Lucy Movie Errors (2003)

[mikidiki]

Watched this today and I am shocked at how much they got wrong (or at least I think they did). The only good thing about it was the I Love Lucy set which looked very realistic.

 

I might be wrong but this is what I noticed were the main things wrong about it:

 

1. Lucy had red hair when she met Desi, NOT blonde

2. Desi wasn't in his Too Many Girls football outfit when he met Lucy

3. There was no studio audience in the final LDCH

4. Lucy/Desi never communicated to each other in the final LDCH

5. They never walked out with each other at the end (as far as I know)

6. There were never a whole bunch of friends there when Desi had the tantrum at their new house

7. There was never a big party at their first wedding

8. Doloros never disliked Lucy

9. Lucy was never in a movie where she wore a mermaid outfit

10. She was never in movies where pies got thrown in her face before I Love Lucy (they showed about 5 different clips one after another with food being thrown in her face)

11. Madelyn and Bob were not present when Lucy had a miscarraige

12. Lucy didn't have a miscarraige when ILL was getting into fruition

 

That's all I can think of right now but I remember there being lots more that was very innacurate. What can YOU think of and am I right in what I have stated?

[C L A U D E]

Honey, Lucy's mother in law's name is D O L O R E S. And yes, Lucy was a blonde when she met Desi, the red hair came at MGM when Sydney Guillaroff said her soul was on fire so she should have red hair. Even Desi, when telling the story of their first meeting to Carson says clearly, SHE WAS A BLONDE BACK THEN.

[mikidiki]

Honey, Lucy's mother in law's name is D O L O R E S. And yes, Lucy was a blonde when she met Desi, the red hair came at MGM when Sydney Guillaroff said her soul was on fire so she should have red hair. Even Desi, when telling the story of their first meeting to Carson says clearly, SHE WAS A BLONDE BACK THEN.

 

Sorry, fixed that error. Are you sure Claude? I am sure that Lucy became a red head when she starred in Dance, Girl, Dance. Maybe I'm wrong then and need to brush up on my history but as far as I'm aware everything I have written is right (well, in my mind)

[C L A U D E]

When he threw the tantrum at his Roxbury house mansion, i know De De and the kids were there with he and Lucy but you'd think maybe other friends went to help them settle in. When they met in the RKO commissary, she was seen by him first in costume for Dance Girl Dance and later in a casual outfit, so you'd think he'd be dressed in a suit or something, how could he be wearing the uniform when they hadn't started the picture yet, unless he was being FITTED? LOL!

[C L A U D E]

Sorry, fixed that error. Are you sure Claude? I am sure that Lucy became a red head when she starred in Dance, Girl, Dance. Maybe I'm wrong then and need to brush up on my history but as far as I'm aware everything I have written is right (well, in my mind)

Yes, i'm sure sweetums. Lucy became a redhead at MGM in '43.

[C L A U D E]

Now i haven't seen that movie in quite a while BUT, i'm sure they took artistic license and you're going to get instances where they create moods or sequences and they don't give a hoot about accuracy. The errors that bother us most are when they don't get the history right or screw up major points. But you'd think they'd hire someone in the know as a consultant, wouldn't you?

[C L A U D E]

We once saw a scene from one of her movies and she's there getting hit with a pie in the face as she had just said there are ladies present, remember that? I forget what that was in. As for Dolores, i never read or heard she did not like Lucy. Everything she had came from her son marrying her so how could she not like her? I have no idea about the LDCH, haven't seen those in a while also but weren't most of them NOT FILMED IN FRONT OF A STUDIO AUDIENCE, they had so much canned laughter in them and so many ON LOCATION shots.

[mikidiki]

We once saw a scene from one of her movies and she's there getting hit with a pie in the face as she had just said there are ladies present, remember that? I forget what that was in. As for Dolores, i never read or heard she did not like Lucy. Everything she had came from her son marrying her so how could she not like her? I have no idea about the LDCH, haven't seen those in a while also but weren't most of them NOT FILMED IN FRONT OF A STUDIO AUDIENCE, they had so much canned laughter in them and so many ON LOCATION shots.

 

I can't remember but the movie made out that every movie she was in she had a pie thrown in her face LOL! No, the last one definitely wasn't shot in front of a live audience and another error: They didn't know that that would be the last one!

[Luvsbway]

This movie was far more accurate than Behind the Laughter. Lucy, took some things for creative liscense and also to speed up the timeline in the 50's. I once watched Laughter with pen and paper in hand. I had 3 notebook pages full of everything wrong in that one, and it only covered 11 years.

[Annaleigh]

 

 

Sorry, fixed that error. Are you sure Claude? I am sure that Lucy became a red head when she starred in Dance, Girl, Dance. Maybe I'm wrong then and need to brush up on my history but as far as I'm aware everything I have written is right (well, in my mind)

Lucy in her autobiography said she had strawberry blonde locks when she met Desi. She didn't have full blown red hair until she moved to MGM.

[Annaleigh]

As for the Desi tearing up the house they got the timing wrong completely. They moved into the Roxbury house while ILL was still going. I believe before or after Desi Jr was born. But according to this film they moved in during the LDCH run/ late fifties.

[Mot Morenzi]

In terms of broadstrokes, the movie was fairly accurate. A lot of the little "errors" we point out have to do with the dramatic license taken by the filmmakers and the timeline shifting done in the scripts, and also budgetary restrictions. Here are some other minor historical inaccuracies that crop up as such:

 

1) Lucy & Desi discuss buying RKO in 1953 during the red-scare, when it didn't even hit the market until around 1957 or so.

2) It only depicts Lucille suffering one miscarriage instead of two.

3) It depicts grape as being a Jell-O flavor when actually there were only six flavours at the time (strawberry, raspberry, cherry, orange, lemon & lime)

4) It shows the Pioneer Women "13 cakes" conversation taking place in the living room instead of the kitchen.

5) The set omits the Ricardo's bedroom and has the first scene from "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her" be the kitchen scene with Ethel

6) It shows the second season Tropicana set being used during the first season

7) The Ricardo's wall is blue instead of pale pink (BTL had that one right over this one)

8) It never depicts the Ricardo's second apartment, showing 4A as lasting the entire series.

9) It has the final LDCH scene taking place in the Connecticut living room as opposed to the hotel room

10) The Connecticut house is shortened, omitting a portion of the wall between the fireplace and the door, plus the kitchen door. If you look closely, you'll also see that there's no door or balcony at the top of the stairs. It also changed the location of the other side door in order to consolidate the set.

11) Harriet is a composite character based on several maids Lucille had over the years, and also seems to take the place of her cousin Cleo.

12) It depicts Lucy & Viv wearing their Martian outfits at the end of shooting, but they took those costumes off by then in the actual episode.

13) It shows Jess Oppenheimer being hired specifically to produce I Love Lucy, ignoring his involvement with My Favorite Husband.

[Mot Morenzi]

As for the Desi tearing up the house they got the timing wrong completely. They moved into the Roxbury house while ILL was still going. I believe before or after Desi Jr was born. But according to this film they moved in during the LDCH run/ late fifties.

 

Yeah a lot of inaccuracies cropped up as a result of the HUGE amounts of timeline shifting they did.

[Taylor]

As for the Desi tearing up the house they got the timing wrong completely. They moved into the Roxbury house while ILL was still going. I believe before or after Desi Jr was born. But according to this film they moved in during the LDCH run/ late fifties.

 

They moved into the Roxbury house in 1955.

[JoeySanJoaquin]

I once watched Laughter with pen and paper in hand. I had 3 notebook pages full of everything wrong in that one, and it only covered 11 years.

Now THAT'S a sad commentary on that cinematic "gem" (cough, cough)!

[JoeySanJoaquin]

We once saw a scene from one of her movies and she's there getting hit with a pie in the face as she had just said there are ladies present, remember that? I forget what that was in. As for Dolores, i never read or heard she did not like Lucy. Everything she had came from her son marrying her so how could she not like her? I have no idea about the LDCH, haven't seen those in a while also but weren't most of them NOT FILMED IN FRONT OF A STUDIO AUDIENCE, they had so much canned laughter in them and so many ON LOCATION shots.

Actually, it ended up being almost "half and half": Havana, Tallulah, Uranium (except location shots), Sun Valley (ditto), Danny Thomas and Career were all filmed before audiences, the remainder, perhaps most notably the last one, were not.

 

Re: "Moustache", can't imagine having to "stop and start" so much how they could have done it with an audience -- too bittersweet. And yes, I'm pretty sure they did know it would be the "final act." Sad.

[C L A U D E]

I can't remember but the movie made out that every movie she was in she had a pie thrown in her face LOL! No, the last one definitely wasn't shot in front of a live audience and another error: They didn't know that that would be the last one!

Well, SHE might have known seeing as she was filing for divorce the next day. As for the pies, the writer obviously remembered her tv shows instead of her movies.

[C L A U D E]

This movie was far more accurate than Behind the Laughter. Lucy, took some things for creative liscense and also to speed up the timeline in the 50's. I once watched Laughter with pen and paper in hand. I had 3 notebook pages full of everything wrong in that one, and it only covered 11 years.

Wish Brochu, who had a small role in it had set the writers straight.

[C L A U D E]

Lucy in her autobiography said she had strawberry blonde locks when she met Desi. She didn't have full blown red hair until she moved to MGM.

Saw Mikidiki thought, strawberries are red, therefore . . . LOL!

[C L A U D E]

As for the Desi tearing up the house they got the timing wrong completely. They moved into the Roxbury house while ILL was still going. I believe before or after Desi Jr was born. But according to this film they moved in during the LDCH run/ late fifties.

I think they moved into the house in '55.

[C L A U D E]

In terms of broadstrokes, the movie was fairly accurate. A lot of the little "errors" we point out have to do with the dramatic license taken by the filmmakers and the timeline shifting done in the scripts, and also budgetary restrictions. Here are some other minor historical inaccuracies that crop up as such:

 

1) Lucy & Desi discuss buying RKO in 1953 during the red-scare, when it didn't even hit the market until around 1957 or so.

2) It only depicts Lucille suffering one miscarriage instead of two.

3) It depicts grape as being a Jell-O flavor when actually there were only six flavours at the time (strawberry, raspberry, cherry, orange, lemon & lime)

4) It shows the Pioneer Women "13 cakes" conversation taking place in the living room instead of the kitchen.

5) The set omits the Ricardo's bedroom and has the first scene from "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her" be the kitchen scene with Ethel

6) It shows the second season Tropicana set being used during the first season

7) The Ricardo's wall is blue instead of pale pink (BTL had that one right over this one)

8) It never depicts the Ricardo's second apartment, showing 4A as lasting the entire series.

9) It has the final LDCH scene taking place in the Connecticut living room as opposed to the hotel room

10) The Connecticut house is shortened, omitting a portion of the wall between the fireplace and the door, plus the kitchen door. If you look closely, you'll also see that there's no door or balcony at the top of the stairs. It also changed the location of the other side door in order to consolidate the set.

11) Harriet is a composite character based on several maids Lucille had over the years, and also seems to take the place of her cousin Cleo.

12) It depicts Lucy & Viv wearing their Martian outfits at the end of shooting, but they took those costumes off by then in the actual episode.

13) It shows Jess Oppenheimer being hired specifically to produce I Love Lucy, ignoring his involvement with My Favorite Husband.

Well, someone's paying attention, LOL!

[C L A U D E]

Actually, it ended up being almost "half and half": Havana, Tallulah, Uranium (except location shots), Sun Valley (ditto), Danny Thomas and Career were all filmed before audiences, the remainder, perhaps most notably the last one, were not.

 

Re: "Moustache", can't imagine having to "stop and start" so much how they could have done it with an audience -- too bittersweet. And yes, I'm pretty sure they did know it would be the "final act." Sad.

Yeah, thought about that afterwards when i thought about each show individually, everybody knows the reason Tallulah and Danny Thomas are funnier is BECAUSE they were filmed in front of an audience and don't have that fake comedy stink of today's shows.

[C L A U D E]

This movie was far more accurate than Behind the Laughter. Lucy, took some things for creative liscense and also to speed up the timeline in the 50's. I once watched Laughter with pen and paper in hand. I had 3 notebook pages full of everything wrong in that one, and it only covered 11 years.

YOU CRACK ME UP! I had 144 3 x 5 index cards.

[mikidiki]

Wow! Thanks everyone for your answers! Yes, I knew she didn't have vibrant red hair until Dubarry but she had strawberry blonde hair at least for Too Many Girls - her hair was pretty much blonde in the film maybe with a very slight tinge of red.

[Annaleigh]

Saw Mikidiki thought, strawberries are red, therefore . . . LOL!

But it's still blonde with a nice little red/orange tint! I wish there was some colored pictures of it!

 

I remember reading a little Irma quote where she talks of Lucy's hair color. Irma didnt think of it as red but as golden apricot. She would dye her hair with a hair dye then do a henna rinse.