About two-and-a-half years after her divorce from husband Desi Arnaz in May 1960 and the end of the one hour Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show "I Love Lucy" specials, Lucille Ball returned to television in her second successful weekly sitcom, The Lucy Show, where she played the recently-widowed Lucy Carmichael. Joining Lucy was her longtime co-star, Vivian Vance, as Vivian Bagley, the first divorced character on an American sitcom.
Other cast members included Candy Moore and Jimmy Garrett as Lucy's children, Chris and Jerry, and Ralph Hart as Vivian's son, Sherman. Charles Lane (later of Petticoat Junction) and Dick Martin (later of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) had recurring roles as Mr. Barnsdahl and Harry Conners, respectively. Also along for the ride were I Love Lucy's regular writers Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Martin, Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf. Because they were still partners at Desilu, Desi Aranz himself was on board as Executive Producer – at least for a while. Desi is credited as EP for only the first fifteen episodes. In November of 1962, Desi sold his interest in Desilu to Lucy and left the series and the company entirely.
CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment have released The Lucy Show: The Official First Season. They specify "official," because before now, many episodes of the series' later seasons have been released culled from various public domain prints in cheaply made sets. This package, however, pulls out all the stops and gives what CBS hoped would be a fitting tribute to the first lady of television – something that Lucy's multitude of fans had been clamoring for. The results do not disappoint.
Included in this four-disc box set are the 30 black and white episodes from Season 1 (1962-1963) restored from the original 35 mm negatives. Naturally, this could never look as good as something filmed recently, but for an almost-50 year old series, the video quality of the episodes looks quite clean and sharp.
What's even better, however, are the stories. The premise of the series – two women living together with their children and having to provide for themselves with no men around – allowed Lucy and Vivian to continue to get into the oddest of predicaments. While never quite hitting the heights of the best of I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show's first season had many classic episodes in its own right and was definitely a worthy successor to Ms. Ball's earlier sitcom. Standout episodes include "Lucy Waits Up for Chris," "Lucy and the Electric Mattress, "Together for Christmas," "No More Double Dates," and, of course, "Lucy Puts Up a TV Antenna," and "Lucy and Viv Put in a Shower," perhaps the two most famous episodes of the series.
While nothing Lucy or her writers conjured up could top the giddy chaos of Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory or Lucy in the grape vat, Lucy on the trampoline in "Waits Up" and Lucy on stilts in "Electric Mattress" compare favorably with the physical shenanigans she performed on I Love Lucy. The absence of male counterparts, Ricky and Fred, is felt throughout the season as much of the tension and motivation for those "crazy schemes" are lost, but on the other hand, it is fun to see Lucille and Vivian's remarkable chemistry still at play without "the boys" on hand to act as buzzkill.
This series allowed Lucy and Vivian to act more independently because they did not have men to answer to. Comedic situations were also often different than those on I Love Lucy as stories revolved around lack of money, raising kids, and having to do odd jobs around the house such as the aforementioned putting up an antenna on the roof, installing a new shower, or even converting their basement into a rumpus room. However, the new setup did not completely prevent the writers from self-plagarizing from I Love Lucy, as some bits – such as Lucy playing "hand substitute" in "Lucy the Music Lover," was clearly cribbed from "The Handcuffs" episode of I Love Lucy (the same basic routine would show up again on the Liz Taylor/Richard Burton episode of Here's Lucy). Similarly, the I Love Lucy episode featuring the get-rich-quick scheme of selling "Aunt Martha's Homemade Salad Dressing" inspired The Lucy Show's "Krazy Krunch Caramel Corn."
Looked at in totality, The Lucy Show is an odd series in that it got steadily worse with each passing season, although you couldn't really tell it by looking at the ratings. It was a top 10 hit for each of its six seasons, but the quality of the writing took a nosedive after the departure of Carroll, Martin, Schiller, and Weiskopf after the second season. With Vivian Vance gone after having made a reduced number of appearances in season 3, the series further deteriorated. When Season 4 began, Lucy moved out to California, dumped her kids off at school and spent the remaining three seasons being browbeaten and screamed at by Gale Gordon's overbearing and unpleasant Mr. Mooney character. Gordon had joined the series in Season 2, but really did not become a full co-star and comedic foil for Lucy until Season 4. Further, the tone of the series changed dramatically as each episode featured a guest celebrity and stories and line readings, complete with characters turning to face the audience to deliver the punchline, played out like something out of a (bad) sketch variety show rather than a traditional sitcom.
However, fans of Lucy and good sitcom can rest assured that their purchase of The Lucy Show: The Official First Season is a worthy one and will provide them with hours of first class entertainment. Extras in this set mirror the treasure trove included in the I Love Lucy sets: cast commercials, original openings and closings complete with sponsor tags, cast biographies, production notes, bloopers, clips from television specials, and much more including new interviews with Lucy's daughter, Lucie Aranz, and actor Jimmy Garrett, who played Lucy's son, Jerry.
Word is that CBS and Paramount are already preparing Season 2 for a DVD release.
BOTTOM LINE:
|