I am gratified reading so many comments from so many like minded and like hearted people. When this show aired back in '86, I worked nights and was not able to watch it when it originally aired. I am very pleased to have recently discovered the entire series on here and have been binge watching it. We saw Lucy as a wife and as a mother in the past, but never as a grandmother. I know she had total creative control over the series, and I know some have said she was very tough to work for or work with. That being said, she kind of puts me in mind a little bit of my favorite aunt combined with one of my grandmothers, and a family friend of my Mom's. I feel so sad the show bit the dust after only 8 episodes. I feel sad that Lucy no doubt felt like she was put out to pasture. I guess in this modern world where it seems so large, so looming, so frightening and so cold, it's nice to come across a rather sweet family sitcom in Life With Lucy. May we never know life without her. Thanks for everything dear lady...thanks to your reruns, we can always have a Ball!
Gary Morton actually had creative control of the series. Lucy only agreed to do the series because of him. Gary convinced Lucy to do the show, despite the fact that she initially did not want to do another series. He went behind her back, and gathered together much of the "old team", including Gale Gordon, the director and numerous "behind the series" people, and then presented her with the package, which she reluctantly agreed to do. Gary is responsible for this debacle. Lucy only did the series because of his persuasion. BTW: Many "Life with Lucy" episodes were better than many "Here's Lucy" episodes. Many remarked on how Lucy agreed to anything asked of her, which was a total opposite of how she fought for changes to the script of previous series to make it better. Her heart was simply not in this series.
@@TheVerbalVolleyI'VE READ LIFE WITH LUCY ONLY AIRED FOR 8 EPISODES . NOW ON U-TUBE WE'VE WATCHED THE FIRST THREE EPISODES . GROWING UP WITH ALL 4 ? LUCY SERIES & WITH GALE GORDON IN SEVERAL PRIOR SERIES . THE 3 EPIDODES WE JUST REVIEWED DIDN'T SEEM WORTHY OF BEING CANCELLED SO QUICKLY. WE WOULD ONLY HAVE 5 MORE EPISODES TO WATCH IF INDEED ONLY 8 EXIST. WE FEEL THE SITCOM CAST WAS ACTUALLY BETTER THAN AVERAGE. EVEN GOOD FOR THAT MATTER. MAYBE BECAUSE WE'VE ALWAYS LOVED ❤️💕🙏 LUCY , WE , IN THE 3 EPISODES WE WATCHED , SMILED , LAUGHED , & ENJOYED THEM . WE HOPE TO WATCH THE 5 REMAINING EPISODES. OPINION ? ABC DIDN'T GIVE LIFE WITH LUCY EVEN A REMOTE OPPORTUNITY TO SUCCEED. SOME FEEL GOLDEN GIRLS WAS A MUCH MORE ENDEARING SERIES. SOME OF THEIR 'JOKES' BORDERED ON RAUNCHY . LIFE WITH LUCY WAS A CLEAN CUT FAMILY SITCOM. THAT'S OUR PERSONAL OPINION. THE SERIES COULD / SHOULD ? HAVE BEEN BEEN GIVEN MORE OF A CHANCE TO SUCCEED. WE ENJOYED WHAT WE WATCHED IN 3 OF THE EPISODES, MAYBE WE WERE THE ONLY ONES ? . 🙏🙏RIP LUCILLE BALL 🙏🙏❤️💕 RWG 🙏🙏❤️💕 AMEN 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 THANK YOU FOR COUNTLESS LAUGHS & EVEN TEAR'S. YES , WE STILL LOVE YOU LUCY .💕❤️❤️💕😇😇🤗🤗❤️❤️💕💕😇😇🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
This was too family friendly for the 80s, I love Lucille Ball and her style of comedy but the 1980s was for edgier humor and this unfortunately didn't fit the bill even though it's a great sitcom
If only they had allowed this series to continue we would have had the swan song of the exceptional comedy team of Lucille Ball , Gale Gordon and their brilliant writers Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh .Each episode was the same gentle laugh riot we saw and loved in I love Lucy and the others.And Lucille Ball had her beloved persona in tact here ,
You know, I reckon this show was developing momentum by now. The situation is simple but well elaborated. The one-off support is good and gets a decent share of laughs. It is not just a backdrop for Lucy, and even in the courtroom scene the thieving woman and judge hold their own without depriving Gale and Lucy of their centrality. Shame the ADD television audience had already drifted away, bc there is nothing for Ms Ball to be ashamed of in her swansong, though I never thought I would see Gale doing more of the physical schticks.
One of the great features of Lucy shows is their excellent use of character actors in small parts. And the command she has not to break character in her entrances when the audience goes wild.
I see this series as brave and endearing. Lucy had lost her #1 co-star Vivian Vance, as well as Desi Arnaz, but she kept it going. This series is all about survival.
This concept is pretty close to a golden girls episode, same little girl too. I wonder if it was a tribute to Lucille. The old woman kinda reminds me of Freda Claxton but that may be me stretching a bit much. Lucy is always awesome.
@@JS-wi5lf Only ONE episode? They showed her ONE time or did they recast? I hope the latter is the case because a show that long running and you only show the lead character's sister ONE TIME out of 200+ episodes is pretty naive.
I never understand why Life with Lucy never made it I remember watching it during it's run I thought it was good I think it failed because they put it up against the facts of life
I don't know why they scrapped this series midway...it's like nostalgic trip down memory lane...with all the old mannerisms and charm of the well loved partners....Lucy and Gale Gordon ..I love watching them staying true to their forms even as they grew old
And grow old gracefully at that. Had this show been given a proper chance it could have lasted a few seasons anyway. Maybe not 6 like Here's Lucy, but likely 3. It would have kept Lucille Ball feeling vital and wanted. The cancellation of it so early led to understandable depression that took her before her time in 1989. They cancel this great show, but left on the Golden Girls which I always felt was one-dimensional garbage, and I'm pretty sure Lucy did too. That had to have hurt her, I'm sure of it.
Another great episode. Am wondering why they didn't have real life retired Judge Joseph Wapner do a cameo as himself since he was the judge on The People's Court at that time - or maybe he was asked and his fee would have been above the show's budget? This was one episode that showed it's sometimes helpful to have a family member that's a law student and therefore able to find a loophole to save the day. Am wondering if the law regarding recission of contracts due to error (regarding perceived value of item) is real and is enforced in all 50 states? I would have thought someone like Mrs. Loomis could have a valid defense of finders keepers, losers weepers - she seemed to think she had when she was asking an extortionate amount to return the teddy bear - she was definitely an opportunist just like the woman who tried to pass off a stuffed bunny for a stuffed teddy bear.
Life with Lucy mustn't have been too bad because one of the Golden Girls writers ripped off the premise of this episode apparently. They even hired Jenny Lewis!
One episode of this show being good to retread in another show doesn't make up for everything else wrong with it. Hypothetically speaking even something overall bad can have good qualities/elements in it. That being said, I didn't find this show to be as bad as people made it out to be, but it did have its problems that shouldn't have been there.
You can see the glimmers of a decent show in here. It’s too bad that the casting wasn’t better. The parents and son weren’t good - the dad was wimpy and the mom yelled her lines and the son was too fake. Jenny Lewis was good but she needed new parents and brother. And It would have been better if Gale’s character didn’t live with them and was recurring rather than a regular. The whole “two elderly people running a hardware store” part of the show didn’t work.
This screams golden girls without the good writing. You've got the Teddy Bear (Fernando on golden girls) the mean lady on it played by Denna Diedrich acts like freida claxton. You've got deena who played Gloria the sister of Dorothy in Golden girls and the child actress playing Lucy's granddaughter played Daisy on golden girls and she stole Fernando the bear.
5:06 loomis: thank you wtach it buster? is that anyway to talk first she was like thank you then shes yells at him me: here i help you loomis: thank you watch it buster me: fine You do it then
This was the era of Cheers, Newhart, The Golden Girls, Family Ties, and The Cosby Show. Sitcoms had gone through a bit of a renaissance since Cosby debuted two season earlier. Life with Lucy was written and performed like a family comedy from the 1950s/1960s. The performances are almost caricatures of those times. Lucy wanted to do the same stuff she’d always done, but, times had long-changed. Maybe if Lucy had done a show more similar in vein to The Golden Girls, it may have had moderate success.
@@FomorViceroy If Lucy played a more glamourous role or even that on a Golden Girls guest appearance... I think actually she and Betty White were friends in real life... but that would have been amazing... Lucy and Sophia even maybe talking...or with Bea Arthur even....or Blanche somehow
2 роки тому+1
@@FomorViceroy these are the same writers who wrote for 'Alice' and that show had just ended a year prior.
@@user-ou2wk7cg1g That's actually not true. It's no different from Gimme a Break, Charles in Charge, etc. We were hoping Lucille might update her character more, but she stuck with what she knew best, and the writers she knew best. It was just on the wrong network.
must have held a massive grudge against Lucille Ball when they canceled such a sweet ,humourous show like this and continued with "The love boat" and " The golden girls " season after boring season. another factor against it may have been the writing ,the public liked their Lucy to triumph over all setbacks ,but in this series she is defeated by circumstances ,and looking frail and old added to the impression
Golden Girls continues to be hugely popular to this day. The Love Boat is another story. Was that actually on in the '80s? It seems like it started earlier than that. That show was TOTALLY FORGETTABLE!
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 am gratified reading so many comments from so many like minded and like hearted people. When this show aired back in '86, I worked nights and was not able to watch it when it originally aired. I am very pleased to have recently discovered the entire series on here and have been binge watching it. We saw Lucy as a wife and as a mother in the past, but never as a grandmother. I know she had total creative control over the series, and I know some have said she was very tough to work for or work with. That being said, she kind of puts me in mind a little bit of my favorite aunt combined with one of my grandmothers, and a family friend of my Mom's. I feel so sad the show bit the dust after only 8 episodes. I feel sad that Lucy no doubt felt like she was put out to pasture. I guess in this modern world where it seems so large, so looming, so frightening and so cold, it's nice to come across a rather sweet family sitcom in Life With Lucy. May we never know life without her. Thanks for everything dear lady...thanks to your reruns, we can always have a Ball!
Gary Morton actually had creative control of the series. Lucy only agreed to do the series because of him. Gary convinced Lucy to do the show, despite the fact that she initially did not want to do another series. He went behind her back, and gathered together much of the "old team", including Gale Gordon, the director and numerous "behind the series" people, and then presented her with the package, which she reluctantly agreed to do. Gary is responsible for this debacle. Lucy only did the series because of his persuasion. BTW: Many "Life with Lucy" episodes were better than many "Here's Lucy" episodes. Many remarked on how Lucy agreed to anything asked of her, which was a total opposite of how she fought for changes to the script of previous series to make it better. Her heart was simply not in this series.
@@TheVerbalVolleyI'VE READ LIFE WITH LUCY ONLY AIRED FOR 8 EPISODES . NOW ON U-TUBE WE'VE WATCHED THE FIRST THREE EPISODES . GROWING UP WITH ALL 4 ? LUCY SERIES & WITH GALE GORDON IN SEVERAL PRIOR SERIES . THE 3 EPIDODES WE JUST REVIEWED DIDN'T SEEM WORTHY OF BEING CANCELLED SO QUICKLY. WE WOULD ONLY HAVE 5 MORE EPISODES TO WATCH IF INDEED ONLY 8 EXIST. WE FEEL THE SITCOM CAST WAS ACTUALLY BETTER THAN AVERAGE. EVEN GOOD FOR THAT MATTER. MAYBE BECAUSE WE'VE ALWAYS LOVED ❤️💕🙏 LUCY , WE , IN THE 3 EPISODES WE WATCHED , SMILED , LAUGHED , & ENJOYED THEM . WE HOPE TO WATCH THE 5 REMAINING EPISODES. OPINION ? ABC DIDN'T GIVE LIFE WITH LUCY EVEN A REMOTE OPPORTUNITY TO SUCCEED. SOME FEEL GOLDEN GIRLS WAS A MUCH MORE ENDEARING SERIES. SOME OF THEIR 'JOKES' BORDERED ON RAUNCHY . LIFE WITH LUCY WAS A CLEAN CUT FAMILY SITCOM. THAT'S OUR PERSONAL OPINION. THE SERIES COULD / SHOULD ? HAVE BEEN BEEN GIVEN MORE OF A CHANCE TO SUCCEED. WE ENJOYED WHAT WE WATCHED IN 3 OF THE EPISODES, MAYBE WE WERE THE ONLY ONES ? . 🙏🙏RIP LUCILLE BALL 🙏🙏❤️💕 RWG 🙏🙏❤️💕 AMEN 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 THANK YOU FOR COUNTLESS LAUGHS & EVEN TEAR'S. YES , WE STILL LOVE YOU LUCY .💕❤️❤️💕😇😇🤗🤗❤️❤️💕💕😇😇🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I love Larry Anderson! He brought whatever realism this show needed. His talk with the little boy was heart warming.
I love how the audience always gave her a well deserved applause. She’s missed & always will be. 😔
Who?
This reminds me of The Lucy Show when she went to court against Mr. Mooney. And she's still got it.
Why this show was not a success ? Nothing to be ashamed of. A piece of good work.
cringy for 80s taste where were u dear?
@@larrysmith2123This show was the only show in the 80's that was not cringy.
This was too family friendly for the 80s, I love Lucille Ball and her style of comedy but the 1980s was for edgier humor and this unfortunately didn't fit the bill even though it's a great sitcom
Lucy still had it. I think her "serious" moments were excellent.
If only they had allowed this series to continue we would have had the swan song of the exceptional comedy team of Lucille Ball , Gale Gordon and their brilliant writers Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh .Each episode was the same gentle laugh riot we saw and loved in I love Lucy and the others.And Lucille Ball had her beloved persona in tact here ,
We still LOVE 💕 LUCY ❤️ And always will rip 🙏🕯️ beautiful lady 💞 of comedy ❤️ this is a great show that the whole family can watch rip GALE 🙏🕯️
You know, I reckon this show was developing momentum by now. The situation is simple but well elaborated. The one-off support is good and gets a decent share of laughs. It is not just a backdrop for Lucy, and even in the courtroom scene the thieving woman and judge hold their own without depriving Gale and Lucy of their centrality. Shame the ADD television audience had already drifted away, bc there is nothing for Ms Ball to be ashamed of in her swansong, though I never thought I would see Gale doing more of the physical schticks.
One of the great features of Lucy shows is their excellent use of character actors in small parts. And the command she has not to break character in her entrances when the audience goes wild.
I see this series as brave and endearing. Lucy had lost her #1 co-star Vivian Vance, as well as Desi Arnaz, but she kept it going. This series is all about survival.
This concept is pretty close to a golden girls episode, same little girl too. I wonder if it was a tribute to Lucille. The old woman kinda reminds me of Freda Claxton but that may be me stretching a bit much. Lucy is always awesome.
I actually thought of the Freida Claxton character while watching this, too!
The actress played Dorothy’s sister in one GG episode.
@@JS-wi5lf Only ONE episode? They showed her ONE time or did they recast? I hope the latter is the case because a show that long running and you only show the lead character's sister ONE TIME out of 200+ episodes is pretty naive.
I never understand why Life with Lucy never made it I remember watching it during it's run I thought it was good I think it failed because they put it up against the facts of life
I don't know why they scrapped this series midway...it's like nostalgic trip down memory lane...with all the old mannerisms and charm of the well loved partners....Lucy and Gale Gordon ..I love watching them staying true to their forms even as they grew old
And grow old gracefully at that. Had this show been given a proper chance it could have lasted a few seasons anyway. Maybe not 6 like Here's Lucy, but likely 3. It would have kept Lucille Ball feeling vital and wanted. The cancellation of it so early led to understandable depression that took her before her time in 1989. They cancel this great show, but left on the Golden Girls which I always felt was one-dimensional garbage, and I'm pretty sure Lucy did too. That had to have hurt her, I'm sure of it.
I loved the way Lucy would deliver her lines ,each with just the perfect tone and expression
that more than made up for her lack of physical flexibility and alacrity that she had earlier
cringy for 80s time dear
Really ❤❤love life with lucy luccille ball ❤️
Another great episode. Am wondering why they didn't have real life retired Judge Joseph Wapner do a cameo as himself since he was the judge on The People's Court at that time - or maybe he was asked and his fee would have been above the show's budget? This was one episode that showed it's sometimes helpful to have a family member that's a law student and therefore able to find a loophole to save the day. Am wondering if the law regarding recission of contracts due to error (regarding perceived value of item) is real and is enforced in all 50 states? I would have thought someone like Mrs. Loomis could have a valid defense of finders keepers, losers weepers - she seemed to think she had when she was asking an extortionate amount to return the teddy bear - she was definitely an opportunist just like the woman who tried to pass off a stuffed bunny for a stuffed teddy bear.
Life with Lucy mustn't have been too bad because one of the Golden Girls writers ripped off the premise of this episode apparently. They even hired Jenny Lewis!
Golden Girls stole plots and actors from Mamas Family too 😅 they all wrote good versions though ❤
One episode of this show being good to retread in another show doesn't make up for everything else wrong with it. Hypothetically speaking even something overall bad can have good qualities/elements in it. That being said, I didn't find this show to be as bad as people made it out to be, but it did have its problems that shouldn't have been there.
You can see the glimmers of a decent show in here. It’s too bad that the casting wasn’t better. The parents and son weren’t good - the dad was wimpy and the mom yelled her lines and the son was too fake. Jenny Lewis was good but she needed new parents and brother. And It would have been better if Gale’s character didn’t live with them and was recurring rather than a regular. The whole “two elderly people running a hardware store” part of the show didn’t work.
why does the judge hate lucy
This screams golden girls without the good writing. You've got the Teddy Bear (Fernando on golden girls) the mean lady on it played by Denna Diedrich acts like freida claxton. You've got deena who played Gloria the sister of Dorothy in Golden girls and the child actress playing Lucy's granddaughter played Daisy on golden girls and she stole Fernando the bear.
Yes! I appreciate the sentiment though around the family. But the writers didn’t know how to write for them like they did Lucy and Gale.
Why are they all yelling?
what are you talking about?
This was before microphones were invented
Why does the mom SHOUT her lines in every episode? Does she think it’s a live Broadway show?
She's the weakest link all right, overplays constantly. Wound up as some kind of psychiatric counselor for actors in the theater at San Diego.
THE MOM WAS ' CUTE' FUNNY AND QUITE ATTRACTIVE . GALE GORDON IS ALWAYS FUNNY. ..... JUST SAYING 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
2 YEARS LATE SQUAD WHERE YOU AT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
5:06 loomis: thank you wtach it buster?
is that anyway to talk first she was like thank you then shes yells at him
me: here i help you
loomis: thank you watch it buster
me: fine You do it then
I liked this show don't know why so many didnt
This isn't any worse than any other sitcom of the time, and certainly as good as Frends. Why has it been so panned?
This was the era of Cheers, Newhart, The Golden Girls, Family Ties, and The Cosby Show. Sitcoms had gone through a bit of a renaissance since Cosby debuted two season earlier. Life with Lucy was written and performed like a family comedy from the 1950s/1960s. The performances are almost caricatures of those times.
Lucy wanted to do the same stuff she’d always done, but, times had long-changed. Maybe if Lucy had done a show more similar in vein to The Golden Girls, it may have had moderate success.
@@FomorViceroy If Lucy played a more glamourous role or even that on a Golden Girls guest appearance... I think actually she and Betty White were friends in real life... but that would have been amazing... Lucy and Sophia even maybe talking...or with Bea Arthur even....or Blanche somehow
@@FomorViceroy these are the same writers who wrote for 'Alice' and that show had just ended a year prior.
@@user-ou2wk7cg1g That's actually not true. It's no different from Gimme a Break, Charles in Charge, etc. We were hoping Lucille might update her character more, but she stuck with what she knew best, and the writers she knew best. It was just on the wrong network.
@@user-ou2wk7cg1g I was thinking the same thing!
What happened with so help you God? Is that onjy in an emergency?
10:43a.m. 9/27/2024
must have held a massive grudge against Lucille Ball when they canceled such a sweet ,humourous show like this and continued with "The love boat" and " The golden girls " season after boring season.
another factor against it may have been the writing ,the public liked their Lucy to triumph over all setbacks ,but in this series she is defeated by circumstances ,and looking frail and old added to the impression
Golden Girls continues to be hugely popular to this day. The Love Boat is another story. Was that actually on in the '80s? It seems like it started earlier than that. That show was TOTALLY FORGETTABLE!
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 this show flopped because of all of the other cast members aside from Lucy and Gale. They’re not very good 😕
Exactly.
I think they used that set later for The Bob Newhart Show. It looks like the inn in Vermont. Anyone else see the resemblance?
Lucy was the Greatest. RIP
But, this is totally beneath her.
Lucy was looking too much like a clown with the makeup.
The family was so bad.
is this supposed to be funny?
If it was they failed miserably
@@renesagahon4477 no it is funny 🙄
Dude I think it is funny and it is! 🙄
Lucille Ball must have regretted doing this sitcom it’s so beneath her previous work
WE LOVE LUCY FOR ALL THE JOY SHE GAVE US SINCE 1951.❤❤🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏RIP 🙏🙏 LUCY
@@tommyrregina1227 of course. And from even before that. Life with Lucy was Gary Morton’s fault
cringy for 80s
No diversity in this neighborhood...