The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour

1957

Seasons & Episodes

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8.3| 0h30m| en
Synopsis

The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour is a collection of thirteen one-hour specials airing occasionally from 1957 to 1960, and originally served as part of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Its original network title was The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show for the first season, and The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Presents The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show for the following seasons. It was the successor to the classic comedy, I Love Lucy, and featured the same major cast members. The production schedule avoided the grind of a regular weekly series. Desilu produced the show, which was mostly filmed at their Los Angeles studios with occasional on-location shoots at Lake Arrowhead, Las Vegas and Sun Valley, Idaho. CBS reran the show under the "Lucy-Desi" title during the summers of 1962-1967, after which it went into syndication.

Director

Producted By

Desilu Productions

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Reviews

LastingAware The greatest movie ever!
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
anthony-rigoni Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am a fan of I Love Lucy and the Lucy Show. When I heard about this show, I decided to give it a try. As it turns out, I loved this show! Here are my favorite episodes...Lucy Goes to Japan- It has this funny moment where Lucy disguises herself as a kimono dancer and she tries to keep up with the other dancers. At the end of that moment, the two girls were saying Japanese and when Lucy said something gibberish that sounded like Japanese, I died laughing.Lucy Makes Room for Danny- There are two moments that I found freaking priceless. One moment is when The Ricardos, the Mertzes, and the Williams get into a snowball fight. The other moment is when Lucy is telling the judge(Played by Gale Gordon from "The Lucy Show) via charades about what happened.Lucy Finds Uranium- There is this hilarious chase scene that reminds me of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World".If there are four reasons why you should give The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour a try, it's 1)The memorable guest stars(Tallulah Bankhead, Red Skelton, Danny Thomas, etc), 2)The likable characters, 3)The show stayed true to "I Love Lucy", and 4)The great laughs you'll get from watching this show.
Thomas Dye These shows have their moments, but all in all, it's true; they're mostly stale and uninspired. Guest stars and "exotic" locales try to give the proceedings a shot in the arm, but most of the time the guest stars look pained and uncomfortable (you're almost embarrassed for Maurice Chevalier getting caught up in Ricky and Lucy's increasingly realistic and unpleasant fighting). Episode by episode: Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana: A novelty in that it "flashes back" to Lucy and Ricky's first meeting, it's also not terribly funny and often quite dull. Lucy and Ann Sothern have some good chemistry but the material isn't there. It also contradicts some of the "canon" of the "I Love Lucy" series, but that's not really all that new. Worth watching once for curiosity value; just don't expect a lot of laughs.The Celebrity Next Door: Easily the best of the lot, and coincidentally, the last in which Lucy would wear her trademark hairdo. Thus, it still FEELS like a Lucy episode. Tallulah Bankhead gives as good as she gets and practically steals the episode. The final "play" is amusing as well. And remember, folks, "When Miss Bankhead is bored, Miss Bankhead will let you know."Lucy Hunts Uranium: A bit predictable, but the location shooting and the "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" hijinks at the end are good for some smiles. Fred MacMurray is fairly likable in his star turn, though Lucy and Ricky (the characters) are starting to get a little too cavalier with how they treat celebrities! Would you leave Fred MacMurray in the desert to die? Lucy Wins a Race Horse: Not a terrible episode, this still predicts the more tired humor of "The Lucy Show". Lucy and Ethel pushing a horse upstairs is worth a few laughs. Ricky, however, is just starting to look hollow-eyed, gray and tired.Lucy Goes to Sun Valley: The tension between Lucy and Desi is becoming palpable, but not quite pronounced. There's not really much interesting in this episode; its major set piece seems to be each character interrupting Fernando Lamas as he's taking a shower.Lucy Goes to Mexico: A truly irritating episode; Lucy and Ricky's aforementioned bickering now seems to have a nasty edge to it. The hijinks just seem strained here whereas they were effortless in the European ILL episodes. However, Lucy's turn as a toreador at the end is kind of amusing, albeit very "Lucy Show" in the writing.Lucy Makes Room for Danny: I never really liked Danny Thomas much; the kids almost save this episode by generally being more likable than the main characters. Gale Gordon does have a funny role at the end as the judge who calls Fred "a miserable tightwad." All in all, though, the original ILL "Courtroom" show is funnier.Lucy Goes to Alaska: Red Skelton DOES come off well in this episode, charming and guileless. I'm not that fond of his routine with Lucy in the middle, as it goes on too long. But the sleeping scene is okay, and the final scene with Red flying the airplane has a little suspense to it.Lucy Wants a Career: Simply put, this is an hour long "Lucy Show" with special guest star Desi Arnaz. Lucy is a dim bulb through most of it, doing stale slapstick and irritating the hell out of Paul Douglas (whoever he is, he's not exactly a charmer). The original "I Love Lucy" charm is just about gone.Lucy's Summer Vacation: A dull episode whose idea of a comedic set piece is Lucy and Ida Lupino plugging up holes in a boat with chewing gum. Almost instantly forgettable.Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos: My God, Desi looks horrible in this episode. Hollow-eyed, listless, gray and tense, until the moment when Ricky becomes inexplicably psychotic and punches out Milton Berle, thinking Uncle Miltie is Lucy's paramour. Then there's the final scenes on the crane, with Lucy's stunt double painfully obvious, as she looks nothing like Lucy. Perhaps the worst of all the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours...The Ricardos Go To Japan: ...to be followed by one of the best. Sure, it may be as authentic to Japan as an American-made sushi roll, but Bob Cummings is fairly funny, and Lucy and Viv recapture their original chemistry all over again. A fun episode, worth rewatching.Lucy Meets the Moustache: However, in this last episode, Lucy and Desi are back to their usual distance and it shows. Ernie Kovacs is not a natural to this kind of comedy, though Edie Adams does all right. This isn't grade A but it's not a total waste of time, either. Even though it's all been done, at least you can see it being done with the original cast one last time, and that's not so bad.Overall: Worth seeing once. Not going to stand alongside the original half hour. "The Celebrity Next Door" is a keeper, with "The Ricardos Go To Japan" being a runner-up. Everything else... see it for the historic value, then let it alone.
jsosa-1 This show is far from the comedic genius and originality of the show that preceded it. These 1 hour "specials" were hardly special. My opinion is my own, but having been a fan of 6 seasons of "I Love Lucy"--the "Lucy and Desi Comedy Hours" were the beginning of the end for all the actors'careers. This would be Lucille Ball's first of many mediocre sitcoms that followed "I Love Lucy" that had her doing the same tricks over and over. From "The Lucy Show" to "Here's Lucy" and "Life With Lucy", the Comedy Hours began a 2 decade period of Lucy's attempt to hang on to a formula that is out of place and exhausted--especially in the 70's and 80's when other brands of comedy and humor have exceeded.There are very little--even FEW moments in this series that made me laugh. The reason is because the writing is tired. The jokes are flat. The audiences seems to eat it all up because frankly they are giddy that they're in the same room as these wonderful actors. I'd be giddy too if I was in the same room as Lucy, Desi, Vivian and William. But that's no reason to keep a show on the air.Each show has the cast in a specific situation or place that lasts the entire hour. They range from being in Mexico, the Alps and even Tokyo. The change in "scenery" may perk ears up but the delivery of jokes and recreating the magic that has begun to fade--immediately flattens your curiosity.If you're a huge Lucy fan this is probably something you should get because you probably want anything and everything with Lucy in it. I'm a huge fan and that's why I got it. I was intrigued by the idea of this show. After reading many biographies and reading ABOUT this show--I was desperate to see it. And I began to buy these tapes about 10 years ago.A lot of scenes seem to drag on and instead of having that feeling of "Oh wow, the show's over?? That went by too fast!" It's really.."When is this over?" I may sound like I'm completely bashing it but you can see for yourself. The pacing of the show is slower, they are obviously trying too hard to make it work.You can force yourself to laugh at all these shows but you have to realize why. Is it because you really think it's funny or because it's Lucy and your brain assumes she's always hilarious? If you seem to have to force yourself to laugh at something...then it's probably not that funny. "I Love Lucy" never had you do that. These shows will.
ECM85 I love the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour! Since the show is an hour, and I Love Lucy was only thirty minutes, Lucy has an even bigger chance of getting herself into a mess. Another thing that's special about it is that there are always several guest stars that add more drama to the story. Little Ricky has more of a part. He's so cute!! I really like the country setting. The Ricardo's house is beautiful. And, of course, there's Fred and Ethel! In this series, the Ricardos and Mertzes go on lots of trips together, and you feel like you are vacationing with them instead of watching it on television. They've been to so many places: Sun Valley, Japan, out West, and more! The scenes are beautifully shot. The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour is definitely a classic. I wish they had made more episodes. Give it a try sometime. It's a pleasant way to spend a Saturday night. You won't be disappointed.