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Dans la très grande série d'émissions télé tournées par Lucille Ball, ce petit chef d'oeuvre du noir et blanc a fait coulé beaucoup d'encre à son époque et le produit, remasteurisé, est d'une grande perfection. Un coffret historique. 9/10
L'Extravagante Lucie (The Lucy show) est une série télévisée américaine en 156 épisodes de 25 minutes, en noir et blanc puis en couleurs, diffusée entre le 1er octobre 1962 et le 11 mars 1968 sur CBS. En France, la série a été diffusée à partir du 26 août 1967 sur la deuxième chaîne de l'ORTF.
Lucy se met dans des situations invraissamblables pour devenir une star et échoue régulièrement.
L'Extravagante Lucie arriva sur les petits écrans français en 1967, mais y fut rarement (voire jamais ?) rediffusée par la suite.
En revanche les Français durent attendre 1999 pour découvrir I love Lucy, mais uniquement en version originale sous-titrée (sur Téva).
A noter que cette série, de même que le prisonnier, est basée sur les échecs répétés de la protagoniste pour atteindre son objectif.
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program for its second season, remained. For the first three seasons, Vivian Vance was the costar. The earliest scripts were entitled The Lucille Ball Show, but all episodes aired with the title The Lucy Show.
Ball won two Emmy Awards as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for this show, for the years 1966-67 and 1967-68.
Premise
In 1962, two years after Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz divorced and their final show aired (using the I Love Lucy format), Desilu Studios was struggling. Both The Ann Sothern Show and Pete and Gladys starring Harry Morgan and Cara Williams had been canceled. The red-headed Williams, in fact, had been promoted as the next Lucille Ball. So that left Desilu with only one hit series in the spring of 1962 - The Untouchables. Arnaz, as President of Desilu Studios, offered Ball an opportunity to return to television in a weekly sitcom. At that time, CBS executives were somewhat dubious as to whether Ball could not only carry a show without Arnaz, but also follow such a landmark series as I Love Lucy. According to Geoffrey Mark Fidelman (author of The Lucy Book - Renaissance Books), it was "never intended for this program to go beyond a single season." Fidelman also writes in his book that this arrangement was "meant to be a stop-gap measure for the beleaguered studio" and that through the sale of this series, Desilu was able to "force the CBS network to invest in and air other upcoming Desilu products." It would be a strategy that Ball herself would use in the future, where instead of CBS renewing Lucy for another year, Ball would have the final say as to whether she wanted to continue her series. Nevertheless, under Arnaz's encouragement and persuasion, Ball agreed to do the show provided it be shown on Monday nights (the night on which I Love Lucy had aired), and that she would be reunited with Vivian Vance and her writers from I Love Lucy. CBS agreed to a full season of episodes and The Lucy Show premiered on Monday night, October 1, 1962 at 8:30 P.M.
The show began with Lucille Ball as Lucy Carmichael, a widow with two children, Chris (Candy Moore), and Jerry (Jimmy Garrett), living in Danfield, New York, sharing her home with divorced friend Vivian Bagley (Vance) and her son, Sherman (Ralph Hart). In order to get Vance to commit to the series, Arnaz acquiesced to her demands for an increase in salary; co-star billing with Ball; a more attractive wardrobe; and, finally, that her character's name be called Vivian. After doing I Love Lucy, she was still being called Ethel by people on the street, much to her unhappiness.[1] Though a number of TV historians have through the years cited One Day at a Time’s Ann Romano (Bonnie Franklin) as television's first regular running character who was a divorcée, that accomplishment actually belongs to The Lucy Show’s Vivian Bagley. Ironically, it was decided early on that the Lucy Carmichael character should not be a divorcée, since viewers might incorrectly assume that Ball's previous character, Lucy Ricardo, had divorced Ricky, even though Ball and Arnaz were, in fact, divorced in real life.[citation needed] So, it was decided to make this Lucy a widow, since that was thought to be more acceptable to viewers, especially in those more innocent TV days, where single parents were always widowed. In the show's original format, Lucy had been left with a substantial trust fund by her late husband, which was managed during the first season by local banker Mr. Barnsdahl (Charles Lane). Comedian Dick Martin, working solo from his long-time partner Dan Rowan, was cast in ten episodes as Lucy's boyfriend, Harry Connors, during the show's first season. Character actor Don Briggs was also featured in six episodes as Viv's beau, Eddie Collins. It is a common agreement among fans of Lucille Ball that the first black and white season of The Lucy Show was the best not only because the show fully utilized the talents of Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Martin, Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf (the original writers of I Love Lucy) in creating the first season's classic 30 episodes, but also because Desi Arnaz was executive producer for fifteen of the first season's thirty shows.[2] At the end of its first season, The Lucy Show received rave reviews from the critics and ranked # 5 in the Nielsen ratings. Ball was nominated for an Emmy Award as Best Actress In A Series. Bolstered by this success, the series was renewed for a second year.
At the beginning of the 1963-64 season, several changes were made. Desi Arnaz resigned as head of Desilu and as the executive producer of The Lucy Show. Ball took over as President of the studio and Elliott Lewis replaced Arnaz as executive producer of Ball's series. Dick Martin (as Harry), Don Briggs (as Eddie) and Charles Lane (as Mr. Barnsdahl) left the show. The Barnsdahl character was replaced by Theodore J. Mooney, played by Gale Gordon who would remain with the series for the remainder of its run, surviving the format change. Gordon was to have joined the series at its premiere in 1962, but he was still contractually obligated to his role as Mr. Wilson on Dennis the Menace. It was later revealed that Ball wasn't happy with Charles Lane because of his difficulty remembering his lines in front of the studio audience, and was very eager to have Gordon join the cast.[3] Lane then became a semi-regular on the CBS-TV sitcom Petticoat Junction as Homer Bedloe. Even though Dick Martin felt his role of Harry was superfluous, he stated that hiring Gale Gordon was a mistake and that there instead should have been a steady boyfriend written for Lucy. Martin felt that with Gordon's overbearing, unlikeable character that not only did the writing suffer, but the Lucy character became scatterbrained and stupid.[4] The show became limited in terms of creating fresh situations. Mrs. Carmichael spent so much of her time and effort trying to get Mr. Mooney to allow her to invade the principal of the trust fund for various ideas and projects, that it seemed feasible to have her work for Mooney directly as his secretary.
Under Ball's supervision, beginning with the 1963-64 season, episodes were filmed in color, although they would continue to be broadcast in black and white up until September, 1965. Ball realized that when the series ended its prime-time run, color episodes would command more money when sold to syndication. The second season proved to be just as popular in the ratings, ranking at #6. However, with the addition of Gale Gordon and his cantankerous character of Mr. Mooney, as well as the absence of Arnaz, the quality of the scripts suffered. Also, Vance had grown tired of her weekly commute back and forth between California and her home in Connecticut. She was also unhappy the way her character's on-screen time was reduced. In fact, Lucy Carmichael's home life as well as her interaction with her children began to be downplayed.
At the end of the second season, a disagreement erupted between Ball and head writers Bob Carroll, Jr. and Madelyn Martin regarding a particular script Ball found inferior. As a result, Carroll and Martin left the series with Weiskopf and Schiller right behind them.
At the beginning of the 1964-65 season, The Lucy Show's original staff changed. Elliott Lewis left the series and was replaced by Jack Donohue, who also served as director. With the absence of Carroll, Martin, Weiskopf, and Schiller, Ball hired veteran comedy writer Milt Josefsberg, who had written for Jack Benny, as script consultant. Under Josefsberg's supervision there were no permanent writers for the series and different writers were employed each week (among them, Garry Marshall). Ball persuaded Weiskopf and Schiller to return and write four installments. In an interview for The Lucy Book, Candy Moore stated that around this time there was a feeling among the cast and crew that the series had lost its identity and had begun to lose ground.
There were further changes to the series. Vance reduced the number of episodes she appeared in to spend more time on the east coast with her new husband, literary editor John Dodds. Lucille Ball's friend Ann Sothern made a number of appearances during 1964 and 1965 as the "Countess Framboise" (née Rosie Harrigan) to fill Vance's absence. The Countess, who had been widowed by the death of her husband, "who left her his noble title and all of his noble debts," was always trying to get some money to pay off said debts. So she also did battle with Mr. Mooney, whom she called "Mr. Money." Knowing that Vance would be leaving the series, Sothern was proposed as the new co-star, but it did not come to be. Apparently Sothern wanted to share top billing with Ball. She did not want to be an under-billed co-star.[5] This was not acceptable to Ball and, though Sothern did make three more guest appearances during the following (1965-66) season, the idea of her becoming a series regular was abandoned. Even though Candy Moore, Jimmy Garrett, and Ralph Hart were still contracted to the series, they were used very minimally during the third year. In the spring of 1965, Vance wanted to quit the show. Ball desperately hoped she would change her mind, but Vance remained adamant and left the sitcom.
As a result, the 1965-66 season saw the format of The Lucy Show change dramatically. In the first episode of the season, Lucy and Jerry Carmichael and Mr. Mooney moved from Danfield to California, where Lucy began working for Mr. Mooney at the bank, first part-time, and then full-time. Lucy's daughter Chris was said to have gone away to college and was subsequently not mentioned again. It was explained that Vance's character (Vivian Bagley) remarried and that she, along with her son Sherman and her new husband, remained in Danfield, although she would return for a few guest appearances towards the end of the series' run.[6] Candy Moore (as Chris) and Ralph Hart (as Sherman) were dropped from the cast. Jimmy Garrett (as Jerry) would make only two appearances that year to help with the transition before he, too, was phased out of the series. In the fourth season premiere episode, "Lucy At Marineland", Jerry was quickly shipped off to a military academy. He made one final appearance, in a Christmas-themed episode, near the conclusion of the 1965-66 season. Sothern made three more guest appearances as The Countess (a.k.a Rosie) and Joan Blondell guest-starred in two episodes as Lucy's new friend Joan Brenner. Unfortunately, after filming her second guest appearance as Joan Brenner, Blondell walked off the set right after the episode had completed filming when Ball (who had been known to be critical in front of a studio audience) humiliated her by harshly criticizing her performance in front of the studio audience and technicians. Finally, a new best friend in Mary Jane Lewis (Mary Jane Croft, who had occasionally worked with Lucy over the years and portrayed friend Audrey Simmons during the 1962-64 first format episodes and was the wife of former producer Elliott Lewis). Even though Croft's main purpose was to replace Vance, she did not get co-star billing, and like Roy Roberts, who played Mooney's boss (Mr. Cheever) at the bank, she received featured billing despite being a regular character. As a result, the fourth season is regarded as being the weakest with the quality of the scripts vacillating week to week from being good to mediocre at best. Nevertheless, the show continued to receive excellent ratings.
For the next two seasons, the show greatly improved due to the many famous stars making guest appearances, usually playing themselves, in storylines involving their encountering Lucy while conducting bank business. This essentially turned the show into a "skit-com" as opposed to a traditional sitcom. For the 1966-67 season, Gale Gordon was nominated for an Emmy Award as Best Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series and after eleven years, Ball was awarded an Emmy as Best Actress In A Comedy Series.
During the 1967-68 season, Ball's second husband, Gary Morton, became executive producer of The Lucy Show. Lucille Ball sold Desilu Productions (which owned and produced The Lucy Show) to Gulf and Western Industries, which meant that she no longer owned the series. In the spring of 1968, The Lucy Show won Emmy nominations for Best Comedy Series, Best Actress In A Comedy Series, and Best Supporing Actor In A Comedy Series (Gordon). For the second straight year, Ball was awarded the coveted statuette. At the end of its sixth season, The Lucy Show posted its highest Nielsen rating, ranking at #2.
In the fall of 1968, rather than continue to star in a show she no longer owned, Ball opted to create a new series, Here's Lucy. This series featured herself and her two children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., as well as Gordon, Croft, and Vance (in occasional guest appearances) playing "new" characters (though the returning actors played characters similar to their characters on the former series). Like I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy also ran on CBS for six seasons.
The credits list the show's basis as the novel Life Without George, by Irene Kampen. This book was a collection of humorous pieces about two divorced women and their children living together. A next door airline pilot neighbor, Harry Connors, became a character in the series played by Dick Martin. The character of Chris, Lucy's daughter in the series, had the same name in the book. In a later volume of essays, Nobody Calls At This Hour Just To Say Hello, Kampen wrote a piece entitled "How Not to Meet Lucille Ball," which detailed her efforts to meet Lucy when she visited Los Angeles. Ms. Kampen and Ms. Ball never met.
Notable guest stars
From the 1965-66 season onward, with the change in format, a number of famous celebrities guest starred on The Lucy Show, usually playing themselves (under the premise that the Lucy Carmichael character, now living in Hollywood, crossed paths with them, either in her day-to-day life, or through her job at the bank). Famous guest stars included Jack Benny, Carol Burnett, George Burns, Joan Crawford, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Dean Martin, Wayne Newton, Robert Stack, Mel Tormé, John Vivyan, Jack Cassidy,Clint Walker and John Wayne. Many lesser-known actors also guest starred, such as Patrick McVey.
The episode featuring Joan Crawford, "Lucy and the Lost Star", caused much celebrity fodder given Ball and Crawford's very public feud during the filming. According to Ball, Crawford was often drunk on the set[7] and could not remember her lines.[8] Ball was said to have requested several times to replace Crawford with Gloria Swanson, who was supposed to have filled the role originally but bowed out due to health reasons. Crawford was so upset that at one point, she wouldn't leave her dressing room. According to Ball's friend, singer-comedienne Kaye Ballard, it was Vanda Barra, a featured actress frequently used on The Lucy Show, who finally persuaded Crawford to continue with the show by giving her a much needed pep talk. As a result, Crawford sailed through the filming with nary a flaw.
Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance in a 1967 episode of The Lucy Show
The 1966 episode featuring Dean Martin (in which Lucy Carmichael accepted a blind date with Dean Martin's lookalike stunt double, but when he could not make it, sent the real Dean Martin on the date with Lucy in his place) was described by Ball as her favorite episode of the series.
Lucie Arnaz, Ball’s daughter, appeared in several episodes of the show during its run: she was an extra in the first season’s third episode, "Lucy Is a Referee," the teenage best friend of Chris in "Lucy Is a Soda Jerk" and "Lucy Is a Chaperone" (though she was only 11 at the time), and later as one of her mother’s friends in the 1967 "Lucy and Robert Goulet" (although she was only 16).[9]
Opening credits
Throughout the series, six openings were used.
- During the first season (1962-63), animated stick figures of Ball and Vance were used (similar to the ones used in the original opening sequences of I Love Lucy and of the subsequent 13 hour-long specials later syndicated in reruns as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour).
- During season two (1963-1964), stills from previous episodes were used.
- During season three (1964-1965), footage from previous episodes were featured. In the six episodes that Vivian Vance was absent in, the "co-starring: Vivian Vance" voiceover was omitted from the audio track.
- During season four (1965-1966), a kaleidoscope opening in which footage was used of Ball, in a kaleidoscope-like pattern. In the first 9 episodes of season four a slightly different opening was used (the first two clips of Ball were reversed). In the episodes that Gale Gordon did not appear in, the "co-starring: Gale Gordon" voiceover was omitted from the audio track.
- During season five (1966-1967), An additional opening was created at the beginning of the season, that featured Lucille Ball as an animated "jack-in-the-box". Ball reportedly hated it, and it was only used in a handful of episodes at the start of the season, before being replaced by a slightly refreshed version the kaleidoscope opening. However, due to poor editing, the theme music to this opening was left on, while the kaleidoscope opening plays, for several of the early 1966 fall episodes.
- During season six (1967-1968), the kaleidoscope opening was once again used but, the theme music was slightly different, also the "Glamor Shot" of Ball at the end of the opening is a different clip than season five. In the episodes that Gale Gordon did not appear in, the "co-starring: Gale Gordon" voiceover was omitted from the audio track.
The theme music was composed by Wilbur Hatch, who was the show's musical director, a role he also performed on Ball's previous series I Love Lucy.
Lost Episode
There was a Lucy Show lost episode called: "Lucy and Viv Fight Over Harry", This lost episode is available on DVD.
Production Notes
While filming the 1963 episode "Lucy and Viv Put In A Shower", in which the leading ladies attempted to install a shower stall (but become trapped inside, unable to shut the water off), Ball nearly drowned while performing in the tank of water. She was unable to bring herself back to the surface, and it was Vance who realized there was a problem and pulled her co-star to safety; Vance went on to ad lib until Ball could catch her breath to resume speaking her lines (all the while, cameras continued to film). Neither the film crew nor the live studio audience realized there was a problem.[10]
An episode from the 1966-67 season called "Lucy Flies to London" served as the basis for a standalone one-hour special called Lucy in London, which featured Ball with guest stars Anthony Newley and the Dave Clark Five. Much of the "Lucy Flies to London" episode, which centered around Lucy’s lack of experience in air travel, was based on an unsold pilot written and shot in 1960.[11]
The two special episodes to feature Ethel Merman ("Lucy Teaches Ethel Merman to Sing" and "Ethel Merman and the Boy Scout Show") were originally just one episode, "Lucy Teaches Ethel Merman to Sing". According to Geoffrey Mark Fidelman, author of The Lucy Book, this installment was a consolation prize to Merman after her Desilu-produced pilot, Maggie Brown, was rejected as a regular series by CBS. The plot was much as it remains today with Lucy and Viv trying to pass off Agnes Schmidlap as Ethel Merman, not really knowing that it is Ethel Merman, and Lucy attempts to teach her how to sing. In the original version, Lucy's voice lesson scene with Merman (which was lifted from the previous season's episode "Lucy's Barbershop Quartet" in which Hans Conreid was the instructor and Lucy the pupil) was much shorter than it is today and that episode ended with the Boy Scout show, with Jerry Carmichael hosting, Sherman Bagley dancing, and Lucy joining Ethel for a brand new version of Merman's great hit "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better". But then, Desilu Productions thought that maybe too much had been crammed into one half hour and since Ball and Vance (who both were great friends of Merman) were having such a marvelous time working with the legendary Broadway belter, they decided to expand it into two episodes, thereby taking advantage of Merman's formidable talents. So, a second filming was scheduled. In Part 1, Ethel was to be the houseguest of Lucy and Viv for a few weeks, and then in Part 2, a full blown episode was created that included scenes of Lucy once again, trying to get into the act. An all new Boy Scout Show was filmed also, with Jerry once again hosting, Sherman dancing, and Lucy, Viv, and Ethel, this time joined by Mr. Mooney, singing and dancing through a history of show business.
Nielsen ratings
Just like I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show never dropped out of the top 10 for its entire run.
The fourth and sixth seasons drew the highest ratings, and the fifth and sixth seasons garnered Emmy awards for the star.
Before July 2009, there were only 30 public domain episodes available on DVD and/or VHS (2 episodes from the first season, 21 from the fifth season, and 7 from the sixth season). These episodes have been released by different companies like Vintage Home Entertainment, Alpha Video, Digiview and Echo Bridge Home Entertainment.
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first four seasons on DVD in Region 1, as of April 26, 2011.[12] CBS announced that all the episodes have been remastered using the original 35mm negatives.
The first three official DVD releases allow you to view the original openings, closings, and cast commercials directly in the episode, the fourth season DVD release does not allow you to view vintage elements directly in the episodes.
Informations
techniques sur le document |
| •Création: 19 juillet 2011 |
•Classement: G |
•Durée totale: 30 minutes |
| •Creation: July 19 2011 |
•Rating: G |
•Total duration: 30 minutes |
| •GGTV |
•Droits d'auteur/Copyrights: Gay Globe Média |
•Contact/Comments |
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