Lucy Ricardo in Top Ten Television Characters

In listing “The Top Ten Television Characters of All Time”, Blogcritics Magazine notes of Lucy Ricardo, “It’s hard to think of television without paying homage to Lucille Ball. A woman with an unrivaled talent for physical comedy, Ball gave Lucy Ricardo a permanent place in pop culture. A housewife with big ambitions and an ability to get into trouble, Lucy Ricardo was the meat of I Love Lucy; just watching her once led us all to agree with the show’s title.”

Lucille Ball and the Secrets of Show-Business Success

According to Britannica Blog: Lucille Ball was far less madcap and scatterbrained than I Love Lucy painted her to be. With Cuban costar and, for 20 years, spouse Desi Arnaz, she founded one of TV’s most powerful production companies, Desilu, which brought out 229 half-hour shows in 1954 alone—the equivalent, Arnaz reckoned at the time, of 80 feature films.

Lucille Ball was not just comic genius—and she was a born comedian of the rarest sort—but also a shrewd, tireless worker whose approach to career building and maintenance seldom failed her. “I don’t know anything about luck,” she said. “I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”

Lucy had to work hard. At the dawn of the television age, her star was setting in Hollywood. She had worked her way up from “Queen of the B’s,” as she was called, onto the A list by the end of the 1930s, but a decade later, even after fine turns in films such as Fancy Pants, was getting passed over even for parts that called for “a Lucille Ball type.”

She became a major star only on the small screen. Even then, I Love Lucy started off slowly. Its sponsor wanted to kill it after the pilot, and audiences took a while to warm up to the show. It survived only through doggedness, Machiavellian dealing, and sometimes brutal micromanagement on Ball’s part.

That and, of course, her ability to please a crowd. We love Lucy because she made sure we couldn’t overlook her. The proof is there, in black and white.

Underdog Cartoon Inspired from I Love Lucy

With the release of the movie, Underdog, based on the 1960 Cartoon of the same name, I thought it interesting to note that it's inspiration was from an episode of I Love Lucy.

Back in the early 1960s, Joe Harris (one of Underdog's original creators) worked at an ad agency. One of the agency's clients, General Mills, was trying to expand into sponsoring an animated children's TV show, a burgeoning field for the television industry. The idea for Underdog came after writer Chester "Chet" Stover saw an episode of I Love Lucy entitled "Lucy and Superman" in which Lucille Ball dressed as Superman and had a bumbling misadventure that left her stranded on a high ledge. The notion of a clumsy superhero stuck with Stover, and the next day he thought it was a great idea but the character should be a dog. From there he and Joe Harris created the cartoon character. They began working on the cartoon in 1963, and it first aired in 1964.

Underdog was actually Shoeshine Boy, a humble little pooch who transformed into a superheroic dog when trouble arose. He invariably did plenty of damage along the way. Almost a take-off from Superman's Clark Kent persona.

In the new film released today, Underdog is a beagle, but the creators originally avoided tying him down to any specific breed of dog. Jason Lee of "My Name is Earl" fame plays the voice of Underdog (which was orginally voiced by Wally Cox in the cartoon), Peter Dinklage plays Simon, with Patrick Warburton as his towering henchman Cad. Amy Adams (Junebug) provides the voice of Sweet Polly.

For more on this story, read Journal Now.

The Lucy Show Bloopers

Lucille Ball made her return to television in 1962 in The Lucy Show. It co-starred Gale Gordon who Lucy and Desi had originally wanted for I Love Lucy but he could not abandon his commitment to Our Miss Brooks. Lucy was divorced by this time and The Lucy Show was nowhere near the quality level of the original program. Fans didn't care much however, as the show received huge ratings. By the late sixties the program seemed out of place and corny. Most of the writing staff were still churning out scripts that seemed left over from 1940s radio (to be fair, most sitcoms from 1962 to 1968 were in the same boat). The shows were often peppered with impressive guest stars to hide this fact. The same material in somebody else's hands would have made it unbearable, but Lucy makes it worth watching.

Television producer Sheldon Leonard makes a cameo in the blooper reel. You'll also see Desi Jr. and Buddy Rich in bloopers from the next Ball sitcom, Here's Lucy.



-reposted from Classic Television Showbiz Blog.

We Love Lucy, but ...

With those words, that's how Warner Brothers promoted the 1974 musical "Mame" which starred Lucille Ball.

As we all know, Lucy couldn't sing and all her songs had to be "cobbled together note by note", according to Jerry Herman whose Broadway hit was taken to film.

"We all thought maybe she should be dubbed," he said by phone from his home in Beverly Hills. "But because it was Lucille Ball, and everybody knew what she sounds like, I knew it would be more honest not to."

Herman was disappointed in Lucy's performance and had originally wanted Angela Lansbury to play the part, but his ideal would have been Judy Garland. He said of Lucy:

"She was in pain. They pulled her hair up by the roots and put wigs on her and carried on," Herman said. 'She worked so hard and she wanted so much to be good in it that I became very fond of her. She said, "I'll do anything.' We spent hours together trying to get the notes right. I was disappointed for her more than I was for my own film."

For the rest of the story, read the article on Sun Journal.