The Lucy Show Season 3: Reviews and First Impressions!

[C L A U D E]

Well said! I think those clips stand on their own and should have been included, DESPITE them being in black & white!

Yes, that's like a tribute to Angela Landsbury NOT including Mame songs or a mention of her great Emmy winning work on Murder she wrote, oh wait, she never did win an Emmy did she, bad example . . still Mark had a very good point there that i never thought of, when those aired originally, the show WAS only shown in black and white anyway so the viewers never saw that color/black and white pairing.

[mark bale]

Off topic here, I read a great piece about Angela Lansbury a few years ago - she was offered the title role in THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE (either a stage version, or maybe the UK 1969 film version, not sure which) and turned it down saying in what I imagined to be a dignified and refined tone "one doesn't play those sort of roles".

 

Of course the marvellous late great Beryl Reid did a fab job - much better than Lansbury would have I think.

[JoeySanJoaquin]

Off topic here, I read a great piece about Angela Lansbury a few years ago - she was offered the title role in THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE (either a stage version, or maybe the UK 1969 film version, not sure which) and turned it down saying in what I imagined to be a dignified and refined tone "one doesn't play those sort of roles".

 

Of course the marvellous late great Beryl Reid did a fab job - much better than Lansbury would have I think.

I dunno about that.... she is much more than Jessica Fletcher, after all. If you've never seen the classic (original version) of the film The Manchurian Candidate, check it out. Chilling!

[Brock]

I dunno about that.... she is much more than Jessica Fletcher, after all. If you've never seen the classic (original version) of the film The Manchurian Candidate, check it out. Chilling!

 

Right! I'm not the biggest Angela Lansbury fan in the world ( ) but she was ROBBED of her Oscar for The Manchurian Candidate. ROBBED, I TELL YOU! She was absoluely brilliant. She thinks so too!

[mark bale]

Just coming to the end of watching s3. Nearly all great episodes apart from the Countess ones - the Health Farm one is pretty dire. The non-Viv episodes don't work quite so well.

 

 

Another odd thing I noticed - at least 2 episodes we see Viv reading magazines - but with the magazine name all covered up. Strange they couldn't have used a fictional magazine name, like the Danfield newspapers, or that a well known magazine didn't sponsor the series.

[C L A U D E]

Right! I'm not the biggest Angela Lansbury fan in the world ( ) but she was ROBBED of her Oscar for The Manchurian Candidate. ROBBED, I TELL YOU! She was absoluely brilliant. She thinks so too!

Oh i'm sure she DOES, LOL! Who won her year anyway? The voters obviously disagreed with you both, LOL!

[C L A U D E]

Off topic here, I read a great piece about Angela Lansbury a few years ago - she was offered the title role in THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE (either a stage version, or maybe the UK 1969 film version, not sure which) and turned it down saying in what I imagined to be a dignified and refined tone "one doesn't play those sort of roles".

 

Of course the marvellous late great Beryl Reid did a fab job - much better than Lansbury would have I think.

Absolutely, i saw it at the theater and Ms Reid was impossible to beat, i have a copy and play it once a year, just brilliant. To be fair to the old cow ange, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison didn't mind playing THOSE KIND OF ROLES, it's called acting, and they were both brilliant in The Staircase. But a woman working mostly in the theater should have a broader view of that type of thing, even though to be fair to her, this was back in '69, no pun intended.

[C L A U D E]

Just coming to the end of watching s3. Nearly all great episodes apart from the Countess ones - the Health Farm one is pretty dire. The non-Viv episodes don't work quite so well.

 

 

Another odd thing I noticed - at least 2 episodes we see Viv reading magazines - but with the magazine name all covered up. Strange they couldn't have used a fictional magazine name, like the Danfield newspapers, or that a well known magazine didn't sponsor the series.

I disagree, when they both got drunk i thought only Ann could do it so well, Ann should have stayed on. But it WAS great when Viv came to visit once a year in subsequent seasons. I think the whole COUNTESS concept was brilliant and Ann portrayed it perfectly.

[mark bale]

I just couldn't accept the penniless countess storyline each week. Sothern is fine, and it was a good try to replace Viv, but for me it didn't quite work, and the Health farm episode was painfully unfunny

[Brock]

I'm a great fan of all the Countess episodes, but Lucy & The Countess Lose Weight never worked for me either. Not only is it unfunny, but it is unbelievable to me that Mooney would be so hostile to Rosie at the health farm when he is practically kissing her feet in Danfield. Plus, this episode is a complete and utter waste of Carole Cook.

[C L A U D E]

I just couldn't accept the penniless countess storyline each week. Sothern is fine, and it was a good try to replace Viv, but for me it didn't quite work, and the Health farm episode was painfully unfunny

Oh i agree the show was not the best written but i am a HUGE fan of Ann Sothern so i'm biased, sorry Mark. The writers always went for the OBVIOUS easy jokes, like the fat women looking HUGE and struggling to go without food and all that. This is back when that TYPE of humor was everywhere.

[mark bale]

That's a very true Brock. The old mansion episode is best, possibly because Viv is back. The countess ones aren't bad, but they are the least funny (for me) of the series.

 

The Danny Kaye episode is only mildly amusing (the Danny Thomas one is much better in season 4), the b/w Kaye show clips aren't terribly funny either. The second clip of Lucille and Danny chatting is too short = was the original longer ???

[Brock]

(the Danny Thomas one is much better in season 4)

 

 

Seriously?

[mark bale]

Danny Kaye not one of my favourite comedy stars.

[Ricky]

I totally disagree, I think the Ann Sothern episodes were a riot. Lucy and Ann made a great team. In fact, the six episodes that Vivian Vance weren't in were some of the best episodes of season 3. I loved Lucy and Jack Benny, the four Ann Sothern episodes (I will agree the fat farm episode was the weakest of the four), Danny Kaye and Lucy Becomes A Father. I think it was a good thing that Vivian Vance left at the end of season three. The format just couldn't have continued. Lucy was smart to approve the California move. It gave us an extra three seasons of Lucy Carmichael.

[C L A U D E]

I totally disagree, I think the Ann Sothern episodes were a riot. Lucy and Ann made a great team. In fact, the six episodes that Vivian Vance weren't in were some of the best episodes of season 3. I loved Lucy and Jack Benny, the four Ann Sothern episodes (I will agree the fat farm episode was the weakest of the four), Danny Kaye and Lucy Becomes A Father. I think it was a good thing that Vivian Vance left at the end of season three. The format just couldn't have continued. Lucy was smart to approve the California move. It gave us an extra three seasons of Lucy Carmichael.

OMG, i couldn't have said it better myself, HERE HERE!!!!!

[HarryCarter]

Oh i'm sure she DOES, LOL! Who won her year anyway? The voters obviously disagreed with you both, LOL!

 

Angie lost to, in her own words, "a little girl!" That little girl was Patty Duke. 1962 was not a good year for Lucy-friendly Oscar nominees. Lol

[C L A U D E]

Angie lost to, in her own words, "a little girl!" That little girl was Patty Duke. 1962 was not a good year for Lucy-friendly Oscar nominees. Lol

LOL! LOL! LOL! OMG, who does that pompous ass think she is????? Patty Duke WAS the BEST actress that year for her incredible turn in The Miracle Worker, a powerful and moving portrayal of the late great Helen Keller. Remember that old story, could ange have done Patty's part, a resounding NO for an answer, but many actresses could have portrayed that mother bitch from hell in Manchurian Candidate. But i guess she did have the BITCH part down pat, LOL! This reminds me of another great blow hard, Bette Davis who thought she should have won every single time she was nominated.

[Neil]

--The Danny Kaye episode is only mildly amusing (the Danny Thomas one is much better in season 4)---

 

Seriously?

 

I've never understood people's aversion to:

1. "Lucy and Danny Thomas" from the 4th season (especially the usually in-agreement-with-me-on-practically-everthing Weire Brother)

2. The 7 Countess episodes from seasons 3 and 4, especially "Lucy and the Countess Lose Weight".

3. The Ironman 'trilogy' from season 4

 

And I certainly have no problem with Danny Kaye but the paring of these two comedy giants at their peak should have been a stellar episode instead of this mish-mash. The script is such a nothing that Lucy and Danny have little to work with. This was at a time when any guest star on "the Lucy Show" was a rarity--Danny was only the third in the entire three season run up to that point. For the episode, CBS took out a full page ad in TV Guide, the first such ad for "The Lucy Show" that I'm aware of.

[C L A U D E]

--The Danny Kaye episode is only mildly amusing (the Danny Thomas one is much better in season 4)---

 

I've never understood people's aversion to:

1. "Lucy and Danny Thomas" from the 4th season (especially the usually in-agreement-with-me-on-practically-everthing Weire Brother)

2. The 7 Countess episodes from seasons 3 and 4, especially "Lucy and the Countess Lose Weight".

3. The Ironman 'trilogy' from season 4

 

And I certainly have no problem with Danny Kaye but the paring of these two comedy giants at their peak should have been a stellar episode instead of this mish-mash. The script is such a nothing that Lucy and Danny have little to work with. This was at a time when any guest star on "the Lucy Show" was a rarity--Danny was only the third in the entire three season run up to that point. For the episode, CBS took out a full page ad in TV Guide, the first such ad for "The Lucy Show" that I'm aware of.

Yes, yet another example where superstars are given nothing to work with on a series or special, the intelligence and sophistication given to their pairing on Danny's specials was a thousand times more relevant than the script made for them on The Lucy Show. You hear so many negative comments about something like The Ironman that you start believing it eventually. I state yet again that the Countess eps were different, funny and one of the all time best arcs on any series and Ann should have stayed on the show as Lucy's co star. A recurring role maybe over the next three years. Now this Danny Thomas episode, which one is it, you guys keep talking about it, and i'll be damned if i can remember which one it is.

[mark bale]

Where Lucy gets into Danny's TV special, and he keeps calling her "Red"

[JoeySanJoaquin]

I'm a great fan of all the Countess episodes, but Lucy & The Countess Lose Weight never worked for me either. Not only is it unfunny, but it is unbelievable to me that Mooney would be so hostile to Rosie at the health farm when he is practically kissing her feet in Danfield. Plus, this episode is a complete and utter waste of Carole Cook.

 

You make some salient points, Brock, and to this whole issue of Sothern "replacing" Viv, well I'm sorry but NO ONE could ever replace her, she and Big Red had an unique and unparalleled chemistry, history and friendship, complicated though it may have been. Actually, the older I get it just strikes me that what they probably had relationship wise was akin to being sisters, they were probably that close but yet, being women, being actresses, etc., etc., some little part of each of them probably often had their "guard" up as they were in a small way, competing with one another.

 

I find it interesting too -- and indicative of the complicated relationship that they had -- that while Viv claimed she wanted out because she tired of the coast-to-coast commute --which, that alone, is certainly a valid and understandable reason! -- she apparently WAS willing and able if "the price (terms) was right" i.e.; more creative control, etc., to return for yet another year.

 

Since we weren't there, we don't know everything that went down, add that anytime actors' representation gets involved, the potential to "get ugly" is certainly there as frankly, they're out for what THEY can get out of the deal as much if not more as they care about their clients' welfare, so who KNOWS what their respective representatives said to one another to broker a deal that never got consummated. That said, I've always found it curious that Lucy didn't put her supposedly hurt feelings aside and fight harder to keep Viv on, considering the lengths she went to in the first place to engage her services at the outset, not to mention how vocal she was about how integral Viv was to the success of the show.

[mark bale]

It was the start of the series attempts to replace Vivian Vance - testing the waters as Vance was still part of season 3. Another failed attempt was with Joan Blondell, finally I think they left it with Mary Jane which was the best idea - something which was carried over into HERE'S LUCY, but Mary Jane was only a partial partner for Lucy, not a major co-star like Viv.

[mikidiki]

I totally disagree, I think the Ann Sothern episodes were a riot. Lucy and Ann made a great team. In fact, the six episodes that Vivian Vance weren't in were some of the best episodes of season 3. I loved Lucy and Jack Benny, the four Ann Sothern episodes (I will agree the fat farm episode was the weakest of the four), Danny Kaye and Lucy Becomes A Father. I think it was a good thing that Vivian Vance left at the end of season three. The format just couldn't have continued. Lucy was smart to approve the California move. It gave us an extra three seasons of Lucy Carmichael.

 

I disagree and agree with you on some points. I don't think the Ann Sothern episodes were a riot, I have rewatched them and whilst I prefer them the second time round, I find that Ann Sothern grates on my nerves and overplays her role. I think the first Ann Sothern episode was the weakest of the 4 episodes, not the fat farm. I didn't like Lucy and the Plumber, hated Danny Kaye and I actually liked Lucy Becomes A Father. I totally agree with you that it was a good thing Viv left. Unless they used the children more in Season 4 then then format couldn't have continued.

[JoeySanJoaquin]

I totally agree with you that it was a good thing Viv left. Unless they used the children more in Season 4 then then format couldn't have continued.

I think that's ridiculous! Why couldn't it have continued, it was the original concept of the show! I think that we're all entitled to our opinions and of course, have our personal favorites and preferences, but I see no reason why the entire six season run of the show couldn't have taken place as it was. Actually, when Viv left and the format was retooled, it really became almost a "new" show anyway, they're so radically different as far as set-up and cast. I sometimes almost wish they'd renamed the show ("Lucy in Hollywood" perhaps?) to reflect just how different it was.

 

Of course, for comparison, just a few years later Doris Day would essentially do the same thing with her show, as it began as a rural-set, widow with two kids sitcom and as with TLS, eventually morphed into the middle-aged single girl swingin' in the Big City (San Francisco), so by the time it ended it seemed like an entirely different sitcom....despite being called The Doris Day Show the entire time!

 

Given that, I'm a bit surprised to this day that Day doesn't get as much credit as she perhaps should for being one of the first "single working women" changing the world sitcom-style as Marlo Thomas did for That Girl and of course, MTM for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Funny how these things work!