Life With Lucy

[McGillicuddy]

Does anyone think Life With Lucy, Lucy's 1986 final comeback series, could have worked, with a different supporting cast or different writers, or should it just never have happened at all? It did have a few good moments but

ultimately, I wish it never materialized. When it failed, I think it broke Lucy's heart.

[Rezny@gmail.com]

In articles I've read,I've heard that Lucy at first didn't even want to do it.I've also heard that OTHER people(The late producer of the show Aaron Spelling,husband Gary Morton)had their say,and convinced her to do it.Anyway,it was a dud,and kind of sad.Well,anyway,the REAL "Life With Lucy"was when she was on CBS with her successes "I Love Lucy""The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour","The Lucy Show","Here's Lucy",and the specials she did with the late Vivian Vance and the late Gale Gordon . Unfortunately,"Life With Lucy",the short-lived series,wasn't.Getting back to your question,it should have never happened at all.

[Jude The Obscure]

Lucy should have been in an ensemble series ala The Golden Girls and played against type.

[catlover79]

What's even sadder is that half the main cast is dead. Besides Lucille Ball and Gale Gordon, Philip Amelio II, who played the grandson, died 5 years ago of a bacterial infection. He was only 27 and had become a teacher.

Jenny Lewis is still around but has found success in another entertainment arena - music. The rest of the cast seems to have vanished into obscurity.

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by catlover79

What's even sadder is that half the main cast is dead. Besides Lucille Ball and Gale Gordon, Philip Amelio II, who played the grandson, died 5 years ago of a bacterial infection. He was only 27 and had become a teacher.

Jenny Lewis is still around but has found success in another entertainment arena - music. The rest of the cast seems to have vanished into obscurity.

Larry Anderson is involved w/ magic shows, and I got to talk w/ him once when I was on Stu Shostak's radio game show, "Anyone Can Play", which Larry hosted. I remember when Ann Dusenberry played Amy March in the NBC 1978 miniseries Little Women, based on the Louisa May Alcott book. It had a great cast, w/ Meredith Baxter as Meg, Susan Dey as Jo, and Eve Plumb as Beth. It was neat seeing "Bridget", "Laurie", and "Jan" playing sisters.

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by catlover79

What's even sadder is that half the main cast is dead. Besides Lucille Ball and Gale Gordon, Philip Amelio II, who played the grandson, died 5 years ago of a bacterial infection. He was only 27 and had become a teacher.

Jenny Lewis is still around but has found success in another entertainment arena - music. The rest of the cast seems to have vanished into obscurity.

Following up on jehobden's comment, I have seen Larry Anderson within the last 8 or nine months. So it's a little weird to hear "vanished into obscurity" in relation to him because, in my mind, he's very much present on this planet. Now Ann Dusenberry is another case.

Larry is a very nice guy and, remarkably, looks almost exactly like he did on LWL 23 years ago! He continues to maintain a close association with the Lucy world.

I remember hearing about Philip Amelio II when he passed away a couple years ago. From what I've read, he was a fine young man who spent his short life generously giving back to the world he lived in and trying to make it a better place. That was a very tragic loss.

[catlover79]

I hadn't heard any news about Larry Anderson until now - thanks for letting me know. Whatever happened to Ann Dusenberry? I did see her in Little Women from 1978 (where she did bear an uncanny resemblance to Kirsten Dunst, who played the same role in the 1994 version) - then she just seemed to vanish.

Before leaving acting to concentrate on his education and then a teaching career, Philip Amelio II played the first Scott Chandler on All My Children. Such a sad loss.

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by catlover79

I hadn't heard any news about Larry Anderson until now - thanks for letting me know. Whatever happened to Ann Dusenberry? I did see her in Little Women from 1978 (where she did bear an uncanny resemblance to Kirsten Dunst, who played the same role in the 1994 version) - then she just seemed to vanish.

Before leaving acting to concentrate on his education and then a teaching career, Philip Amelio II played the first Scott Chandler on All My Children. Such a sad loss.

Well I just found Ann Dusenberry on Facebook awhile ago, so she hasn't dropped off the face of the earth, either. If her profile picture is any indication, she looks great. I guess, though, she has put the whole Life with Lucy experience behind her. Larry, on the other hand, in spite of what happened with that show, seems grateful to have had the opportunity to know and work with Lucille Ball and is happy to talk about it. To this day he stays connected with the Lucy world. He was very involved with several of the Lucy conventions in Burbank, and I think he has been to Jamestown, too.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by LittleRickyII

Well I just found Ann Dusenberry on Facebook awhile ago, so she hasn't dropped off the face of the earth, either. If her profile picture is any indication, she looks great. I guess, though, she has put the whole Life with Lucy experience behind her. Larry, on the other hand, in spite of what happened with that show, seems grateful to have had the opportunity to know and work with Lucille Ball and is happy to talk about it. To this day he stays connected with the Lucy world. He was very involved with several of the Lucy conventions in Burbank, and I think he has been to Jamestown, too.

Ann Dusenberry's on Facebook? Cool!!

[jehobden]

This thread brings up a thin unintended connection between "Here's Lucy" and "Life with Lucy". I just bought seasons 1 & 2 of "Here's Lucy" at Target last night packaged together for just under $20, so I went ahead and got them. Season 1 has an episode called "Lucy and Eva Gabor", where Eva played a writer whom Harry moved into Lucy's house for privacy while she works on a new screenplay. At the end of the show, Eva exclaims that she no longer wants to write the screenplay. She instead wants to write a novel about a widow & her 2 teenage children, and she wanted to call the novel "Life with Lucil" [her pronunciation of Lucille]. Maybe that's where the last series got its name.

[TMC]

We still love Lucy.

To skip around:

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:17 Background
• 10:58 Episode 1
• 13:55 Episode 2
• 15:43 Episode 3
• 19:31 Episode 4
• 23:32 Episode 5
• 25:50 Episode 6
• 28:44 Episode 7
• 31:04 Episode 8
• 34:02 Episode 9
• 36:19 Episode 10
• 37:57 Episode 11
• 41:03 Episode 12
• 44:21 Episode 13
• 46:44 The End