Casting her as a ditzy older person in a sweatsuit with headphones (I know it’s the 80s) was just playing it safe. The typical living room environment was very overused in 80s sitcoms. I don’t think the writers were too philosophical regarding the storylines; they probably knew this wasn’t going to last too long so they just delivered what was expected. Lucy played the same character in all her shows. Nothing changed.

To think that if Lucy were around today she could have just done a podcast in her retirement. Imagine the guests she’d have!

Not Barbara Walters, its Joan Rivers ,and after this last lucy show , she was honoured by the highest award....the Kennedy centre honours which proved to her once and for all ,that the world loved her

Since you didn't know who Mr. Whipple was [gasp], it's not surprising you didn't mention the neighbor lady (actress Dena Dietrich) in Episode 7 with the rabbit/bear was quite well-known throughout the entire 1970s for playing "Mother Nature" in the famous Chiffon Margarine commercials where she exclaims, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature." In the 80s she played Dorothy's sister on The Golden Girls. Dietrich died in 2020 at 91 years old. 😁

I'm pretty sure that studio audience had someone pushing everyone into that out of hand round of applause.

Dustin, you’re a gem! What a brilliant, insightful, cerebral and moving analysis of our beloved Lucille Ball’s last TV series. Thank you.

I can't with the Simpson's Lucy and that smoker's stage whisper

One thing I think hampered Life With Lucy’s chances at being successful was Lucy’s age and how age couldn’t do physical comedy the same way she could during I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show.

Speaking as someone who was an adult when this show aired, I can say that her contemporaries made better decisions late in their careers. Andy Griffith didn’t try to continue the Andy Taylor character. Instead he took a different twist in 1986 with the debut of “Matlock”. A few years later Dick Van Dyke came back to television, not as a continuation of Rob Petrie, but in the successful series, “Diagnosis Murder”. In 1986, even “The Great One”, aka Jackie Gleason, said Lucy should have done something different and not reprise her Lucy character. I realize that it seemingly has become increasingly difficult to look objectively at Lucille Ball’s post-“I Love Lucy” television work. However I feel that the lack of objectivity in some respects diminishes her genius. The fact of the matter is that Lucille’s unwillingness to evolve as an artist, ultimately proved detrimental to her career. This is particularly perplexing when you consider that other television female icons like Carol Burnett and Mary Tyler Moore found critical acclaim after their groundbreaking series ended. Ironically, neither of those women had any significant experience in film prior to television. Lucille Ball on the other hand, appeared in more than 75 movies, long before “I Love Lucy”. Ironically it seems as though when Lucille found the “Lucy” character she became unwilling or incapable of inhabiting any other character. It’s sad really, because while she was never Katherine Hepburn, she could deliver a convincing dramatic performance as evidenced by her starring role in the 1942 film, “The Big Street” alongside Henry Fonda. It’s hard to imagine now given the immense magnitude of Lucille’s legend if she had been able to draw upon her significant pre-“I Love Lucy” movie experience in her post-“I Love Lucy” projects. Perhaps the catalog of her television work would be even more acclaimed, and perhaps her TV career would have been even longer.

"I Love Lucy" set the bar so high for Lucille Ball that by the 1980s she had exhausted her repertoire--and I actually mean this as a compliment!

This sitcom was indeed pretty bad. The problem, IMO, was that Lucille Ball insisted on using the same writers with whom she had worked from her I Love Lucy days. These writers failed to adapt to changing public tastes and didn't understand what audiences in the 80s found funny. They kept the same slapstick humor Lucy had used in the 60s and the truth was that this type of comedy just didn't appeal to younger audiences that had grown up with All in the Family and Saturday Night Live. I read once that ABC wanted to use younger writers who had worked on such popular shows like MASH but Lucy refused to work with them. And in the end, that decision may have been the main reason why this show failed. It was an inglorious end to one of the most popular actresses in TV history.

You mentioned that the episode where Lucy plays the sax (or tries to) seemed like a recreation of the famous "I Love Lucy" scene. I actually noticed that the writers frequently "borrowed" from themselves many times. For instance, the segment where Lucy and her date are sinking into a hole in the floor, while blissfully unaware is a blatant copy of the "Lucy Show" episode, where Lucy is demonstrating a specially-designed bank vault for Jack Benny, and the two of them sink in quick sand at the end, while the bit with Gale's tie getting caught in the pasta machine was adapted from one where Gale's tie gets caught in Lucy's typewriter in a "Here's Lucy" episode. Not surprising, I guess, since they were well-crafted and well-performed bits when originally done, but it does demonstrate how little originality went into "Life With Lucy".

I think the whole point of having the 'guard goose' was for Lucy to do that bit where the bird followed her outside, it's a throwback to another I Love Lucy show. After the Ricardos moved to Connecticut, Lucy and Ethel were trying to raise chickens and they had all ended up in the house and, as she did here, Lucy ended up being able to round them all up and get them to go where she wanted by doing an imitation of their walk and getting them to all follow after her.

When she was doing this show, it was at the same time that Desi Arnaz was dying from Lung Cancer. They truly still cared and loved each other despite everything that occurred between them. That had to have a affect on her during this time.

People were not willing to view Lucy as a grandmother or in a grandmother role.

There will never be any one on TV like Lucy. I miss her so much. Even though I was only 3 or 4 years old when “I Love Lucy” came on…I remember when she had “Little Ricky”. We never missed an episode and have watched it all my life……then in 1965 I had graduated from high school, got married and then had my own Little Ricky…..my sweet, smart first tiny 5 lb. 11 ounce baby boy. Then…3 days before his 54th birthday. bless his heart, he died and a huge light went out in our lives. I miss my sweet Ricky so much. There will never be another Ricky, Lucy, Vivian, Fred, Gale Gordon…..and most of all…….my sweet son who missed out on the rest of his life because of the evil of someone he loved. I miss you, Sugar-Pie…save your mama a seat…surely it won’t be that much longer and I will join you. I love you…..and, I love Lucy.

I was in the middle of my deep dive of the Living with Lucy episodes when I came across your video. You did an exceptional job of putting this together... and helping me understand my own fascination of this show. I was sort of 'cringe/hate watching' it but also really wanted it to work! Your Golden Girls comparison instantly made me understand the context I needed. I applaud you for that. It's a shame... I think it could have worked....maybe a second season it could have found the right balance... and a better make up artist. Thank you for your video I really enjoyed it.

I can't bring myself to watch it. Writer Robert Carroll Jr. said they wanted it to be "Lucy: the Granny Years" but Lucy didn't want to be a grandmother. It might have worked if they could have talked her into playing her beloved mother Dee Dee; it would have worked if she'd allowed herself to be a funny, sexy, outspoken old woman like Elaine Stritch in "30 Rock." If she'd been willing to be her age and with decent material, she could have pushed past "Golden Girls" and gone platinum. Oh, well. Henna rinse under the bridge.

Putting Life with Lucy against The Golden Girls was stupid. I remember watching the first episode when it aired all the way to the end hoping to laugh. It never happened. I was in high school at the time and thought the show was for old people (65+). If the people behind the show and ABC thought that an old formula would make for a good programming, they should have put it in a time slot mostly viewed by the demographic that watched her previous shows when they were young adults. Everything she did was exactly what they’d expect from her. It is the households of their children that would have watched to see if she’d do anything new and then switched the channel to The Golden Girls 5-10 minutes into the show. Every appearance Lucy made in the mid to late 80s got standing ovations, and ABC foolishly banked on the idea that those ovations would turn into 30 minutes of viewership every Saturday no matter what she did. To the narrator. The characters on The Golden Girls were supposed to be in their 50s, hence the word “Golden” in the program title. That’s hardly old. That was Joan Rivers, not Barbara Walters. Please do a better job with your research.

Been watching it recently. I ignored it for a while thinking it would be bad but I thoroughly enjoy it. Her and Gale are always a gem on screen regardless of the time period. Its not perfect by any means but its a shame more episodes werent made.

Interesting there was an episode of "The Golden Girls" that centered around a teddy bear being accidentally sold/given away. And I believe it was this little girl that played her granddaughter that tried to hold the bear for ransom on "TGG."

I could barely get through the recaps, thanks for sitting through the whole shows

The them song is definitely a banger but the irony of “everyday im better than I ever was before” is haunting

The truth is that none of these Lucy shows weren't dynamic like I Love Lucy was because after both Lucy and Desi's divorce in 1960, the I Love Lucy spark was lost forever.

Lucille Ball was dropped from MGM because they thought she was washed up and they thought she age out. But they wrong because Lucy came back with a vengeance and prove everybody wrong to produce a great show in I Love Lucy. It was unheard of at the time for a woman at 41 years old to have the type of success she did. Lucy dominated for over 20 years which puts her in GOAT mountain. Very few people can dominate for over twenty years. Lucille Ball we love you and we will never forget you. I will make sure that your legacy lives on by showing your shows to younger generations. 💯

Worth noting that Lucy was actually a huge fan of John Ritter. She saw him on threes company and said that he had just the best physical comedy timing. She has seen since back in the 50s. She had her people contact his people, and they got to be friends. I assume his presence here was actually probably his idea because she was a comedy legend and all of her shows ran for like 1 million years and then we’re in repeats forever, and really when was he ever gonna get an opportunity like that again? And I’m sure she was happy to have him since he was still kind of a star in those days and could bring in younger viewers.

Instead of the numerous useless family characters, a good concept would be Lucy interacting with a different actor on each show. It would have been amazing to see her with Madeleine Kahn, Gilda Radner, etc, like she did with Ritter. The husband/wife/kids didn’t benefit Lucy.

Lucy should have done a guest shot on the Golden Girls. She often regected shows that reflected real situation like all in the family

The family aspect was never a hallmark of Lucy’s previous sitcoms, so it’s odd that the show is built around a family here. I know that sounds weird but Little Ricky was a tiny portion of I Love Lucy, the kids were completely abandoned in The Lucy Show, and Here’s Lucy got stronger once Kim grew up and Craig disappeared! Lucy needed a strong female she could be in cahoots with just like Viv, Rosie Harrigan, Kim, Mary Jane, and Carol. Lucy and Gale in a retirement home with maybe Mary Jane Croft, Mary Wickes, and Audrey Meadows would have been more fun. The hardware store could still figure in for additional story opportunities. The biggest issue with the series is the old-fashioned scripts and production from Bob Carroll Jr and Madelyn Davis. Both had produced and written for the last 8 years of popular sitcom ALICE, but that bordered on the unwatchable most of the time. The acting from the Ann Dusenberry and Larry Anderson is just horrible. It’s very broad as if they had watched a collection of Lucy episodes from the 50s and 60s and decided to emulate that style of acting. But if they had regrouped after cancellation, the series could have been revamped for syndication.

I just think we outgrew her type of comedy. I don’t think it would have mattered which channel it premiered on. Aaron Spelling probably was always appreciative to Lucy for his appearance on one of her episodes of “ I Love Lucy” as Cousin Ernie’s cousin living in Tennessee-in a gas station that was his home ! And Aaron did a very good job -especially funny square dancing .

Dustin- Great job with this... super deep and spot on. The last minute of this video is what we were all waiting for. BRAVO.

The thing about the Lucy shows. Is that they were always a copy of a copy of a copy. I love Lucy being the original copy. Then the other ones to follow. All getting a bit inferior as they went along and life with Lucy being the absolute worst. I think at this point Lucy needed to become more of a supportive character. Similar to Kurtwood Smith from that 70s show. She was at an age here where ppl aren't really interested in what an old lady is doing during the day. Even in I love Lucy she was in her late 30s. It gets kind of ridiculous at a certain point. That's why when I heard about a sex and the city revival I was thinking. Dude. Those chicks were already pushing 40 back then. Childless without families. Who is gonna care about a bunch of old dried up old prunes now? Is it gonna be like the Golden Girls? Which was actually funny? Probably not.

the white haired dance partner in the earlier episode is Peter Graves the biggest star of TV’s Mission Impossible!! 😉👍

As sort of a good luck charm or something Lucille Ball, aka Mrs. Desi ARnaz, always played characters with AR in their names. In I Love Lucy she played Lucy RicARdo. In The Lucy Show she played Lucy CARmichael. In Here's Lucy she played Lucy CARter. In Life with Lucy she played Lucy BARker.

Thank you for putting the time and respect into recapping this show. The scripts were terrible and so were the married kids, but really, even the later Lucy Show and Here's Lucy had pretty bad scripts. As a lifelong Lucy fan, seeing her reprise some of her old bits (crying, getting scared, etc.) was worth it all, but I remember seeing the Audrey Meadows episode and feeling hope that they had found something new. The saddest thing about this failure was how it affected Lucy.

Lucy did not want to do the show. She said that she could never top what she did. Gary went behind her back and fixed up the bits of business to persuade her by getting Spelling aboard, along with Gale Gordon, and the writers and other 'behind the scenes' people that were with her from the time of "I Love Lucy". Lucy felt very comfortable around them, and reluctantly agreed to do the show. She knew that it was a disaster from the very first episode. When asked about it by a friend (Lee Tannen) about "Life with Lucy", she said to him, "You mean 'Life with Angst'." He told her to stop doing the show if she disliked it so much, but Lucy said that it was already "Too Late". She was contractually obligated to doing it. When the premier episode was viewed with friends at Lucy's house, they crowded around the television set, but Lucy retreated to her lanai, and sat there by herself, staring off into space. PS: Gary secretly negotiated a clause in the contract that if the show was cancelled before the first season, Lucy would get a $1,000,000.00 settlement fee. That was probably the only good thing to come out of this sad mess.

17:05: Lucy's dress is fire though. oddly enough, does anybody remember when Arsenio Hall tried having a late night show again? the audience reactions and him bringing up the past over and over again reminds me of this so much. His revival lasted as long as Lucy's.

"Had to look up Mr. Whipple" Whoa, now I feel old.

Well there was an hour of my life I will never get back

Very impressive analysis you presented here, both in terms of it's thoroughness and depth. There have been countless videos examining Lucy's first three series, but rarely, if ever, anything done like this for Life With Lucy. I agree very much that this show --- while disappointing on many levels---is fascinating to watch today. I had mostly forgotten about this series until recent years, when it finally started reappearing online. Although nothing what it could have been, it isn't as bad as I had remembered (there was SO much vicious criticism thrown at it at the time, Lucy was not exaggerating when she spoke about that with Joan Rivers and others -- I think it impacted how I recalled this series for decades after). Anyway, I love to analyze shows in the context of their eras, and I think you hit on a lot of valid points: there were still flashes of impressive talent from Lucy (and Gale), but it definitely a '50s comedy in an '80s packaging that sometimes worked but not consistently enough (there were actually similar problems with a lot of Here's Lucy episodes in the '70s). Had the quieter, more "real" moments been more pronounced, it might have been different. Or even a better timeslot. I sometimes wondered if a grittier, less contrived storyline might have offered more opportunities (what if the Lucy and Curtis characters were ex-spouses, for example?) Anyway, I enjoy your other videos as well --- always well thought out --- just never commented before. Keep up the good work.

Nice video! thanks for saving me the 7 hours of watching the eps all the way through.

I loved this video. I recently got my hands on this season, watched the first three so far. Two things I said on Facebook about it was It felt outdated for the 80s (I was 15 when this came out), and the theme song is awesome. You mentioned both of those things as well, which made me feel validate lol. I subscribed. You made me laugh a lot describing this sad train-wreck. I feel so bad for Lucy. Joan Crawford's last work was Trog (awful) and Bette Davis had Wicked Stepmother, equally horrible. Breaks my heart.

Ty for sharing your thoughts on the life with lucy I enjoyed listening to ur review it wasnt a great show but nice to see lucy n gale gordon 🌺🙏🏻🇨🇦

They should have given LUCY a new character to play !!!

She didnt want to do anything realistic or serious. She loathed such shows as All In the Family in the 1970s that dealt with realistic issues like the Golden Girls tackled. She stated repeatedly that wasn't her kind of comedy. She didnt think times had changed but she was dead wrong and thats why her show failed.

Many people don't realize that Bob Hope and Lucille Ball were great friends. They made 3 films together and had perfect chemistry 👍

Dustin! Thank you for creating this carefully researched video on an obscure series featuring one of the icons of television. What a treat this video was. Great job!

This is why this sitcom failed: 1. Poor plot development (what plot?) 2. Poor scripts 3. Unfunny jokes/comedy development 4. Over-acting/reacting, esp. on Lucy's part 5. The kids were a "cutesie" add-on rather than characters central to the (so-called) plot 6. Clown make-up and Bozo-the-Clown red hair (on Lucy) 7. Lucy's character incongruous with her age (a 70+ year old "hip" young woman?) 8. The ditzy-broad role was tired (and boring and unfunny) already 9. Too much slapstick humor which was not funny With better scripts and writing this show may have made it, if Lucy acted like a woman in her seventies, like The Golden Girls. The days of corn ball humor and slap stick had come and gone and audiences wanted more sophisticated more nuanced humor. We still loved Lucy, but she needed to "grow up."

Excellent video! Your commentary was fascinating and very enjoyable to listen to.

Fabulous video! Can't wait to watch more of them!!!

Hey, thanks for doing this. I remember when the show aired and I remember not watching it because it was a Lucy show. There had always been a Lucy show, and there will always be a Lucy show so I felt that urgency. And then it was just abruptly gone. I always wondered about it a little bit, but never enough to actually try to track it down. So I appreciate you doing all of the work for me.

This deep dive was great, man! My hat is off to you!

The policeman in the goose episode was Charles Levin. Ironically, later in his life, he died after falling off a cliff and was eaten by turkey vultures in Oregon.

No one had the guts to tell Lucy this series wasn't a good one. Gary Morton couldn't, as he was expecting a big payday from co-producing at least 100 episodes with Aaron Spelling {and *he* NEVER produced a successful sitcom}.......and neither could ABC, who was desperate to schedule another family comedy as successful as "GROWING PAINS" and "WHO'S' THE BOSS?" This one wasn't it.

Kudos for keeping your editing time outside of your vacation and family time! The pink carpet was brilliant as we're the team shirts! And definitely great seats. Get well, guys!

This thoughtful video was extremely well done. Just to clarify some facts from someone who knew Lucy. Gary really did push her into this, maybe for $$$ I don't know. But I DO know Lucy wanted to work and was not happy not working. In fact, when the show ultimately failed, she spiralled into what I think (I am not professional) was true depression. That is how much she lived to work and loved to work. Also, she thought her fans wanted more Lucy, meaning the character she played. Gosh, the show failed for many reasons. Over-reaction from the live audience was misleading to Lucy. The writers' were old-timers she know (aside from Bob and Madelyn who indeed knew what was best for Lucy) but those other writers weren't always the best choices creating wacky scenes which weren't plausible like John Ritter (who Lucy adored) swallowing the harmonica or the entire guard goose thing. The guy who played Leonard I thought was actually really good going full out (which Lucy appreciated). But others were fine, suitable - which still could have worked with better scripts. I don't know (from what I heard) that Audrey Meadows would have said 'yes,' but am unsure why or if that is indeed true that she wouldn't have returned with Lucy - though in the end it didn't matter. The scene where Lucy acted out a fairy tail was as good as anything she had ever done. She could still perform....though her voice wasn't as nimble and neither was she. Gale Gordon, now in his 80's, despite his efforts and being the pro he was, he was still in his 80's. Having said that, overall, not the same Lucy who would rehearse and rehearse more and even more rehearsals back in the day. I also believe the critics maligned unfairly from day one - not sure why. Love the theme song, and Lucy was a fan of Eydie Gourmet. But her real daughter should have sung it. She said she wasn't asked. And maybe her real daughter actually cast as her daughter (not sure if Lucie A would have done that). In any case, like Lucy used to say, "You can't recreate what Desi, Vivian and Bill and the entire cast and crew did."

This was amazing. Thank you so much for this

I thought this was going to be about "Mame" the film; it was *ghastly*. Ironically, Bea Arthur played Vera Charles to Lucy's Mame.

Yeah, the biggest problem with this show is that it was 30 years out of date and it had the wrong producer. It could've succeeded if they'd had Lucy and Gale playing like a husband and wife who have moved in with their son who needed to be John Ritter. The chemistry that they all had with each other, plus the fact that Ritter was so good at physical comedy would've allowed him to carry the load rather than Lucy doing it.

What is funny is that I watched the Golden Girls religiously but I never once remember the Life with Lucy show...ever. It's not even on my radar screen.

I’ve seen all the episodes and I love Lucille Ball… but I agree…the fact that Lucy could blow her nose and get applause was ridiculous. I watched this show when it first aired and was so disappointed in what it was. Still, 3 successful TV shows out of 4…she’s the legend!!

Great video thank You very much.

I'm in the Minority here. I liked the show and do not label it as a Failure. To Each His Own.

Thank you so much I enjoyed it

She should never have hired Gale, Madelyn or Bob. Those three stuck her firmly back in 1959. This was such an error.

1986 was a totally different culture, a jaded culture, a selfish culture, an ADHD culture. Most of her original fans from the 40s-50s were either gone of too old. She needed better actors to support her. I guess that would have cost too much. Still love her!❤

I know very little about this Lucy show and I thank you for this education. Big Lucille Ball fan but of course. I had never seen this later day series. I appreciate the balanced way in which you presented it, and as you said some of those moments were indeed great and moving ones while others were not. Thank you so much and I'm subscribed!

Beautifully done.

The basic problem with LIFE WITH LUCY was abundantly obvious. The show desperately needed to be tailored to material more "age appropriate" for Lucille Ball, and the writing should have been of the caliber of THE GOLDEN GIRLS. The title itself suggested something of Lucy as a problem-solving sage, instead of placing her in the type of physical comedy she had done 30 years before. But by having her do that, she was forced to be a shadow of her previous work, and something of a self-parody in the process. Besides the weak scripts, Lucy did her best to make them work. The entire concept was ill-fated from the start. Too bad common sense was abandoned for the sake of doing some show for the sake of it.

As a Lucy/TV/theme song geek, this theme has been in my head for close to 20 years even though I've only watched an episode or two of this show. It really is a banger.

Like you Dustin, I’m going to have to finish this tomorrow. My god you’re thorough!

Wow, you are a good narrator.....and pretty funny.

Just discovered your channel! Great 👍 👌 show ❤️ 👏 New subscriber here. Thank you so much. Please keep up the great work. P.S. A funny story. My brother used to work for AUDIENCE UNLIMITED. The company would do the ushering for television shows. We saw a live taping of LIFE WITH LUCY. Lucy came out with her husband Gary Mortin to meet the studio audience and ask and answer questions. She asked the audience where everyone was from. My brother yelled out "I'm from Antarctica" and Lucy asked "Who's from Antarctica?" My brother yelled he was just kidding. Because we were actually from Hollywood. So my brother would brag for years that he spoke to the legendary Miss Lucille Ball! Thanks ♥️ 😊 again. Please keep up the great work! [ MAYBE YOU COULD DO A SHOW ON DYNASTY...DALLAS...BATTLESTAR GALACTICA...BUCK ROGERS IN THE 23RD CENTURY...THREE'S COMPANY ]

Very well done commentary on this best forgotten sitcom your observation of why it was so bad was right on the mark

Lucy was one of John Ritter's biggest fans. She loved THREE'S COMPANY

At this point in the game it was over, unfortunately humans don't know when it time to realize that you will never too your last performance. There's not a thing wrong with taking a final bow and taking the rest of the time enjoying what you actually accomplished before closing your eyes for the final time.

Fantastic job.

Lmao the intro. With the raspy voice from hell.

yo the intro 😂😂 is that tress macneill? getting progressive like more hoarse sent me 😂

LUCY IS IMMORTAL ❤️❤️🥰🥰🙏🏼🙏🏼 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I didn't learn of this show until Lucy passed away... strangely enough, she died the same week Disney/MGM Studios ( as it was originally called ) opened; I clipped TIME magazine's two-page article about the park's opening, and I also got her obituary. They mention that her last show, just a few years before, flopped because viewers and critics alike believed she was too old to do physical comedy anymore. Whoops! Nearly forgot the "strangely enough" part... when the park first opened, they had a live show where visitors could be superimposed into iconic moments of television, one of which was Lucy and Vivian Vance's less-than-successful attempt to work on a candy factory's assembly line.

The irony is in Lucille Ball's own remarks: " you've got to know when to get off." "Honeymooners," one full season of 39 episodes. "Dick Van Dyke,' 5 seasons. Go out on top.

What makes the sitcom even worse is the lighting, which makes Lucys face look quite cadaver-like. That and the antics theyre having her do is unsettling, like seeing a corpse used as a marionette

Damn, I love this!

I don’t even watch TV anymore. I Love Lucy premiered on my 5th birthday. We watched the show as a family. It was new and funny. By the time this show came around, we had seen her routines and shticks a bazillion times in reruns. We didn’t need to see them again in a different titled sitcom, this time without Fred and Ethel to add understated but genuine humor. It was outdated. She was too old to be so naive and coquettish.

I remember watching a bit of this in the original run and feeling sorry for Lucy and Gale Gordon. It was a feeling I didn't want to experience regularly.

It didn't flop because of Lucy. It flopped because of too much time showing the family. The people who played the family were awful.

Lucille has always said she doesn’t have a funny bone in her body, that all the credit should go to the writers and she just performs what they wrote on the script. Her later shows deserved much better writers.

I laughed when you said Ann Dusenberry shouted out a few lines........I noticed she does SHOUT everything she says. I wonder if the director complained he couldn't hear her, so she was forced to do that!?

There's an episode of The Golden Girls that centers around Rose's Teddy bear (Fernando) being accidently taken by a little girl, played by the same child who plays Lucy's granddaughter in this. Interestingly, the girl also tries to extorts money to give Fernando back. The bear in the Lucy episode is named Charlie, which was Rose's late husband's name on The Golden Girls! It's all very Meta. 🧸

Let me go over a couple of guest stars from this show. Lucy's dancing partner was Peter Graves, star of TV's Mission Impossible and the pilot in Airplane! (Ever seen a grown man naked?). And the teddy bear extortionist was Dena Dietrich, best known as Mother Nature (or as I call her Muthah Naychah!) from Chiffon Margarine commercials. I don't know if you know who Frank DeCaro and Jim Colucci are, but you could be their son. Good work!

Some cool trivia for the Lucy Fan (which if you're a fan, you will most definitely know these things, but): Many of the skits on I Love Lucy actually go back to My Favorite Husband, Lucy's 1940s radio show., also written by Bob Carrol and Madilyn Pugh. But in that case, they weren't exactly rehasing old skits, they were transforming the radio show into the TV version, with different husbands. Gale Gordon was in the radio show is her husband's boss, and then was in I Love Lucy as the owner of the Tropicana and then went on to be Mr Mooney on The Lucy Showm and then in Here's Lucy, and finally Curtis. If you watch 1988 Tom hanks movie, The 'burbs, with Gale Gordon as Walter, when the neighbors break into Walter's house, you'll see Lucille's photos on top of his TV set as a nod to her. And finally; Gale Gordon was supposed to be Fred Mertz, but couldn't do the original I Love Lucy show due to either a contractual obligaion, or another show he was doing. But he didn't want to turn Lucy down but made up for it in her other shows.

Lucille Ball will always be top of the heap. She was the forward-thinker and visionary of all entertainment for her time. She was excellent on stage, film, and tv. She was smart, shrewd, and talented. The problem with 'Life with Lucy' is that, as mentioned, it was created using an outdated formula for slap-stick sitcoms while being probably a little too wacky for then-future contemporaries such as Full House and Family Matter. By that point, television had become more than just a simple escape from reality. People were looking for serial or canonic story lines that followed a more realistic comedy routine rather than just over-the-top sight gags that had worked so well in the 50s and 60s. It is a shame that Lucy was not attached to the Golden Girls. I can only imagine that the pilot to it rolled across her desk, but that she felt it wasn't kosher to some degree to discuss some of controversial topics that the Golden Girls featured; Lucy was from a different time. With Desi, she created modern television; and no one will probably ever reach the legendary status of Lucille Ball. The producers were some 'familiar' names on 'Life with Lucy.' Like we said, the formula was out of date. It's funny as well, there are cliche 90's sitcom feels throughout, too. Between some of the corniness of a family comedy (Full House) and the hardware store and over-the-top DIYs (Home Improvement), in a way, it was ahead of its time. Also as mentioned, it is like their ages hurt the audience's reception of the slapstick due to concern of their actual health rather than seeing it as a gag.

Too bad Audrey Meadows turned down the offer. It might have made the show more bearable

I remember watching and liking the show in 1986. "The Cosby Show" had brought back the non-topical sitcom and that was always Lucy's specialty. For me in 1986, it was like watching "Here's Lucy." However, when the DVD's came out and I watched it 30 some years later, I knew why it flopped. For one, Lucy and Gale Gordon just looked way too old to be engaged in the type of comedy they were engaged in. Both of their voices exposed their frailty. Ann Dusenberry sounded like she was being forced into sounding like Kim Carter. And that episode with Audrey Meadows builds up to a scene that doesn't make sense. Why on earrth would Audrey Meadows allow Lucy to smear stuff on her face instead of pushing her hands away as soon as she started?!? That's the sort of thing that Desi Arnaz or Jess Oppenheimer would have never allowed because no one would do that. I recently re-watched "Lucy Calls the President" and "Lucy Moves to NBC" and while they were also specials I enjoyed as a kid because they were Lucy programs, they aren't very good compared to the rest of the Lucille Ball TV catalog. Why watch them when you can pop in a DVD of "I Love Lucy"?

in episode 13, that "pizza delivery boy of the month" was played bt Michael Zorek (yeah I had to look up his name - but I recognized his face as he...) played the hilarious part of the leather clad punker boyfriend with a two-tone mohawk haircut named "Shelly" in the Gene Wilder/Gilda Radner/Kelly LeBrock 1984 film, THE WOMAN IN RED. He also had a large role in 1983's comedy film, PRIVATE SCHOOL.

This show should have been given more of a chance.

1. At 48:43 that's not Barbara Walters, that's Joan Rivers she poured her heart out to. 2. Everybody Loves Raymond was never an issue oriented show and was a throwback to vintage sitcoms but was a massive success. 3. The supporting characters were stale and weak. 4. ABC scheduled Life with Lucy on Saturday nights which was, aside from NBC's dominant comedy block, was a graveyard timeslot. 5. The audience wanted Lucille to succeed as evidenced by the applause for her entrances and accolades at the Golden Globes. ABC had only three shows in the top 10 and four in the top 20 that season so it had no audience to give LwL. I believe ABC was scared off by the savage critics calling the show a dud and therefore treated the series as such. ABC would not have a TGIF night until two seasons later so there wasn't a strong block of comedies to launch LwL behind. Other sitcoms on the network at that time were Who's the Boss?, Growing Pains and Perfect Strangers which none of those series dared to tackle very special episodes either. LwL was murdered by the critics and inept studio chiefs. Not audiences.

Life with Lucy failed because the world was a much different place in the 1980s than it was in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Lucille Ball seemed unwilling or not capable of adapting to the change. She continued to do what worked for her in the past, not realizing doing so limited her to a small audience. Also, Vivian Vance who died in 1979, was not around to play her trusted sidekick as she had done in "I love Lucy" and "Here's Lucy." Lucille would have been better off retiring after "Here's Lucy" or getting cast as one of the Golden Girls. It's sad her last major work before she died was a failure. I don't think she recovered from it because in her mind, America would always love Lucy no matter what she did. The truth was her time in the spotlight had come and gone. It was a good run but as we know, everything must come to an end. Recognizing the end and bowing out gracefully is not easy but it is no doubt the right thing to do in the case of celebrities who find themselves living well past their best days.

Ann Dusenberry "Margo" was amazingly rememberable as "Tina" in JAWS II and her shout of "SSSSHHHHAAAAAAAARRRRRKKKKKK!!!!!!" is bone chilling!!!