The Lucy Show was Lucille Ball’s first foray back into television after I Love Lucy finished its legendary run. Debuting in the early 1960’s, The Lucy Show stars Lucille Ball alongside Vivian Vance. The basic premise is that Lucy Carmichael (Ball) is widow with a teenage daughter. Living with her is her best friend Vivian Bagley (Vance), a divorcee, and her son. The roommates find ways to argue over just about everything, although most of the time it’s about raising their children. This collection features all 30 first season episodes of this rarely seen in syndication show and is the shows only black and white season. Lucille Ball would win two Emmy’s for this series and it would spend all six of its short years in the Top Ten, laying itself to rest while still in the number two spot.
Many, many people love this show and most seem extremely happy that this is getting a proper release as, like I mentioned earlier, it has been rarely seen in syndication for whatever reason. Personally, this is my least favorite of Lucille Ball’s work. The fell of The Lucy Show is very scripted, and fares worse now then it likely did in its heyday. I wonder if the massive popularity of this show was simply due to the larger than life person the fiery redhead appeared to be. In all honesty, Vivian Vance is the star of the show here and, in all truthfulness, the only believable character. Some of the episodes are very funny though, despite their overtly scripted nature. The series debut “Lucy Waits Up For Chris” is pretty fun as are “Vivian Sues Lucy” and “Lucy and Viv learn Judo.” For the most part though, this is not Ball at her best. I was born just a few miles from Lucille Ball’s birthplace and have loved her work all my life, but this isn’t one of her best moments in my opinion. Perhaps the following season’s releases will reveal something much more interesting though. Having not seen this in its original run or in syndication, I can only hope.
The best part of this series is that, unlike many of the CBS television series DVD releases, it features some wonderful extras including a new interview with Jimmy Garret, who played Bagley’s son Jerry on the show. The vintage openings are fun as well as they take you back to what many would consider better days. Bios, guest cast lists, production notes, stills, cast commercials, and “flubs” round out the extras are all of them are worth at least a quick look.
Reviewed by Mark Fisher
