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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » Lucy at 100

   
Author Topic: Lucy at 100
Pravin Ratnam
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 844
From: Atlanta, GA,USA
Registered: Sep 2002

- posted 08-06-2011 04:02 PM      Profile for Pravin Ratnam   Email Pravin Ratnam   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I guess Hallmark has kept the I love Lucy streak alive of being on TV without any cancellations of the reruns. As some know, they are doing a marathon in honor of the 100th year anniversary of her birth. Hard to believe that it's already been more than 20 years since she and Desi passed away.

As someon who grew up in the 70s and 80s, I am fortunate enough to be in tune with all the stuff going on now but exposed to all the B&W reruns of classic shows via syndication and late 80s Nick at Nite.

What is amazing about I Love Lucy is how it still holds up well in this era. And her acting is so good because she is not that way in real life.

What I loved about the show is unlike Friends (joey and Kudrows character), or many other current sitcoms, there doesn't seem to be a need to have a "dumb" character on the show to mime cheap laughs.

And what about Desi Arnaz. What he did with getting I Love Lucy capatured on film was a vision that some modern day studios lack in thinking of the future.

I think parents should be playing to their kids reruns of the Lucy Show and Twilight Zone before they become averse to B&W as they get exposed to the Disney Channel's programming.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 08-06-2011 05:00 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Google has a pretty nifty doodle running right now in honor of Lucy's 100th birthday.

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Pravin Ratnam
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 844
From: Atlanta, GA,USA
Registered: Sep 2002

- posted 08-06-2011 05:21 PM      Profile for Pravin Ratnam   Email Pravin Ratnam   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yeah Bobby, just noticed that after you pointed it out.

I am surprised that it took that long for other productions to use the same filming technique for TV shows after I Love Lucy. I thought a lot of the 60s shows had similar setup. Then again, I am thinking of shows like Dick Van Dyke which is a desilu production.

quote:
3. I Love Lucy was the first television comedy to use the three-camera format in front of a live studio audience.
Cinematographer Karl Freund developed a system for lighting the set from above so that production wouldn't have to change lighting when camera angles switched. Christopher Anderson of the Museum of Broadcast Communications writes, "Although the technique was not generally used outside of [Ball's production company] Desilu until the 1970s, it is now widely used throughout the television industry."


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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 08-06-2011 05:28 PM      Profile for John Wilson   Email John Wilson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Bobby, can you post a screen cap of the Google page? We don't have it on Google here. [Frown]

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

- posted 08-06-2011 06:15 PM      Profile for Michael Coate   Email Michael Coate   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Pravin Ratnam
I am thinking of shows like Dick Van Dyke which is a desilu production.
I don't think The Dick Van Dyke Show was produced by Desilu...though you're correct to point out it used a similar filming technique (35mm/multi-camera/live audience) as I Love Lucy.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 08-06-2011 07:09 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Google isn't allowed in Australia? Huh? That's strange. Are you prevented from searching "Google Doodle" and bringing up the various doodles that way?

Here's a cropped image out of a screen shot:

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The TV set plays a few different clips from the I Love Lucy show.

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

- posted 08-06-2011 07:17 PM      Profile for Bruce McGee   Email Bruce McGee   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The Dick Van Dyke show was a Calvada Production that was filmed at Desilu.

It's sad that some of the shows Hallmark is using are fuzzy and dull looking, and sometimes lacking contrast.

The prints we used in syndication back in the 1970's looked much better than these do.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 08-06-2011 09:16 PM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I grew up with the followup to "I Love Lucy," which was "The Lucy Show." Lucy played basically the same character, maybe a little less goofball but still just as crazy. She was a widow and a bank secretary to Mr. Mooney, played wonderfully by Gale Gordon.

Some of those shows are hilarious. I'm surprised it's gotten so much less attention than the "I Love Lucy" shows. One of my favorites was the episode where Mooney is trying to get Jack Benny to open an account in the bank, so Lucy suggests that the bank build "the world's greatest vault" to give Benny confidence in the bank. Of course, the vault is a direct descendant from Benny's radio show. Great stuff. "Those aren't rocks....they're giant snapping turtles!"

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Joe Elliott
Master Film Handler

Posts: 497
From: Port Orange, Fl USA
Registered: Oct 2006

- posted 08-07-2011 11:23 AM      Profile for Joe Elliott   Email Joe Elliott   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I heard a DJ on the radio say that Lucille Ball directed some episodes of Star Trek. I had never heard that before, so I immediately got online to check it, which it was of course FALSE.

However, I did find out somethings I did not know. Star Trek was originally a Desilu production. Also after the first pilot was not approved Lucille Ball insisted on it being redone until it was approved. Also she apparently would hang out on the set while filming, sweeping up and doing other odd jobs (at that point in her career, she definitely didn't need to). She was the first Star Trek fan.

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

- posted 08-07-2011 08:47 PM      Profile for Michael Coate   Email Michael Coate   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Joe Elliott
I did find out somethings I did not know. Star Trek was originally a Desilu production.
I take it you're not a Trekkie, Joe? I can't imagine a fan not knowing about the Desilu/Star Trek connection since there's a prominently-placed Desilu credit and snipe at the tail end of every 1st Season episode and half of the 2nd Season shows.

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 08-07-2011 10:05 PM      Profile for John Wilson   Email John Wilson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Bobby Henderson
Google isn't allowed in Australia? Huh? That's strange. Are you prevented from searching "Google Doodle" and bringing up the various doodles that way?
Well, yes and no. We have the internets here since a good 12 months now. It didn't occur to me to search for it but the news services seem to have covered it.

Thanks for adding the picture. Good for the archives too.

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Joe Elliott
Master Film Handler

Posts: 497
From: Port Orange, Fl USA
Registered: Oct 2006

- posted 08-08-2011 10:43 AM      Profile for Joe Elliott   Email Joe Elliott   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Michael, I haven't seen a original Star Trek episode since Next Generation came out in the 80s. I have seen every original episode, but I am a Next Generation fan. Not that I didn't enjoy the original series, I'm just not a fan of it.

I was in my teens back then, and oblivious to things like production companies, and actors names etc. I new people by what movies they had been in. It wasn't till IMDB came about that I would learn names. I didn't have time for credits, there were more movies to watch!!!

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

- posted 08-08-2011 11:45 AM      Profile for Louis Bornwasser   Author's Homepage   Email Louis Bornwasser   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I personally ran a 30 minute "Lucy" 35mm print in a screening room. The print was wonderful quality, good contrast.

fwiw: desilu was once RKO Radio Pictures. Louis

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Graham Ritchie
Film Handler

Posts: 54
From: Christchurch, New Zealand
Registered: Apr 2009

- posted 08-08-2011 06:40 PM      Profile for Graham Ritchie   Email Graham Ritchie   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Check out, "Image Entertainment" who distributed an excellent dvd a few years ago "CBS Salutes Lucy" 1976, also available on dvd is "The Long Long Trailer" from 1954..a very funny movie.
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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

- posted 08-09-2011 11:19 AM      Profile for Stephen Furley   Email Stephen Furley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I remember 'I Love Lucy' being on television, but It wasn't something that I watched; I would have been quite young at the time. However, among the hundred or so telephones in my collection I do have two of the 'Lucy' model. the WE 302. One is an early metal-bodied one from 1938 which is in full working order, and I do use it from time to time. There's a picture of it alongside another American model, an Automatic Electric 40. I think the actual 302 which Lucy used was a later, plastic-bodied one.

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Here's another picture of the 'Lucy' 302 alongside two roughly contemporary British models for comparison:

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The 1/232 in the centre looks much neater without the bellset mounted underneath it.

The 302 is still a very popular model, and the voice quality on it surprisingly good; better than many younger models.

The cords are new reproductions; everything else is original.

My other 302 was given to me by a worker on a demolition site in Camden, NJ, where it had sat in a hole in the ground full of water and mud. Some of the parts are salvageable, and I'm thinking about re-building it as a 5302; all of the necessary parts are available.

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