Desilu, bows Aug. 24 at 9 p.m. on Bravo, looks at the fabled lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez. Produced by Kurt Fethke.

Thanks for letting us all know, i'm on five boards and this is the only place that mentionned it, or the first place to mention it, so thanks for the heads up!

:( WAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!! I don't have Bravo!! :(

There's still time to get it though!

I'm really, really, really not fond of that book. .To "gossipy" and "tabliodish", IMO.

Should be interesting though

You said it there, gossipy maybe, but never boring and always INTERESTING!

LOL...True, but remember


"Always interesting" doesn't necessarily mean "always truthful" ;)

I know, you're right, but as much as i keep saying that the book Love Lucy was great because you could just hear Lucy speaking every line, i never went back to read it again and again like i did this one because i LOVE gossip, the other one was a whitewash, not because Lucy lied or anything, but because the times were different then, she wrote it in the fifties or early sixties and always protected that General Foods image of herself. But like her hairdresser Irma said, your General Foods image is JELLO! I also remember that many former employees had axes to grind with her or Gary, so i know things could have been exaggerated, but there were so many things that we never suspected in that book, that it's one TERRIFIC read, that's all i'm saying!

I agree, "Desilu" was the first book that I read about Lucy and Desi and I haven't found a book that was as good ever since....but is this special supposed to be based on that book? Is it a brand-new documentary?

Originally posted by SPLAIN
I know, you're right, but as much as i keep saying that the book Love Lucy was great because you could just hear Lucy speaking every line, i never went back to read it again and again like i did this one because i LOVE gossip, the other one was a whitewash, not because Lucy lied or anything, but because the times were different then, she wrote it in the fifties or early sixties and always protected that General Foods image of herself. But like her hairdresser Irma said, your General Foods image is JELLO! I also remember that many former employees had axes to grind with her or Gary, so i know things could have been exaggerated, but there were so many things that we never suspected in that book, that it's one TERRIFIC read, that's all i'm saying!

I thought Lucy revealed alot...even for the time period in which it was written.

She was honest and she was blunt...

I think alot of people get caught up in wanting to know the "real" story, and the more "juicy" the story, the more they buy into it as the "real" truth.

Alot of the times that's not the case.

Well, she also glossed over certain things and cleaned up other things to protect her image and i don't blame her for that, would any of us want the truth about our lives splattered all over like that? I just liked the studio and work stories which we had never heard before, i still say it's a very interesting book, all this talking about it makes me want to go read it again.

Originally posted by SPLAIN
would any of us want the truth about our lives splattered all over like that? I

Like I said, just because it's more "in-depth", "in your face" and "juicy" that doesn't mean that it's the truth.

No mattered how many interviews from "reliable sources", in the end it's still up to what the writer wants to say and how he or she wants to potray the situation.




Not picking on you...though it may seem like it,lol.

Originally posted by That Other Fan


Like I said, just because it's more "in-depth", "in your face" and "juicy" that doesn't mean that it's the truth.

No mattered how many interviews from "reliable sources", in the end it's still up to what the writer wants to say and how he or she wants to potray the situation.

Not picking on you...though it may seem like it,lol.

I agree that it was writers' choice how they wanted to use the interviews in order to re-create the lives of Lucy and Desi. And sometimes a writer can take something that was said in an interview and totally distort it so that it implies something that is untrue. But what's great about "Desilu" is that the majority of the book is told through direct quotes straight out of the mouths of people who knew them. It isn't a book that is mainly the author's voice with an occassional quote thrown in. These were lengthy stories and comments as told by friends and collegues. We hear their voices, not the authors'.

I'm not saying that all of these people are telling the exact truth. There are two sides to every story. People have their own biases, their own perceptions of a person or situation. But its not like the authors interviewed just one person. Hundreds of people were interviewed, showing a variety of opinons and perceptions, which made it a very fair book. I recall a few pages of "Desilu" where co-workers were talking about examples of Lucy being difficult on the set, but in the next page it had people who knew her describing random acts of kindness that she demonstrated. When reading it, I could tell that the authors wanted to capture the true Lucy and Desi from all sides. And this is what makes "Desilu" the best and an essential read for all Lucy and Desi fans.

its not like the authors interviewed just one person.

I agree, and that's not my problem with this book.

You can have interviews from every person on planet earth who has ever met the individual the book is about, and in the end it's up to the writers to decide how to put the story together and how it should be presented.

Ex. How is a certain aspect of a person's life presented.

The majority on the outside looking in, have the opinion (based on certain persistant rumors that have circulated) that it was downpoint in that individuals life....

Half of the individuals who have been interviewed agree with the majority, but the other half present a different portrait (not as "downbeat" as one would expect). How then do you decide to present that in telling the story?

- Do you decide to be fair and present both sides and leave it up the reader?

- Do you present the opinion of those that give the unexpected less downbeat version of the story?

- Do you present the side that the majority expects, and potray that aspect of said person's life as downbeat?

- Or to do combine all the options above. Present the story as expected, downbeat, but through in a few comments of the less downbeat version for good measure.


Simply put, as I have stated earlier it just came off (to me) as very "tell-all, gossipy". Like I said (or should've made clear), there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I would hope you would take what's presented with a grain of salt....A rather large grain of salt, but I digress...

Every single quote the writer(s) used could be 100% true, but even then it's up to the writer to guide the story and pick and choose which quotes to use to give credibility(sp?) to the way the story has been presented.

*sigh*

I should've kept my "strong" feelings to myself. lol

My first post in this thread should've simply stated "Should be interesting" and that's all :lol:

Originally posted by That Other Fan


Simply put, as I have stated earlier it just came off (to me) as very "tell-all, gossipy". Like I said (or should've made clear), there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I would hope you would take what's presented with a grain of salt....A rather large grain of salt, but I digress...

Every single quote the writer(s) used could be 100% true, but even then it's up to the writer to guide the story and pick and choose which quotes to use to give credibility(sp?) to the way the story has been presented.


I agree with what you said, but my point was that "Desilu" was a little less "choosy" in the quotes it chose. Its quotes sometimes went on for multiple paragraphs, whereas other books would have simply taken one or two lines in that chunk of dialogue for its quote while summing up the rest in another few lines written by the author (leaving the door open for things to get misinterpreted). And of course it is the writers' job (who were Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert, by the way) to pick and choose what gets put into their books and what gets cut, but that's the way all journalism is. The nightly news does it, magazines do it, documentaries do it, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz did it when writing their own autobiographies. But we rarely take those things with a "grain of salt." There's no getting away from it.

Some of the books about Lucy did seem pretty one sided. But after reading "Desilu," I thought I had been given a fair balance of the "good" and the "bad" (and sometimes even the "ugly," but we won't go there). That is the way the authors chose to present their story. Sure, I don't believe everything that I read in the book. People view things in different ways. Stories tend to change with time. And most importantly, the only two people who know the absolute truth about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are Lucy and Desi and they are no longer with us. So we have to rely on people who knew them to tell their story.

I believe that the writers were well-intentioned, trying to create a book for the true fan that presented inside stories of the professional and personal lives of the Arnazes as told by so many people: friends, peers, co-workers, relatives, newspapers and trade papers from the time, as well as some quotes from Lucy and Desi, probably taken from old interviews. Lucie Arnaz even trusted the authors enough to be interviewed for a book about her parents. This was a first for her. In my opinon, it was fair. But that's just my opinon. :wave:

Originally posted by Ricardos4ever


I agree with what you said, but my point was that "Desilu" was a little less "choosy" in the quotes it chose.

And my point was even with that, it again depends upon how the writers choose to place those multiple paragraphed quotes. In telling that story and what impression does it leave us with (You and many others got a "fair" impression, I got the "Tabloidish" "Gossipy" impression.


Its quotes sometimes went on for multiple paragraphs, whereas other books would have simply taken one or two lines in that chunk of dialogue for its quote while summing up the rest in another few lines written by the author (leaving the door open for things to get misinterpreted).

And like I've already stated in this thread...just because it goes more in-depth that does make it "true".

Just because something is the lessor of the many other "evils" that does make it ok...it's still "evil" (For the record, no I am not calling the book "Desilu" evil...not here anyway,lol).


that's the way all journalism is.

:lol:

Sorry to laugh (and it's not a "sneer" directed at you), but I'm not to thrilled with the journalism on a whole at this present time.


The nightly news does it, magazines do it, documentaries do it, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz did it when writing their own autobiographies. But we rarely take those things with a "grain of salt."

One could argue that Lucy and Desi had a right to do that as it was their life stories. Not to say that they intentionally(sp?) mislead readers of their books. Some things should remain private,IMO. Just because your public figure it doesn't mean that everything should be regarded as public domain.

Ok, the only thing i want to add is that after reading every Lucy book that was ever written, this book finally gave me different things that i had never heard before, that's all. It focused on the studio and the shows, and i really enjoyed that part of it, the comments from disgruntled former employees i took with a grain of salt just like you suggest. I know i've read some stories by five different people and the story got changed a lot, that's normal, and in a place like Hollywood, SELLING the book is more important than actually getting anything RIGHT!