Brock Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 Don't get too excited, it's just the opening theme from Lucy's episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaAlJXr6oqI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 Don't get too excited, it's just the opening theme from Lucy's episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaAlJXr6oqI Well, then, get going on finding the rest, that was a terrific show with two of the greatest ladies ever to grace television. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 Well, then, get going on finding the rest, that was a terrific show with two of the greatest ladies ever to grace television. ....which led to one of my biggest dreams coming true, never really thinking it would happen till it actually did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 ....which led to one of my biggest dreams coming true, never really thinking it would happen till it actually did! Yup, two of the best things Lucy ever did will probably never make it to dvd because they were on failed shows, this one with Mary and the great one with Steve Lawrence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 Yup, two of the best things Lucy ever did will probably never make it to dvd because they were on failed shows, this one with Mary and the great one with Steve Lawrence. I didn't remember that the MTM Hour used the same theme as the MTM sitcom. I didn't see "Mary" the first version of her variety show that was yanked after a few episodes. The TV Guide ad for this MTM Hour debut was a full page that said "If you liked Mary Richards, you'll LOVE Mary McKinnon". Wasn't Lucy's the first show? Also didn't remember the supporting cast included Michael Keaton and Joyce Van Patten. Joyce is never mentioned when people talk about "Mame" but I think she's terrific in it. Really brings a lot to a very small part. Poor Mary tried FOUR comeback series (maybe more?) and each failed miserably. The "Mary" and "MTM Hour" variety shows, the sitcom "Mary" and "Annie MacGuire". And yes, Lucy's Steve Lawrence appearance is her best variety guest outing. It would be a natural for inclusion in the 4th season release but I'm sure the music rights would cost too much. I predict we'll get the "Marineland" outtakes section of the show on the set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryCarter Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 I didn't remember that the MTM Hour used the same theme as the MTM sitcom. I didn't see "Mary" the first version of her variety show that was yanked after a few episodes. The TV Guide ad for this MTM Hour debut was a full page that said "If you liked Mary Richards, you'll LOVE Mary McKinnon". Wasn't Lucy's the first show? Also didn't remember the supporting cast included Michael Keaton and Joyce Van Patten. Joyce is never mentioned when people talk about "Mame" but I think she's terrific in it. Really brings a lot to a very small part. Poor Mary tried FOUR comeback series (maybe more?) and each failed miserably. The "Mary" and "MTM Hour" variety shows, the sitcom "Mary" and "Annie MacGuire". And yes, Lucy's Steve Lawrence appearance is her best variety guest outing. It would be a natural for inclusion in the 4th season release but I'm sure the music rights would cost too much. I predict we'll get the "Marineland" outtakes section of the show on the set. Lucy's Mary Tyler Moore Hour was the first show to air, although I don't think it was the first show filmed. Mary had another short-lived series, "New York News," in the mid-1990s. Interestingly, "Annie McGuire" (which featured Adrien Brody as her stepson) is the only one of her shows to not be set in the TV and/or news industry. Michael Keaton was the only one of the "Mary" cast members to return for "The Mary Tyler Moore Hour." David Letterman and Swoozie Kurtz were among the cast members on the other show (Letterman did make one appearance on "The MTM Hour Show," though). I think Joyce Van Patten is marvelous as Sally Cato in Mame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted January 22, 2011 Report Share Posted January 22, 2011 Lucy's Mary Tyler Moore Hour was the first show to air, although I don't think it was the first show filmed. Mary had another short-lived series, "New York News," in the mid-1990s. Interestingly, "Annie McGuire" (which featured Adrien Brody as her stepson) is the only one of her shows to not be set in the TV and/or news industry. Michael Keaton was the only one of the "Mary" cast members to return for "The Mary Tyler Moore Hour." David Letterman and Swoozie Kurtz were among the cast members on the other show (Letterman did make one appearance on "The MTM Hour Show," though). I think Joyce Van Patten is marvelous as Sally Cato in Mame. The Lucy ep of TMTMH was not the first one taped as it was done in December 1978 and didn't air till March (I believe) 1979 as the premiere episode, CBS "suits" believing most likely that not only was it the "best" episode shot to date (totally subjective, of course!) but that Lucy's marquee value was still quite in evidence and would help pull in viewers to this "retooled" version of Mary's failed variety effort. Too bad it didn't work out that way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 The Lucy ep of TMTMH was not the first one taped as it was done in December 1978 and didn't air till March (I believe) 1979 as the premiere episode, CBS "suits" believing most likely that not only was it the "best" episode shot to date (totally subjective, of course!) but that Lucy's marquee value was still quite in evidence and would help pull in viewers to this "retooled" version of Mary's failed variety effort. Too bad it didn't work out that way! One week's terrific ratings do not a successful series make, LOL! It WAS nice however to see Lucy get drunk with somebody different for a change, LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 One week's terrific ratings do not a successful series make, LOL! It WAS nice however to see Lucy get drunk with somebody different for a change, LOL! On Irish coffee, yet! Yes....it was vintage Lucy in that regard. The show had possibilities but the "show-within-a-show" concept rarely works and this was a good example of it not working, unfortunately! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 On Irish coffee, yet! Yes....it was vintage Lucy in that regard. The show had possibilities but the "show-within-a-show" concept rarely works and this was a good example of it not working, unfortunately! AND filmed as opposed to being in front of an audience which means the laughs HAVE to be there, LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 AND filmed as opposed to being in front of an audience which means the laughs HAVE to be there, LOL! I'm not following, the way you phrased this. Actually this was videotaped (as all variety shows and Norman Lear shows were at the time) and there was definitely an audience, although when you say the laughs "HAVE to be there", I'm here to tell you they've DEFINITELY been sweetened with lots o' laugh track! If you want "full disclosure", the truth is the homage to Laurel & Hardy number Mary did with a blue screen and the wundaful production number, "We're the Girlfriends of the Whirling Dervish" were both pre-taped so we didn't get to see the gals perform those, dang it! Trivia tidbit: if you ever see this -- hopefully via DVD one day! -- when Big Red is in the changing room and just her hand comes out to grab another Irish Coffee in the boutique scene, you hear yours truly on the soundtrack as we were in both the dress rehearsal and show audiences that night and I knew "The Hand" was coming the second time and for some reason at the time (hey, this was over 30 years ago and I was just a kid!!) I found that funny. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I'm not following, the way you phrased this. Actually this was videotaped (as all variety shows and Norman Lear shows were at the time) and there was definitely and audience, although when you say the laughs "HAVE to be there", I'm here to tell you they've DEFINITELY been sweetened with lots o' laugh track! If you want "full disclosure", the truth is the homage to Laurel & Hardy number Mary did with a blue screen and the wundaful production number, "We're the Girlfriends of the Whirling Dervish" were both pre-taped so we didn't get to see the gals perform those, dang it! Trivia tidbit: if you ever see this -- hopefully via DVD one day! -- when Big Red is in the changing room and just her hand comes out to grab another Irish Coffee in the boutique scene, you hear yours truly on the soundtrack as we were in both the dress rehearsal and show audiences that night and I knew "The Hand" was coming the second time and for some reason at the time (hey, this was over 30 years ago and I was just a kid!!) I found that funny. Go figure. There was definitely AND audience? How bout the way YOU phrased that? LOL! I meant the laughs were always bigger when there WAS an audience, they're forced to make sure the laughs come so they just write funnier, they dun't want to face a silent audience, LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 There was definitely AND audience? How bout the way YOU phrased that? LOL! I meant the laughs were always bigger when there WAS an audience, they're forced to make sure the laughs come so they just write funnier, they dun't want to face a silent audience, LOL! So solly, Charlie! Geez, do I usually make that many typos?? Okay, now I get what you're saying. Geez, I need to unearth my VHS copy of this and get it on DVD -- I haven't seen it in forever. While far from a perfect show.....it certainly brings back some very fond memories. Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 So solly, Charlie! Geez, do I usually make that many typos?? Okay, now I get what you're saying. Geez, I need to unearth my VHS copy of this and get it on DVD -- I haven't seen it in forever. While far from a perfect show.....it certainly brings back some very fond memories. Sigh. Oh i thought it was a great show, but it suffers from the lack of much audience response, my copy's bad but the show's pretty damned good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryCarter Posted August 31, 2016 Report Share Posted August 31, 2016 Full show! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8-QplmeW-s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted August 31, 2016 Report Share Posted August 31, 2016 57 minutes?? That means it includes commercials! Cool! I have a personal attachment to this fine hour of television (cough, cough) for sentimental reasons so I'd be curious to hear others thoughts and observations about it, especially those (probably most here) that have never seen it. I'll just throw out there that nowadays I sort of think of this as Mary's "Life With Lucy": it might have seemed like a great idea at the time but by the time it all came out in the wash...well, I'm trying not to make a toilet-flushing analogy here but it's difficult not to! Like LWL, despite so much talent in front of AND behind the camera, there was just something not quite "right" from the get-go about this project...for me, nothing more glaring than the supporting cast, which not only paled by the inevitable comparison to her former TMTMS bunch but even to those that comprised the first "version" of this endeavor, of whom only Michael Keaton was "salvaged" (this is where Dave Letterman first met and worked for Mary, along with other talents such as Swoosie (!) Kurtz and Dick Shawn. I have no doubt that the guy cast as her producer/boss was to be a "new" Lou Grant to this Mary, but based on this episode alone (the only one I've seen in its entirety) they had absolutely zero chemistry which, in my mind, was not assisted by the lackluster, uninspired writing. I mentioned in another thread that we should start a thread/list of all those moments, however brief (as in this episode), in which La Ball has for some reason or other ever so subtlely done a quick "is the wig in place?" check as over the course of her latter series and this appearance there are many....and for some reason, I find them more amusing -- not to mention impressive! -- all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddie2 Posted September 1, 2016 Report Share Posted September 1, 2016 I appreciate that the show is trying to do something different, but this is just...clunky. It's like watching a bizarre precursor to Larry Sanders or 30 Rock. I know that this and TMTMS are two different entities, but let's just compare their first episodes- in 1970 you knew exactly who all the characters were and how they interacted right away. The writers for this show should have taken some notes on character exposition. (I know this probably wasn't the first episode filmed, but still, we should be getting a few more vibes from these characters). The Rhyming Coffee Man was unbearable. Vanda's appearance was so quick I missed it- I was making coffee and therefore too preoccupied to look at my iPad, and I said to myself "That sounded like Vanda", and I ended up being correct. I'm assuming there was a deleted scene where Sid played the limo driver who had to take Mary and Lucy away. Question for our inside scoop Joey: Lucy gets no entrance applause- how was she introduced? Also the Mame-Sally Cato reunion was not what I had it chalked up to be in my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted September 1, 2016 Report Share Posted September 1, 2016 I appreciate that the show is trying to do something different, but this is just...clunky. It's like watching a bizarre precursor to Larry Sanders or 30 Rock. I know that this and TMTMS are two different entities, but let's just compare their first episodes- in 1970 you knew exactly who all the characters were and how they interacted right away. The writers for this show should have taken some notes on character exposition. (I know this probably wasn't the first episode filmed, but still, we should be getting a few more vibes from these characters). The Rhyming Coffee Man was unbearable. Vanda's appearance was so quick I missed it- I was making coffee and therefore too preoccupied to look at my iPad, and I said to myself "That sounded like Vanda", and I ended up being correct. I'm assuming there was a deleted scene where Sid played the limo driver who had to take Mary and Lucy away. Question for our inside scoop Joey: Lucy gets no entrance applause- how was she introduced? Also the Mame-Sally Cato reunion was not what I had it chalked up to be in my mind. Ya know... that's a great question! I honestly don't remember (it was only 37 years ago!! ), but now that I think about it Mary probably came out before they began and made the cast introductions but ....now this is gonna bug me, I really don't remember! It was however not a "surprise" that she'd be appearing as I DO vividly remember her name was featured as the special guest star on our tickets... not that I didn't know beforehand anyway given the circumstances, plus the fact my co-hort and I sat in the audience for BOTH "dress" and "show" tapings!! *Sigh*....those were the days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted September 1, 2016 Report Share Posted September 1, 2016 I don’t know how 2 legendary female comedians can turn out such a dull experience. I knew by the coffee where this was leading and thought, oh I love Lucy drunk, this should be fun with Mary. Nope. This is the most labored drunk act I’ve ever seen Lucy do and it didn’t have much of the wonderful touches that raise her drunk scenes to such high levels. I’m blaming the writing on this because it just never reaches any sort of all out hilarity. There’s no great climax to the drunkenness, just Mary stammering through asking Mike to give up Lucy. I’ve never seen Mary play drunk, but I hope it’s better than what I witnessed here. Lucy does get in a few good facial expressions that I enjoyed watching. And eating the food was sort of funny, just to see Lucy do her disgusted face. Times have really changed because go to any good sushi restaurant today and octopus and eel are always available and very common to eat. Lucy playing herself in the dress shop had that air of hoityness that was evident in the Here’s Lucy episode where she played herself. I guess that is how she portrays screen Lucille. A few notes on her outfit. She looked so slim in that pants suit and it skimmed her body nicely. That’s what she should have been wearing in the 70s, not that caftan crap. Before she whips out the boa Lucy’s wearing a black scarf just across her neck but has that beautiful v in the top. She takes off the scarf but by the Douglass show she is now wearing a pink one. It’s around this time Lucy started doing the scarf or high neck thing. I’ve heard it attributed to her having a scare on her neck, maybe from thyroid surgery, that she was trying to hide. I’m more in the she’s just hiding an aging neck camp. Finally that dance harem number at the end. Lucy did wonderful variety show numbers in the 60s and 70s. This wasn’t one of them. These actresses were so much better than this effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted September 1, 2016 Report Share Posted September 1, 2016 I don’t know how 2 legendary female comedians can turn out such a dull experience. I knew by the coffee where this was leading and thought, oh I love Lucy drunk, this should be fun with Mary. Nope. This is the most labored drunk act I’ve ever seen Lucy do and it didn’t have much of the wonderful touches that raise her drunk scenes to such high levels. I’m blaming the writing on this because it just never reaches any sort of all out hilarity. There’s no great climax to the drunkenness, just Mary stammering through asking Mike to give up Lucy. I’ve never seen Mary play drunk, but I hope it’s better than what I witnessed here. Lucy does get in a few good facial expressions that I enjoyed watching. And eating the food was sort of funny, just to see Lucy do her disgusted face. Times have really changed because go to any good sushi restaurant today and octopus and eel are always available and very common to eat. Lucy playing herself in the dress shop had that air of hoityness that was evident in the Here’s Lucy episode where she played herself. I guess that is how she portrays screen Lucille. A few notes on her outfit. She looked so slim in that pants suit and it skimmed her body nicely. That’s what she should have been wearing in the 70s, not that caftan crap. Before she whips out the boa Lucy’s wearing a black scarf just across her neck but has that beautiful v in the top. She takes off the scarf but by the Douglass show she is now wearing a pink one. It’s around this time Lucy started doing the scarf or high neck thing. I’ve heard it attributed to her having a scare on her neck, maybe from thyroid surgery, that she was trying to hide. I’m more in the she’s just hiding an aging neck camp. Finally that dance harem number at the end. Lucy did wonderful variety show numbers in the 60s and 70s. This wasn’t one of them. These actresses were so much better than this effort. Thanks Shelly I was hoping you'd weigh in on this and also whether or not anyone caught the difference in the scarves between the boutique and Mike Douglas Show scenes. The reason? The MDS section -- as well as nearly half of the rest of the show -- was pre-recorded and "enjoyed" by the audience via playback on studio monitors! I've had the privilege of attending several tapings and filmings (YES, they are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS!) over the years and bar none, this production utilized more "done ahead" scenes than I've ever experienced before or since. One reason perhaps may have been an effort to utilize footage already shot for the original version of this clambake, "Mary" which aired what, all of 3 episodes before it was yanked. Thus, the dance sequence in which she was paired by green screen with Laurel & Hardy (which I think was charming yet basically, filler) from my understanding was originally done for the previous show. The most disappointing at the time for me was not witnessing first hand the also taped in advance big production number/finale of "Whirling Dervish" which I understand from a production/logistics/time-constraints standpoint but as a life-long fan of both these ladies -- not to mention being in the studio environment which was always a big thrill for this starstruck individual -- it was more than a little disappointing to sit there and watch this colorful production number played out over the monitors and not done live for our enjoyment and live responses. [Particularly disappointing having learned years later that usually nearly every scene -- including sometimes very elaborate production numbers -- of The Carol Burnett Show -- was not only shot straight through not once but twice each week ("dress" and "show" audiences), rarely stopping but for costume & scene changes and pickups, if needed for technical reasons. Ironically, both very different productions were shot in Studio 33 at CBS Television City...but can you say "night and day"??!] If I hadn't had the thrill of finally meeting The Lady just minutes after Lucy and Mary's last scene together, the memory of that experience for this fanboy would be significantly dimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted September 1, 2016 Report Share Posted September 1, 2016 Of note that coat Lucy wears in the last scene and in this photo is Lucy's coat. I have a few photos from the mid 70s wearing it off screen. It was nice to pair up some of these photos I've seen to the scenes from the show. I had no idea how all these fit together before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted September 1, 2016 Report Share Posted September 1, 2016 The 1978 "Mary" was probably closer to her "Life With Lucy" than the "Hour." Highly anticipated, "Mary" seemed like the natural successor to Carol Burnett which had just ended its run. With such a solid lead-in "60 Minutes", it seemed like it couldn't miss. At least "Hour" ran for 3 months. With 11 episodes aired, did they do 13 (a standard order) and not air two? Was "Mary" really THAT bad? They must have taped more than the THREE they aired. By 1978, the variety format the equivalent of Bette Davis in "Wicked Stepmother". So decrepit: painful to watch. If you take "Carol Burnett" out of the mix, there hadn't been a good one since the 60s (sorry "Sonney and Cher" fans. I'm not one of you). Once they came up with a feasible way to edit videotape, they killed the spontaneity which is what made those shows so great. Ruin-er #2: audience response "sweetening". I HATE it when they insert audience laughter in the middle of a song after a particularly "witty" lyric. You enjoy song lyrics. You don't LOL---otherwise you miss the next stanza. SNL was the only one to come out of the 70s and while I appreciate its biting humor, it's a bit mean-spirited and once it hit, there was no going back to the days of innocence. Some loved "The Muppets", but, again, that g-d over-the-top enthusiastic laugh track ruined that one for me. 57 minutes?? That means it includes commercials! Cool! I have a personal attachment to this fine hour of television (cough, cough) for sentimental reasons so I'd be curious to hear others thoughts and observations about it, especially those (probably most here) that have never seen it. I'll just throw out there that nowadays I sort of think of this as Mary's "Life With Lucy": it might have seemed like a great idea at the time but by the time it all came out in the wash...well, I'm trying not to make a toilet-flushing analogy here but it's difficult not to! Like LWL, despite so much talent in front of AND behind the camera, there was just something not quite "right" from the get-go about this project...for me, nothing more glaring than the supporting cast, which not only paled by the inevitable comparison to her former TMTMS bunch but even to those that comprised the first "version" of this endeavor, of whom only Michael Keaton was "salvaged" (this is where Dave Letterman first met and worked for Mary, along with other talents such as Swoosie (!) Kurtz and Dick Shawn. I have no doubt that the guy cast as her producer/boss was to be a "new" Lou Grant to this Mary, but based on this episode alone (the only one I've seen in its entirety) they had absolutely zero chemistry which, in my mind, was not assisted by the lackluster, uninspired writing. I mentioned in another thread that we should start a thread/list of all those moments, however brief (as in this episode), in which La Ball has for some reason or other ever so subtlely done a quick "is the wig in place?" check as over the course of her latter series and this appearance there are many....and for some reason, I find them more amusing -- not to mention impressive! -- all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted September 5, 2016 Report Share Posted September 5, 2016 This was not bad for its times and Lucy makes great facial expressions and is definitely better than the Lucy less scenes. Mary is only mildly funny. Lucy is great in Deverish number but it has awful 70s elements like speeded up scene and strange scenery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irene Kampen Tripp Posted September 7, 2016 Report Share Posted September 7, 2016 I wish I'd met her in person. Wow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted September 7, 2016 Report Share Posted September 7, 2016 Obviously Mary wanted to show off her musical talents, but after the disastrous "Mary", didn't they realize that's not the Mary the public wanted to see? Still, it's an interesting premise that in another time might have worked. It might have been better if: -she had played herself Mary Tyler Moore instead of this "Mary McKinnon" -it had been a half-hour instead of a full hour -they had filmed the backstage goings-on instead of using videotape, but left the show-within-a-show on tape, much like "The Larry Sanders Show" did. Her Lauren and Hardy bit was clever and pretty advanced technology for 1979 but it goes on TOO LONG. The "Whirling Dervish" number is a pretty strange choice but how about that shot of 67 year old Lucy's legs? The drunk sequence might have looked funny on paper, but the way it's presented it's just silly. Would have worked better if the girls discovered too late that Irish coffee is spiked and made a valiant attempt to act sober on Mike Douglas. My favorite part is when Lucy started throwing the sushi at the noise-making guy. I wonder if Lucy threw in this little bit of business. I don't know WHAT to say about the guy who spoke in rhymes..... What's with the way the announcer pronounces her last name? Moo-ore? Does anyone know how bad the ratings were? YET ANOTHER variety show that chose Lucy as the first guest star. How many does that make? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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