manipulator to not realize what Eddie is trying to say. I think that Lucy (the character) knew exactly how to play Albert and make him think that she was an airhead in order to skirt the issue, which is a brilliant choice from Lucy (the actress). The same thing goes for the scene at the office where she guilts him into doing it with talk of the underprivileged kids, although it's more obvious that she's being manipulative- just look at her eyes when Eddie joins her in singing!

 

[HarryCarter]

Lucy Gives Eddie Albert the Old Song and Dance is a top ten favorite for me. You have great observations. There’s a little moment I love in the office with Lucy and Eddie where she affectionately touches his jacket as he’s talking to her. They worked so well together. 

I always wondered if Jerry Hausner’s “Jimmy” character was supposed to be Sid Gould as Sam and Sid was unavailable. (Doing what? I have no idea.) But I recently saw the original script to the episode and it was always Jimmy.

And how I would have loved to have seen “Crime and Punishment!”

[Neil]

I too love your observations.  Her "Making Whoopee" vocals are what I always bring up to point out that she sounded fine singing before and after "Mame".  ("Goes Hawaiian" and "Bank Robbery Medley" before and "Whoopee" "Bouncing Back for More" and even the dreadful "Girlfriends of the Whirling Dervish" after).   Had it not been for her vocals in "It's Today" especially those 2 first notes sung acapella (forever stuck in that craw of mine), her Mame singing is actually listenable and might not have been the subject of so much critical derision, but she sounded so much better around that time in other venues.   Other than Candid Camera's Bank Robbery Medley (technically not putting on a show), I can't think of another putting-on-a-show musical performance by Lucy in the last 3 years.  Seems like there were a LOT in the first 3 seasons. 

Are Mary Jane & Vanda's flapper outfits left over from Lucy & Carol's WW1 show? You wouldn't think cheapskate-y LBP would spring for 2 new costumes just for "Crime & Punishment"'s exit.  And yes, I too would love to have seen their number.  I think "Mot" came up with a spinoff series with MJ & Vanda as 2 crime fighting flappers.  Bob & Madelyn's HL shows were always a cut above the others--with a few exceptions.  At least there was a nod to SOME continuity in their episodes.  Was the "Girl Friday's Association" mentioned in anyone else's scripts?  Despite some real duffers, I think the 6th is also my favorite HL season.  I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the best of the entire 12 post-ILL seasons though.  

[Mot Morenzi]

On 12 June 2019 at 10:18 PM, HarryCarter said:

I always wondered if Jerry Hausner’s “Jimmy” character was supposed to be Sid Gould as Sam and Sid was unavailable. (Doing what? I have no idea.)

!!!

Maybe he tried on Prohaska's gorilla suit and got trapped inside. 

[Freddie2]

5 hours ago, Neil said:

I too love your observations.  Her "Making Whoopee" vocals are what I always bring up to point out that she sounded fine singing before and after "Mame".  ("Goes Hawaiian" and "Bank Robbery Medley" before and "Whoopee" "Bouncing Back for More" and even the dreadful "Girlfriends of the Whirling Dervish" after).   Had it not been for her vocals in "It's Today" especially those 2 first notes sung acapella (forever stuck in that craw of mine), her Mame singing is actually listenable and might not have been the subject of so much critical derision, but she sounded so much better around that time in other venues.   Other than Candid Camera's Bank Robbery Medley (technically not putting on a show), I can't think of another putting-on-a-show musical performance by Lucy in the last 3 years.  Seems like there were a LOT in the first 3 seasons. 

Are Mary Jane & Vanda's flapper outfits left over from Lucy & Carol's WW1 show? You wouldn't think cheapskate-y LBP would spring for 2 new costumes just for "Crime & Punishment"'s exit.  And yes, I too would love to have seen their number.  I think "Mot" came up with a spinoff series with MJ & Vanda as 2 crime fighting flappers.  Bob & Madelyn's HL shows were always a cut above the others--with a few exceptions.  At least there was a nod to SOME continuity in their episodes.  Was the "Girl Friday's Association" mentioned in anyone else's scripts?  Despite some real duffers, I think the 6th is also my favorite HL season.  I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the best of the entire 12 post-ILL seasons though.  

Isn't there a "show" featuring a monkey in season four? It might have come earlier, but unsurprisingly that's not one that I revisit too often.  As far as the 12 post-ILL seasons go, IMO the first year of The Lucy Show is the best, but seasons five and six of HL are an easy second. Honestly, I'd rank Life With Lucy above two or three of her other seasons. TLS's fifth year is the nadir as far as I'm concerned, although "Mooney The Monkey" can stand up against any episode of Kardashians, Riverdale, or The Bachelor as far as I'm concerned; and in a similar vein, two of the most maligned episodes of ILL, "Rodeo" and "Drafted" are laugh riots compared to this year's Outstanding Comedy Series winner. I agree that Bob & Madelyn's scripts were almost always exceptional, so one can't blame Lucy for keeping them on through the 80s, but that conversation has been done to death. 

Another tidbit about "Song and Dance" that came to mind: I noted how over the top Eddie Albert was pitched in this episode. Compare this with his Oscar-nominated role in The Heartbreak Kid two years earlier (directed by Elaine May, who HarryCarter and I were recently raving about). It's clear that Albert knew just what kind of a show he was on, and adjusted his performance accordingly. It makes me respect him quite a bit more, because that's not something actors are always able to do.

[Freddie2]

4 hours ago, Mot Morenzi said:

!!!

Maybe he tried on Prohaska's gorilla suit and got trapped inside. 

Your (hilarious) joke prompted me to look up Janos Prohaska, which I assume I've never done before, because I don't think I knew that the poor guy died in a plane crash in 1974. I'd like to know how he ended up in Hollywood with a career as a proto-Doug Jones.

[Neil]

You inspired me to watch "Eddie Albert" again.  This was done after "Mame".  Lucy looks SO GOOD, proving once again that the soft-focus shots (at least to that extreme) were not necessary for the movie.  We rarely saw Lucy's still-shapely legs by this time.  The choreography is very similar to the Dan Daily show.  This one was the 7th episode of the season and the first good one--and the first written by Bob & Madelyn.  Their little touches do make a difference: references to real-life.  "Joyce Haber's column" and "I saw him in 'Music Man'", which he did do on-stage.   Eddie does bellow his lines, which according to legend is what Lucy insisted upon, though she herself doesn't do it so much.  The 6th season really pepped up for the remainder of the run.   Since they had Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor in the last 2 seasons, I wonder if they thought of having the Carters visit "Hooterville" for a Green Acres plot.  

When the guest stars for the upcoming season was signed, Bob and Madelyn got their first pick.  So it's surprising that Helen Hayes was written by Fox&Jacobs.  Imagine if they had done a "Celebrity Next Door/Talullah" remake with Helen and Lucy upstaging each other in another Girl Friday Follies show!  With the exception of, I suppose, Steve&Eydie, the roster of 6th season guest stars wasn't exactly from the "A" list: Ed McMahon, Eddie, Chuck Connors,  that Bow Wow Boutique guy, Foster Brooks, Arte Johnson, Andy Griffith, Joan Rivers (before she was really hot), and return visits from Danny Thomas, Milton Berle, Phil Harris, Jackie Coogan of course Frankie Avalon! whose career had peaked 10 years earlier.