Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour on MeTV

[ajgenard]

Out of curiosity I recorded MeTV's first airing of the Comedy Hour on Friday. Both episodes had a total runtime of 45:52 which most likely means it's the "full" show with their better-than-most time compression. "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" obviously wasn't the original 75-min airing but it was still the 60 min version. The bookends with Hedda Hopper are the main cuts but they were pretty unnecessary anyways. "The Celebrity Next Door" was the same edit as what's on the DVD so I'd imagine the rest of them will be the full show.

At the rate of 2 per week MeTV is set to air the full run over the summer twice. Considering the full-length hours haven't been aired in probably a decade or more (TV Land?) I can't believe this hasn't gotten more attention. For those who don't have the DVD set I'd definitely recommend checking it out if possible. Even if you aren't a fan of the episodes, these are much better than the half-hour We Love Lucy versions in both editing and print quality.

[eng51squad51]

Originally Posted by ajgenard

Out of curiosity I recorded MeTV's first airing of the Comedy Hour on Friday. Both episodes had a total runtime of 45:52 which most likely means it's the "full" show with their better-than-most time compression. "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" obviously wasn't the original 75-min airing but it was still the 60 min version. The bookends with Hedda Hopper are the main cuts but they were pretty unnecessary anyways. "The Celebrity Next Door" was the same edit as what's on the DVD so I'd imagine the rest of them will be the full show.

At the rate of 2 per week MeTV is set to air the full run over the summer twice. Considering the full-length hours haven't been aired in probably a decade or more (TV Land?) I can't believe this hasn't gotten more attention. For those who don't have the DVD set I'd definitely recommend checking it out if possible. Even if you aren't a fan of the episodes, these are much better than the half-hour We Love Lucy versions in both editing and print quality.

I have some tape of the We Love Lucy episode that i recorded from one of my Local Stations back in the 80s or 90s and those episode had guest host and those was edit and some episodes that i saw on ME-TV on the We Love Lucy episodes was missing parts that was seen on METV. so i think those episodes are full Uncut episodes.

[RWCTV]

The whole running time thing is so strange because I have both the show on VHS as "We Love Lucy" and I have the unedited Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours.

In "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana," under the We Love Lucy title, Ricky starts off the episode with a brief narration as to what the story is about. He says, “Tonight, we go back 20 years to when Lucy and Ricky first met... They were taking one of those cruises to Havana….” Then the episode starts.


Then in the original, uncut version, it shows the Ricardos in the Connecticut farmhouse being interviewed by Hedda Hopper.

Then there is the issue of running time. We Love Lucy edits took the hour long episodes and split them into two half hour episodes, with each half running around 21 to 22 minutes tops, but that's including the opening credits, closing credits, and on part 2 a brief review of the events of "part 1." But the originals are appx: 50 minutes in length.

Interesting......

[ajgenard]

Originally Posted by RWCTV

The whole running time thing is so strange because I have both the show on VHS as "We Love Lucy" and I have the unedited Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours.

In "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana," under the We Love Lucy title, Ricky starts off the episode with a brief narration as to what the story is about. He says, “Tonight, we go back 20 years to when Lucy and Ricky first met... They were taking one of those cruises to Havana….” Then the episode starts.


Then in the original, uncut version, it shows the Ricardos in the Connecticut farmhouse being interviewed by Hedda Hopper.

Then there is the issue of running time. We Love Lucy edits took the hour long episodes and split them into two half hour episodes, with each half running around 21 to 22 minutes tops, but that's including the opening credits, closing credits, and on part 2 a brief review of the events of "part 1." But the originals are appx: 50 minutes in length.

Interesting......

Actually the true originals are even longer than the versions on the DVD. During the initial run of the show while it was a part of the Desilu Playhouse anthology series there were host segments with Desi Arnaz at the beginning and end of each episode. In 1962 CBS decided to repackage the Desilu Playhouse episodes featuring Lucy into it's own series (this is where the "Lucy-Desi" title comes from). Unfortunately they edited the masters and the host segments as well as some very minor in-show edits were lost forever. Some but not all of these edits survived in crummy prints of the original and appear on the DVD as extras. For some reason, the "Havana" episode master was NOT altered so it is the only fully complete episode on the DVD.

Thankfully TV practices had changed when they split it into We Love Lucy in the 80s so they created all new masters for that instead of cutting the originals. MeTV is indeed airing the 50-min masters but they are sped up to run at 46 min to accomodate required commercial time. I wouldn't label the different run-times and versions as "strange" but the show definitely has a unique editing history.

So in terms of total runtime and content:

Desilu Playhouse (1957-60) > Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1962) > We Love Lucy (1987)

[RWCTV]

Originally Posted by ajgenard

Actually the true originals are even longer than the versions on the DVD. During the initial run of the show while it was a part of the Desilu Playhouse anthology series there were host segments with Desi Arnaz at the beginning and end of each episode. In 1962 CBS decided to repackage the Desilu Playhouse episodes featuring Lucy into it's own series (this is where the "Lucy-Desi" title comes from). Unfortunately they edited the masters and the host segments as well as some very minor in-show edits were lost forever. Some but not all of these edits survived in crummy prints of the original and appear on the DVD as extras. For some reason, the "Havana" episode master was NOT altered so it is the only fully complete episode on the DVD.

Thankfully TV practices had changed when they split it into We Love Lucy in the 80s so they created all new masters for that instead of cutting the originals. MeTV is indeed airing the 50-min masters but they are sped up to run at 46 min to accomodate required commercial time. I wouldn't label the different run-times and versions as "strange" but the show definitely has a unique editing history.

So in terms of total runtime and content:

Desilu Playhouse (1957-60) > Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1962) > We Love Lucy (1987)

Very interesting stuff.

Now when you say "sped up," are you talking about where they play a tape "times 2"? I remember when TNN played the show Alice, and something didn't seem quite right about it. It was played as if it were a little too quick as if something was wrong with their playing machines. It bothered the heck out of me. Does the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour have that kind of feel, watching it on METV, or have you seen their versions on there yet?

[old grouch]

Are they ever going to show the episode with Danny Thomas??? Last week they reran the episodes with Ann Sothern and Maurice Chevalier.

[ajgenard]

Originally Posted by RWCTV

Very interesting stuff.

Now when you say "sped up," are you talking about where they play a tape "times 2"? I remember when TNN played the show Alice, and something didn't seem quite right about it. It was played as if it were a little too quick as if something was wrong with their playing machines. It bothered the heck out of me. Does the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour have that kind of feel, watching it on METV, or have you seen their versions on there yet?

It's not anywhere near x2 but yes it's the same principle you're getting at. For most of MeTV's shows, they speed up playback by 8% which results in shaving 2 minutes off a 25 min. master (or 4 min. off a 50 min. master). When retro-fitting 50 year old shows to fit the modern television model with increased ad time, this is the most ideal way to present complete unedited shows.

HOWEVER the biggest problem with speeding up playback is the audio. When audio playback rate is increased, so does the pitch. This results in really high chipmunk voices that can sound downright silly (the same phenomenon occurs when a vinyl record is played faster). When you are watching a show and notice everyone's voice is strange and they speak too quickly, this is usually a tip off they are "time compressing." I suspect this is what you encountered during Alice on TNN. Fortunately MeTV applies an automatic pitch corrector to maintain the original pitch of the soundtrack.

With a mere 8% speed up and pitch correction, the average viewer doesn't even realize it. So for all intensive purposes these are the complete masters of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. MeTV has a really good reputation for presenting most of their shows in this respectful manner. Sometimes they simply can't obtain the full-length masters and must use old syndication edits made decades ago.

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by ajgenard

Actually the true originals are even longer than the versions on the DVD. During the initial run of the show while it was a part of the Desilu Playhouse anthology series there were host segments with Desi Arnaz at the beginning and end of each episode.

[snip]

Desilu Playhouse (1957-60) > Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1962) > We Love Lucy (1987)

Slight correction here. The Lucy-Desi series was never "part of" Desilu Playhouse. It ran during the same time slot, preempting Desilu Playhouse, it had a similar opening, and both were sponsored by Westinghouse, but it was presented as a separate series. It was called the Westinghouse Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, and retained the I Love Lucy theme music. And Desilu Playhouse was officially the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Here are the openings for each:

Westinghouse Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE4I2Ffg3g4

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIEMmfFPtV4

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by ajgenard

Actually the true originals are even longer than the versions on the DVD. During the initial run of the show while it was a part of the Desilu Playhouse anthology series there were host segments with Desi Arnaz at the beginning and end of each episode. In 1962 CBS decided to repackage the Desilu Playhouse episodes featuring Lucy into it's own series (this is where the "Lucy-Desi" title comes from). Unfortunately they edited the masters and the host segments as well as some very minor in-show edits were lost forever. Some but not all of these edits survived in crummy prints of the original and appear on the DVD as extras. For some reason, the "Havana" episode master was NOT altered so it is the only fully complete episode on the DVD.

Yes it's too bad that the first episode is the only complete one on the DVD's, the other twelve episodes have some edits. As bonuses, the DVD's have deleted scenes of some episodes, but not all the episodes.

I'm glad the deleted scenes are included for the uranium hunt episode with Fred MacMurray, because that's my favorite episode. There's a scene with Fred and Ethel talking about their failure to find uranium, and a few brief scenes from the car chase sequence. These scenes were deleted from The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour version of the episode.

Another interesting deleted scene is the Korny Krinkles scene from the racehorse episode. Also the two deleted scenes from the Tallulah Bankhead episode, those are interesting too, although CBS didn't include the part where Tallulah says she's allergic to strawberries! Not good.

[Howard]

Am also a fan of this under-shown show! I never understood why the editor of these episodes cut the ENTIRE lines of dialogue with Tallullah being allergic to strawberries as it's such an important plot-point for the last act! I do have the DVD and it, too doesn't have it. Shame on CBS VIDEO for this! BTW; you can SEE this footage all over the internet!

[Howard]

What pisses me off is in the "Celebrity Next Door" (ep. 2) the entire dialogue about Tallullah being allergic to strawberries is CUT which undermines the last act of the show! it was probably 3-4 lines of dialogue so whoever decided to edit this out was really stupid and uncaring of "Lucy-Desi". Even the Boxed DVD set from CBS Video has this edit!

[stevea]

Tallulah was SO funny! ISTR those strawberries lines from years ago.

I also think I read another actress was supposed to do that episode--maybe Ido Lupino, who was on with Howard Duff later?

[Howard]

Even the DVD SET from CBS/PARAMOUNT has edited versions. The butcher should be shamed. BUT the boxed-set does include some edited-out footage. Apparently they cut the Original 35MM negative to do this! So sad!!!!!!

[Howard]

Was supposed to be Bette Davis.

[Howard]

Yep, I was also disappointed the DVD BOXED-SET does indeed have edited prints. Such butchery! They DID say they edited the original 35MM prints and have been lost! The DVD set at least offers a few snippets of lost footage!