The Mothers-In-Law

Reading all the great comments from readers of this website made my Sunday morning! It is too bad, indeed, that "The Mothers-in-Law" is not in syndication and Lucie Arnaz and I have talked about this often. It has something to do with Desi's estate, I believe, and legal complications...

However, be that as it may, everything wonderful written about "my little Italian Mama", Kay Ballard is all true - she is, was and will always be the very best!!!! I can only say that those days, back in 1966-1968, were the best 56 weeks of my life! Thanks, all, for watching and enjoying the program! Jerry Fogel (Jerry Buell)

I'm only 40, but I loved the Mothers In Law, as well. Kaye Ballard was a standout to me because of how vocal and hilarious she was. Of course Eve Arden was amazing too. If you live in Southern California and head out to Palm Springs, Ballard will be emceeing the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a vaudeville-type show which showcases a cast of older comedians, actors, dancers, vaudevillians who prove they are nowhere near past their prime. A great show that Ballard will be emceeing for part of this season. (They change up their emcees each year, having had some of the more famous old Hollywood names of the past host in recent years). The Follies has received coverage in newspapers from all over the world, the Today show did a segment on it, and it continues to grow in popularity. Check it out.

This is a show which had two of the greatest writers in TV history, Caroll & Pugh who co wrote I Love Lucy. The cast was great as the talented Eve Arden & Kay Ballard were very good comedians who played off each other very well. The legend Roger C. Carmell is great in this show too. Herb Ruddley, if I recall his name correctly, played off Carmell well too as the straight man to Rogers classic funny man.

For some obscure reason, NBC tried putting this on Sunday nights when Ed Sullivan was still big and put it in a killer time slot. That is the main reason this show only lasted 2 seasons. The shows were funny and the format of the main cast going after each other week after week was a fresh approach.

The show naturally had a lot of ties to Lucy as the writers and Desi Jr. were on the show sometimes too along with other well known guest stars. This series is on DVD now,folks who saw it then have fond memories and folks who see it for the first time will wonder how network Execs at NBC killed such a promising & well done show in two seasons. Of course it was consistent with NBC's track record then as they also killed the original STAR TREK too.

In the very early '70's, my local station WNEW-TV in New York ran this series over and over again. Since then, "The Mothers-in-Law" disappeared into oblivion. Probably nobody has seen it on TV since the mid '80s when Desi Arnaz died. Well, it ever comes back, you have to see the great chemistry between Arden and Ballard. The show was written by the same writers as "I Love Lucy", Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr. That being said, the scripts, although considered "old-hat", were very funny. Kaye and Eve get into some very funny situations and are real pros! Too bad it only lasted two seasons. This is also one of the rare TV shows where everybody (except Deborah Walley) used their real first name!

The opening credits sequence of THE MOTHERS-IN-LAW was one of the best ever. The theme song was quite manic, and was accompanied by clips of the actors getting hit with flying objects, splashed with water, and crashing into walls and through floors and ceilings. What's more, the appropriate sound effects for each mishap were dubbed in. The result was one of the most wild opening credits sequences I have ever seen, which emphasized the madcap events in the episodes themselves. All of this is made even more hilariously bizarre (or bizarrely hilarious) by the almost complete absence of memorable opening credits sequences, and memorable theme songs, on television today.