I hate I Love Lucy

Seriously, why is this show still in syndication? It seems to be on constantly, at least here in the States, and it's fucking terrible. I mean, at the very least, can we acknowledge that the countless episodes involving 'savage natives' in headdress are infinitely more offensive than any single Little Rascals episode involving Buckwheat or Farina?

I haven't seen any since "Here's Lucy" was on the TV back in 1967 or thereabouts.

It's an American Icon.

"dyspeptic" is right

I love this I Hate Lucy thread

i grew up liking Lucy but sometimes the marathons give me a headache cuz the bloody woman does nothing but scream all day long

It's an American Icon.

I dunno. By now it seems more like a shrunken head in a Victorian curio cabinet.

The Lucy-Ethel-Fred interplay still works, and last June I watched the grape-crushing episode and still laughed my ass off. It helped that the famous scene is silent.

It's not a uniformly great show over 50 years removed, but when it hits its peak in specific scenes (and there are plenty of them), it's some of the funniest television ever made.

Our optometrist's office apparently shows an I Love Lucy dvd collection in the waiting room all day, every day. I'd be batshit crazy if I were a receptionist there.

Not a fan of the show (not that it didn't have its moments), but love her for this:
http://drx.typepad.com/psychotherapyblog/images/2008/04/18/voter_registration_lucille_ball.jpg

she told HUAC that was "to please my radical grandpa." So not a real red, twice.

You can hear Justin Bond talk about how queer Lucy & Ethel pretending to be Martians was:

http://www.studio360.org/story/248600-american-icons-i-love-lucy/

there is scarcely a single moment of this show that is in the slightest bit charming, funny, or entertaining.

ok no that's unfair, there are a handful of funny scenes. But it's a pretty bad rate of success for a pretty long-running show.

this is not the Arrested Development thread

Fred & Ethel are all-time funny

Fred's pants alone

also lol Morbz otm

Uh, no Hurting 2.

one of Desi's tirades in Spanish would be my ringtone if I had a phone

I just realized that I'm not sure I've ever seen an entire episode of this.

I can confirm the legitimacy of Ricky's slang and accent.

the trick to appreciating the genius of this show is to ignore lucy and focus on fred, ethel, and (especially) desi.

You guys are weird.

Lucy's kind of shrill and obnoxious, and while its true the show wouldn't work without he (she drives most of the action), I agree that the other three main characters are way more enjoyable

her

Lucille Ball one of the best things about Stage Door and is terrific in Sirk's Lured.

It's interesting to watch for a few minutes at a time as cultural anthropology (boxing still an important sport in the mid 20th century, huh), but I don't think I've ever really considered it actually funny.

"I Love ____" with Ricky, Fred, and Ethel speaking and reacting to a ghostly void that murmurates like the parents from the Peanuts animated cartoons. "Mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah mwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" (Ricky slaps his forehead, audience erupts in laughter)

A Desi__ Production

POO

Desi invented the 3-camera setup for this show.

All you crazy Ball haters tsk tsk

David Thomson makes a convincing case for Desilu Productions totally transforming TV/film in "The Big Screen"

She's not funny unless you are old and smelly

i thought this show was super funny when I was a kid (in reruns in the 70's), my mom hated it.

yeah this show was as much a part of my childhood sick days from school as "The Price is Right."

I had seen all the eps by the time I was six, i'm sure; Lucy is like a kid, she wants something and wreaks havoc against the patriarchy.

the show's cinematography was done by karl freund, who'd also been cinematographer on fritz lang's 'metropolis':

At the beginning of the 1950s, he was persuaded by Desi Arnaz at Desilu to be the cinematographer in 1951 for the television series I Love Lucy. Critics have credited Freund for the show's lustrous black and white cinematography, but more importantly, Freund designed the "flat lighting" system for shooting sitcoms that is still in use today. This system covers the set in light, thus eliminating shadows and allowing the use of three moving cameras without having to modify the lighting in-between shots. And where Freund did not invent the three camera shooting system, he did perfect it for use with film cameras in front of a live audience.

i grew up on the show and still love it, but it doesn't hold up as well as 'the honeymooners.'

wtf this show is great

i haven't seen one in a long time. would watch. i've seen every episode so many times. they are a part of my brain forever.

there is scarcely a single moment of this show that is in the slightest bit charming, funny, or entertaining.

― #fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Friday, September 27, 2013 12:36 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ok no that's unfair, there are a handful of funny scenes. But it's a pretty bad rate of success for a pretty long-running show.

― #fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Friday, September 27, 2013 12:38 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^

And one of the reasons I hate Lucy so much is its basic cable ubiquity; it's really reached Law & Order levels. Meanwhile, catching the (vastly superior) Honeymooners in syndication is damn near impossible for some reason (at least outside of NYC).

weird. I haven't seen a second of this show in syndication since the 80s.

For real. I watched some on Hulu+ a couple months ago, and it was the first time I'd seen the show in YEARS.

it's on HUB all the time

I haven't seen it in years. Hub? Do I get that channel/network? Will have to look later