Possible similarities to I Love Lucy

[Pug Lover]

Does anyone besides me find some simularities between The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and I Love Lucy?George being straight man to Gracie's comical shannanigans,kind of reminds me of how Ricky tries to tolerate Lucy's"funny business".The Mortons seem to get sucked into some of Gracie's wild ideas the same way the Mertzes often get suckered into Lucy's crazy schemes.I know that a lot of people like George and Gracie better than Desi and Lucy,and I can understand why.Desi and Lucy had such a turbulent marraige off screen with all kinds of riff raff going on.Whereas George and Gracie were among the nicest people who's marraige only ended with Gracie's death.It's a shame that(at least where I live)unlike I Love Lucy with it's everlasting life in syndicated reruns,the only way you'll find vintage episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show these days,is on VHS home video or DVD.

[hawaii five-o]

Both couples also had a son on their shows and a son and a daughter in real life.

[vedastone]

Yes, it was a very similar setup - the straight man / eccentric lady, the very funny and very involved neighbors, and the son (G&G had their real son). Plus both "straight men" were very often hilarious themselves. Two differences: Burns and Allen had one extra regular, Harry Von Zell, who figured in virtually every plot; and in the last three seasons, Ronnie Burns was a main character and lots of the episodes centered on him and his friends.

[jsummo]

I think the last three seasons were the best, especially with George's Magic TV.
Joe

[jayman75]

Lucille Ball wanted Bea Bernadarat (sp) to play the role of Ethel Mertz. Bea ended up on GB&GA.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...came to television first, in October 1950, at the time CBS was trying to get Lucy to appear in a video version of her "MY FAVORITE HUSBAND" radio show (which was definitely the forerunner of "I LOVE LUCY"). By the time she did begin her own weekly TV series in the fall of 1951, Burns & Allen had already established themselves in their own bi-weekly format, which George always claimed had "more plot than a variety show and less than a wrestling match".
It was a variation of the kind of "situation comedy" they'd been doing on radio in the '40s [WHAT has Gracie done now?]. For television, George simply pushed himself out front, as the 'Stage Manager' did in "Our Town". In other words, it was perfectly acceptable for George to stand on the sidelines [usually against the proscenium arch in the first few seasons] and deliver his own opinions on how the evening's situation was going, weave a monologue here and there, and step into the action at the appropriate time. One of the cleverest asides, on film, was during the first filmed season. At the end of one of those episodes, after another silly mixup, George and Gracie banter for four lines about being "ordinary", and Gracie concludes, "An ordinary man wouldn't pay for his wife's new car after she caused him all that trouble!". As she walks off, George looks at the "audience" and says, "You know, if this show had ended FOUR LINES SOONER, I'd have saved fifteen hundred dollars...".

You had the feeling the anything could happen in a Burns & Allen episode...even when George started watching the TV in his den (during the last two seasons) that allowed him to eavesdrop on certain events important to the evening's plot, enabling him to "control" the results after he strolled onto the scene {i.e. "How are you feeling, George?"/"Oh, fine, Blanche...but not sick enough to buy Gracie that mink coat she wanted you to ask me about..."/utter amazement on Blanche's face as George smiles to the camera}.

Yes, there were some "familiar" plotlines- Gracie and Blanche try to get George and Harry to do something they really don't want to do- but the similarity ends there. Gracie's "illogical logic" leaves everyone confused,
dazed salesmen, etc., leave their hats for her to put in the hall closet....


"I LOVE LUCY", brilliant as it was, was standard situation comedy- the Ricardos and the Mertzes never acknowledged the audience or talked directly to them, as George did.

[OH Nuts!]

Gracie was dizzy and Lucy was daffy so.....I guess that makes them....first cousins!

[nathinbriggs]

Both George Burns and Desi Arnaz had musical talent. However, only Desi was an acknowledged musician.

[Sal]

Originally Posted by OH Nuts!

Gracie was dizzy and Lucy was daffy so.....I guess that makes them....first cousins!

Too bad they never worked together. I would love to have seen George and Gracie on "I Love Lucy" or "The Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour". That would have been one funny and memorable episode.

[treky]

another simularity between the two shows-George was the "boss" of BURNS & ALLEN; and Desi was the "boss" of I LOVE LUCY.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...when George decided to begin filming their show in the fall of 1952, it was the "Desilu" influence that was mostly responsible. George later claimed he formed "McCadden Productions" to film the series because his business manager {Richard Fisher} "told me to", but he knew that Lucy and Desi were going to make a fortune filming their own series [and others], and he wanted in on some of that "action", too. However, the similarity between George and Desi ends there. While Arnaz spared no expense to make sure "I LOVE LUCY" was the best-looking filmed sitcom on TV, Burns was somewhat "cheap" about filming his own series {Ralph Levy, the show's initial producer/director, later recalled that when George took ownership of the show from CBS and began filming it, it wasn't produced with their money anymore, and that he initially began to worry over every part of the show's budget, from what size nails were being used to build the set, to how much he could have saved if a certain actress had come in to audition a little earlier....and the constant phone calls he got from George about these "money issues" almost drove Levy crazy}.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by OH Nuts!

Gracie was dizzy and Lucy was daffy so.....I guess that makes them....first cousins!

To me that's about the only similarity, as the Burns and Allen team had been running with the basic routine for years before the television version(s).

[Nivri]

The influence of "I Love Lucy" on "The Burns and Allen Show" was particularly pronounced during the 1955-56 season of Burns and Allen. See "George Burns Television Productions" published by McFarland for more information.