TJ
08-05-2009, 01:39 AM
In 1968, Lucille Ball, coming off from two (three if you count The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour as a show by itself) successful sitcoms on CBS, was ready to get back in the saddle again. Having just sold Desilu to Paramount Television and ready to send The Lucy Show into syndication, Lucille Ball was ready to try something new. She decided to start a new show where she was once again a mother, this time to teenagers, played by her own real-life children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr.
That doesn’t mean that Here’s Lucy was totally different from The Lucy Show, though. Really, it was more of a retooling with different names for the same old people. Gale Gordon was back as Lucy’s boss, but he was no longer Mr. Mooney, and was instead Harrison Carter, her own brother-in-law. Lucy and Harry didn’t work at a bank either, and instead worked at a very unusual employment agency, Carter Unique Employment Agency, which filled the most unusual jobs (and explained many of the bizarre plots of some of the episodes). She was still a widow in California and even had a friend named Viv played by Vivian Vance, although we only got to see Viv when she happened to be in town on this series. And her children, as previously mentioned, were played her real-life children Lucille Ball was noticeably older by the time that she came in to this series, but that didn’t stop the physical comedy by any means. It had definitely slowed down by this series, but it was certainly still there. This series focused on a lot of physical comedy with the help of special guest stars. The series began with quite a few guest stars, but by the end of the series, almost every episode had a “guest star of the week,” just as The Lucy Show did in the later years.
A few years ago, Shout! Factory released a collection of “The Best Loved Episodes,” and now, for the first time ever, we can enjoy this series as a full-season set, with MPI Home Video’s release of Here’s Lucy: Season One!
Read our review by Skees53 here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/hereslucyseason1dvdreview.html
Please post any questions or comments about this set.
That doesn’t mean that Here’s Lucy was totally different from The Lucy Show, though. Really, it was more of a retooling with different names for the same old people. Gale Gordon was back as Lucy’s boss, but he was no longer Mr. Mooney, and was instead Harrison Carter, her own brother-in-law. Lucy and Harry didn’t work at a bank either, and instead worked at a very unusual employment agency, Carter Unique Employment Agency, which filled the most unusual jobs (and explained many of the bizarre plots of some of the episodes). She was still a widow in California and even had a friend named Viv played by Vivian Vance, although we only got to see Viv when she happened to be in town on this series. And her children, as previously mentioned, were played her real-life children Lucille Ball was noticeably older by the time that she came in to this series, but that didn’t stop the physical comedy by any means. It had definitely slowed down by this series, but it was certainly still there. This series focused on a lot of physical comedy with the help of special guest stars. The series began with quite a few guest stars, but by the end of the series, almost every episode had a “guest star of the week,” just as The Lucy Show did in the later years.
A few years ago, Shout! Factory released a collection of “The Best Loved Episodes,” and now, for the first time ever, we can enjoy this series as a full-season set, with MPI Home Video’s release of Here’s Lucy: Season One!
Read our review by Skees53 here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/hereslucyseason1dvdreview.html
Please post any questions or comments about this set.