The House In The Country

[cablejockey]

The episodes I'm watching now are about the Ricardos big move to the country. The house is better looking than I remember. That fireplace is enormous, the kitchen was big and roomy. I wish they had done this sooner in the series. As it happened, wasn't this the last season of the show?

[gilligan fanatic]

If you don't count the Comedy Hour it is the last season offically. Some of the CT episodes are ok, but it definetly doesn't have the magic of the NY episodes. It is a nice house though.

[Hughsgirl]

The house was indeed georgeous, but I do agree that the best shows came out of the apartments.

[Dianne3]

I do find it very odd that the moves takes places in the 2nd half of what would be the final season.
In the 1st half, most of the episodes center around the aged Ricky. While the gang was in Europe, Little Ricky aged a couple of years.

Although I also wish this move happened earlier, I also can see why it didn't. Lucy and Ethel would have been separated. By year 6, it could be they were running out of ideas so the move happened them.

[Willbo]

I enjoyed the country episodes. I really liked the chicken episode where Lucy and Ricky were doing the tango with Lucy hiding the eggs in her shirt.

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by Dianne3

I do find it very odd that the moves takes places in the 2nd half of what would be the final season.
In the 1st half, most of the episodes center around the aged Ricky. While the gang was in Europe, Little Ricky aged a couple of years.

Although I also wish this move happened earlier, I also can see why it didn't. Lucy and Ethel would have been separated. By year 6, it could be they were running out of ideas so the move happened them.

You're right. The reasons the Ricardo's (and later the Mertz's) moved to the country is because the writers felt they were running out of story ideas (how many times can Lucy sneak into Ricky's nightclub act?) and the change of scenery was expected to give them new story material.

[damon strong]

Originally Posted by Marvo301

You're right. The reasons the Ricardo's (and later the Mertz's) moved to the country is because the writers felt they were running out of story ideas (how many times can Lucy sneak into Ricky's nightclub act?) and the change of scenery was expected to give them new story material.

I wonder how the opposite side of that enormous living room would have looked?

[rjt100]

to move Lucy, Ricky, Fred & Ethel to the country. It gave the writers fresh material and it made I Love Lucy the no. 1 show for the 1956-57 season. The previous season the show was no. 2 and $64,000 Questions was no. 1. I think that if Lucy didn't do the hour long specials, I Love Lucy in half hour format could have run for atleast another three years. I Love Lucy is one of three shows to end its' run at number one, the other shows are Andy Griffith and Seinfeld.

[damon strong]

Originally Posted by rjt100

to move Lucy, Ricky, Fred & Ethel to the country. It gave the writers fresh material and it made I Love Lucy the no. 1 show for the 1956-57 season. The previous season the show was no. 2 and $64,000 Questions was no. 1. I think that if Lucy didn't do the hour long specials, I Love Lucy in half hour format could have run for atleast another three years. I Love Lucy is one of three shows to end its' run at number one, the other shows are Andy Griffith and Seinfeld.

I think the series could have done with some new writers to freshen things up. A 7th season of 30 minute episodes easily could have been done using the Connecticut setting.

[Torgo]

I think the country house had some classic episodes- the chicken and egg episode, the barbecue episode, the Barbara Eden episode...

[biffbronson]

Also loved the lawnmowing episode, with the wax tulips. Great "out in the country" physical comedy on the mower.

Having Mary Jane Croft play the neighbor, Betty Ramsey, was a real plus too -- great to have her on board.

[missy's pop pop]

I wish they'd started the "Connecticut" episodes a bit sooner, but by the middle of the 1955-56 season, the writers admitted they couldn't wring another story out of the apartment. For '56-'57, Ricky Ricardo had bought the Tropicana and renamed it Club Babalu. Problem was, the newly-dressed set was used for just one episode and was never seen again!

The Connecticut home was if anything too roomy. Desi had to figure out how to make the sofa work, which didn't work until someone developed the idea of putting sofas back-to-back so they could have conversation among the characters. And the only scenes showing anything remotely resembling the upstairs were the ones featuring Little Ricky.

Truth is, the real justification was that after five years in the apartment, Ricky was finally making enough money to have a nice home. One of the writers' explanations serves as the title of this post!

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by cablejockey

The episodes I'm watching now are about the Ricardos big move to the country. The house is better looking than I remember. That fireplace is enormous, the kitchen was big and roomy. I wish they had done this sooner in the series. As it happened, wasn't this the last season of the show?

I remember the writers talking about how they had to adjust their scripts to accommodate this very large set. If, for example, Ricky walked in the front door and some action or dialogue had to take place with him next to Lucy, who was on the other side of the room, they would have Ricky already talking while he was walking across the room because it would take too much time to have him walk over to her then start to talk.

There was a big evolution in set design from the time the series debuted in 1951, on a tiny set at General Services Studios. At that time, the set was so small that the same space had to be used for both the Mertz's apartment and Lucy and Ricky's bedroom. And other parts of the regular set would be used for temporary sets (e.g., Lucy's Vitameatavegamin commercial was done in front of the set for Ricardos' kitchen). By the later years of the series, there were enormous, and sometimes elaborate sets. For example, the cruise ship deck, hotel balcony, jail, cruise ship exterior, and Havana street sets created, and used along with the Ricardo Connecticut living room, as well as some on-location footage, in Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana. Not to mention the original musical scores, big-name guest stars, dancers and singers and other extras. And sometimes special effects were employed. None of that was conceivable, or possible, in 1951. The show went from a shoestring budget to being very lavishly financed. And initially, Desi was even planning to film the hour shows in color. But I guess that plan was dropped because CBS was not planning to broadcast it in color.

[missy's pop pop]

Originally Posted by LittleRickyII

I remember the writers talking about how they had to adjust their scripts to accommodate this very large set. If, for example, Ricky walked in the front door and some action or dialogue had to take place with him next to Lucy, who was on the other side of the room, they would have Ricky already talking while he was walking across the room because it would take too much time to have him walk over to her then start to talk.

There was a big evolution in set design from the time the series debuted in 1951, on a tiny set at General Services Studios. At that time, the set was so small that the same space had to be used for both the Mertz's apartment and Lucy and Ricky's bedroom. And other parts of the regular set would be used for temporary sets (e.g., Lucy's Vitameatavegamin commercial was done in front of the set for Ricardos' kitchen). By the later years of the series, there were enormous, and sometimes elaborate sets. For example, the cruise ship deck, hotel balcony, jail, cruise ship exterior, and Havana street sets created, and used along with the Ricardo Connecticut living room, as well as some on-location footage, in Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana. Not to mention the original musical scores, big-name guest stars, dancers and singers and other extras. And sometimes special effects were employed. None of that was conceivable, or possible, in 1951. The show went from a shoestring budget to being very lavishly financed. And initially, Desi was even planning to film the hour shows in color. But I guess that plan was dropped because CBS was not planning to broadcast it in color.

By the LDCH era, "Lucy" had made so much money for Desilu (and ultimately CBS), they could afford more elaborate sets (Bart Andrews, in THE I LOVE LUCY BOOK, by the way, called the "Lucy Takes A Cruise to Havana" set "a period delight.") And Desi himself wanted to do more elaborate shows when he proposed the LDCH format as far back as 1955-56.