Does anyone know why TV Land redid all of the intros and outros for "I Love Lucy"?
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TV LAND: "I LOVE LUCY" INTROS AND OUTROS
- Thread starter sdwulfdawg
- Start date
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fred flintstone
Guest
The "Heart" intro was used in syndication - not the original network run of I Love Lucy. TV Land restored the original openings - slightly modified to remove the sponsor identification.
A similar animated opening (with Lucy and Viv instead of Lucy and Ricky) was used in the early seasons of The Lucy Show.
And the drive-in opening was parodied in the opening to The Flintstones.
A similar animated opening (with Lucy and Viv instead of Lucy and Ricky) was used in the early seasons of The Lucy Show.
And the drive-in opening was parodied in the opening to The Flintstones.
bpatrick said:
I think that both shows were also sponsored by cigarette companies as well and that's why we see only the edited openings for these shows.
fred flintstone said:
Didn't they use the original openings during the CBS daytime reruns of I Love Lucy?
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fred flintstone
Guest
Braves2005 said:
No, they used the heart opening.
In the 50s and 60s, it was common practice to give shows a different title and/or opening in re-runs (daytime network re-runs or syndication), especially while the show was still running on prime time network TV.
In the first season, I Love Lucy had an integrated middle commercial (common practice in radio) in which the announcer would come into the story line, as a character in the story, and work in a pitch for Phillip Morris. This was in addition to all the on-screen smoking done in early seasons (before General Foods took over the show).
During the Hollywood story arc, I Love Lucy used a hotel bellhop character as a regular who strongly remembled "Johnny," the Phillip Morris trademark bellboy.
Even though I'm 54, I was too young for the original run of I Love Lucy, or the Honeymooners...I was 4 when Lucy left the air in 1956. As noted, CBS ran Lucy reruns in the daytime (9:00 AM) for at least a decade. I watched it often on summer vacations, or when I was home sick. People have seen that heart opening for almost 50 years, and it's the one that most people know. Same with that animated Honeymooners opening.
F
fred flintstone
Guest
Lkeller said:
You must have lived in the Central Time Zone or an area that did not observe daylight saving time.
I Love Lucy re-runs were fed at 10am; 9am-10am was station time.
Supposedly the impetus for TVLand to use a commercial-free version of the original openings came from the release of fully restored versions of I Love Lucy on home video - when fans could see the original, often for the first time.
One thing I appreciated about I Love Lucy was even though the show was filmed in Hollywood, the show felt like it was really done in New York. Most shows - then and now - had a fake Southern California feel to them, wherever they were set. Lucy had a New York feel.
I was thinking about the Vitametavegamin episode where Lucy is inside the TV and she is pretending to be the boy from Phillip Morris and being the announcer. I'm kind of surprised that after all of these years that they didn't edit that part out in syndication because she was sponsoring a cigarette company by holding a pack in her hand.
In another episode where Ricky and Fred are eating at the pharmacy that an ad for Phillip Morris is shown. Nowadays they would have blacked out the ad but they have left that alone even in syndication.
In another episode where Ricky and Fred are eating at the pharmacy that an ad for Phillip Morris is shown. Nowadays they would have blacked out the ad but they have left that alone even in syndication.
fred flintstone said:
...that was a practice started by Jack Benny; in fact, it lost Benny his first radio sponsor. Canada Dry Ginger Ale sponsored the Benny NBC Blue Network show in its first 39 weeks, starting in the Spring of 1932, but their ad agency didn't want the ads woven into the entertainment. After the first contract was up, Chevrolet took sponsorship, then General Tire, and eventually General Foods; by the time of the Jack Benny-Fred Allen "feud" of 1937, the practice of incorporating the ads into the entertainment had expanded to Allen's show (for Ipana toothpaste and Sal Hepatica laxitive), "Fibber McGee & Molly" (Johnson's Wax) and Bing Crosby's "Kraft Music Hall." There's a 1943 program of Benny's show on which he and Orson Welles desperately attempt to stifle their laughter over one of these Grape-Nuts Flakes spots, to no avail, making the ad a comic highlight of Benny's entire year. I think you can see Lucky Strike spots in the uncut "Jack Benny Program" DVDs, as well as DeSoto spots on some of the "You Bet Your Life" DVDs that start out as conversations between Groucho Marx and George Fenneman...
Braves2005 said:
Burns And Allen also used the integrated middle commercial, with Harry
Von Zell starting a conversation with George about Carnation products
or B.F. Goodrich tires, whichever was the sponsor that week.
The hotel bellhop on the Hollywood Lucy episodes did look a lot like
Johnny, especially the fact that both were short guys. Bobby, the
bellhop on the Lucy shows, was played by Bob Jellison; Johnny's name
was Johnny Roventini, and he had been a real bellhop before Philip
Morris discovered him and "CALL FOR PHILIP MORAYIS" became a
national catchphrase.
Re my post about the Gleason and Silvers shows: Silvers was sponsored
by Camel cigarettes; I think The Honeymooners was sponsored by Buick.
F
fred flintstone
Guest
Ultimajock said:
I saw some video tapes a few years ago of the Lucky Strike Program which included the middle commercials. However, the DVDs Netflix sends me of that show and of You Bet Your Life have not included commercials. Wish they did.
Are the Phillip Morris ads in I Love Lucy available anywhere? I'd assume they're cut from the official DVDs.
anotherguy said:
I have at least one (maybe more) from a 2-DVD Classic Commercials set put out by Madacy Entertainment. I found also in one of the Dollar DVD bins (I forget where) A half hour promotional program that had Desilu touting the "Desilu Playhouse" to sponsor Westinghouse in 1958 or 59.. It played like a regular "I Love Lucy" plot with Lucy going behind Ricky's back and ordering all new Westinghouse appliances for thier home..Vivian Vance and William Frawley were also in this show which I don't think was ever broadcast, but was shown to Westinghouse Dealers..
anotherguy said:
you can see some of them on You Tube plus a few have been available on those classic commerical tapes that Goodtimes Video had out in the late 80s-early 90s.
Tim L said:
I have that as well. What was the most interesting thing about it was even though everyone was in character, they were called by their REAL NAMES !!
What I was wondering if Lucille Ball ever did a commercial with Betty Furness,who always did the Westinghouse commercials.
F
fred flintstone
Guest
Westinghouse, which later bought CBS, sponsored the hour-long Connecticut episodes with guest stars shown originally as segments of the Desilu Playhouse anthology series after Lucy went off the air. Desilu Playhouse also included the two-part pilot for The Untouchables (picked up by ABC). The look of the one hour episode is different; it was a one-camera shoot with canned laughter (not filmed before a live audience with three cameras like I Love Lucy). Fred and Ethel had reduced roles in favor of more emphasis on guest stars. Reportedly, Lucy and Desi were barely speaking to each other when these were filmed - and Lucy looks more like Lucy Carmichael/Carter than the Lucy Ricardo we remember.
I looked on You Tube and found this video with several Phillip Morris ads with Lucy and Desi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6_3gjjA8IA&mode=related&search=
The most bizarre one though was one (without Lucy or Desi) that claimed PM's were recommended by ear, nose, and throat specialists. It reminds me of an ad I heard on a recording of Abbott and Costello doing Who's on First where the ads bragged that more doctors smoked Camels!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6_3gjjA8IA&mode=related&search=
The most bizarre one though was one (without Lucy or Desi) that claimed PM's were recommended by ear, nose, and throat specialists. It reminds me of an ad I heard on a recording of Abbott and Costello doing Who's on First where the ads bragged that more doctors smoked Camels!
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