Watch previews, find out ways to watch, go behind the scenes, and more of Season 1 Episode 11 of the SHOWTIME Original Series Shameless. Best Episode Ever # 4. I Love Lucy'The release of a few classic television series on Blu- ray next month has me going old school for Best Episode Ever. I knew it was unlikely that the first season of “I Love Lucy” would contain its Best Episode Ever, although “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” is a serious contender. However, the first season certainly gave me a sense of how “I Love Lucy” operated in order to single out its best example. It would be amusing throughout, but it wouldn’t really explode until Lucille Ball did her piece de resistance of the week. When it comes to the Best Episode Ever, there’s a reason “Job Switching” always shows up in “Lucy” montages. It’s not because the candy conveyor belt is her greatest set piece. That would be the Vitameatavegamen commercial. Ricky (Desi Arnaz) complains that Lucy wouldn’t spend so much money if she had to work for it. Lucy (Ball) claims working isn’t so hard. As all sitcoms, neigh all comedies dictate, they make a bet and Lucy goes to work while Ricky stays home to take care of the house. Fred (William Frawley) and Ethel (Vivian Vance) get in on the action too, and we have a two pronged story where Ricky and Fred screw up basic housework, and Lucy and Ethel get in way over their heads at a candy factory. The setup is a little funnier than the usual “I Love Lucy” episode, or at least more adorable. At breakfast, Lucy plays the oblivious husband role, reading the newspaper and ignoring Ricky. She does catch a flying piece of toast, because I guess she couldn’t contain herself from doing something physically genius. It turns out Ricky couldn’t even cook breakfast and lied about getting it from a drug store. Poor Fred wants a kiss before Ethel leaves for work. Aww. The employment agency Lucy and Ethel go to is like a Vaudeville act. Trying to bluff their way into a job, any job, becomes a sort of “Who’s on First?” routine with the employment agent. He asks, “What do you do?” Lucy asks, “What jobs do you have?” Over and over until he finally suggests the women go first, when Lucy impeccably replies, “What do you do?” She reversed the conversation for the joke, not for the plot. When trying to describe her skills, she mimes typing, and both Lucy and Ethel make funny faces at the list of jobs available. By the way, the candy factory is called Kramer’s Candy Kitchen, but how much do you want to be they alliterate and spell the middle word with a K too? Lucy Hale, Actress: Pretty Little Liars. Lucy Hale is an American actress and singer. She was born Karen Lucille Hale in Memphis, Tennessee, to Julia (Caperton. I Love Lucy Show Broadcast History: Monday Nights from 9:00 to 9:30 PM on CBS during the entire series original run I Love Lucy Cast Lucille Ball. Life with Lucy: The Last Episode Aired 25 Years Ago Today. Lucy Heartfilia ( And as was the custom of the time, the I Love Lucy star was barely allowed to even look like she was carrying a child. Watch Lucy Does a TV Commercial online. Stream I Love Lucy season 1, episode 30 instantly. Is that a KKK joke in the ? Or did they just mean Cramer’s Candy Citchen? We never see a sign. I bet a writer hurriedly thought of a generic candy store name without even realizing the implications. Before we get there though, we get some jokes about Ricky and Fred ironing, and Ricky pulls out a giant, flat silk stocking prop to indicate his oblivious laundry skills. Lucille Ball was tall, but that leg- shaped prop was too big to ever be on any woman’s leg. The best sequence at the factory isn’t even the famous conveyor belt scene. Lucy works dipping chocolate, and this sequence is pure Lucille Ball creating all the comedy herself, whereas the conveyor belt has her reacting to something. Ball hams it up while splashing around in chocolate, dealing with an itch, and chasing a fly around the room which is really only a buzzing sound effect. She’s doing all the work. Back home, Ricky and Fred have some trouble in the kitchen. Fred’s botched cake is a funny prop, but Ricky’s cooking leads to chickens falling from the ceiling. Chickens are automatically funny, but when they start washing them in the kitchen sink, that’s pretty genius. Pretty soon, the rice overflows and Ricky is scooping it up with a broom. It’s not often we got to see the boys of “I Love Lucy” in comedic action and they’re damn good at it too. Then comes the conveyor belt scene which you’ve surely seen in every montage. When the conveyor belt gets too fast, Lucy and Ethel start eating candies to prevent any from going through unwrapped. It’s a cute bit and a fine way to climax the episode, but I was more impressed by the chocolate dipping and the kitchen explosion, although maybe just because I hadn’t seen those scenes over and over again. The episodes look at sharp and clear as they ever did on television, which is actually an even bigger feat because in the . It was designed for 1. HDTVs. The original Phillip Morris animated openings are pretty amazing to watch too, although you’ll get sick of them after an episode or two. Yes, they used to sell cigarettes on TV and claim that their cigarettes were healthier than the rest. Ball and Arnaz probably had no choice but to endorse them, and the new Blu- rays are very clear that these are presented in historical context only, not to condone smoking. There are already so many bonus features on “I Love Lucy” Ultimate Season 1 that I wonder if they’ll have any more for Season 2. Of course, Season 2 will come with the best bonus feature of all: “Job Switching,” the Best Episode Ever. Fun Facts About . But a combination of innovative filming techniques, the dogged perfectionism of star Lucille Ball, top- notch writing, the “can do” attitude of the production staff, and the business savvy of Desi Arnaz, I Love Lucy topped the Nielsen ratings for four out of its six seasons and picked up a handful of Emmys along the way. And even though the show’s main stars couldn’t stay married to one another (Lucy and Desi divorced in 1. As Desi would proclaim until his dying day, “I Love Lucy was never just a title.”1. CBS DIDN’T THINK AMERICANS WOULD BUY THAT LUCY WAS MARRIED TO A “FOREIGN” MAN. When CBS approached Lucille Ball with the offer of turning her popular radio show My Favorite Husband into a television show, she was agreeable with one condition: that her real- life husband, Desi Arnaz, would be cast in the role of her spouse (played on the radio by Richard Denning). The network balked—there was no way that American viewers would accept average housewife Liz Cooper (her character’s name on the radio series) being married to a “foreign” man with an indecipherable accent. Never mind the fact that Lucy and Desi had been married more than a decade; such a “mixed” marriage was unbelievable. LUCY AND DESI HAD TO TAKE THEIR SHOW ON THE ROAD TO CONVINCE THE NETWORK BRASS. Arnaz had a successful career touring the country with his rhumba band, which was one of the reasons Lucille wanted him to get cast as her TV husband—to keep him off the road and close to home. In an effort to show the network (and potential sponsors) that they could work together as a comedy team, they crafted a sort of vaudevillian skit that was inserted into the middle of performances by the Desi Arnaz Orchestra during a tour in the summer of 1. The audiences roared over Lucille’s antics and her interaction with Desi as she interrupted his band’s concert confusedly, cello in hand, thinking she had an audition scheduled. The “Professor” skit not only convinced the network powers that be that the couple could, in fact, be convincing as husband and wife—it also was such a hit that it was incorporated into episode six of I Love Lucy’s first season. THE SHOW BROKE GROUND IN SEVERAL WAYS, SIMPLY BECAUSE THE ARNAZES WOULDN’T MOVE TO NEW YORK. Lucille and Desi wanted to work in Los Angeles, near their home and their new baby daughter Lucie. But in 1. 95. 1 the majority of television shows were broadcast from New York, and that’s where sponsor Philip Morris wanted their show to originate as well. In those days the U. S. As a result, such shows were preserved on kinescopes (a movie camera aimed at a TV monitor that recorded the show in negligible quality) and shipped to distant stations. Philip Morris objected to I Love Lucy being performed in California and the kinescopes sent to New York; their biggest cigarette market was up and down the east coast and they wanted the best TV picture quality for that area. Desi Arnaz suggested that the show be filmed with three cameras, like a stage play, which would provide the same quality picture for every market. But multi- cameras had never been used on a situation comedy before, and there were many obstacles involved, not the least of which was accommodating a live studio audience (Desi knew that Lucille worked best when she got immediate audience feedback). Desi hired legendary cinematographer Karl Freund to help solve the dilemma, and along with writer- producer Jess Oppenheimer and director Marc Daniels, they built a set, and the necessary filming equipment was strategically placed. CBS balked at the additional expense involved in this undertaking, so Arnaz struck a deal: he and Lucille would take a large cut in their salaries and their company, Desilu Productions, would retain ownership of the films in exchange. The enduring high quality of the 3. I Love Lucy became so popular in rerun syndication, and Desilu’s 1. Lucille and Desi the first millionaire TV stars. ONLY LUCY WAS ALLOWED TO MAKE FUN OF RICKY’S FRACTURED ENGLISH. The writers had allowed other characters to make remarks, but in each case the “joke” was met with stony silence from the studio audience. For some reason, it seemed cruel when anyone other than Lucy “mucked” Ricky’s English. SMOKING WAS REQUIRED ON- CAMERA. I Love Lucy almost never made it to the air because CBS had trouble securing a sponsor for the show. Finally tobacco giant Philip Morris signed on at the 1. As a result, lots of smoking was featured in each episode, and the name “Philip Morris” was worked into the dialogue whenever plausible. There was, however, one small problem: Lucille Ball was a Chesterfield girl. She eventually overcame this little hurdle by having a stagehand stuff any on- camera Philip Morris packs full of Chesterfield cigarettes. WILLIAM FRAWLEY WAS FAR FROM THE FIRST CHOICE TO PLAY FRED MERTZ. Lucille Ball was eager to have Gale Gordon, whom she’d worked with on her My Favorite Husband radio show, play crusty neighbor and landlord Fred Mertz. But Gordon, who had a steady gig at the time on the Our Miss Brooks radio program, asked for more money than Desilu had to offer. Character actor William Frawley knew Ball in passing (they’d met back in the 1. TV show in the trade papers to inquire if there might be a part for him. CBS and Philip Morris were wary of hiring Frawley, who had a reputation for being a heavy drinker. But Arnaz (no stranger to the bottle himself) thought that Frawley was just curmudgeonly enough to bring Fred Mertz to life. He met Frawley for lunch at Nickodell’s on Melrose Avenue and offered him the role with the proviso that if he missed work for any reason other than legitimate illness, he’d be written out of the show. DORIS ZIFFEL WAS ALMOST ETHEL MERTZ. Lucille had worked with Bea Benaderet in radio and wanted her to play Ethel Mertz. But Benaderet had just signed on to play Blanche Morton on the TV version of The Burns and Allen Show and was unavailable. Barbara Pepper was a personal friend of Ball’s, and the two had worked in films together, so she was the next serious consideration for the role. Pepper was the right age and body type to play Ethel, but she was also a known alcoholic and the network nixed her after Frawley was hired; two heavy drinkers in the main cast was too risky. I Love Lucy had already gone into early rehearsals by the time director Marc Daniels saw Vivian Vance performing in a play at the La Jolla Playhouse and recommended her to Arnaz. Pepper did play background characters on several I Love Lucy episodes and would go on to land the role of Doris Ziffel on Green Acres. THE “MERTZES” DESPISED ONE ANOTHER OFF- CAMERA. Vivian Vance was 2. TV husband and resented having such an “old poop” play her spouse. Frawley responded in kind, referring to her variously as “that sack of doorknobs” or just plain “b*tch.” But all that animosity was strictly behind the scenes and known mostly only to the series’ writers and directors. Frawley and Vance were savvy enough to not jeopardize their jobs on TV’s most successful show by openly airing their mutual hostility. Even co- workers like Keith Thibodeaux (Little Ricky, a. Richard Keith) and Roy Rowan (the show’s announcer), who were on the set daily, had no idea that things were less than cuddly between the two actors until years after I Love Lucy ceased production. DESI ARNAZ HAD LIFTS IN HIS SHOES (AND HIS LOVESEAT). Arnaz listed his height as 5’1. Lucille Ball stood 5’7” in her stocking feet, and when she wore heels she seemed to tower over her husband. Desi Arnaz Jr. A dual- purpose, subtle additional cushion (undetectable by the viewing audience) was added to the Ricardo’s loveseat so that Ricky would be taller than Lucy while seated, and would also give him the extra boost needed to gracefully rise from a sitting position up onto his elevator shoes. ARNAZ FLATLY REJECTED A SCENE THAT INVOLVED RICKY CHEATING ON HIS TAXES. Desi was 1. 7 years old when Fulgencio Batista overthrew the Cuban government and the Arnaz family fled to Miami with little more than the clothes they were wearing. The family lived in a warehouse with some other refugees and Desi got a job cleaning birdcages for a man whole sold canaries to pet stores. As he said during his acceptance speech on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town in 1. From cleaning canary cages to this night in New York is a long ways. And I don’t think there’s any other country in the world that could give you that opportunity.” So when a scene in original script in the episode “Lucy Tells the Truth” called for Ricky to fudge some numbers on his income tax return, Arnaz refused to play it and asked the writers to remove it. He didn’t want the audience to think that Ricky would cheat the U. S. THE CANDY LADY WAS A BIG DIPPER IN REAL LIFE. The previous scene featured Lucy hand- dipping chocolates with a real- life dipper that stage manager Herb Browar found at See’s Candies on Santa Monica Boulevard. Amanda Milligan had never seen I Love Lucy (she watched wrestling on Monday nights), but Browar hired her anyway; he thought her deadpan expression would make her the perfect straight woman for Lucille to react to. During rehearsals Lucille was worried that the scene just wasn’t going to be funny on film because Milligan seemed hesitant to hit her in the face as the script specified. When the cameras were rolling, Milligan hauled off and smacked Lucille so hard that Ball feared her nose had been broken. Despite her pain and ringing ears Ball didn’t call for a “cut” because she did not want to have to do another take! During a break in filming Lucille asked Milligan “So, how do you like working in show business?” An unsmiling Milligan, who’d spent eight hours per day for the past 3. I’ve never been so bored in my life.”1. LUCILLE WAS TOO STRESSED TO APPRECIATE THE HUMOR IN ONE OF HER MOST POPULAR EPISODES. It wasn’t until “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” was voted tops in many viewer polls over the years that she acknowledged that it was a funny episode. I love Lucy Vitameatavegamin clip. I love Lucy Vitameatavegamin clip. Unsubscribe from Deila Taylor? Please try again later.
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September 2017
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