The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy

[cspotrun]

Aside from Lucy aging in the 80s....comedy changed with the times. Red Skelton pretty much addressed that in his later years before his passing. George Carlin dumped his witty "Wonderful WINO" routine and "The Hair Piece" to the seven words profanity that made him a lot of money. Skelton (needless to say) lamented over that..since his comedy was always family freindly up to that point.

Had they lived it would had been interesting to see what their ( meaning Lucille Ball & Red Skelton ) take would be on Eddie Murphy. Someone who had gone from doing raunchy R-rated comedy such as films like 48 Hours, Trading Places, and of course Beverly Hills Cop to being an actor doing more or less strictly family friendly fare like those Shrek cartoons, Doctor Dollitle, The Nutty Professor and his latest flick for Nickelodon "Imagine That" even though that last one I felt was nothing more than a 90 minute informercial for the city of Denver, Colorado.

i think murphy decided he could make more money "Working Clean" and being more mainstream.
on Carlin, he was very funny when he played it straight in the early years, drugs influenced his comedy, when he made the switch to bluer material.

 

[Braves2005]

Wasn't Ann Sothern supposed to have replaced Vivian Vance on The Lucy Show after Ball suggested it to her after she had guest starred on the show as a Countess who called Mr. Mooney "Mr. Money" but she decided not to and instead became the voice of Mother on My Mother The Car?

On Here's Lucy, there was a backdoor pilot in which Lucie Arnaz as Kim was the basis of the whole episode and Lucy wasn't seen (it was in 1972 or 1973 during the time when Lucille Ball broke her leg skiing)

There also was an episode that seemed to have wanted to end Here's Lucy in the fifth season (1972-1973) with the episode of having Harry close the employment agency and retiring and showing flashbacks from several episodes which would have aired as the final episode for the show but Lucille Ball decided to stay for the sixth and final season in 1973-1974 and the employment agency stayed open.

 

[71dude]

One episode of "Here's Lucy" was a 30-minute plug for "Mame".

 

[azumanga]

One episode of "Here's Lucy" was a 30-minute plug for "Mame".

Kind of unusual that the "Mame" plug aired on CBS, considering that ABC co-produced the film.

 

[searadiofreak]

One episode of "Here's Lucy" was a 30-minute plug for "Mame".

Kind of unusual that the "Mame" plug aired on CBS, considering that ABC co-produced the film.

Perhaps an indication of the power Lucy still had in the industry.

 

[mleach]

One episode of "Here's Lucy" was a 30-minute plug for "Mame".

Kind of unusual that the "Mame" plug aired on CBS, considering that ABC co-produced the film.

Perhaps an indication of the power Lucy still had in the industry.

The exact same can be said about that 1980 TV special "Lucy Moves to NBC", even though at the time she still owed CBS two more specials but CBS in those days had their sitcoms like The Jeffersons and Alice and dramas like Dallas, they really had no use for Lucy so they looked the other way when she did that special for NBC.

 

[bpatrick]

You have to wonder if Lucy would have been more successful
in the '80s if, instead of that bomb on ABC called "Life With Lucy,"
she had followed the lead of Andy Griffith and Dick Van Dyke and
done a drama series instead. Her 1985 CBS TV-movie "Stone Pillow,"
which was a drama, got decent ratings and critical notices. "Matlock"
and "Diagnosis: Murder" were big hits for Andy and Dick, respectively,
and maybe Lucy could have done something dramatic and been just
as believable. After all, many of her movies in the '30s and '40s were
dramas (watch her in 1939's "Five Came Back" the next time TCM shows
it).