NCVARick
11-05-2001, 01:40 AM
I've said this before elsewhere and I'm going to say it again: I actually like "Here's Lucy." Sure, there are plenty of bad episodes in this series, but by and large, I find it funny. I watched a couple lesser-known episodes the other day and found myself laughing out loud and thinking this is a perfectly enjoyable show.
I've heard all the criticisms about "Here's Lucy": "It doesn't stand up to 'I Love Lucy.'" Well, duh. "I Love Lucy" is a classic. "The cast often seems to be yelling out their lines." Yes, that's true and can be annoying if you let it be. But did you ever watch "The Honeymooners" or one of those Garry Marshall sitcoms such as "Happy Days" or "Laverne & Shirley"?
People can say what they want, but if a show makes me laugh, that's all that really matters. When this show was still in production and I was watching it for the first time (along with the rest of the country) I hadn't seen much of "I Love Lucy," so I found I enjoyed this show. By the time CBS reran "Here's Lucy" on weekday mornings in 1977, I had seen "I Love Lucy" countless times and those classic shows were fresh in my mind. So seeing "Here's Lucy" at that point, and again when it began airing in syndication in the early '80s, it was disappointing. But by the time PAX TV ran the show in 1998-99, it had been a long time since I had seen much of "I Love Lucy." So "I Love Lucy" wasn't really fresh in my mind. And I found that I was enjoying watching "Here's Lucy." It occurred to me at that time that, in the past, the problem must have been that, whenever I watched this show, I had "I Love Lucy" in the back of my mind. I was subconsciously comparing the two shows. You know what happens when you compare a typical show to a classic like "I Love Lucy"? Well, you're disappointed. But if you can wipe the classic out of your mind and accept the show simply for what it is, you might find that it's an enjoyable little sitcom. If anything, it's at least better than the later episodes of "The Lucy Show" where Lucy Carmichael seemed to have her life stripped away from her (the very essence of her life, her kids, were taken away leaving her a character with little purpose in life, only very contrived situations where she endlessly finds herself getting involved in the lives of celebrities). Lucy Carter had a real home life, and a reason for getting up in the morning and going to work. "Here's Lucy" brought back some of the warmth that was lacking in the last three seasons of "The Lucy Show."
I've heard all the criticisms about "Here's Lucy": "It doesn't stand up to 'I Love Lucy.'" Well, duh. "I Love Lucy" is a classic. "The cast often seems to be yelling out their lines." Yes, that's true and can be annoying if you let it be. But did you ever watch "The Honeymooners" or one of those Garry Marshall sitcoms such as "Happy Days" or "Laverne & Shirley"?
People can say what they want, but if a show makes me laugh, that's all that really matters. When this show was still in production and I was watching it for the first time (along with the rest of the country) I hadn't seen much of "I Love Lucy," so I found I enjoyed this show. By the time CBS reran "Here's Lucy" on weekday mornings in 1977, I had seen "I Love Lucy" countless times and those classic shows were fresh in my mind. So seeing "Here's Lucy" at that point, and again when it began airing in syndication in the early '80s, it was disappointing. But by the time PAX TV ran the show in 1998-99, it had been a long time since I had seen much of "I Love Lucy." So "I Love Lucy" wasn't really fresh in my mind. And I found that I was enjoying watching "Here's Lucy." It occurred to me at that time that, in the past, the problem must have been that, whenever I watched this show, I had "I Love Lucy" in the back of my mind. I was subconsciously comparing the two shows. You know what happens when you compare a typical show to a classic like "I Love Lucy"? Well, you're disappointed. But if you can wipe the classic out of your mind and accept the show simply for what it is, you might find that it's an enjoyable little sitcom. If anything, it's at least better than the later episodes of "The Lucy Show" where Lucy Carmichael seemed to have her life stripped away from her (the very essence of her life, her kids, were taken away leaving her a character with little purpose in life, only very contrived situations where she endlessly finds herself getting involved in the lives of celebrities). Lucy Carter had a real home life, and a reason for getting up in the morning and going to work. "Here's Lucy" brought back some of the warmth that was lacking in the last three seasons of "The Lucy Show."