Do You ILL Fans Like The Other Lucille Ball Sitcoms?

[JamesG]

Personally, I love "The Lucy Show" and I love it just as much as "I Love Lucy".

I never really cared for "Here's Lucy" and I cannot make judgment on the short-run "Life With Lucy" since I have never seen an episode of it.

How do you ILL fans like Lucy's other shows?

[comedyfreak]

I liked all of her shows, my favorite being Here's Lucy since I remember watching during its original run. I didn't mind Life with Lucy, it just wasn't up to par with her other shows. I recently got to see Life With Lucy again and I actually enjoyed it.

[OH Nuts!]

Originally Posted by JamesG

Personally, I love "The Lucy Show" and I love it just as much as "I Love Lucy".

I never really cared for "Here's Lucy" and I cannot make judgment on the short-run "Life With Lucy" since I have never seen an episode of it.

How do you ILL fans like Lucy's other shows?

I like anything with Lucy, but TRULY LOVE I Love Lucy as it was so innovative, and pioneering--introducing new techniques and approaches--not to mention outrageously funny.

[SPLAIN]

I Love Lucy was the best one yes, but i grew up with The Lucy show and i now watch that one a lot more than the first, i also love Here's Lucy, i also consider The Lucy Desi Comedy hour a different show and i love that one also, as for Life with Lucy, hey, it's still the great Lucille Ball, so i enjoy that one also. I worship all of Lucy's FIVE tv Series and watch all of them all the time. And seing as i know all the ILL ones by heart, it's really nice to look at the other ones once in a while, to see her doing something a little different from what is engrained in my mind and heart.

[Bill S.]

Originally Posted by comedyfreak

I recently got to see Life With Lucy again and I actually enjoyed it.

Even though I've heard it was a failure, I'd still like to see LWL. I'm interested to see what the chemistry was like between Lucy and Audrey Meadows.

[lizphor]

I will only buy episodes where Vivian appears in Here's Lucy, and TLS

[Ireneparalegal]

As a devoted ILL fan, I can only say that her other shows were hard for me to love just as much. I remember watching the ill-fated LIFE WITH LUCY and seeing this was the most horrible thing tv did to Lucy. I can't get out of my head seeing Lucy with earphones on while wearing some pink sweatsuit and her coming into the house all out of breath. It was not how I wish to have remembered Lucy at the end.

I watched Here's Lucy and The Lucy Show, but I was so annoyed by her kids on the show. Their acting skills were not up to par. I watched it during syndication and because it had Lucille Ball in the show. But I couldn't get into it the way I got into ILL.

[drewfussclass101]

i do like TLS as much as i do ILL. Esp. the early b&w episodes. i like Heres lucy but not as much as the first two. LWL is ok, but not what was expected from lucy.

[Benno123]

I Love Lucy will always be the best series in my opinion, but I enjoy her other series, especially The Lucy Show -- the early episodes with Vivian are the best! I've seen many episodes of Here's Lucy that I've liked a lot, and a few that I was just mild about.

I watched the Life With Lucy episode this past weekend with Audrey Meadows, the first time in a long time that I've seen it. Had that series had as many strongly written episodes as that one was, I think it would have been a hit. But that is just my opinion. (Probably the saddest moment in Lucy's career has to be on an unaired episode of LWL which I believe was the last one they did. It's the scene where Lucy is in the grandparent show and she sings "Sunrise, Sunset" and to know she did that while Desi was dying is just heartbreaking. I've seen and read interviews with cast and crew of the show and they've talked about that scene, and all of them have said they knew Lucy was thinking of him while doing that.)

[Larry Surrell]

Originally Posted by Bill S.

Even though I've heard it was a failure, I'd still like to see LWL. I'm interested to see what the chemistry was like between Lucy and Audrey Meadows.

I saw that episode not too long ago. It was more sad than funny for me watching two old ladies trying to do slapstick comedy.

Bill, if you love Lucy Ricardo and Alice Kramden as much as I do you may not want to see this episode.

[Mr. Television]

I must be one of the few who actually enjoyed Life with Lucy. It wasn't as good as her other shows but it had Lucy and Gale Gordon so how bad could it be. I'd rather watch that then most of today's sitcoms. I liked all her shows. My favorite is probably the Lucy Show. That's the show I watched the most when I was a kid. I remember watching it on weekday mornings. I don't think I saw ILL until after that.

[comedyfreak]

Originally Posted by Bill S.

Even though I've heard it was a failure, I'd still like to see LWL. I'm interested to see what the chemistry was like between Lucy and Audrey Meadows.

They did have good chemistry together, they brought in Audrey to add something that was missing from the show, but it was too little too late. I think Lucy needed a better supporting cast. The network really didn't give the show a chance or writers who could collaberate with Lucy's old writers. After seeing Password Plus and watching Lucy going up against Betty White, they had chemistry and comrodery that could make a sitcom work.

[Jude The Obscure]

I always thought Lucy would have made a great Golden Girl!

[SPLAIN]

Originally Posted by Jude86

I always thought Lucy would have made a great Golden Girl!

So true, i always wished that myself. Now, as for Life with Lucy, what the heck do you expect? The woman was 75, how could she still have that impeccable timing and do youthful things at that age, but i thought she was very good with Audrey, the writing and the costars stank, for the most part, but the show was not as bad as is remembered. She had no lead in, if they had had her follow Who's the Boss or something popular back then, she might have built an audience, but nowadays, it's all NIT right away or DIE. People forget that The Dick Van Dyke show and Cheers, among many others, had lousy ratings in the beginning and were almost cancelled. And she should have tried something totally different, but her greedy husband was only after cash, instead of quality like her first husband. Also, after 23 years of doing the same situations, there was nothing new left to try, and she said it herself, she could never top herself and was competing with ILL reruns during the day. I never forgot Vicky Lawrence's kids saying we love her during the day better, she looks so old, or words to that effect. Like i always say, beautiful people have a tough time when they no longer have their looks. And Lucy was known for two things, she was a superb clown but also a beautiful woman back in the day. Her timing left her as she was pushing 80. She should have been a supporting player in an ensemble show, because delivering wisecracks she could still have done at that age, like on The golden Girls, you see, we're back to that, LOL!

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by Clint Eastwood Fan

I must be one of the few who actually enjoyed Life with Lucy. It wasn't as good as her other shows but it had Lucy and Gale Gordon so how bad could it be. I'd rather watch that then most of today's sitcoms. I liked all her shows. My favorite is probably the Lucy Show. That's the show I watched the most when I was a kid. I remember watching it on weekday mornings. I don't think I saw ILL until after that.

I think you may have hit on something there Sonny. Back then, the sitcoms were many, you had many to choose from. LWL didn't have a chance, the way it was written. Gimme Lucy any day over most of todays shows, but back then, we expected something better especially with Lucy being in it. The format was not good, the cast (not Gale) was terrible. I just didn't like it.

But! if that were on today, I think I would enjoy it simply because we don't have sitcoms like we did back then. They are a rare bunch. Something to just sit back and enjoy for 30 minutes is better than some reality junk like The Bachelor or American Idol.