I Love Lucy: Be A Pal
Originally broadcast on CBS on Monday, October 22, 1951 at 9 PM ET.
Plot: Lucy thinks Ricky is ignoring her and seeks advice from a book to regain his attention.
Analysis: I hate to keep repeating what I say from review to review of this show, but this is another great example of the genius of the writers and Lucy’s talent as an actress to take believable situations and make them so extreme that you laugh, but it does not cross the line into the absurd. Highlights here include a toaster gag and Lucy’s version of Carmen Miranda, one where she actually got the permission of the original to do a parody of. Of note is while the characters of Lucy, Ricky and Fred are established, Ethel is still being refined a bit, not quite being as genteel as we would see in later episodes.
A few words on Lucy, or rather, Lucille Ball the actress. Ball was born in 1911 and for most of her early life was encouraged to enjoy the theater and vaudeville. She attended the School for the Dramatic Arts in New York, actually being a classmate of Bette Davis before being sent home when her professors thought she had no future as an actress. Despite missing two years of work to illness, she managed to make some headway as a fashion model and work on Broadway, but never with a huge amount of success. From there, she moved west to Hollywood, picking up small rolls in movies as well as appearances on radio. In 1940, she met Desi Arnaz while working on a movie together, hit it off off-camera and ended up eloping later that year. The two would continue to work in Hollywood and radio throughout the war years of 1941 through to 1945. Ball finally hit her biggest success with My Favorite Husband and the rest, as outlined yesterday, was history.
The Bottom Line: With a few real laugh out loud moments in the episode, besides the fact that it’s I Love Lucy, this is an easy one to recommend and enjoy. As to getting the episode, it is included with all the episodes from the first season on I Love Lucy: The First Season (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Lucy-Complete....94171617&sr=1-3). In addition, I Love Lucy: The Complete Series (http://www.amazon.com/I-Love-Lucy-Complete/dp/B000TGJ8B2/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1294171617&sr=1-1) includes this episode, plus the entire run of the show.
Next time, we return with another Tale of Tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
I Love Lucy: The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub
I Love Lucy: The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub
Originally broadcast on CBS on Monday, October 15, 1951 at 9 PM ET.
Plot: Lucy and Ethel want to go to a nightclub for Fred and Ethel’s wedding anniversary, but the boys want to go to the fights instead.
Analysis: Let me admit to a bias right away before we even get started – I love Lucy. Honestly, I think it is one of the best things ever produced by television and rarely a time goes by when I watch an episode and wonder why some television sitcoms cannot be as funny as this one was. It speaks very well to how well the writers of the show and all the actors involved really got it right on the first shot.
Lucy technically got its start on radio as My Favorite Husband, starring Lucille Ball as Lucy. Running from 1948 into the spring of 1951, the show was popular enough and Lucy was so good in her performances that a jump to television was logical. But, Lucy wanted two things before agreeing to make the jump – the writers on My Favorite Husband had to go with the show and she wanted her real-life husband, Desi Arnez, to play the role of her husband in the show. Initially, CBS objected, feeling that no one could credibly believe an All-American type girl like Lucy would be married to a Cuban singer. Making a long story short, Desi and Lucy used a vaudeville run in the summer of 1951 and its success to prove CBS wrong.
There was really nothing quite like Lucy on the air in 1951 for a number of reasons. First, most television shows were done live on two cameras at most. Lucy broke ground by using three cameras to capture all the action and be in position for reaction shots for the jokes. Second, to make the show look cleaner, the producers opted to shoot the shows on film over a live shoot. It was far more expensive (to the tune of 35,000 dollars an episode) to produce, but is part of the reason why Lucy looked cleaner and also is the reason why it has ended up lasting so long, holding up to modern standards.
As to this particular episode, it really is fantastic to see the dynamic between the four principals, how they play off each other and how true the situation rings, especially with Lucy’s plan to keep an eye on their husbands. As I said earlier, they got it right early, keeping it funny and believable.
The Bottom Line: It’s I Love Lucy, so I’m pretty sure everyone and their mother has seen this at least once by now and don’t mind watching it again. I don’t think I need to sell too many people on the show, but if you have never seen I Love Lucy, this is not a bad place to start at all.
Something to know in advance is, in order to approximate the original 1951 broadcast, you will need two DVDs: the first disc from I Love Lucy: The First Season (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Lucy-Complete....94171617&sr=1-3) and I Love Lucy: The Movie (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Lucy-Movie-Ot....4171617&sr=1-10). The reason for this is the original opening for the show is an extra on the movie disc while the episode itself is in the first season collection. The original opening, featuring sponsor Philip Morris, was cut from rebroadcasts since the original sponsor no longer applied. This was true of all the openings for the first three seasons of Lucy, but those original openings are included on the season sets. If you really love Lucy and want to save some time, another option is to get I Love Lucy: The Complete Series (http://www.amazon.com/I-Love-Lucy-Comple....94171617&sr=1-1) since that has everything included.
Next time, more laughs with Lucy.
Originally broadcast on CBS on Monday, October 15, 1951 at 9 PM ET.
Plot: Lucy and Ethel want to go to a nightclub for Fred and Ethel’s wedding anniversary, but the boys want to go to the fights instead.
Analysis: Let me admit to a bias right away before we even get started – I love Lucy. Honestly, I think it is one of the best things ever produced by television and rarely a time goes by when I watch an episode and wonder why some television sitcoms cannot be as funny as this one was. It speaks very well to how well the writers of the show and all the actors involved really got it right on the first shot.
Lucy technically got its start on radio as My Favorite Husband, starring Lucille Ball as Lucy. Running from 1948 into the spring of 1951, the show was popular enough and Lucy was so good in her performances that a jump to television was logical. But, Lucy wanted two things before agreeing to make the jump – the writers on My Favorite Husband had to go with the show and she wanted her real-life husband, Desi Arnez, to play the role of her husband in the show. Initially, CBS objected, feeling that no one could credibly believe an All-American type girl like Lucy would be married to a Cuban singer. Making a long story short, Desi and Lucy used a vaudeville run in the summer of 1951 and its success to prove CBS wrong.
There was really nothing quite like Lucy on the air in 1951 for a number of reasons. First, most television shows were done live on two cameras at most. Lucy broke ground by using three cameras to capture all the action and be in position for reaction shots for the jokes. Second, to make the show look cleaner, the producers opted to shoot the shows on film over a live shoot. It was far more expensive (to the tune of 35,000 dollars an episode) to produce, but is part of the reason why Lucy looked cleaner and also is the reason why it has ended up lasting so long, holding up to modern standards.
As to this particular episode, it really is fantastic to see the dynamic between the four principals, how they play off each other and how true the situation rings, especially with Lucy’s plan to keep an eye on their husbands. As I said earlier, they got it right early, keeping it funny and believable.
The Bottom Line: It’s I Love Lucy, so I’m pretty sure everyone and their mother has seen this at least once by now and don’t mind watching it again. I don’t think I need to sell too many people on the show, but if you have never seen I Love Lucy, this is not a bad place to start at all.
Something to know in advance is, in order to approximate the original 1951 broadcast, you will need two DVDs: the first disc from I Love Lucy: The First Season (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Lucy-Complete....94171617&sr=1-3) and I Love Lucy: The Movie (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Lucy-Movie-Ot....4171617&sr=1-10). The reason for this is the original opening for the show is an extra on the movie disc while the episode itself is in the first season collection. The original opening, featuring sponsor Philip Morris, was cut from rebroadcasts since the original sponsor no longer applied. This was true of all the openings for the first three seasons of Lucy, but those original openings are included on the season sets. If you really love Lucy and want to save some time, another option is to get I Love Lucy: The Complete Series (http://www.amazon.com/I-Love-Lucy-Comple....94171617&sr=1-1) since that has everything included.
Next time, more laughs with Lucy.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Cisco Kid: Ghost Story
The Cisco Kid: Ghost Story
Originally broadcast in first-run syndication on Monday, October 15, 1951.
Plot: Cisco and Pancho try to help the daughter of a rancher after the rancher is murdered under mysterious circumstances.
Analysis: Pretty plain vanilla Cisco episode here. We know who did the dirty deed early and it is just a case of waiting for Cisco and Pancho to figure it out. Oh, and the “Ghosts” in the title are basically the Western equivalent of Scooby-Doo and even that is a push.
The Bottom Line: This is what it is – another by-the-numbers Western for the young folks staring the Cisco Kid. The plot overall is nothing to challenge anyone’s brain and nothing that cannot be solved before dinner.
Ghost Story is among 20 episodes on The Cisco Kid: Collection Two (http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Kid-Collecti....86758713&sr=1-3). Prices are pretty good right now if you want to give the show a try.
Next time, a show I personally have been looking forward to since I started the blog.
Originally broadcast in first-run syndication on Monday, October 15, 1951.
Plot: Cisco and Pancho try to help the daughter of a rancher after the rancher is murdered under mysterious circumstances.
Analysis: Pretty plain vanilla Cisco episode here. We know who did the dirty deed early and it is just a case of waiting for Cisco and Pancho to figure it out. Oh, and the “Ghosts” in the title are basically the Western equivalent of Scooby-Doo and even that is a push.
The Bottom Line: This is what it is – another by-the-numbers Western for the young folks staring the Cisco Kid. The plot overall is nothing to challenge anyone’s brain and nothing that cannot be solved before dinner.
Ghost Story is among 20 episodes on The Cisco Kid: Collection Two (http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Kid-Collecti....86758713&sr=1-3). Prices are pretty good right now if you want to give the show a try.
Next time, a show I personally have been looking forward to since I started the blog.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Tales of Tomorrow: The Crystal Egg
And our first show of 2011 is...
Tales of Tomorrow: The Crystal Egg
Originally broadcast on ABC on Friday, October 12, 1951 at 9:30 PM
Plot: An academic professor becomes obsessed with what he sees inside of a crystal egg.
Analysis: Finally, we got a good one here! This is a very tight suspenseful script with one real good jump moment before the act break. True, it seems none of these sci-fi tales can have a happy ending, but where the story takes us is interesting, plus the staging rarely leaving one location and one character helps to heighten the feeling of claustrophobia and paranoia.
Also of note is the first “name” on Tales of Tomorrow so far, Thomas Mitchell. He has a lot of television work ahead of him that I will be covering, so I’ll leave just the bare thumbnail sketch here. Mitchell was a very talented actor who achieved the triple crown of acting, winning an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony. Trained as a Shakespearean actor, he began work in Hollywood in 1923. By this point, in 1951, he had racked up a series of memorable roles in Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Gone With the Wind and, in the role he may be best remembered for, as Uncle Billy in It’s A Wonderful Life. He already had a Best Supporting Actor Oscar under his belt by the time he was on Tales of Tomorrow, so this was no small ‘get’ for the show. His performance here as the professor whose whole life is brought to a standstill by the egg is wonderful to watch, seeing a smart cultured man just slowly going to pieces because he cannot solve the puzzle and when he finally does, no one believes him.
As to the show itself, like other Tales of Tomorrow, there are problems with shadowing and we actually have a fault in the film where we lose the picture in the middle of a commercial, but it returns in time for the second act of the show. Nothing that ruins the show, but these are still some small faults to be aware of.
The Bottom Line: Well, with a character actor of such pedigree in the title role and a story that I found interesting, even if the end was a bit predictable, how can I not recommend this one? Not the greatest show I have ever seen, to be sure, but consider this an advisory to check out if you can. I think you will find it well worth the effort.
The Crystal Egg is one of twelve episodes on Tales of Tomorrow: Collection Two (http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Tomorrow-Col....3581521 &sr=1-3). It’s not too expensive, generally going for between 10 and 15 dollars depending on where you look.
Next time, more Cisco Kid. And once again, Happy New Year to everyone!
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