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Anyone Seen PacifiCare's Ad with Fred and Ethel Mertz?

Markxxx

Markxxx

Ok it's playing all over Chicago now. This is SO BAD...

It's enough NOT to make me want to buy their insurance. I will say they do a good job altering the lips of William Frawley and Vivian Vance so the words come close to matching their mouths.

BUT and this is a BIG BUT....

Whoever is doing the impersonations are BAD... The voices sound very little like Fred and Ethel. The impersonations (especially Ethel) is so awful.

First "The Pyramid" with Lorretta Swit (did she supply the voice for the new words) for Comcast's "Comcastic," and now this...

Looks like a trend..

Thought?<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
Re: Classic TV Stars In Commercials--Trend

It seems to be a trend going and it is not with just retro commercials in selling stuff. It is with classic TV stars like Carol Burnett,Florence Henderson,Hal Linden,Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers who are selling prescription drug plans,Lindsay Wagner selling therapeutic mattresses,Cheryl Ladd selling face cream,Ed McMahon selling showers for elderly people and so on.

BTW: I liked the Comcast commercial with Loretta Swit on The $20,000 Pyramid from the mid 70's even if it is the only time that anything associated with The $20,000 Pyramid will ever be seen again.
 
Re: Classic TV Stars In Commercials--Trend

> BTW: I liked the Comcast commercial with Loretta Swit on The
> $20,000 Pyramid from the mid 70's even if it is the only
> time that anything associated with The $20,000 Pyramid will
> ever be seen again.

I've seen that ad up here in Seattle, and I thought that was hilarious. That one ranks right up there with Geico's "Speed Racer" spot.
 
> Ok it's playing all over Chicago now. This is SO BAD...
>
> It's enough NOT to make me want to buy their insurance. I
> will say they do a good job altering the lips of William
> Frawley and Vivian Vance so the words come close to matching
> their mouths.
>
> BUT and this is a BIG BUT....
>
> Whoever is doing the impersonations are BAD... The voices
> sound very little like Fred and Ethel. The impersonations
> (especially Ethel) is so awful.
>
> First "The Pyramid" with Lorretta Swit (did she supply the
> voice for the new words) for Comcast's "Comcastic," and now
> this...
>
> Looks like a trend..
>
> Thought?
>

Somewhat surprised to read about the Ethel/Fred Commercial.

A few years ago my wife and I went to the Lucy-Desi Festival in Jamestown, New York. When we were there I heard from many that Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. pretty much own the rights to everything connected to Lucille Ball including the images of Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Little Ricky, Gale Gordon, etc..through their company called "Desliu TOO". I think that CBS movie from the early 90s "Lucy & Desi..behind the Laughter" that was shot without the blessing from Lucie or Desi Jr. played a role in this. From what I heard Lucie is amost as strict as Disney when it comes to the images they own.

Considering all the Lucy related stuff out there now from T-shirts, clocks, pants, shoes, salt&pepper shakers, jackets, DVD's, movies, books and that is just a few, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Jr. I bet they make more money now than they ever did when they were acting, if you really want to call them actors.

Visting the "gift shop" in Jamestown during the festival, well "department store" is a better word here. It was Amazing at looking at all the Lucy items out there. Well, I did noticed they did NOT sell that Lucie Arnaz/Neil Diamond movie "The Jazz Singer" or any those Dino, Desi and Billy tunes from the 60s. I can't help but wonder if that was a decision on the part of Lucie and Desi Jr.

Anyway, back to this commercial, I heard at the festival that Lucie for years has turned down many offers by companies who wanted to use the image of their parents ( and anybody connected to Lucy like Vivian Vance for example ) for advertising. Maybe this time around the money was too good to pass up.

trend? maybe but its not a new one. Years ago I seem to remember some commercial for some kind of snack food featuring Chris Elliot and the cast of the Beverly Hillbillies.
 
> Somewhat surprised to read about the Ethel/Fred Commercial.
>
> A few years ago my wife and I went to the Lucy-Desi Festival
> in Jamestown, New York. When we were there I heard from
> many that Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. pretty much own the
> rights to everything connected to Lucille Ball including the
> images of Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Little
> Ricky, Gale Gordon, etc..

I know Lucille Ball always complained how "cheaply" they sold "I Love Lucy" to CBS which aired it ad nauseum over the morning and saturday till like 1968.

Even Jesse Oppenheimer writer/producer of the "I Love Lucy" show won a lawsuit. Seems it was in the contract for the "Lucy Show" to have Lucille Carmichael based on Lucy Ricardo. So apparently he owned some sort of control over the Lucy character.

Vivian Vance had no children so anyone who owned her "image" probably sold it cheaply. As well as William Frawley, who had one brief marriage and bascially lived very cheaply in a small bachelor flat in L.A. and died with only a male nurse for a companion. So he looks like he would probably have no decendents as well, so whoever owns his image rights probably sold it cheaply too.<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
> > Somewhat surprised to read about the Ethel/Fred
> Commercial.
> >
> > A few years ago my wife and I went to the Lucy-Desi
> Festival
> > in Jamestown, New York. When we were there I heard from
> > many that Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. pretty much own
> the
> > rights to everything connected to Lucille Ball including
> the
> > images of Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley,
> Little
> > Ricky, Gale Gordon, etc..
>
> I know Lucille Ball always complained how "cheaply" they
> sold "I Love Lucy" to CBS which aired it ad nauseum over the
> morning and saturday till like 1968.
>
> Even Jesse Oppenheimer writer/producer of the "I Love Lucy"
> show won a lawsuit. Seems it was in the contract for the
> "Lucy Show" to have Lucille Carmichael based on Lucy
> Ricardo. So apparently he owned some sort of control over
> the Lucy character.
>
> Vivian Vance had no children so anyone who owned her "image"
> probably sold it cheaply. As well as William Frawley, who
> had one brief marriage and bascially lived very cheaply in a
> small bachelor flat in L.A. and died with only a male nurse
> for a companion. So he looks like he would probably have no
> decendents as well, so whoever owns his image rights
> probably sold it cheaply too.
>

Most if not all of Vance's relatives have since passed on ( not totally sure on that ) and Frawley left behind 2 brothers when he died and those two I seem to remember reading in one of those Lucy books both passed away in the 1970s.

In the case of Vance, she and Lucie Arnaz were good friends. Vance's husband died in 1986. I do remember when Lucie paid the money for Vivian's star on the Hollywood walk of Fame.

True about Ball & Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer's son Jess wrote a book about his dad and his experiences with I Love Lucy a few years back. Jess is often a speaker at the Lucy-Desi days in Jamestown. And even that, I heard Lucie Arnaz
got some of the profits from that book. I am curious at knowing exactly how much of the images Lucie owns of that of Vance and Frawley. I imagine since neither has any living realitives ( guessing about Vance, pretty sure about Frawley )I guess it wouldn't be hard for Lucie or Desi Jr. to obtain those.

The Lucy Ball-Desi Arnaz museum has their own website. Amazing how much "Lucy" stuff is out there.

www.lucy-desi.com
 
>
> Considering all the Lucy related stuff out there now from
> T-shirts, clocks, pants, shoes, salt&pepper shakers,
> jackets, DVD's, movies, books and that is just a few, Lucie
> Arnaz and Desi Jr. I bet they make more money now than they
> ever did when they were acting, if you really want to call
> them actors.

I could say having seen reruns of Here's Lucy in which I haven't seen reruns of in 20 years or so,Lucie and Desi Jr. were good on Here's Lucy but afterwards they only appeared on shows such as The Love Boat,Fantasy Island and Hotel.
>

> Visting the "gift shop" in Jamestown during the festival,
> well "department store" is a better word here. It was
> Amazing at looking at all the Lucy items out there. Well, I
> did noticed they did NOT sell that Lucie Arnaz/Neil Diamond
> movie "The Jazz Singer" or any those Dino, Desi and Billy
> tunes from the 60s. I can't help but wonder if that was a
> decision on the part of Lucie and Desi Jr.

I am sure that Lucie and Desi Jr. are more focused on selling the I Love Lucy items because that's what it is all about than Neil Diamond's movie that Lucie appeared in and the Dino,Desi and Billy records(which are now on CD,BTW) that Desi Jr. played drums and sang on.

But I do have a question,who has the rights to the first 3 seasons of The Lucy Show? It seems that the focus is more on the 1965-1968 years of The Lucy Show which are mostly seen on DVD and in public domain. There are a couple of episodes that are worth seeing on DVD. The one where Lucy and Viv install the shower and the one where Lucy becomes a disc jockey at the radio station and everything goes wrong.
 
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