Jump to content

TV Guide clippings


Recommended Posts

Claude, thanks for your post about googling Lucy Ball's house. I did that & spent two hours looking at all kinds of links about her :lucy1:

 

I found one 3 part monologue by a guy who went to the Roxbury house after Lucy had died & right before some construction was being done. A maid let him & 2 others inside(!!!) & they roamed all over the house unattended, taking pictures, even going upstairs into her bedroom & bath & stealing a souvenier. I'll see if I can find it again & post a link...

 

 

WOW!!!!! Where was Gary? Off, looking for Suzie????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

From the March 31, 1962 edition of TV Guide: this little blurb

 

"All CBS wanted from Lucille Ball was a 'yes' and they got it. Now all they need is a show. She'll star in a half-hour sitcom (my comment: WHAT ELSE???) Sundays 9-9:30."

 

It's interesting to speculate how this might have changed the course of TV programming for the next decade or so, because this would have put Lucy opposite "Bonanza" for its 4th season. The first two were on Saturday night where it was outrated (slightly) by CBS's Perry Mason. It was moved to Sunday at 9 for the 1961 season and that's when it zoomed to the top, finishing at #2 that season, killing off every CBS show for the next 6 years. If "the Lucy show" had been CBS's Sunday night hit, would "the Judy Garland Show" have survived? For it surely would have had a different timeslot. Interesting to note that for the 62-63 season "Bonanza" and "The Lucy Show" tied for #4.

Instead CBS rustled "The Real McCoys" away from ABC and ran it Sunday at 9. It had been ABC's 2nd most popular show during the 61-62 season but was canceled by CBS after only one (but ran in the morning until 1966 after I Love Lucy)

 

I am not a good judge of westerns because I find them boring AND dusty. The plots seemed to be limited to cattle rustling, greedy land barons, or isolated farmers with mental problems. The sets are obvious studio backlots and I always felt sorry for the horses. But my God, in the late 50s and early 60s they sure were popular. In one season alone 1958-59 there were at least 23!! And 7 of those were in the top 10 for the year. I don't know what distinguished "Bonanza" from the rest so much that it zoomed to the top and held the #1 spot for 3 season in a row and retained great ratings until 1972 long after the "Western craze" had petered out. Some people say "Bonanza"'s popularity was based on the fact that it was in color, which makes little sense to me because so few people had color sets in the early 60s and by the time color sets were commonplace, almost all other shows were in color too. And one last thinly-related factoid: "The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour" in 1967 was the last b/w series broadcast in prime time. (almost positive about that)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I came across a bunch of old TV Guides from various markets all over the country. It's amazing to me how many CBS affiliates chose NOT to run I Love Lucy reruns in the morning....or opted out some time during its unprecedented 7-year,8-month 5-day a week network run (January 1959 to September 1966). Except for a run of "December Bride" in 1959-60, "I Love Lucy" was the sole CBS morning rerun before being joined by The McCoys and Pete&Gladys in September of 1962. Many of these ILL-pooping stations ran McCoys and Gladys, so it wasn't that they were opposed to reruns. For instance, Wichita opted out of ILL for this ratings grabber: "Championship Bridge"!! During this period, CBS during the daytime was populated by a smattering of game shows, but mostly "daytime dramas" (or soap operas as they were called then), most done live and many 15 minutes in length daily, but none longer than 30.

Though our local CBS affiliate (KOIN) faithfully ran ILL and TLS (it wouldn't DARE NOT lest I threaten them with my poison pen*) , it did not participate in the short 1977 network rerun of HL, instead running the own program "Hi, Neighbor", the corniest of locally produced variety shows with the theme song played on camera by "The KOIN Studio Orchestra" 3 old duffers left over from radio: an accordionist, an organist and a drummer---and I use the term loosely since his main contribution was to tap the edge of the cymbal lightly on every other downbeat. I always wanted someone to ask me "So, what do you think of "Hi, Neighbor"? so I could grab my hat and while leaving answer in my best Hans Conried impersonation "Bye, neighbor!"

 

*When it was announced in 1964 that The Lucy Show would not be part of the fall schedule, I wrote them a short letter of protest in my newly-learned cursive, but just in case it might be dismissed or ignored, I filled the rest of the page with big block letters written in different colored crayons "PLEASE DON'T TAKE THE LUCY SHOW OFF"----so you can thank me for season 3.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I came across a bunch of old TV Guides from various markets all over the country. It's amazing to me how many CBS affiliates chose NOT to run I Love Lucy reruns in the morning....or opted out some time during its unprecedented 7-year,8-month 5-day a week network run (January 1959 to September 1966). Except for a run of "December Bride" in 1959-60, "I Love Lucy" was the sole CBS morning rerun before being joined by The McCoys and Pete&Gladys in September of 1962. Many of these ILL-pooping stations ran McCoys and Gladys, so it wasn't that they were opposed to reruns. For instance, Wichita opted out of ILL for this ratings grabber: "Championship Bridge"!! During this period, CBS during the daytime was populated by a smattering of game shows, but mostly "daytime dramas" (or soap operas as they were called then), most done live and many 15 minutes in length daily, but none longer than 30.

Though our local CBS affiliate (KOIN) faithfully ran ILL and TLS (it wouldn't DARE NOT lest I threaten them with my poison pen*) , it did not participate in the short 1977 network rerun of HL, instead running the own program "Hi, Neighbor", the corniest of locally produced variety shows with the theme song played on camera by "The KOIN Studio Orchestra" 3 old duffers left over from radio: an accordionist, an organist and a drummer---and I use the term loosely since his main contribution was to tap the edge of the cymbal lightly on every other downbeat. I always wanted someone to ask me "So, what do you think of "Hi, Neighbor"? so I could grab my hat and while leaving answer in my best Hans Conried impersonation "Bye, neighbor!"

 

*When it was announced in 1964 that The Lucy Show would not be part of the fall schedule, I wrote them a short letter of protest in my newly-learned cursive, but just in case it might be dismissed or ignored, I filled the rest of the page with big block letters written in different colored crayons "PLEASE DON'T TAKE THE LUCY SHOW OFF"----so you can thank me for season 3.

You're gonna have to share the credit for that, i sent lots more letters than you did, LOL! Do you remember also, how Lucy could not feature any black performers or her shows would not play in the South??? There were so many stories on that subject, all comedy shows like hers and Andy Griffith had to stay Lily white to not get banned in those backward hovels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think I ever heaved a heartier sigh of relief than on March 15, 1964. Since my thinly-veiled crayon threat worked, I decided to set my sights on the return of "Glynis"---and whaddyaknow the next summer it was back. I forgot to specify that I wanted NEW episodes.

 

TVGuideLucy1964.jpg

 

WHAT A PANEL on "Object Is"! Eartha Kitt, Mel Blanc and Rod Serling!! I don't remember this Pete and Gladys episode so don't know what meat she lost it in: hamburger or meatballs.

 

TVGuideEKitt.jpg

 

Oh those wacky Andersons! I don't suppose they appropriated a government surplus raft and dragged a screaming Jane Wyatt behind it down the Colorado River on a mattress. Set your clock to 0:00 and find out tonight!

 

TVGuideFKB.jpg

 

Evidently in 1959 anything that ran a whole season got some syndication. That afternoon you could watch Eve in "The Eve Arden Show" (57-58) AND "Our Miss Brooks" (52-56).

 

TVGuideEveAShow.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

From March 16th TV Guide Issue:

Maybe I've been watching too many Burns and Allens, but I was unaware that men and women had different carpeting (and if that is construed as a double entendre, it's completely accidental). And re: my B&A reference, this is the sort of logic leap that Gracie would make.

 

Carnival%20Nights%20ad_zps9c488ca6.jpg

 

"Lucy Meets the Berles" had been TLS's Christmas-NewYears week rerun---which was trotted out again towards the end of TLS's 1968 summer rerun cycle. But "Starmaker" is probably the LAST episode I would have picked to start the official reruns. It seems to me that the entire 6th season did not get rerun that summer and that eps from past seasons were run instead--as they would be for the next three summers instead of HL>

 

 

19681stLSRerun_zps9ef35f9f.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From March 16th TV Guide Issue:

Maybe I've been watching too many Burns and Allens, but I was unaware that men and women had different carpeting (and if that is construed as a double entendre, it's completely accidental). And re: my B&A reference, this is the sort of logic leap that Gracie would make.

 

Carnival%20Nights%20ad_zps9c488ca6.jpg

 

"Lucy Meets the Berles" had been TLS's Christmas-NewYears week rerun---which was trotted out again towards the end of TLS's 1968 summer rerun cycle. But "Starmaker" is probably the LAST episode I would have picked to start the official reruns. It seems to me that the entire 6th season did not get rerun that summer and that eps from past seasons were run instead--as they would be for the next three summers instead of HL>

 

 

19681stLSRerun_zps9ef35f9f.jpg

These are so COOL to see Neil, brings back many pleasant memories, scouring each week's TV Guide looking for any and all Lucy mentions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From March 16th TV Guide Issue:

Maybe I've been watching too many Burns and Allens, but I was unaware that men and women had different carpeting (and if that is construed as a double entendre, it's completely accidental). And re: my B&A reference, this is the sort of logic leap that Gracie would make.

 

Carnival%20Nights%20ad_zps9c488ca6.jpg

 

"Lucy Meets the Berles" had been TLS's Christmas-NewYears week rerun---which was trotted out again towards the end of TLS's 1968 summer rerun cycle. But "Starmaker" is probably the LAST episode I would have picked to start the official reruns. It seems to me that the entire 6th season did not get rerun that summer and that eps from past seasons were run instead--as they would be for the next three summers instead of HL>

 

 

19681stLSRerun_zps9ef35f9f.jpg

Loved that Lucy usually always got top billing thanks to that B all name.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So who the hell was Ben Blue?? :lucyhorror:

 

Ben Blue was a comedian/actor who costarred with Lucy in Easy to Wed. He was also in Ziegfeld Follies, Thousands Cheer, and A Guide For the Married Man. He and Lucy did a pantomime sketch in Jack Benny's Carnival Nights. He's next to Lucy in that TV Guide photo.

He's on the right in this photo from Easy to Wed:

331176877_o.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...