The Lucy Show

I am in complete agreement with the majority of the previous reviewers in that the first two seasons in black-and-white with Vivian Vance playing Vivian Bagley (television comedy's first divorcee) where undoubtedly the finest of the series. I am second to none in my admiration for Lucy, but after Vivian's character vanished, I thought the shows got more grating, annoying, repetitious and less funny as a rule. Vance was indeed a great co-star for Ball, they played off each-other beautifully and had genuine "star chemistry" between them. Mr. Mooney yelling at Lucy Carmichael got to be distractingly boring, uninspired and plain stupid. I have always been a great fan of Vivian Vance: in my thinking she was a vastly underrated comedy performer who had a unique voice, delivery style and physical mannerisms. Lucy was indeed fortunate to have had Desi finding Vivian playing in a play in La Jolla back in 195O. Lucy wouldn't have been nearly as successful without the special magic this actress brought to Ethel & Viv!

Although it was called "The Lucy Show," the core of this program was always the interaction between Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance and Gale Gordon. Having key film crew personnel from "I Love Lucy" certainly didn't hurt. The show did lose some punch when Vance left for she,along with Ball and Gordon, were "The Lucy Show Triumvirate". However, I feel the post-Vance episodes were almost as enjoyable for they featured interesting and entertaining guest stars. The "Main Street" episode featuring Mel Torme, Paul Winchell AND John Bubbles is a delight for musical fans. Check out the sequence showing Bubbles dancing with Lucy. Also, these later episodes still featured Gale Gordon who bounced off Lucy just as effectively as Vance did. Plus, the addition of Roy Roberts as Gordon's boss helped for he and Gordon bounced off each other well.

Although this show was weaker than "I Love Lucy" it was still pretty funny in its original form. The chemistry of Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, as single mothers raising their children, made "The Lucy Show" work, especially its first season on the air. Despite some of the bizarre plotlines the two women were believable as two friends struggling in a largely manless environment. But with Vance's departure in 1965 it fell apart at the seams...Lucy became more of a cartoon character as the show became more shallow and relied too heavily on "guest stars," and Gale Gordon and Mary Jane Croft were weak substitutes.

Lucy probably should have pulled the plug on this one in '65.

Lucille Ball was a headstrong actress.

When she was doing "I Love Lucy" she always yielded to Desi Arnaz because of her love for him and her respect for his management of the show.

When she did "Lucy Show" everything changed: she was divorced, her voice had changed because of doing the Broadway show "Wildcat" (it wrecked her vocal chords), she got Desilu Studios as part of the divorce settlement and she became a big time b!tch.

Her on screen technique changed changed as a result.

Her presence became totally mechanized: mugging and groaning through every scene.

Her insecurity at not having Desi meant she ruled the set, firing one actor when he stood up to her, using salty language to make people cringe and, finally, making uber-b!tch guest star Joan Crawford cry.

I think the real nadir of the series (and of all of Broadcast TV, really) came when she did that horribly, awful show where she gets drafted because a letter arrives for "Lou C. Carmichael" and her name in the series is "Lucy Carmichael".

The Army insists she be drafted nevertheless, and she gets her hair dutifully buzzed off while sporting a private uniform. Then they put her through boot camp.

STOOOOPID and actually UNCOMFORTABLE TO WATCH.

But it was "Lucy" - so I did.

Thus was the currency of Lucille Ball: even if they were pennies, they were pennies from Heaven.

I LOVE/MISS LUCY RICARDO!!!

Add my opinion to the others...Vivian Vance added a great deal of class to all the "Lucy" shows. None was more evident than in "The Lucy Show" when she departed (much too soon). After Vivian left the show it was apparent that Lucy needed a sidekick and various guest stars tried to fill Vivian's shoes but none came close. Once the show was broadcast in color, Lucy doing too much (such as running Desilu) started acting with too many broad strokes thinking that whatever she did would be funny. It wasn't. Some of the later shows were actually embarrassing to watch and you realized that not only were the writer's out of ideas but Lucy should have ended this show years before.