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Does anyone here not like "The Lucy Show" or "Here's Lucy"?


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Just curious if there's anyone on the board who loves "I Love Lucy" but perhaps does not enjoy Lucy's other series: "The Lucy Show" or "Here's Lucy"?

 

On other boards that I'm on (not Lucy boards), it's always very common for fans to adore the artist's main or "classic" works and dismiss their later works. Was wondering if there are people who do the same with Lucy's shows?

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I find that the people who often dismiss TLS and HL are the ones unfamiliar with the series and sort of have a second-hand dislike. LOL!

 

Then again, my brother loves The Lucy Show and doesn't really care for ILL. (Except for The Club Election) I don't know how he feels about HL, however.

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I grew up with ILL and never saw the others till now but love anything with Lucy..just how it is. She was a wonderful actress. Just something about how she came across on the screen..made her human. something a lot of the other actors and actresses didn't seem to be to me.

They ALL Rock in my opinion. :D

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I grew up adoring I Love Lucy and the Comedy Hours, my only exposure to TLS for years and years came from the public domain sets and all I knew of HL came from Shout's best of set. While I like TLS and HL, I think a lot of it has to do with my love for Lucy. There are some truly marvelous scripts and (non-Lucy) performances in both of the later series, but I don't think I would own DVD sets of the shows had they starred someone else (ie. Here's Ann, with Ann Sothern). I also tire of some plots that are rehashed with decent frequency from I Love Lucy, sometimes plots are reformatted several times in each series. To be fair, this works out on occasion, ie. Lucy Is Really In A Pickle. I think TLS gets better when it goes west, though I do wish the kids made return visits and Lucy was given a stable female friend. Similarly, HL ages well though I feel Craig's presence in later years might have been of help when plot lines ran dry (even if he only did a half dozen episodes a season).

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I love all for different reasons - always takes me longer to like episodes from Here's Lucy, only because I am so used to the Lucy Ricardo character or the Lucy Carmichael character and I feel that Lucy Carter is a complete change from her usual role. Most people though that I have spoken to who don't know much about Lucy will always mention I Love Lucy first and then "that show that her two real kids with in" but NO ONE I have spoken to remember The Lucy Show! (I live in Australia)

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Do you guys recognize the shift in quality from "I Love Lucy" to "The Lucy Show" to "Here's Lucy?" or do most of you find all three series on the same level in terms of quality?

All three shows had good things and bad about them but i consider all three of them G R E A T because the Queen of Comedy is in it giving her all. The only thing is by the third series they rehashed the old plots as they ran out of ideas for weird things for her to do all the time. The part that stuns me the most is if you had the three series playing side by side on three sets, sometimes it's hard to tell it's the same woman as she looks so different.

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Do you guys recognize the shift in quality from "I Love Lucy" to "The Lucy Show" to "Here's Lucy?" or do most of you find all three series on the same level in terms of quality?

 

For all us avid Lucy lovers, yes, there is a shift in quality - especially with what Claude said about Here's Lucy but for someone else, no, they would not notice a shift in quality - it's like any show though - the first tv series is always the best because it's fresh and new!

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All three shows had good things and bad about them but i consider all three of them G R E A T because the Queen of Comedy is in it giving her all. The only thing is by the third series they rehashed the old plots as they ran out of ideas for weird things for her to do all the time. The part that stuns me the most is if you had the three series playing side by side on three sets, sometimes it's hard to tell it's the same woman as she looks so different.

EXACTLY. Took the words right out of my mouth.

Even though she changed her look so much, she still looked breathtaking. But I've had plenty of friends watch The Lucy Show and say 'What the hell happened to her?" Do they expect her to not age and change her poodle cut? Guess not!

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EXACTLY. Took the words right out of my mouth.

Even though she changed her look so much, she still looked breathtaking. But I've had plenty of friends watch The Lucy Show and say 'What the hell happened to her?" Do they expect her to not age and change her poodle cut? Guess not!

 

I don't think she aged much in The Lucy Show - it's simply her hair that changed her look completely - I mean, look at the way she looked in Lucy Hunts For Uranium - completely different from there on in! It was the hair! Not her age.

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I don't think she aged much in The Lucy Show - it's simply her hair that changed her look completely - I mean, look at the way she looked in Lucy Hunts For Uranium - completely different from there on in! It was the hair! Not her age.

 

I have to agree. That shorter, curlier, flatter hairstyle made her look 10+ years older. I never liked that look on her. When she had her hair longer, poofier, and framing her face better it took years off her and she was gorgeous all the way up to her 70s.

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I think a casual viewer of Lucy who's watching all three series is probably more likely to notice the shift in quality between the three shows. As die-hard fans we're going to lap up anything Lucy, from the terrific to the terrible. And while we might (probably) take notice of quality, even before viewing we like it because it's Lucy. Whereas if the three shows were on TV Land, someone flipping channels might notice any number of things we're willing to look over (ie. Lucy's use of cue cards, the writing, etc.). Just my opinion.

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2 hairstyles she have stuck with are the one from the Dean Martin episode of TLS and season 5 of HL. I liked her Facts of Life style too, longer, natural hair and not so curly. I think one of the reasons I like the Dean Martin episode so much is how fabulous she looks here. That dress is timeless and she looked smokin in it.

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I think a casual viewer of Lucy who's watching all three series is probably more likely to notice the shift in quality between the three shows. As die-hard fans we're going to lap up anything Lucy, from the terrific to the terrible. And while we might (probably) take notice of quality, even before viewing we like it because it's Lucy.

 

I completely agree with you. I was going to reply the same thing to the post above saying that only the die-hards would notice the shift. Mega-fans such as ourselves are sometimes unable to see the material with a neutral, unbiased eye which is why the casual fan would be more able to call out the differences in all the shows post ILL.

 

I am a huge Lucy fan (I don't need to 'splain how much of a fan I am considering I'm here on a Lucy board!) but I admit that I have trouble with both TLS and HL. I'm at the moment trying to revisit TLS--I don't even have all the seasons on DVD and I'm trying to really embrace this series. I can't go into details here why I haven't been able dig this series since I think it would probably offend most peeps on the board--but I'm trying my best to give it a fair shot.

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I am a huge Lucy fan (I don't need to 'splain how much of a fan I am considering I'm here on a Lucy board!) but I admit that I have trouble with both TLS and HL. I'm at the moment trying to revisit TLS--I don't even have all the seasons on DVD and I'm trying to really embrace this series. I can't go into details here why I haven't been able dig this series since I think it would probably offend most peeps on the board--but I'm trying my best to give it a fair shot.

 

Please share your opinion! Perhaps someone can offer an insight that might help to enhance your viewing pleasure! But I do agree, especially with TLS; I'm more a fan of seasons 4 and 5 than 1-3 (Countess episodes and a few season 1 gems aside). I think HL grows a lot when it decides to not rely as heavily on the kids without pushing them out entirely.

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Thanks, Mr. Hepburn--very kind of you to invite me to share. I will tread lightly since I am a newcomer to the board and all!

 

I do intend to share my full thoughts after I reacquaint myself with the show. Like I said, I haven't really delved into this show too well. My first exposure to TLS was when it first came on reruns when I was about 13 or 14--waaaaaaaaaay after I sealed my love for Lucy with ILL . Even then, I recognized something was really off but I wasn't able to put it together or bring myself to admit that I didn't like it. How can I not like anything Lucy was in?!

 

I will say this: as I'm watching these episodes (currently have Season 2 in the machine) I find that I have issues with a lot of the dialogue and jokes throughout the show. The physical sections are usually great--everything else in the show: the setup, buildup and climax, seems very dry, to me. Sadly, I find myself having very little patience watching an episode. I'm trying to put the dialogue and story off to the side and just focus and enjoy the performances but I find it very, very difficult to separate the two. The writing is just so important that it comes through in the acting, I feel.

 

I even have the same issues with The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. I believe something honestly shifted in terms of the writing starting on that series because it even effected that wonderful cast (Desi, Viv and Bill). Even with all of them still together--something definitely felt off. Some of you may have the book "Quotable Lucy" it's a book with a bunch of funny dialogue from ILL...I can read that and laugh my head off. I honestly don't think it'd be possible to write a book using dialgoue from TLS and for it work just as well.

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I think the shift you see in TLDCH comes from the tensions between Lucy and Desi off-screen. Watch a season one or two episode of I Love Lucy and then watch a comedy hour. It's like the hope for her marriage has gone out of her eyes. Desi doesn't seem happy either. Undoubtedly Bill and Viv have seen a lot of the mess going on and it's probably awkward for them to work in that condition. This actually seems to start in season six, in my opinion.

 

When TLS starts, I think Lucy had a lot of fears going into a new weekly show for many reasons, first and foremost: no Desi, secondly: pressure to live up to her first series. But, she's got Viv...for a while. Once she's got Gale as a regular foil she seems to do better, and clearly she felt it too, thus bringing him over to HL.

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I love all for different reasons - always takes me longer to like episodes from Here's Lucy, only because I am so used to the Lucy Ricardo character or the Lucy Carmichael character and I feel that Lucy Carter is a complete change from her usual role. Most people though that I have spoken to who don't know much about Lucy will always mention I Love Lucy first and then "that show that her two real kids with in" but NO ONE I have spoken to remember The Lucy Show! (I live in Australia)

 

Now that's very interesting. How do you find Lucy Carter different from the other 2 characters?

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I think the shift you see in TLDCH comes from the tensions between Lucy and Desi off-screen. Watch a season one or two episode of I Love Lucy and then watch a comedy hour. It's like the hope for her marriage has gone out of her eyes. Desi doesn't seem happy either. Undoubtedly Bill and Viv have seen a lot of the mess going on and it's probably awkward for them to work in that condition. This actually seems to start in season six, in my opinion.

 

When TLS starts, I think Lucy had a lot of fears going into a new weekly show for many reasons, first and foremost: no Desi, secondly: pressure to live up to her first series. But, she's got Viv...for a while. Once she's got Gale as a regular foil she seems to do better, and clearly she felt it too, thus bringing him over to HL.

 

 

All good points. Let's see how my view changes after I watch the series...

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I don't think she aged much in The Lucy Show - it's simply her hair that changed her look completely - I mean, look at the way she looked in Lucy Hunts For Uranium - completely different from there on in! It was the hair! Not her age.

I agree. But we know that. Other people don't. They compare Lucy Ricardo with everything else she did. They don't think of her changing her style, but her getting older and adapting herself to her age when she was still doing a PHENOMENAL job and looked incredible. Also the change in voice, almost everyone notices and has something crappy to say about it.

 

But in my opinion Lucy's signature poodle cut was one of the most unflattering hairstyles she had, but yet I can't help but love it, I loved when her poodle cut was down though, brought so much to her face. Same with the Dean Martin wig, HL season 5 wig, and I love the one she wore in Lucy Gets Lucky/Happy Anniversary & Goodbye/Donnie&Marie Show.

 

How bout this? She looked gorgeous no matter the hair, make up, or eye brows!

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2 hairstyles she have stuck with are the one from the Dean Martin episode of TLS and season 5 of HL. I liked her Facts of Life style too, longer, natural hair and not so curly. I think one of the reasons I like the Dean Martin episode so much is how fabulous she looks here. That dress is timeless and she looked smokin in it.

All time BEST LOOK she ever had on any of her shows.

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LOTUS BUD: I find Lucy Carter to be much more authoritarian than Carmichael or Ricardo - she's more motherly

 

ANNALEIGH: I always found she looked great when it was fuller on top or longer at the back. I didn't like her first wig in LDCH - I loved her hair in The Lucy Show (especially in Season 5 and 6). I didn't like her hair in the first couple of seasons of Here's Lucy but liked it again towards the end.

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