Am I the only person that actually enjoys this? I wish people would’ve given it a chance, so we could have more episodes, and see where the show could’ve gone.
your not the only one who enjoyed "Life with Lucy" I enjoyed it as well as all her shows dateing back to I love Lucy, the Luci-Desi comedy hour, the Lucy show and Here's Lucy.
John Ritter, so talented. Lucy appeared on Three's Company, as a 2 part series and he was exclaiming how he was her biggest fan. Two wonderful comedians and acting geniuses. 🌞😊💖💖
I happen to really like this show. I think they should have given it more time to grow. And Gale Gordon always paired well with Lucy. Ruth Buzzi and John Ritter are always funny!
I don't know if It's just because I'm a huge Lucy fan, but I actually love this show. They don't make them like this anymore nor do they make them like Lucy anymore!!
❤John Ritter was the male version of Lucy! Both so funny and entertaining. I’ve seen everything Lucy has been in on television. Recently I watched The Stone Pillow which proved she could also be a dramatic actress. I wish Life With Lucy had had a longer run! I enjoyed it. ❤❤
I thought this show was fine… I was thrilled at the time to see her back on primetime, and thought they pulled it away too soon!! She was so into it, and that was fun to watch. I didn’t mind the comedy was so physical, slapstick, a little out of step with the times, -but put her together with someone like Ritter and the great Gale Gordon… And you had some magic cooking. Plus Eydie Gourmet doing your theme song! This show “had legs”…
It's clear this show is at it's best when its just Lucy playing off another actor and everyone else is offscreen. The yogurt scene is a masterpiece. Shame almost no one ever saw it. They probably should have led with John Ritter in episode 1 tbh.
John Ritter was brilliant, i think if abc would have got rid of the family angle it might have worked . Bring in ruth buzzi , mary wikes , carol Cooke and Audrey medadows as regulars .
If the show revolved around Lucy, gale gordon, and had John Ritter as a regular, would have been great. The show fell short with the family actors. They just weren’t on par with the others level of talent
If only Lucy had listened to Aaron Spelling and took the former M*A*S*H writers to do LIFE WITH LUCY. But she was so darn loyal and persistent on having the same writers that she had worked with way back on MY FAVORITE HUSBAND in the late 1940s, and Spelling felt Lucy knew more about comedy than he did. Spelling was quick to admit that he had never done a sitcom, and that he took full blame for the failure of LIFE WITH LUCY. The show had no interference from ABC, and the riotous applause and laughter from the audience gave Spelling and the other producers a false sincerity that LIFE WITH LUCY was working and the audience was loving it. But the ratings dropped consistently with each episode. ABC pulled the plug after eight shows, but only if Lucy had allowed some tinkering to perfect this show.
Her husband Gary Morton. was no help he demanded 150k per episode just for himself. in the early years she barely allowed him on the set the audience was prompted to applaud and laugh on cue Morton demanded this from the studio
I feel like Lucy had lost respect for the audience at this point. "They'll eat this up." And then just a lot of shtick. All that business with the spatulas...
I actually was feeling the same as you Angie. However, one thing that needed changing was Lucie's awful heavy makeup - thick false eyelashes etc. Gale Gordon was an older man and looked fine - could have been refined.
Your right the person who did her makeup should have been shot. With the red hair in some scenes she almost looked clown like, she was still attractive too bad that wasn’t optimized
The harmonica bit was done by The Three Stooges in 1936 in Disorder In The Court Apparently Lucy wouldn't do it so John did it Even still what was humorous in 1936 didn't come off for 1986 audiences It just looked inane I remember when this first aired and I didn't laugh once Sorry
In my opinion, this show was doomed from the beginning, because she was trying too hard to make lightning strike twice. It was the 80's, so what had worked for her in the 50's/60's, was rather outdated by this time. I give her credit for trying another series, but it wasn't the same with Desi. I think she would've had a far longer (and richer) acting career doing a dramatic series or more movie roles (like "Yours, Mine and Ours" from 1968), rather than looking a fool like this and getting abysmal ratings. Gary Morton was a solid man for her, but he wasn't Desi: she never got the happiness in the end that she gave everyone else. I think most people knew what a horrible turkey this show was, but feigned ignorance out of their love for her from 30 years prior. The show was awful, with the same formula and physical comedy. She should've stopped while she was ahead.
Three successful top ten series from each decade : 50s , 60s and 70s. No one in television history has ever done that. (I don't count Julia Louis Dreyfus because she was supporting on Seinfeld). No shame that Lucy couldn't do a fourth.
Are you the one who said “lightning doesn’t strike twice” in the comments of episode 1? Or are there two of you? Lucy had three successful sitcoms, spanning 22 years, so saying “lightning doesn’t strike twice” doesn’t make sense. But Lucy was stuck in an era of sitcoms that was long gone by 1986. As cheesy as so many 80s sitcoms were, this was completely stale. She needn’t have “quit while she was ahead.” She should have had a 4th successful sitcom if she had not been so stubborn to think she needed to make another sitcom heavy on whacky plots and slapstick.
It's a shame her last show didn't make it. Bad luck because she left cbs and went to nbc. I heard her was sue by her old writers from the old Lucy show.
Her old writers of I Love Lucy actually created this newer series and were the writer's of this specific episode... They also wrote for her second and third series on CBS.
The thing about all the "Lucy" shows, is that they were always a copy of a copy of a copy. "I Love Lucy" being the original copy, and then the other ones to follow. And all getting a bit inferior as they went along, and "Life With Lucy" being the absolute worst. I think at this point, Lucy needed to become more of a supportive character, instead of having the plot centered around her. She was at an age here where people aren't really interested in what an old lady is doing during the day. Each show got worse as time went on, relying on old/played-out jokes and gags that couldn't keep up with the times. She never really outgrew her original character or stretched her acting chops: she was forever "Lucy Ricardo", trapped in 1951. "Life With Lucy" was an idea that should've been left on the cutting-room floor: her heart wasn't in it, anyway, because Desi was dying at the time. At some point as a Hollywood actor, you have to hang it up and realize you've had your time already: you're too old and/or washed-up. LET IT GO!
