And I’m gratified to see that Lileks shares my opinion:
It’s not funny. I’m sorry to Lucy fans, but it’s not. When Lucy and Ethel start to wail, when Reeky gets an idea and decides to foool Loocy, and Fred pitches in – gawd, it’s contrived and strained.
I laughed at it when I was a kid, but I got over it by the time I was eight or so. One can only watch shallow, star-worshipping empty-head ditzes so much. She made me embarrassed for womankind.
I read somewhere that Ricky and Lucy’s kids actually agree. They say Ricky was the funny one at home and their mother was not.
I had similar thoughts after seeing ‘Gilligan’s Island’ re-runs, decades after it was on the networks. How the hell did I ever enjoy that…?
And it’s a shame in that, like Leslie Nielsen, before becoming known mostly for comedy, Lucille Ball *could* do decent drama…
Ricky and Lucy made a very entertaining movie called, “The Long, Long Trailer.”
Oh, they were hilarious when I was watching reruns when I as 11.
I don’t much like the Three Stooges any more, either.
I don’t much like the Three Stooges any more, either.
Now that is heresy!
I don’t think this is an objective judgment. It’s like an old joke we’ve heard so many times that it no longer makes an impression. But, I still think I would laugh at Lucy snorking down bon-bons from the conveyor belt if the memory of it and all its variations over the years were erased.
“Now that is heresy!”
You beat me to it, Rand. Don’t no one be dissin’ no Stooges!
I don’t think this is an objective judgment.
Nonsense. Lucy is a terrible show. On this there can be no dispute by any thinking person.
About a year ago I saw a rerun of MASH… the first time since the early ’80s that I had seen the show. It amazed me how petty and humorless the show really was. Dear God, did people actually watch this tripe?!
I knew a woman in NYC that was terrified by Gleason in the honeymooners.
She didn’t like the stooges either. I liked Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy. I like the bit where Stan and Olly were taking a couple of girls out for sodas but only had enough money for three. So the plan was they’d buy a soda for both of the girls and share one themselves. When Stanley went first and proceeded to drain the glass Oliver asked why he did that…
[blubbering] “My half was on the bottom.”
Eh, maybe you had to be there?
And the newer Lucy’s were even more godawful!
Stooges rock…except for that Joe Besser.
I remember only the Vita-Meata-Vegemin skit, and it makes me smile to think of it.
Simpler times.
Vita-Meata-Vegemin was ok, but can he core an apple? (honeymooners.)
Which season of MASH? They got pretty bad towards the end.
I was trying to think of funny Lucy sketches, but the only ones I could think of had real comedians in them.
Speaking of apple cores, when I was ten in Tacoma, WA an older neighbor couple has a garden which all the neighbor kids worked (at the the rate of one cookie, never two, per day.) They made their own soap and cider but what was neat was the hand cranked machine they had bolted to a table in the kitchen. Take one apple and turn the crank and you had a peeled, sliced cored apple. Never seen a machine like it since.
They did have some great guest stars on Lucy. George Reeves was my favorite as a kid.
Anne, regarding the “The Long, Long Trailer” the only thing I remember about it was the driving on a mountain cliff road and some vague recollection of a trailer park community.
Like this one? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0000DE2SS/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=284507&s=kitchen
Very similar. It was bolted rather than using a vacuum seal. It’s overall dimensions were a bit different. The color was more neutral. I never saw it used on a potato. Otherwise, that’s it.
I never heard anyone say, “zip, zip” or whatever Ralph said, while using it.