Here's Lucy in Syndication

[lucyandethel]

I read the following on Wikipedia:

Not initially offered in syndication when the series ended in 1974, CBS Daytime reran the series from May 2 to November 4, 1977. By 1982, Here's Lucy was finally put into broadcast syndication first by Telepictures, and in turn the rights were later transferred to Warner Bros. Television Distribution (which acquired Telepictures' holdings). The show was also one of the first shows aired on the PAX Network in 1998. Warner Bros. TV remains the distribution rights holder for all media except home video.

Why do you think Lucy waited eight years to put the show into syndication? Wouldn't you want to put a show in reruns ASAP to recoup costs? Was there no demand? Would be curious to know.

[Leslie Eckhardt]

Originally Posted by lucyandethel

I read the following on Wikipedia:

Not initially offered in syndication when the series ended in 1974, CBS Daytime reran the series from May 2 to November 4, 1977. By 1982, Here's Lucy was finally put into broadcast syndication first by Telepictures, and in turn the rights were later transferred to Warner Bros. Television Distribution (which acquired Telepictures' holdings). The show was also one of the first shows aired on the PAX Network in 1998. Warner Bros. TV remains the distribution rights holder for all media except home video.

Why do you think Lucy waited eight years to put the show into syndication? Wouldn't you want to put a show in reruns ASAP to recoup costs? Was there no demand? Would be curious to know.

I think there were high hopes for good ratings when CBS began re-running Here's Lucy in 1977. It was probably a deal similar to when The Lucy Show and I Love Lucy were run by CBS on their morning weekday schedule. The fact that is was pulled after only a few months possibly reflects low ratings. Perhaps CBS had a contract to run the show dayside for a number of years and that contract had to run it's course before it could be offered in syndication.

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by Leslie Eckhardt

I think there were high hopes for good ratings when CBS began re-running Here's Lucy in 1977. It was probably a deal similar to when The Lucy Show and I Love Lucy were run by CBS on their morning weekday schedule. The fact that is was pulled after only a few months possibly reflects low ratings.

Actually, it was never intended to run long term. I forget the circumstances, but it had something to do with a show being taken off the air and CBS needing something to fill in that time slot until they could get a regular replacement.

Originally Posted by lucyandethel

Why do you think Lucy waited eight years to put the show into syndication? Wouldn't you want to put a show in reruns ASAP to recoup costs? Was there no demand? Would be curious to know.

The reason was The Lucy Show, which had just gone into syndication in 1972 following its four-year morning run on CBS. The Lucy Show was still being widely syndicated in 1974, and of course I Love Lucy, which went into syndication in 1967. It was felt it would be hard to sell Here's Lucy at that point with so many stations already carrying the the two predecessor series.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by LittleRickyII

Actually, it was never intended to run long term. I forget the circumstances, but it had something to do with a show being taken off the air and CBS needing something to fill in that time slot until they could get a regular replacement.



The reason was The Lucy Show, which had just gone into syndication in 1972 following its four-year morning run on CBS. The Lucy Show was still being widely syndicated in 1974, and of course I Love Lucy, which went into syndication in 1967. It was felt it would be hard to sell Here's Lucy at that point with so many stations already carrying the the two predecessor series.

In a nutshell (and not to repeat what has already been said), it was apparently thought that Here's Lucy would be overkill and might cannibalize sales of the other two series syndication packages. Also, on somewhat of an unrelated note, it's safe to argue that Here's Lucy has not aged very well. The writing and the plots are horrendous, cartoonish is some episodes.

Also, Lucy often yells her lines in her cigarette bass voice; she mugs for the cameras and generally overplays every scene - the subtlety and comedic range she sometimes showed in ILL are completely gone. Lucy became a bad caricature of herself in this series.

More to the point, Lucy really doesn't give her kids much of an opportunity to show their talent. They're pretty much relegated to extras who deliver straight lines or react to Lucy. Then again, Lucie Arnaz, although only about 18 years old at the start of the series, also tends to overact and mug for the camera. Desi Jr. on the other hand, has a surprising confidence and competence for his young age.

The shows included ridiculous references to Lucy's youth and beauty, when (even if you believe her publicly stated age) Lucy would have been near 60 at the start of the series and not aging well by any stretch of the imagination. Episodes have various men enthralled by Lucy's beauty or making flattering remarks about her, "a good looking dame but what a kook".

[mets82]

I think they didn't want the show in syndication because if it was, it would get old real fast. Just look at today. How many shows have been beated into the ground because of overexposure?

I tried to watch Here's Lucy but I cant get into it at all. Its just not the same show than I Love Lucy plus I just dont laugh. Also, how come she has a guest star in every episode?

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by mets82

I think they didn't want the show in syndication because if it was, it would get old real fast. Just look at today. How many shows have been beated into the ground because of overexposure?

I tried to watch Here's Lucy but I cant get into it at all. Its just not the same show than I Love Lucy plus I just dont laugh. Also, how come she has a guest star in every episode?

Okay, as I already stated above, the reason the show was not put into syndication when production ended in 1974 is that The Lucy Show had only been put into syndication just two years earlier and was doing well (TLS ended in 1968, but continued in daytime reruns on CBS from 1968-72). And I Love Lucy was running in virtually every market in the country, often several times a day. Lucille Ball no longer had ownership of either The Lucy Show or I Love Lucy and only owned Here's Lucy. The syndication market was fully saturated with Lucy reruns, between I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show so she didn't think there was yet a strong enough market for Here's Lucy while the other two shows were being seen so widely. She wanted to wait awhile and give the older shows a chance to run their course. By the early '80s, The Lucy Show was seen mostly just seen on TBS, with just a smattering of other stations around the country airing it. So Here's Lucy had a better chance of standing on its own.

As for Here's Lucy having "a guest star in every episode," I think you've made that comment before. Yes, there is an overabundance of guest stars, but it's not every episode. There are 144 episodes, and a special guest star in 73 episodes. That's only half of the episodes. And about half the time that guest star is playing a fictional character. That's still a lot of guest stars, but it's not a "guest star in every episode."

That said, yes, this show is far inferior to The Lucy Show, and especially I Love Lucy. Lucille Ball was a workaholic and felt compelled to be constantly working. But I think her later career legacy would have been more greatly enhanced had she quit the weekly sitcom grind when she sold Desilu in 1967, then just focused on occasional specials and some movies. She was too old to still be playing this character, especially with her voice so damaged. And the writers had run out of good ideas. You will notice that many of the plots are inferior rewrites of earlier episodes from the past, and many others are more focused on Lucie Arnaz or a guest star, but viewers were turning in wanting to see Lucy.

[ILuvCarolBurnett]

I Love Lucy has been a hit in syndication for decades. The Lucy Show was successful in syndication in the 1970s and 1980s. With that, it was just difficult for a 3rd Lucy show to find its niche in syndication. Fortunately, with so many cable channels, Here's Lucy is finding it life again in recent years. It airs now on COZI TV. Perhaps now it will find life.

[EccentricGenius]

Originally Posted by LittleRickyII

Actually, it was never intended to run long term. I forget the circumstances, but it had something to do with a show being taken off the air and CBS needing something to fill in that time slot until they could get a regular replacement.



The reason was The Lucy Show, which had just gone into syndication in 1972 following its four-year morning run on CBS. The Lucy Show was still being widely syndicated in 1974, and of course I Love Lucy, which went into syndication in 1967. It was felt it would be hard to sell Here's Lucy at that point with so many stations already carrying the the two predecessor series.

If memory serves, CBS added repeats of "Here's Lucy" to their daytime schedule in May of '77, replacing Alex Trebek's short-lived game show "Double Dare" (which lasted a little over four months). Throughout much of its limited run, "Double Dare" suffered from disappointing ratings, thanks to heavy competition from not only NBC's hit game show "Wheel Of Fortune," but edited repeats of "Sanford And Son" as well (also airing daily on NBC's daytime schedule). CBS had switched "Double Dare's" timeslot twice during its run--first at 11 am (from its debut in December of '76 to March of '77), and then 10 am (from March of '77 until its eventual cancellation the following month)--in an attempt to attract housewives away from both "Wheel Of Fortune" and "Sanford And Son," but to no avail.

"Here's Lucy" was ultimately dropped from CBS' daytime schedule in November of '77 after CBS decided to move their hit game show "Match Game" from 3:30 pm to 11 am; "The Price Is Right" (which CBS had expanded from a half hour to sixty minutes two years earlier) was moved up a half hour from 10:30 am to 10 am as a result. Unfortunately, "Match Game's" ratings plummeted dramatically during the morning hours, mainly because the viewers that comprised its core audience--young children, teenagers, and college students--were still at school. CBS attempted to reverse its initial decision six weeks later by returning "Match Game" to the late afternoon (at 4 pm) and moving "Tattletales" to 11 am ("Tattletales" would end its four-year run in March of '78) in December of '77, but the damage was already done; "Match Game's" sagging ratings never recovered completely even after CBS returned "Match Game" to its late afternoon lineup (due to the fact that many CBS affiliates had preempted it in favor of either local or syndicated programming), and CBS canceled it outright (after six years) less than two years later. Thankfully, "Match Game" was resurrected by Goodson-Todman Productions in first-run syndication in the autumn of '79 as a five-day-a-week, first-run syndicated daily series (its first-run syndicated nighttime incarnation [airing mainly on weekends], "Match Game PM," had debuted in the fall of '75); it enjoyed a marginally successful three-year run.

In addition, CBS also expanded its long-running daytime serial, "Guiding Light," to a full hour (from thirty minutes) in November of '77...that may be another possible reason why CBS removed "Here's Lucy" from its daytime schedule and "Match Game" subsequently replaced it--albeit temporarily--in the 11 am slot.

[Kasey]

I've always been puzzled by people stating that the show was never syndicated until the early '80s because it ran regularly in my area for years beginning in the late '70s.

I dug out an old TV Guide from Sept 1979 and HERE'S LUCY was indeed running weekdays on Channel 8, which was an NBC affiliate in Rochester. It aired on another channel too a little earlier or later than 1979 but I didn't look for that issue.

[FredScuttle]

Heh, something you didn't see much after that...channel 79. (According to wikipedia) they discontinued 70-83 in 1982. I remember having old TV's that went up to 83. Don't think I had any local channels that went that high though.

[Howard]

I also found it interesting that all three of her series went into the CBS daytime schedules. What a clever thing she did. I do remember it entering syndication in 1982 and now it's running on CATCHY COMEDY for people who never saw the show throughout its run!