TV Show Review: The Lucy Show - 30 Episodes

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Some funny episodes; cheap

Cons: As many mediocre episodes as good; poor transfer to DVD

The Bottom Line:

Mixed episode set

With poor DVD transfer

No reason to buy

Lucy is Mostly Funny, but This Collection is Only Okay

Since I Love Lucy is still one of my all time favorite sitcoms, I've always been curious about the other shows Lucille Ball did.  I got this cheap set of The Lucy Show, the sitcom she did for most of the 60's, a while back and finally sat down to watch it.  I must admit I was disappointed by most of it although I did find some of the episodes funny.

I also learned the interesting fact that 30 episodes of The Lucy Show are in the public domain.  Surpringly, there are 30 episodes in this 3 disc set.  Yep, there's no coincidence here.

Really, the show went through two set ups over the course of the six years.  In the early years, Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) was a recent widow trying to raise her kids with the help of her friend Vivian Bagley (Vivian Vance), a recent divorce with kids of her own.  We only get two episodes from this era (both in black and white).  "Lucy's Barbershop Quartet" is an average episodes, but "Lucy and Viv Put in a Shower" is classic stuff from this duo.  The scene at the end with them trapped in the shower with rising water is absolutely brilliant.

At some point in the series, the kids magically grew up and went to college (aging about 10 years in the process).  Lucy moved to Southern California, leaving Viv behind (Vivian Vance wanted to retire) and went to work as a secretary in a bank for Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon).  There are some gems here.  No one plays drunk like Lucy, as we see in "Lucy and the French Movie Star."  There are some excellent examples of physical comedy with "Lucy and the Ring-a-Ding Ring" and "Lucy Gets Caught in the Draft."  She develops a clever scheme to earn the money for new furniture in "Lucy, the Bean Queen."  And she gets arrested for a crime she didn't commit in "Lucy Meets the Law."

However, the show really does seem to be missing something in these episodes.  For one thing, Mr. Mooney is no Viv.  He is a one note character, and that note is to get progressively angrier at Lucy as her antics unfold.  Lucy does have a friend in Mary Jane (Mary Jane Croft), but she is often only around for a couple of scenes as a plot device.  Most of the time, Lucy is left to her crazy scheme on her own.  If she even has one.

See, the other problem with these episodes is the over reliance on special guest stars.  At times it works, such as "Lucy Meets the Berles" which finds Lucy making a wrong assumption and way over reacting.  However, most of the time, a special guest star just means there's no or little plot.  "Lucy Meets John Wayne" is the perfect example.  The episode is a collection of scenes with no real plot to them.  "Lucy and George Burns" finds Lucy playing the part of Gracie Allen.  Okay, so it was funny.  But again, there's no real point.  She can be so much better than this.

And the DVD set doesn't help things out at all.  The 30 episodes are presented on 3 discs.  It claims they were re-mastered for best possible picture quality.  I have VHS tapes that have better video quality.  It's a very rare episode that doesn't include grain and dust.  The color and brightness can fade in and out for a few seconds at will.  (Granted, that was a much rarer occurrence.)  The editing at times is poor as well, making me feel like I paid for a home job.  The sound is in "virtual 5.1 surround."  Honestly, I never noticed use in the back speakers.  And, in my opinion, a sitcom doesn't need surround sound.  It's really a play, or at least the filmed before a live audience ones like this one.  Don't get me wrong, the episodes are watchable.  But they could be so much better.

Each disc contains a 4 minute clip of a radio show Lucille Ball was in.  They do have some laughs, but they are rather hard to get into considering we don't really know what is going on.  Surprisingly, even though we have two clips from "My Favorite Husband," none of them included Gale Gordon, who was a regular on that show.  While we listen to the clips, we see various publicity picture of Lucy over the course of her career.

At least I only paid $10 to see what The Lucy Show was all about.  Since the first season is coming to DVD this summer in an official release, I recommend waiting for that.  The only reason to get this set is if you are a die hard fan who can't wait to get the later seasons.