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The Lucy Show OR Here's Lucy


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Good writers wanted a decent wage for good material and gary just couldn't bear to part with the money in the budget that went instead for his cars, watches, shirts, sweaters etc. LOL!

 

You're 100% correct. Gary was nothing but a golddiger and big ham. He became more involved after Lucy ended The Lucy Show. He had a lot more input in Here's Lucy and that is why in each season there are at least four bad episodes. They were on a budget and brought in writers (paid them low wages) who knew nothing about the Lucy character. That's why Here's Lucy would have a great episode one week and then the following week a terrible episode. There was no consistency. Gary was just interested in what he could get from Lucy. I don't know what she saw in him. Sometimes I think it was all a facade and not such a great marriage. I guess Lucy didn't want people to know her personal business. She kept everything very hush hush. If she had divorced Gary she would have felt like she failed again.

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I just find it incredible Miss Ball would leave her career decisions completely up to Mr Morton...I mean I can see how he may have input but surely the buck had to stop with her..... As far as he being a gold digger I dont doubt that.... And I agree I dont know what she saw in him either..no wonder she seemed so miserable without her work to occupy her time.

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The gist I get from a few books and interviews is that many people came to LBP with scripts/ideas for Lucy, etc… Being that people are professional these people went through the proper channels, Lucy was not at the top of this chain, they instead would go to Gary first who vetoed many of them before Lucy ever got the chance to see them. I think if she would have received these first-hand she would have done a lot more different things in the 70’s/80’s.

 

Lucy also suffered in her thinking from being in the studio system for too long. From her start until she broke from MGM she was a contract actress and that meant you do the movies they give you. Once she went freelance she had more control over her movies she did but she admitted in that Hollywood Byline interview that she thought she should be more discriminating in the roles she picks and that she would do a lot of stuff she was offered. Once we get to ILL she left that all up to Desi for dealing with the scripts. I wonder if he had input on a lot of the projects she picked in the late 40’s too. So the 60’s role around and she needs to take over what he did. She doesn’t have the same skills but being the studio head I think that put her in the position that she saw more roles/projects. She wasn’t stupid, she could pick out crap (for the most part, animal episodes aside) but she had a great team of very talented people under her that she trusted and rightfully so. Especially with the late 60’s run of Mannix, Mission Impossible and Star Trek. She had to make the final decisions but only after trusting what those great creative people were telling her. She made good decisions then. Once she starts LBP and puts Gary in that is where she lost her control and unfortunally just relied on him too much. Lucy also was in the era now where she thought that she should just give the public “Lucy” since that is what they wanted. I also think that she was rather insecure and didn’t want to really challenge herself with something too different from the norm but with the right coxing she could do it. Gary just was not the person to do that though. I always wonder about Catherine Curtis because it is 100% not “Lucy” and at times it seems a little too much like her life. I wonder how that script came about and who picked it. Had she done more stuff in this vein it would have diversified herself more in the later years. Same with Stone Pillow, how did that come about? Very big departure there too

 

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I just find it incredible Miss Ball would leave her career decisions completely up to Mr Morton...I mean I can see how he may have input but surely the buck had to stop with her..... As far as he being a gold digger I dont doubt that.... And I agree I dont know what she saw in him either..no wonder she seemed so miserable without her work to occupy her time.

Even on I Love Lucy, she wanted to just act, not be in charge of anything behind the scenes so she expected numbnuts to do the kind of job Desi did but he was incapable of that being a second string hack comic. But let's not make this another gary bashing thread, it's all been said before. And I could see what she saw in him, he was big and tall, she loved that in her men, he was self assured and protected her BUT he gave her none of the problems her first hubby did, she could trust him, most of the time anyway. She could leave work, go home and have a personal life making it better for her when she went back to that work. Made her feel better about herself after that divorce. But, getting back on topic, he was a lousy manager, always looking for what was in it for HIM, instead of making her shine like Desi did. So, he wasn't the best at producing her later series.

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ANDDDDDD this is another reason why Lucy and Desi were perfect for each other.

Perfect for her if she could tolerate a cheating gambling alcoholic that is. But I know from experience that when you truly love someone, you tolerate those things a very long time before you break down and say ENOUGH!

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Good writers wanted a decent wage for good material and gary just couldn't bear to part with the money in the budget that went instead for his cars, watches, shirts, sweaters etc. LOL!

 

Lucy was starting to give Gary more "power", but he didn't have that kind of control at the time. The writers simply didn't have the respect for Lucy that they had for Desi.

 

Some say it's because of how Lucy interacted with them. She wasn't as tactful as Desi, but IMO... I've always felt it had more to do with the fact that Lucy was a woman. They could digest being told their work sucks coming from a man as opposed to a woman.

 

Yes, I know Madeline was a woman also, but you have to consider the mindset of the time. Lucy was one of the first women with that kind power in the business. Madeline may have also though Lucy was a ***** (fill that in yourself lol) simply because of the mindset that commonplace at the time.

 

That's just how I've viewed it when people talk about Lucy and working with her. She was tough... damn tough... and that was unusual and not entirely respected for a woman. Even in society today we still have issues with "tough women".

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Lucy was starting to give Gary more "power", but he didn't have that kind of control at the time. The writers simply didn't have the respect for Lucy that they had for Desi.

 

Some say it's because of how Lucy interacted with them. She wasn't as tactful as Desi, but IMO... I've always felt it had more to do with the fact that Lucy was a woman. They could digest being told their work sucks coming from a man as opposed to a woman.

 

Yes, I know Madeline was a woman also, but you have to consider the mindset of the time. Lucy was one of the first women with that kind power in the business. Madeline may have also though Lucy was a ***** (fill that in yourself lol) simply because of the mindset that commonplace at the time.

 

That's just always have I've viewed it when people talk about Lucy and working with her. She was tough... damn tough... and that was unusual and not entirely respected for a woman. Even in society today we still have issues with "tough women".

Agreed, men just couldn't take this mere WOMAN telling them what to do, did they also feel the same way with Davis and Hepburn? I know the answer, a resounding Y E S !

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Perfect for her if she could tolerate a cheating gambling alcoholic that is. But I know from experience that when you truly love someone, you tolerate those things a very long time before you break down and say ENOUGH!

Don't bring the negatives into this, mister! They were made for each other despite whether they were together or not. Sometimes love isn't enough.

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