@MARGARET............. I totally agree. its so sad how REAL TALENT is no longer around. I MISS THE QUAILTY AND TALENT OF PEOPLE THAT WERE AROUND THEN..........NOWS ITS SOOO PATHETIC.
Lucy hadn't lost it. Tastes, society and styles of humor had changed. A rather sad but realistic interview of a great tv star at the end of her career.
Two very unique, powerful, brilliant personalities. They were part of a generation of quality. Today, all the celebrities blend together, and it's hard to tell one from the other. There are a few standouts, but those are the exception.
Lucille Ball greenlighted Star Trek and Mission Impossible at Desilu. That plus her own shows makes her The Greatest Entertainer That Ever Ever Ever Lived!!!!!
Lucy was a perfectionist and incredibly hard on herself. She never accepted failure and would always beat up on herself if she felt she had failed. I'm like that too so I understand her lol I get what you mean. She deserved to feel proud and not sad.
Bette Davis was one Joan Rivers & said "When I was doing Baby Jane, my daughter B.D. said (about the outrageous make-up she wore) "this time, mother you have gone too FAR" - to which Joan replied "Melissa tells me that everyday" - Davis howled with laughter
Imagine... I mean, she was with Gary for 25 years yet no one seems to remember him. It's Desi and Lucy on so many levels. I don't think they ever got over each other.
I don't want to read too far into this, but for 2 of america's most funniest women of the 1900s doing an interview together is incredibly dry. Lucy almost seems sad or depressed. They say up until her death she became very nervous and leery of people, even people she used to trust and love.... This interview was just 3 years before she died... Much of her own friends had passed away... her kids were grown.... maybe it was all getting to her... I love her so much... may she rest in piece.
I couldn't agree more with lasuvidaboy and JAldridge86. Our dear Lucy would have been a folk-hero had she switched to a more sophisticated "Golden Girls" type of comedy. You can see that he had it in her.
Life With Lucy's biggest problem was the supporting cast. Outside of Gale Gordon they were just not that good. Also Lucy's thing was physical comedy and at 75 that has to be difficult to do. I know I sure couldn't do half the things she did at 75 and I am only 38. Thanks so much for posting this complete interview here.
The Official Second Season of Lucille Ball's second series The Lucy Show, is coming to DVD on July 13, 2010! If you haven't seen the Lucy show it is so funny! And the second season co-stars Vivian Vance(Ethel)! Also it's in Color!
1. Lucy was extremely comfortable with Joan. Theirs was a true "professional" friendship, and a mutual admiration society. 2. Lucy never went on the "Tonight Show" in later years if Johnny Carson was the host, because she said that he intimidated her, which made her nervous to do the show with him. Lucy would only appear on the "Tonight Show" when Joan was the guest host. After Joan's talk show premiered, Lucy never appeared on the "Tonight Show" again, and exclusively appeared on Joan's show. 2. Lucy did drink, but never to excess, except on special occasions. She did keep smoking until the last year or so of her life, which PARTIALLY explains the gravelly voice. But another reason her voice changed so dramatically was that she had throat surgery a few decades before her death, and the result of her surgery changed her voice forever. 3. She admitted to being embarrassed about appearing on this particular episode because Joan's people told her that it would not be a "dress up" kind of show, so Lucy showed up in her purple pantsuit, while everyone else, as it turns out, was dressed to the nines. 4. She hated doing TV appearances towards the end of her life because she felt she looked old, and wanted the public to remember her as the young Lucy. 5. She was so depressed over the cancellation of "Life with Lucy" that she decided not to do any more acting roles because she felt that she was a jinx to whatever she appeared in. Gary was lobbying hard for her to get the role of Miss Daisy in "Driving Miss Daisy". When Lucy found out, she wrote the producers of the film and asked them to NOT consider her for the role. Her friend, Jim Brochu, also wrote a television movie specifically for her, entitled "The Story Lady", but Lucy declined the role, which, ironically, also went to Jessica Tandy. 6. At the end of her life, all she wanted to do was stay home and play Backgammon with her closest friends.
I agree! It was really obvious how at ease Joan made Lucy feels. Contrast the beginning of this clip where Lucy claps excitedly to her interview with Cavett where she is evidently more tense and somewhat defensive
the "lucy" voice was a forced voice she did for i love lucy. making her voice an octave higher and reciting her lines loudly so the mics could catch them for as many years as she did was bound to take a toll on her actual voice, which it did. cigarettes also probably weren't very helpful.
@Rosemarie Plant She smoked 3 packs a day. So did Desi. So did her 2nd husband. Vivian Vance too. All 4 died of smoke related illnesses. Sad. Back then the dangers were not as well known
This is my video! I sold a DVD copy to him because he claimed he was a Lucy fan and wanted it for his own use. Besides Copyright Violations, he lied about what he wanted it for. I held onto this video for 20 years, transferred it to DVD and asked any Lucy fans if they wanted to enjoy it. I also have all the Life with Lucy aired episodes. I should put them on here myself. Lucy with John Ritter on the show is great.
Yes thanks so much for posting!! Always great to see new Lucille Ball posts. Too bad Life with Lucy wasnt given more of a chance. It wasnt that bad. And it started getting better towards the end episode when Audrey Meadows came on.
Life with Lucy was cancelled after only 8 episodes and it crushed Lucy. she died less than 3 years later. Wish she was alive in this streaming era and could never be cancelled by having to run against other shows.
Lucy is phenomenal. The sad thing about her last show was that it was outdated and flat. The issue had a writing problem rather than a Lucy problem. I’ve always wondered what could have done to make it work? I hate that this show was here last shot.
Unfortunately for her survival on television, Lucille Ball refused to "go blue" (as was the term for bawdy and profane demeanor and language dating from the burlesque era) and/or allow any television production in which she would star to become a "socially relevant" series, in the manner of those produced by Norman Lear, Paul Junger Witt-Tony Thomas-Susan Harris Productions, etc. Evidently that philosophy didn't also extend to a made-for-TV film, as Lucy did star in the very topical "Stone Pillow," about the contemporary problem of homelessness. Lucy had also made some fine, sophisticated and adult films (both co-starring Bob Hope) in the early 1960s, "Critic's Choice" and "The Facts of Life." But when it came to a TV series, Lucy was an old-fashioned traditionalist in the manner of one of her mentors, Jack Benny, who believed in "keeping it clean" and acting in a family-friendly situation comedy, although not without some level of adult sophistication so long as doing such did not mean traversing into the proverbial gutter. There is nothing at all wrong with that philosophy, except it made her seem dated to a late 20th Century viewing audience. I don't think even the well-produced-and-well-acted "Leave it to Beaver," "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Andy Griffith Show" could have been done (as they were originally) by the 1980s, without some adjustments and allowances for the passage of time. The world of TV had changed considerably after the eras of "All in the Family" and "Seinfeld." And as was also Benny's and Lucy's customs, there had been a tendency to recycle old scripts from previous series'' and episodes, with only some minor tweaks and recastings, which was rather lazy and indicative of a production that was out of fresh ideas. I agree with you, though, it was too bad Lucy to have come to such a sad ending in the very medium in which she (and first husband Desi Arnaz) had helped to invent. Lucy needed then (in 1986) to have a series more in the manner of "The Golden Girls," with more reliance upon well-written dialogue and developed characters and less physical comedy or slapstick. What was funny in 1952 and even 1962 seemed stale and hopelessly out-of-touch by the late 1980s. Also, in my opinion, much though I enjoyed Gale Gordon as a solid ensemble player, Lucy's real comedic partner had always been Vivian Vance, especially after Lucy and Desi divorced. "The Lucy Show" also became stale after Vance's departure. In a very real sense. Lucy & Viv were the female counterparts of Laurel & Hardy. And Stan Laurel, as well as Red Skelton, were also mentors for Ball in terms of her learning slapstick, which, when she began in film, was practically unheard of for women (save for Mabel Normand, Fanny Brice and perhaps Martha Raye) to take a pie in the face even, of which Normand was reportedly the first of either gender to have received-- and decades before Soupy Sales (Milton Hines) made that comedic institution a tradition. It was also sad that Lucy made the film version of "Mame" instead of Angela Lansbury, who originated the role of "Mame Dennis" on Broadway, even though Lucy really didn't sing any worse than Lauren Bacall in the Broadway musical adaptation of "All About Eve" titled "Applause." For "Mame," Ball (as with Bacall as "Margot Channing") adapted her voice to a sort of talk-sing mode that worked about as well as it could have under the circumstances. But Lucy would have been better to have made the original "Yours. Mine & Ours" her final film or else found a more suitable project afterward. I think I had read that Lucy, as with just about every older actress in Hollywood (including Katharine Hepburn), wanted the title role in "Driving Miss Daisy" which ultimately went to old stage pro Jessica Tandy. But perhaps that was just Hollywood grist for the mill and Lucy had no serious chance of that role either. In any event, had Lucy made that film, she would probably still have died in April of 1989 (if not sooner, from the work involved) before the film's December 1989 release. All of this is just hyperbole anyway, as what was is, and Lucy, even without the last film and TV series, left a fine film and TV legacy which millions of persons enjoy to this day.
Except she had all the old people from her show in the 50's write her show in the 80's. Even her sound guy was from her old show and was 77 and hard of hearing.
I read comments like Lucy "should have done this... or that" which I think is crazy she is the pioneer for so many things and people should never have told her what to do because she obiviously had it figured out.
@dulcey4 I've read around 14 books about Lucy and can say with 100% certainty that they were absolutely head-over-heels in love with each other. The problem was his drinking and womanizing and the pressure of running such a huge empire as Desilu. Desi said that perhaps if they hadn't bought the studio and stayed at the Desilu ranch, things would have been different. It was rather Lucy and GARY who were more like 'partners' or rather 'friends' and not really in love.
It was kinda sad that Lucy's last go at a sitcom flopped so badly. Not being nasty, but she should have realized that she already had had her day in the spotlight on tv and people didn't need the slapstick comedy anymore. She should have known better or gotten beter advisors for herself. What worked in 1956 for her, tanked badly in 1986. Times change, but Lucy didn't. I LOVE LUCY was and is one of my fave shows, btw.
@StickyRice1000 There is, it's entitled "Michele Lee on Joan Rivers with Lucille Ball (Part 3)" It used to be on the sidebar and it isn't now for some strange reason. It should be linked below as a reply, thanks for commenting!
This interview should’ve been directed n scripted more. Love them both. And I’ve seen Joan s nyc talk show in person. She s very serious. But I think here you can’t tell legends what she s going to talk about. They need to cook something or have some kind of a bit.
@misswings83 Well Lucy and Desi became like the favorite aunt and Uncle you WANT to come up and pinch you and give you a quarter as a kid. Together, they warmed themselves into our hearts.... So them divorcing would almost be like we're watching our own parents divorcing. Any other relationship after the fact is insignificant, unless we can RE-ESTABLISH that bond with the new couple... however, we didn't get that opportunity.
@blevideo i say the first few episodes of lucille's new show. the problem wasn't lucy except for the fact she employed the same crew. the writers scripts we 1951 stuff that just wouldn't nor could work in the 1980's. i knew that was the problem, the second i saw the first episode.
This show seemed good. Not sure why it failed but some said Carson may have been behind it??? Joan was an excellent interviewer and she was funny as hell and had great guests. Look who she got here!
Here's Lucy talking so sincerely and lovingly about her children and her mother and I just heard her daughter speaking in such derogatory terms about her to the same host in 1990 ,from all the trouble her kids gave her all her life ,Lucy must have regretted her idea of having children from that good for nothing Cuban ,penniless creep
Is there a part 3 to this show??? And that was hilarious how Lucy was like.. have you been fixed?? Hahaha.. by the way Joan Rivers didnt seem all that good at her job for someone to be a workaholic.
Copyright is owned by NBC. The DVD is simply a licensed content. So making a copy of your DVD was a copyright violation, and it makes you and poster of this video both in violation of NBC's copyright.
Okay, NBC or Fox, makes no diff, unless the poster is the original content maker, the copyright is being violated. I'm commented because I found it ridiculous that the original commentor of this specific thread stated/implied they owned the copyright, which is a fallacy. Most stuff on RU-vid is in violation of copyright, and for whatever reason the networks or others don't prosecute although they're within their right to do so. Entitlement seems to be the current societal mentality these days.
I sensed some serious animosity between these too... "How are you doing Kid"--- and "You're a workaholic like me" --------------------------------- did anyone pick up on that??? LOL
+atdlusdriver no animosity - I can assure you... Lucy answered straight on - direct. I KNOW personally, was the way she was...not sure why I am answering - but here I am
@JAldridge86 Lucy is better!! but Lucy and Joan are two different kinds of funny!! Joan is a comedian and Lucy was a brilliant actress who could do comedy!! it just two different ways of being funny! ;)
I don't agree with you. I think Lucy cared very much about what she said here. She was always an interesting guest. As to her voice, as we know, she was a life-long smoker. So what? No reason to diss The Legend.
