A local station is now showing the eps where R,L,F, & E went by car to Hollywood, and these should be on in a few days on TVLand. I like watching these eps, even though they are quite silly, because driving across the country would have been a bigger challenge at that time, just before construction of the interstate highway system began (Congress enacted appropriations in 1956).

Last night, "The First Stop" was on, and the first thing I notice about that was that it must be misnamed. In the previous ep, they fool around with trying to pack too much junk, so they don't get away until near 6 p.m. (so said Fred). If that run-down place was really the "first stop" (to sleep) they must have driven all night and then all day, since it was evening and they are in Ohio. If they did drive all day and all night, no wonder they were that tired! But besides the ridiculous incompetence of the establishment and 'Mr. Skinner' who runs it, there is a real glaring error in that they are all talking about being so hungry, but then they will not eat the stale cheese sandwiches, and then they come back in that deceptive circle to stay the night and nothing further is said about food. How did they get unhungry without eating? They were just that tired from 24 or more hours of riding, maybe.

But even if they had to travel on narrow state (or some US) highways, if they been driving that long they should have been further than somewhere near the middle of Ohio, unless they stopped somewhere long enough for this to not be the first stop. Incidentally, there is nothing on these trip episodes to indicate they followed through with their sidetrip plans Lucy mentioned; but that could have made 2 or 3 months' worth of eps.

And BTW how could they have been planning to go to Califonria by plane (Ricky on the phone making reservations) within a couple of days, and then decide they are going to buy a car and spend '2 weeks' on the road getting there? It seems the movie studio would not have just said "We'll start filming whenever you get here-- take your time!"

:lol:

Could be argued that you're thinking just a little too hard about this, tdr! Maybe the shooting for the film was delayed? Often happens. Remember that back in those days they only had one make up artist in the whole of Hollywood, so if Max was still busy on another film they'd have had to wait for him! :)

It would have been great to have driven cross country back then, wouldn't it. It'd still be good now, but then, when Route 66 was still open. :cool: It's something I've wanted to do since reading On The Road for the first time, years ago! (And I've never even been to America, so quite why the idea of driving across it sounds so great, I don't know!)

Not sure I fancy the desert bits much.

:wave:

I never thought about the First Stop that closely. Very good observation. I'm a sticklar for detail but, you have me beat!:lol:

Originally posted by Mickey
:lol:

Could be argued that you're thinking just a little too hard about this, tdr! Maybe the shooting for the film was delayed? Often happens. Remember that back in those days they only had one make up artist in the whole of Hollywood, so if Max was still busy on another film they'd have had to wait for him! :)

It would have been great to have driven cross country back then, wouldn't it. It'd still be good now, but then, when Route 66 was still open. :cool: It's something I've wanted to do since reading On The Road for the first time, years ago! (And I've never even been to America, so quite why the idea of driving across it sounds so great, I don't know!)

Not sure I fancy the desert bits much.

:wave:

Route 66 rocks. :rock:

But yeah, ILL is full of glaring errors.

That reminds me- on the "California Here We Come" episode, weren't they driving across the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge at the end of the ep? If so then it's odd because they were just leaving NY at that point, but I suppose the episode was deliberately done that way since they were already "California Dreaming" at that point (so they weren't really driving over the bridge SF bridge just yet)

I always thought they were driving over the Brooklyn Bridge on their way out of New York City.:confused:

The announcer on TV Land said that they were crossing Washington Bridge.

I think it's safe to say that the bridge was one of the NYC bridges; they have several.

Also, they wouldn't have been crossing the Golden Gate. They went to Los Angeles, not San Francisco.

Yea, technically it would have to be the Brooklyn Bridge or some other bridge in NY, as I was originally thinking, although it looked more to me like the Golden Gate (I guess it's hard to tell the difference since the picture was done in black & white).

I did a net search to see if I could find any info about what bridge it was, and all I came across is this ad, which indicates that it was the Golden Gate:

http://www.funtocollect.com/lucycalifornia.html

And it threw me off as I too realize that they never went to San Francisco. But the Golden Gate bridge sort of 'symbolizes' Caifornia, so I guess that's why it was used in that pic on the mug (and supposedly in the episode as well).

I don't think it's their first stop, because they're also wearing different clothes then they were when they left New York.

And even though the cheese was bad on those sandwiches, the bread looked pretty good (or else I was just hungry). I wonder why they didn't just eat the bread if they were starving.......

The nasty cheese was touching the bread. I'd have a hard time eating the bread.ha ha!
:crazy:

:) All cheese is nasty, unless it's vegetarian. And even then...

You know the worst thing about being a vegetarian? Every restaurant thinks veggie food is all about cheese. Cheese sauce, cheese quiche, cheese pasties... I hate cheese! :lol:

Ah hem. Thinking maybe this is going a bit of topic now. :)

If you want to nitpick about bread and cheese though, how about that loaf Lucy cooked in Pioneer Women?! I mean come on... there is no way that loaf could have fitted in her oven.

Yeah, i know, as a kid i NEVER got that, but as an adult, i went HUH? That big crusty hard loaf came out of that tiny little oven, oy! I have nothing against TDR's explanation of what happened when they drove and ate and all that, but i agree with what you answered Mick, boy, are these kids so analytical and don't they KNOW this was a TV show that was suposed to be funny so nothing ever made sense if it could get a good laugh in the end. But i DO admire their catching all these things and analyzing them to death, it makes for very interesting reading for those of us who just laughed at the shows. LOL!

Oh go on with you, Splain! Thinking too much about these things is fun. My favourite thing about ILL to point out unnecessarily is what a happy chappie Ricky Ricardo is. Every time I look at him he seems to be giggling about something... :)

I know, he was thinking, i could still be cleaning bird cages if i hadn't hooked up with the red head, ok, when are they gonna let me sing again? LOL! That was just a joke for you Mick, analize that one!

I don't need to analyse it, it was just you being mean about poor Desi again! :)

And they should have let him sing more often. Ethel always enjoyed it.

Yeah i know, we often wondered if it was a half hour comedy or a half hour musical show! But i have to admit the music is holding up well for half a century now.

It was a half hour musical comedy!

Some of the music holds up well! IMHO Desi and the band's numbers in the club are good - the proper Latin jazz - and hold up well today. Some of the sing-songs that they used to have in the flat make me cringe though. Shine On Harvey Moon for instance. Yeuch. And I'm really not a big fan of most of those old dance hall numbers!

You have to think of it as watching an old movie, after all, the show is 50 years old. I agree with you though, some of the music holds up better than others.

I love all the music. Even the dated numbers.
My best friend tells me I was born in the wrong decade. And she's right.:D

Well classic music like classic anything else can truly stand the test of time, and almost all of the music on this show has!

I have now returned from my own 2000-mile drive around Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and it's nice to see these thoughts about long drives stirred a little discussion. I stayed at one crummy lodge one night and it turned out there were trains going by almost continually (but they didn't shake the place, though).

It's interesting how ILL and other shows are sticklers for details in some aspects and in others they allow errors, sometimes flagrant. For example, Desi insisted they use real tunas for the fishing ep when they were in Miami Beach, so the man responsible for getting them had to go all the way to San Francisco and the only suitable containers he could get to preserve them in ice for the trip back were burial caskets meant for children. So it's just a bit incongruous they gave that much insistence to authenticity, and then have such absurdities as that 9-foot loaf of bread coming out of the 2-foot oven.

Really I have just found another apparent error in the 'trip' episodes, which today, at least, would not be obvious. In "Ethel's Home Town" they are supposed to be in the Texas Ann Motel in Amarillo the morning they begin their drive to Albuquerque. Actually the Texas Ann was in Albuquerque, and there are post cards for sale on some sites that have that same picture as seen in the beginning of that ep. Of course, by that time they might have wanted to stay off Route 66 altogether, since they had become fugitives from justice for escaping the law in 'Bent Fork,' Tennessee :lol: .

The states of Ohio, Tennessee, and New Mexico were probably a bit less than flattered by their depictions in these eps ;) .