Personally, this season of TLS is the one most shrouded in mystery for me. It remains the only season of this show that I have not seen a single episode from. For those who don't know, I've seen several 1st season eps, a little more of 63-64, and only select few from 64-65. I've seen every ep from 66-67 except "Lucy Puts Main Street on the Map", and again only a select few from 67-68. Even though I've seen relatively little of this series, it's still one of my favorites, and I can't imagine what would happen if I saw all of them :D

Anyway, I just want everyone's point of view about season 4. How did the storylines, physical comedy and situations stack up against the rest of the seasons? Was this the best California year? Was it odd seeing Lucy without Viv by her side?, etc...any extra input would be appreciated!

Lucy moving to California was the best thing about this series, to me at least, i know this will be debated and criticized but as a kid i was so happy to see Lucy shine, alone, hey, it was called The Lucy show, not the Lucy and Viv show! Watch the fireworks now!

While I prefer the Viv episodes, I do think the Lucy in Marineland episode is hilarious.

Originally posted by bb25
Anyway, I just want everyone's point of view about season 4. How did the storylines, physical comedy and situations stack up against the rest of the seasons? Was this the best California year? Was it odd seeing Lucy without Viv by her side?, etc...any extra input would be appreciated!

Season 4 was by far the weakest season of the series, IMO. The Lucy character at this time was portrayed as a scatterbrained maniac who got herself in these weird, odd situations. Half of the time, these situations were forced and unbelievable. A perfect example would be the episode where Lucy "invaded" a writer's house just to persuade him to change a story in this soap opera that she watching, ect. Many episodes of season 4, unfortunataly, matched that particular episode in the terms of the writing and the plot.
It was obvious that the show had no backbone in this particular season. The whole premise of Lucy moving to California was underdeveloped because there was no continuity to the character and to her future. In other words, Lucy really wasn't involved in anything . . . until she finally settled down working at the Westland bank.
Besides the premise of the show in season 4, the departure of Vivian Vance added less flavor to the series. Also, the writing wasn't particularly as good as it could have been.

In conclusion, these are the primary factors that contributed in making season 4 the weakest season: the underdeveloped premise, the writing, and the departure of Vivian Vance.

That's an interesting point of view...I also noticed the writers that season varied quite a bit, more than usual. One ep was written by Bob O'Brien, the next by Belson & Marshall, the next by 2 unknowns, etc...there was still writer variation the last 2 seasons but most eps ended up being written by Josefsberg & Singer or Bob O'Brien...

Any particulary memorable moments or eps from this season? Was Mary Jane's or Mr. Mooney's houses ever shown? I still think they didn't show Lucy's California apartment enough...