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Any word on Life with Lucy on DVD?

yendor1152

By yendor1152,
in The Danfield Tribune

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C L A U D E Newbie

C L A U D E

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I know that bubbele, but to some people the word loser means "dickhead", "wanker" - well, that's what it means here in Australia! LOL! Even the word "wanker" is an Australian term so that probably won't even make sense! :lucythrill: (go to urban dictionary - that will explain everything)

Sorry hon, that was never directed at YOU, i just used your post to reply and you had implied that it was something else so i wanted to clarify the LOSER remark, even in the US or Canada a LOSER is a bad term, but she didn't mean it to be heard as that bad term, she meant it the way i describe here, a loser as someone who has to lose whatever he has built up and then torn down, which is NOT so bad, just a fact about the way he behaved with certain things. If LOSER means dickhead or wanker in Britain, then that's another group or country i'll have to SPLAIN her innocent remark to, great, another continent to pacify, LOL!

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RodMcK1 Rookie

RodMcK1

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I think I'd rather see Lucy and Gale fighting than watch that annoying video of Zac Ephron over and over again! Not to mention the one of Lucy flipping through that notepad. Once is fine. Even twice ain't bad. But every page is full of both vids. Stop the madness! Why isn't someone playing the Lucy clip of her and Vivian as the witches?

 

Gee, I'm getting old! In the earlier clip, I thought it was a young John Stamos. :lucyhorror:

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C L A U D E Newbie

C L A U D E

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Don't feel bad, Claude thought it was Ramon Novarro. :lucythrill: :lucythrill: :lucythrill:

EXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXCUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ME, i know Zac Efron and you sir are no Zac Efron. Political reference for you morons who would be stupid enough to vote for that liar let's go back to the fifties asshole baseball mitt romney. I saw a great one today, George Washington and underneath his picture it says, I CANNOT TELL A LIE, next under Richard Nixon it says, I CANNOT TELL THE TRUTH, then the third pic is of mitt romney and it says I CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE.

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Brock Newbie

Brock

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Now now, it was never a comment on your looks, you look great, it was a chance to use that political line which was so successful in some campaigns. AND Raymond Navaro was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy before MY time buddy! I'll go as far back as Cary Grant and that's it!

 

:marionstrong: I forgot to insert the Fred smilie in there. ;)

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Irene Kampen Tripp Newbie

Irene Kampen Tripp

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Wow, great post, even if i disagree with lots of it . . . bullshit on Lucy not being able to do verbal repartee, her timing might have been a little off and difficulty in getting her lines out but watch Betty White today and you'll see that's normal with age. Lucy could always do verbal repartee, even if it was with stupid ass lame bob hope jokes that dated back to Mark Twain. Blame the horrible Mame script for Lucy's inability to deliver comedy well, not Lucy herself, Mame had one thing going for it, great music, and what was Lucy going to do with just music? Everything you say about Gale is true, i won't go into it here remembering that the Lord and Master of this site is his biggest fan. Nuff said! Now you happened to pick a great show to criticize, the Ginger Rogers one you mentionned, Lucy looks terrific for her age and at that time, she still had the legs, the vivacity to BE the show with her energy and personality. Desi jr's career in movies ended because of drugs, not his lack of talent, he was always one of the best things about Here's Lucy, i agree also with everything you said about Lucie, again due more to the lousy scripts than her lack of talent. Those kids were great then and are still remembered fondly NOW, the only BAD thing i ever did see them do was that horrible impression of their parents on that Thalians tribute, but as long as Lucy liked it, so be it. Lucy always was Lucy even if the writers didn't always supply the goods, she, like Bob Hope endured with lousy material as the years went on because people loved her to death and remembered her best moments. Now, Life with Lucy, no, you're right, it WAS bad, the writing and delivery, most of the cast but especially that horrible writing. If her asshole husband had paired her with Hollywood's best, surrounded her with great supporting players and given her funny but VERBAL and SOPHISTICATED scripts, Lucy would have delivered them a TV Elaine Stritch. Every time i hear Ladies who lunch or I'm still here, i think of her and the acid delivery she was capable of, as a matter of fact, the best career move gary could have gotten her was a show on Broadway playing a Tallulah like character with the acid tongue or voice overs on cartoon type movies, NOT a reboot of her old format with the same old tired people and their same old tired ideas.

YOU KNOW.. I remember reading somewhere that Lucy said "You know, I should've come in new all the way"

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Irene Kampen Tripp Newbie

Irene Kampen Tripp

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Well, there's that famous interview with Barbara Walters where Lucy, I felt, was very unkind to Desi. I mean, at that point in her history, we got it already. He was a womanizer, he gambled, he was obsessed with work. Ok, fine. But he also was the power behind Lucy's superstar status, the father of her two children, and it would've been much more gracious of her to just leave the past in the past. Desi's imperfections didn't need to be mentioned again and again. I don't recall him ever saying one negative thing about her in public. I just wish she could've been more gracious.

 

It reminded me of the situation with Cher and Sonny. When they broke up, Cher did interview after interview in which she criticized him for being "controlling, unyielding, too serious," etc. Yet, again, without him in her life, where would she have been? He created Cher, reinvented her when needed, and paved the way for the solo career she had. In the meantime, when she dumped him, he was made to look like a buffoon. And a mean one, at that. Again, like Desi, I never once read a negative from Sonny with regards to Cher. If anything, he was always very supportive. Yet, she continued to crap on him almost right up until his death. When that happened, she did a complete about-face and became all teary-eyed whenever Sonny's name was mentioned. She spoke at his funeral and cried. She went on the Oprah show and cried. She hosted a show of Sonny and Cher clips and cried. But when she had the chance to be gracious when he was STILL ALIVE, she chose not to. Same with Lucy.

Of course Lucy had to bitterly discuss Desi.. it's like she was saying.. "See Desi? If you could've kept it in your pants we could've still been together.. instead I had to kick your ass to the curb since we're both sooo famous and now I have to go home to THIS guy everynight.. HOPE you're happy Desi Darling.. you BASTARD!" Trust me.. if I was gettin that hot Desi ass and had to share or give it up.. I would be BITTER TOO!

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Taylor Newbie

Taylor

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Of course Lucy had to bitterly discuss Desi.. it's like she was saying.. "See Desi? If you could've kept it in your pants we could've still been together.. instead I had to kick your ass to the curb since we're both sooo famous and now I have to go home to THIS guy everynight.. HOPE you're happy Desi Darling.. you BASTARD!" Trust me.. if I was gettin that hot Desi ass and had to share or give it up.. I would be BITTER TOO!

 

I agree with this, but I don't think she ever "gave up" that "hot Desi ass" if ya know what I mean. Can you blame her? I can't.

 

:gary: <------ :blink:

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Lucyilove Newbie

Lucyilove

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It's unfortunate that the show fell victim to a too-short trial period. Had it been given more time to find itself it could've lasted a few years. These things take time to find their groove. It wasn't given a fair shake.

LIFE WITH LUCY was not good but there are plenty of bad shows that run for years. The reviews were just bad and then the ratings torpedoed from the second episode and the avalanche of "Lucy has a failure" press was way too much to overcome even if somehow it had turned all around (and like Claude I think the Audrey Meadows episode was a promising start, more on that later...) I'm sure it was very, very painful for Lucy to have a show in the bottom ten of the ratings so perhaps it was merciful it was quickly cancelled rather than have to spend untold months down there before things might possibly turn around.

 

It's interesting why Lucy got so much bad press "she's lost her audience" etc. nobody was paying attention to the fact that the distingushed Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn was flopping even harder in her own sitcom which I think aired right after LWL. Nobody would suggest it was all over for Ellen when her show got canned why were they so determined to completely right Lucy off because of this show?

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Lucyilove Newbie

Lucyilove

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The worst part to me was the 2 & 3 season of TLS. You can only find Lucy asking Mr Mooney for money funny for a few episodes. Not almost 2 seasons full of it.

I much prefer the Lucy/Mooney situation in those years, yes she had to weasel her way into getting a little more money but Mooney was only rather mildly insulting and patronizing toward her, not screaming at her and being really nasty. Of course when she became his employee then he was "allowed" to be horrendous toward her. I'm with the popular opinion here, Mooney the meany just not enjoyable and often unpleasant to watch, much rather have the relationship where it was in the early years.

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Lucyilove Newbie

Lucyilove

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Shame none of his movies have ever been any good.

Well I loved HAIRSPRAY although his part was minor to my enjoyment of the film (although certainly it was the #1 reason all those young girls made this movie a blockbuster) and was surprised how terrific he was in 18 AGAIN which I didn't even expect to like so that puts Zac miles above most of the young "actors" who are considered his contemporaries in movies today to me.

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Lucyilove Newbie

Lucyilove

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I wonder if the verbal humor would've worked--Lucy was never knowm for "verbal reparte," as Mame clearly showed. Her attempts at witticisms in that film fell flat and seemed so out of character. And let's face it, she really was playing Lucy playing "big movie stah."

 

I didn't mind the slapstick in Life with Lucy. She could still pull it off. What bothered me was the relationship between Lucy and Gale, as established way back during the Mr. Mooney days. It starts with Lucy doing or saying something that sets him off. In The Lucy Show, he'd work himself up into a lather and exclaim, "MRS. CARMICHAEL!" In "The Lucy Show," it was "LUCILLE!" I don't recall if he even called her by name in Life with Lucy. Gale had only one reaction to Lucy--bombast and anger. It didn't work for me. In I Love Lucy, the premise was often an "us against them" scenario--the girls against the boys. Sometimes, the girls fought, which was always hilarious. But they had the buffer of the husbands. Ricky wasn't always angry at Lucy, and he wasn't always an authority figure--not like Gale's characters. In The Lucy Show, Lucy still had Vivian and her great writers. The first season is absolutely the best, right up there with the earlier I Love Lucy's, all because everything gelled beautifully. But when Mr. Mooney entered the picture, the dynamic changed. He was unbending, the "boss," and not a very likeable one, in my opinion. But at least we still had Vivian to help soften the edges. When she left and that wimpy Mary Jane (with the most annoying delivery EVER--reminds me of a female Squidward) became more prominent, all the weight fell on Lucy's shoulders. She could no longer be the little girl with big dreams. Instead, she was always yelling and flailing her arms about and running here and there, while the display of soup cans falls over in the store, or she "accidentally on purpose" pushes someone through a wall or ruins some priceless antique. Suddenly, Lucy became totally slapstick, without the human moments. And I read somewhere that Desi was very protective of the Lucy character and always wanted her shenanigans to originate from a realistic and believable premise. All that went out the window in the 4th season of The Lucy Show and became worse and worse as the other series progressed.

 

I remember watching Here's Lucy during the fall of 1971. Desi, Jr. had left by then, allegedly to pursue a film career that went in the toilet eventually, and that left the very annoying Lucie, whining and screeching in a loud voice as her mother's surrogate Ethel. The episode I recall most vividly from that fall was the Ginger Rogers one, again a premise that had no basis in real life. And I also noticed how old Lucy looked. I think that was the first time I realized she was getting up there in age. I don't know about you guys, but I preferred my Lucy younger and with a brighter voice. When her voice dropped and the make-up began being applied with a trowel, with an atrocious clown orange wig to top it all off, the whole thing became a satire.

 

So, getting back to Life With Lucy--I'd love to see the episodes because I want to see if my memory of them as horrid is accurate. The loud-mouthed kids, the too bubbly daughter and stick in the mud nerdy husband, the wacky handyman at the store, and a "guest starring" appearance by John Ritter, again a premise that probably would not happen in real life. These are all coalescing in my mind, and I need an actual DVD set to straighten them out. Bring on Life with Lucy!

You want LWL on dvd to see if it was really as horrendous as you thought it was :lucyshock: Umm, ok....

 

And what is up with this "probably would not happen in real life" spin? Somehow I myself don't think many of the ILL episodes were particularly realistic that certainly doesn't downgrade their brillance or entertainment factor.

 

I agree with you on a lot of your Gale Gordon Mooney comments but can't see dismissing Mary Jane Croft just because of her voice. Quite a number of talented actresses had eccentric, distinctive voices, Shirley Booth, Gracie Allen, etc. it's part of their appeal and I'd say the same of MJC.

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