I Love Lucy

Everyone who has already commented has said just about all one can about this extraordinary accomplishment in TV entertainment. I would just like to add this. Some years ago, I saw a comic strip panel that showed the following. We see two gas pumps, one labeled Fred and the other Ethyl. That's it. Evokes a little chuckle. How many shows made the names of their characters so much part of our culture, that 50 years later, a pun like that would be immediately understood by young and old alike? You teenagers out there, do you remember Conklin and Boynton? Or Lily Ruskin and Hilda Crocker? How about Cosmo and Henrietta Topper? Seems to me it is just I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners that have stood the test of time and appealed to all generations. The Bach and Beethoven of TV. Real classics. I am so happy Lucy is finally available on DVD, with plenty of entertaining and fascinating extras.

To date, I have now seen every single episode from all 6 seasons of the "I Love Lucy" TV show from the 1950s. And, by far, I rate Season 4 as being the absolute best season of them all.

In fact, I'd quite confidently say that when it came to the show's superiority in the realm of its hilarious scriptwriting, Season 4 was, without question, the ultimate peak of Sit-Com perfection.

It was especially when the Ricardos and the Mertzes arrived in Hollywood, USA that this show's scriptwriters proved themselves to be at the absolute pinnacle of their craft by creating incomparably uproarious situations for Lucille Ball and her fellow cast members to indulge themselves in.

This review of mine is my respectful tribute to writers Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and Jess Oppenheimer who, as a team, surely must have worked like fiends behind the scenes as they wrote one memorable episode of priceless, 1950's comedy after another.

I would also like to take this moment to salute and pay honour to director William Asher who was the one responsible for knowing exactly how to handle the script-material given to him and then mould the actors perfectly into the characters which they inevitably became. Even today, 60 years later, the "I Love Lucy" show still remains, on all levels, one of the most unique and unforgettable programs in all of television history, bar none.

"I Love Lucy" is one of my faves guaranteed to elicit a constant belly laugh from me. Great way to start any day! Ball's comic timing in her scenes has NEVER been surpassed. Since I was born in 1945 this is also somewhat of an opportunity to see what life in America was like when I was a mischievous child. Today, of course, we know more than we want to about the real-life personality conflicts behind the scenes and Desi's constant insensitivity toward Lucille. Ms Ball was a great role model for young ladies, esp. in the industry, because of her managerial/financial/directorial brilliance. I don't think that the later "Lucy" sitcoms were even as good as the "I love Lucy" series.

Lucille Ball changed television forever when "I Love Lucy" hit the air in 1951. It featured a woman as a main character, which was rare back during that time and age. And the fact that the woman did not listen to her husband often was even more controversial. Everything the show was was rebellious. It was also extremely controversial because her husband was Cuban, and back in the '50's, barely anyone married other races, and if so, the subject was definitely not the premise for a television show.

So, through the ages, I Love Lucy has had a major impact on generations, and has not slipped into culture like many shows, but has been accepted into culture. Not to mention all the Lucy impersonators who have pageants each and every year. But the thing I remember most, is the famous "Eeeooowww!"

5/5 stars --

John Ulmer

The great female comedian Lucille Ball performed Lucy Ricardo who got herself in some strange situations in this comedy show that ran from 1951 to 1957.Desi Arnaz played her husband Ricky and the neighbors Fred and Ethel Mertz were played by William Frawley and Vivian Vance.I Love Lucy may be nearly fifty years old but the humor in it is timeless.It works no matter how old the show was.The actors were great and everything else was also great in this show.Everybody should watch I Love Lucy no matter how old or young you were.