I Love Lucy: The E! True Hollywood Story -- Airs May 1 on E!

[Pavan]

I Love Lucy: The E! THS airs May on E! More info soon.

[gilligan fanatic]

didn't they already do one?

[Pavan]

Originally Posted by gilligan fanatic

didn't they already do one?

It is listed as a premiere, so guess not.

[gilligan fanatic]

ok. I must be thinking of Biography or a PBS special or something

[Scoobiedoo30]

I know I will be watching The E! True Hollywood Story of I Love Lucy

[T-Greg]

Originally Posted by gilligan fanatic

didn't they already do one?

This is a brand new one.

[Pavan]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


THE MOTHER OF ALL SITCOMS…
I LOVE LUCY: THE E! TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY
PREMIERES ON SUNDAY, MAY 1 AT 8:00 PM ET/PT

Exclusive Interviews With I Love Lucy Writer Bob Schiller, Editor Dann Cahn, Assistant Director Jay Sandrich And Publicist Tom Watson

2-Hr Episode Also Features Interviews With Whoopi Goldberg, Jerry Seinfeld, Henry Winkler, Debra Messing, Michael Richards, Jenny Garth, Joyce DeWitt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and more!

Los Angeles, April 26, 2005 - Production wrapped almost fifty years ago, but I Love Lucy is still loved by people throughout the world and is one of the most celebrated sitcoms in television history. Cheers... Seinfeld... Friends-I Love Lucy inspired them all, and Lucille Ball continues to influence the careers of many actresses today, including Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Debra Messing. America fell in love with Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred, and viewers tuned in each week to watch their crazy antics in precarious situations. Yet behind the camaraderie and laughter on screen, there was turmoil behind the scenes, including boozing, bitterness, brawls and the disintegration of Lucy and Desi's real life marriage. Their legacy, however, withstood divorce and the everlasting success of I love Lucy, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy serves as a testament to the most-loved comedy of our time. Tune in to this behind-the-scenes look at one of the best-loved sitcoms ever, I Love Lucy: The E! True Hollywood Story premiering Sunday, May 1 at 8:00 PM ET/PT. In the episode:

I Love Lucy writer Bob Schiller on Ball's legacy – "Nobody will ever top her. They may try, but the combination of beauty and talent is just enormous."

Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz author Tom Gilbert on Desi Arnaz's first meeting with Ball – "He thought she looked like a two-bit hooker…And the next time he saw her she was dressed very demurely… he said, 'How would you like to rumba?' That was his come on line."

Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball author Kathleen Brady on Ball's marriage to Arnaz – "Lucille Ball told me she thought the marriage would last six months and that marrying Desi was the craziest thing she ever done."

Lucy-Desi Museum director Ric Wyman on popularity of I Love Lucy – "More people were watching 'I Love Lucy' the night Lucy gave birth to Little Ricky, than the following day for the President Eisenhower's inauguration. It knocked Eisenhower off the front page."

Schiller on Vivian Vance's off-screen dislike of William Frawley – "On the set they were fine. Off the set they hardly spoke to each other. She wanted to be more glamour girl. She didn't like being coupled with this old man."

Debra Messing on Lucille Ball – "She's the reason why I'm an actress today She paved the way for all of us."

Actress Doris Singleton ("Caroline Appleby", I Love Lucy) on the tensions off-screen – "Nobody was happy. But nobody let it show. Because you did your work. Lucy knew how good she was… she didn't like any mistakes made… if you weren't in the right spot at the right time of if you were in her camera, Lucy would have a fit."

Brady on the volatile marriage between Arnaz and Ball – "He did have his addictions-alcohol and gambling, and women. This was a strain… Her career was more important than her marriage but I think if her marriage had been more important, she would have given up her career and stayed at home to assuage his ego."

Wyman on Ball's boldness – "Lucille Ball was ahead of her time. She was the first woman in Jamestown to bob her hair. She (was) the first woman to wear slacks…"

Joyce Dewitt on I Love Lucy – "The only reason we have 'I Love Lucy' to this day is because of Desi Arnaz and his feeling about that woman and his appreciation of her talent."

I Love Lucy Assistant Director Jay Sandrich – "Any good comedian, especially somebody like Lucy, who'd do so much physical stuff, needed to know how people were reacting."

Henry Winkler on I Love Lucy – "When you hear the theme song, when you see that heart, you go, ok, just for a minute, I'll watch just for a minute, and then a half an hour's gone by."

Ball's publicist Tom Watson on I Love Lucy's popularity – "America fell in love with these people and they became the first real television celebrities, and the entire nation looked forward to spending a half an hour in their company every Monday night."

Desilu author Tom Gilbert on Desi's infidelities – "…I know one time he told one of the writers for the series, I don't know what she's so upset about, they're just hookers. And he believed he was being faithful to her as long as he wasn't with someone who wasn't a hooker."

Actress/comedian Whoopi Goldberg on Lucy – "Lucy was everybody. That's what makes Lucy brilliant, that they were all people. It didn't matter what color…It was fabulous."

[TV DVD Fan]

... cant wait to see it!


pat

[Tweety]

I can see what my only problem will be with such a show (and make no mistake, I'll definitely watch it at some point) ...

I hate when they have modern day celebrities giving us "their take" on these shows ... I don't care that Whoopi Goldberg used to watch I Love Lucy when she was a kid... big deal, so did all of us...

Actress/comedian Whoopi Goldberg on Lucy – "Lucy was everybody. That's what makes Lucy brilliant, that they were all people. It didn't matter what color…It was fabulous."

(allow me to translate: "I'm forced to grudgingly admit that I Love Lucy was great, even though all of the people involved in the show were white, dam* it"...gee Whoopi, thanks for pointing out to the rest of us that, as far as the people involved in putting I Love Lucy together, it didn't matter what color their skin was, it was just a great show regardless... we never would have known if you hadn't told us)

And who cares what Joyce Dewitt and Henry Winkler have to say about a show that they had nothing to do with? And what, no Ray Romano??? Why, he's CBS's biggest star today... and CBS is the network which originally ran I Love Lucy...oh wait, this is on E, not CBS... if CBS were doing a show about the greatness of I Love Lucy, R Ramano would host.

But yeah, I'm definitely going to watch the show on E...if not on May 1st, then I'll catch it one of the 300 other times it'll run over the following couple of weeks...

I'll be interested to see how much of the two hour (less lots of commercial time) episode consists of quotes and interviews from people actually involved with the production of "I Love Lucy", and how much is just modern day celebrities, desparate for any opportunity to be on camera, explaining to the rest of us why I Love Lucy was great, since we're too dumb to figure that out for ourselves...

[Tweety]

Well, now that I've seen the THS on I Love Lucy, I have to say that it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be...

It was nice to see that they actually got quite a bit of input from people who were actually involved with the show (or their relatives)... it wasn't two hours of Whoppi Goldberg and Ray Ramono telling us why I Love Lucy was a great show...

I think my biggest gripes were (1) Why so much air time to BONNIE HUNT??? WTF? What does SHE know about anything?

I also thought that the USC professor was annoying, and he got a lot of air time as well. (I forget what she was a professor of, but her hairdo was kind of like the cartoon "That Girl"....not Marlo Thomas herself, but the "That Girl" cartoon face on the kite that Marlo flew in the closing credits of "That Girl"...

But I thought that it was a pretty good two hour show...

I was a little puzzled about a couple of things...they had some interviews with a couple of guys (one normal looking, and one really creepy gay guy - not that there's anything wrong with that)...and the captions referred to them as "Friend of Lucille Ball"... they seemed too young to be friends with Lucy, so I finally figured out that they must have been friends with "Lucille" Ball, Lucy's daughter...but then I thought, wait a minute, that would be Lucy Arnaz... who, btw, looked very, very nice in the clips they showed. So I don't know how these two guys were friends with Lucy...

Still, not a bad job on the E-THS... (after I watched I L L THS , I spent another 2 hours watching the ETHS on Mary Tyler Moore...another good show by E...

First time I've EVER watched "E" for four straight hours...

[Coffeecup]

I agree tweety that having celebrities talk about Lucy slows the show down. I do like to hear about the actors, stagehands, People who were involved with the show speak about it.