Lucy In London - Have You Seen This?

Lucy Mame

How many CBS execs did Lucy have to scald with hot coffee to get this made?

It's like they planned this special for Twiggy

Lucy heard about it and became jealous

Then she went all "Helen Lawson"

And "Lucy In London" was born

Actually, just about EVERY thread re: boring, 19th Century Lucille Ball is an abortion . . .

Thanking you for coming by to drop that turd, R4

Yeah, R4, stop by later for some coffee

Why hasn't [italic]Viv in Vilnius,[italic] in which Vivian Vance took Communist Lithuania by storm, ever been rebroadcast?

[/italic]

R7, I think Vilnius had a particularly hard winter that year,

serious outbreak of a severe strain of flu, many deaths,

heavy smog and air pollution from Soviet industries

the crew was sickened by food poisoning

Vivian was brilliant!

But she just couldn't overcome all the obstacles

I learned of this travesty from Nick Hornby's [italic]Funny Girl[/italic] novel. Nick wrote of it like he'd write of a German bomb obliterating his grandmother's family in WW2, IIRC.

I have a copy of "Vivian In Vilnius", R7

And Vivian is as wonderful as all of the reviewers said

But I can play it only on an old Soviet era DVD machine that weighs more than Sarah Huckabee Sanders

C'mon, R11 - NOTHING weighs more than Sarah Wildebeest Sanders!

[quote]C'mon, [R11] - NOTHING weighs more than Sarah Wildebeest Sanders!

Wildebeests resent this

There was 2 or 3 similar shows I don't know if they were pilots or not. One Lucy plays a divorcee moving and another the President comes for a visit. Think they are available on Amazon Prime. Gary SHOULD have talked her out of it.....

Older Than Springtime ... And Half as Exciting!

Actually, Twiggy appears in Lucy In London as an extra...it was before she was famous.

Was Lucy actually in London? I see her with dancers on what could be a backlit and then her superimposed head floating above actual London scenery in that clip.

To think that most likely 90% of the “mods” in Miss OP’s link are now dead.....

I despise that cunt.

Yes, she actually went to London. There are many real location shots.

r19 = harriette lake

I’m not surprised that the Monsanto Company sponsored this mess. Their chemists produced all the synthetics in that apparel. Nowadays they just genetically Mod-ify. HA HAAAAAAA!!!

I was always amused by this video.

She looks like Deb Messing in here - out of her element and out of style!

I could be wrong about this all these years later, but believe it was promoted and packaged as part of "The Lucy Show", on which she was starring at the time. I seem to remember a "Lucy Show" episode (presumably airing the week before) where Lucy wins a trip to London and then flies there, sitting next to Mr. Mooney, who is coincidentally on the same flight. Am I just imagining this, or does anyone else remember this?

r14

I eat shit.

If only her common sense matched her colossal ego she could have been spared this embarrassment. Lucky for us that wasn't the case.

What a madcap mess, OP. I only got 1:34 into it before I had to cut those 'mods' off.

Entire episode here.

R24 I think this is what you were saying......

She's got the eyebrows of crazy.

I keep hearing Deb Messing as the contemporary actress that looks like Lucy.....

But I see Lucy here and think it's actually Ellen Pompeo who looks a bit closer to how Lucy looked back in the day.

That was Captain Peacock as the Customs Officer. (I only watched the first minute, that semi-automated gives me a headache.)

The styles are hilarious.

when the Americans did Swinging London the outcome was always hilarious.

Tell me before I click on it: Is it shot through the same Vaseline smeared, wire gauze lens that her close-ups in MAME were?

Is that Teri Garr snapping her fingers just before Mod pink-sweater Lucy appears? Because, that looks like Teri Garr.

Oh, lucy in yellow sweater. and bowler hat, not a pink sweater.

That's Twiggy in the middle >

Sorry dear. The Lucy specials aired after both The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy were off the air. The first one aired the same year Here's Lucy went off the air but she had a different last name...

Even poor Ann Sothern tried to get into the act with [italic]The Countess in Cork,[/italic] where Lucy's madcap childhood friend takes a trip to Ireland. Sadly, despite the sponsorship of the then-new Lucky Charms cereal, only about three people watched it.

Luckily, the ratings disaster persuaded CBS to axe their next mod-themes special with a [italic]Lucy Show[/italic] character, [italic]Mary Jane Tries Mary Jane.[/italic]

"Lucy Calls the President" at R25 was the last show that Lucy and Vivian Vance did together. You can see in the clip that Vivian is showing the effects of a slight stroke (her mouth is twisted). It was one in a series of Lucy specials after "Here's Lucy," such as "What Now, Catherine Curtis," which a poster mentioned upthread, in which she played a recent divorcee. "Lucy Calls the President" (Jimmy Carter) was promoted as her return to her Lucy Ricardo/Carmichael/Carter character. (but with a different last name), with Viv along again as her best friend

The Countess of Cork? OMFG, what a load of shite

Mary Jane Tries Mary Jane??? Somebody should be a SNL writer...

On the President one Lillian Carter makes an appearance. Her scene was shot in another studio...

"Lucy in London" was largely a failure, but at least noble one. After it, she resisting doing different things and just repeated the same old.

Lucy was lucky that her dress didn't get caught in the wheels of that sidecar.

I was a kiddie in 60s London - those sidecars gave me the creeps. They were like coffins on wheels.

Running around in that awful caftan and that terrible intro singing. An exercise in camp, for sure.

Surely a musical classic right up there with "Wing Ding". According to the wiki entry for the special, they had trouble photographing ball--the filters and heavy makeup didnt work well for location shooting and she looked "old".

Gale Gordon also pitched a special of his own creation to CBS, [italic]Mr. Mooney Does Moscow.[/italic] It was intended as a sort of goodwill/world peace type thing ("America's favorite grumpy boss thaws the Cold War!"), but Production (not to mention Standards and Practices) rightly decided, however, that America wasn't ready for a sexagenarian queen doing the Frug surrounded by Russian twinks in Speedos and fur hats.

R14: According to wiki, this was based on an unsold pilot with Lucy around her unfamiliarity with travel. It figures Lucy would have recycled old crap for something like this. It originally was supposed to include Mitzi Gaynor and Lucy playing nuns traveling in Europe with Paris & Middle eastern sequels---this all sounds too ridiculous to be true, but it does sound like the kind of tripe Ball would have done then.

[quote]they had trouble photographing (B)all--the filters and heavy makeup didnt work well for location shooting and she looked "old".

She looks horrible. What was she in her 60s?

This is Mame-level Campy bad

You have to wonder if her arthritis was bothering her here.

They lyrics don't even make sense - all those clunkers and it's Chelsea Road not Chelsea Street

Lucy looks like an old Vaudevillian actor running around in an episode of "The Monkeys"

OMG, her ego

R54, yeah her arthritis or she had to air out her vag....

All those Monsanto chemicals didn't breathe, ya know

[quote]all those clunkers and it's Chelsea Road not Chelsea Street

Wha'?

It was not particularly memorable, but actually wasn't "that bad", if taken for what it was intended to be. Lucy wan't trying to pretend she was Petula Clark. She's just performing in what amounts to be a series of rather lame sketches that could just as easily appeared on "The Lucy Show". It's definitely silly, but rather fun in a campy way, at least presumably for people who were already fans. It's no near as wretchedly unwatchable as that God-awful trainwreck lurking up ahead called "Mame".

How did she get Mame anyway? Assume she produced it herself? So wrong.

Lucy's speaking voice sounds like Countess LuAnn

I think I read that she (or her company) bought the movie rights to it.

They preempted "The Andy Griffith Show" for this horse shit?

I heard they put big Bulldog clips to pull Lucy's loose skin

then they used surgical tape to hold it in place

and then they plopped the big red wig on top of it to make her look younger

It gave her terrible headaches

R34 That Petula Clark number was choreographed by Michael Bennett. He's the dancer that loses his hat. Watch his moves...just glorious.

R34 The guy can dance backwards but can’t keep his hat on?

[quote]The styles are hilarious.

One thing to remember is that by1966 Americans were finally buying color TVs in a big way... and the networks were giving viewers their money's worth with garishly colored costumes and sets.

Anthony Newly is Lucy's love interest?

I'm surprised Joan Collins didn't scratch her old bloodshot eyes out...

At around 37:25, in the video, the sun shines on Lucy's face

and you can see the heaviness of her makeup

It looks like theatrical makeup

Anthony Newley sings almost as badly as Lucy

I guess the old broad didn't want anyone to outshine her

Damn. Catherine Curtis isn't on Youtube for free anymore. I remember thinking she was good in it.

Life without George followed by Europe without George?

R39 that's Twiggy with the Dave Clark Five.

It's a shame Lucy's no longer with us.

If she did a reprise in today's London...imagine the zany antics the writers could come up with.

What gets me in a Here's Lucy episode she has a musical number where her voice is dubbed but yet in Mame she does her own singing...

You’re all missing the point. This was intended to be an avant-garde take on Lucys long established persona. Very creative and daring for a sitcom at the time. It actually was a forerunner of Ken Russels Tommy with the brilliant Ann Margret.

The song playing in that loooong dance sequence was produced by Mr. Phil Spector.

The song is a total rip-off of "Then He Kissed Me".

I'm surprised there weren't lawsuits.

Real footage of King's Road, Chelsea, in 1968. Not far off.

'No British actors were harmed during the making of this motion picture'

Dear god, what a piece of shit!

Lawrence Olivier was signed to star with Lucille Ball in "Lucy in London".

Dear God.

Lucy in London came about as part of Lucille Ball's 1966–67 contract renewal with CBS. At the time, she was producing and starring in The Lucy Show for the network. The agreement gave her the option to star in three specials that would be produced independent of her weekly program. Ball originally planned a production where she would co-star with Mitzi Gaynor as two nuns touring Europe, followed by a French-based production called Lucy in Paris and a Middle Eastern comedy called Lucy in Arabia. None of those projects gained footing, and instead Ball, through her company Desilu Productions, opted to shoot Lucy in London.[3]

The concept for Lucy in London was set up in an episode of The Lucy Show called "Lucy Flies to London". Much of that episode, which involved Lucy’s unfamiliarity with air travel, was based on an unsold pilot written and shot in 1960.[4]

Laurence Olivier was signed to appear in Lucy in London, but withdrew from the production prior to shooting.[3]

Ball went through 15 wigs!

Ball went through 15 different wigs during the production. Cleo Smith, Ball's cousin and the executive in charge of this production, later recalled that problems arose in photographing the star on the London locations, where the use of heavy stage make-up and filtered lighting that was employed for her studio-based program could not be repeated.[3] Ball's biographer Geoffrey Mark Fidelman would later remark that the actress "looked old" throughout the show due to difficulties in establishing flattering lighting for the outdoor sequences.[4]

Lucy in London was broadcast on October 24, 1966. Viewership was high for the special (finishing as the most-watched telecast of the week) but critical responses were very poor, with Variety complaining: "What had promised to be one of the season's major specials turned out to be a major disappointment." Ball opted not to pursue the creation of the remaining two specials in her contract.[3] (Ball did co-star in one other special earlier in 1966, Carol + 2, which starred Carol Burnett, had a much better reception and would be re-aired in 1967 to fill one of the spots of the two unproduced specials.)

I now believe this inspired John Lennon's "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds"

The gurl on the right of R81's pic is Samantha Juste who married a Monkee

Twiggy was the Neely O'Hara of the "Lucy in London" production.

That's why Lucy went through so many wigs.

Samantha Juste also recorded a few songs in the mid-60s

Lucy made John Lennon want to take LSD.

That much is true.

Shut up......

Everything she did after 1955 was a 56 year old playing a 26 year old.

[quote]when the Americans did Swinging London the outcome was always hilarious.

The Americans invented Swinging London. Coined the term, at least.

R70 Lucy's performance in the first act is the best non "Lucy" acting she did since she began playing "Lucy."

What is a dolly girl, exactly?

You should look at this.

I think you're giving short shrift to The Facts of Life, r90.

I have sufficient.

[quote]What is a dolly girl, exactly?

Lucy ain't one, that's for sure.

Vivian Vance became something of a folk hero while filming "Viv in Vilnius," only because Lithuanians had never seen such an enormous potamus before.

You would be wrong, r95.

Actually, r96, they'd never seen one in hostess pants.

And when Viv wore blue jeans on the Vilnius subway ... !

Viv's showstopper number, "Albuquerque (Not Arawageeki)," had the locals transfixed.

GRRRRRRRR....

This thread makes me want to watch Lucy in London I saw it on Amazon Prime not too long ago. Now I can't find it....

GURRRRRRRRL....it's on Youtube.

Thanks 102. I'm watching right now. Truly horrible. Anthony Newly is the worst part...

Lucy redeemed herself 20 years later when she starred in Life with Lucy.

So London has gone from swinging Mod...to mostly Muslim..

Weren't there any directors that could could reign in Anthony Newley?

Was Lawrence Oliver going to play the not really gardener ? Was that Robert Lindsey who played it instead ?

I just can't imagine Lawrence Olivier agreeing to star in something as bad as Lucy in London.

How broke was Olivier in 1966?

As beloved and successful as Vivian was in her tour de force

he Lithuanian and Soviet audiences were a little confused by her rendition of "Shortnin' Bread"

A lot of the old dolls tried to use mod fashions to hide the ravages of age. This was Doris Day's turn.

[quote]A lot of the old dolls tried to use mod fashions to hide the ravages of age.

It was to appear relevant more than anything.

And actually the looser hairstyles and more streamlined clothing made a lot of those ladies look younger than they did in the 1950s.

Compare the mid-1960s versions of Doris Day, Dinah Shore, Mitzi Gaynor etc with what they looked like 10 years earlier.

Many of the TV shows alluded to it.

[quote]And actually the looser hairstyles and more streamlined clothing made a lot of those ladies look younger than they did in the 1950s

True.

Vanessa Redgrave, 1958

and in 1966.

R107 Even better than Sir Larry or Mr Robert Lindsey... it was Peter Wyngarde aka Jason King. Feast your eyes.......

Wow! I'd had no idea that Sir Laurence Olivier had agreed to appear in this disaster-and-a-half! Apparently (and fortunately for him), he came to his senses before the cameras began rolling. He did work with Lucy's daughter, Lucie Arnaz about fifteen years later in that desparately bad "Jazz Singer" remake. (IMO, it was "Mame"-quality bad!) No idea why he'd affiliate himself with such shite. I realize good roles are hard to find for older actors, but ...Jesus!

$$$, r117, $$$

[quote]Weren't there any directors that could could reign in Anthony Newley?

Oh, dear.

Anthony Newley "reined" supreme on this otherwise dreary Lucy special that was anything but spectacular.

Oops sorry!

"Went down to Chelsea Street"?

I guess Gary encouraged her to do this one....

This special is hideous, but it proves Lucy could have been a GREAT Batman guest villainess.

Lucy was able to get the biggest stars. I assume not for the money but because how popular I Love Lucy was at one time. Like recently I watched Here's Lucy and Kirk Douglas had a walk on part as himself at a movie premiere...

In '65 Laurence Olivier starred in one of the biggest bombs of the decade, "Bunny Lake Is Missing" with Carol Lynley.

By the 1960s Olivier wasn't a huge star to most Americans, certainly not on the level of other Hollywood male leads...so doing the Lucy special was probably seen as a career move...to be seen in a different light, to appeal to a popular audience. Lucy had plenty of big names on her shows over the years so why not Olivier?

And in '66 Anthony Newley wasn't someone you'd expect to see paired with Lucille Ball either.

And: it's hard to believe now, but in 1966 "The Lucy Show" was number 3 in the ratings.

A lot of middle aged entertainers looked good in mod clothing, like Doris Day and Peggy Lee. Lucy could have too if she'd dialed it back some, and stopped going crazy with the wigs.

But nothing could have fixed that voice. Yikes.

R101 Look upthread, you fat whore! The entire episode is at R29.

You have to figure lots of drugs were involved.....

Lucy in London even has its own Wikipedia page

Brought to you by Monsanto!

Meowch

[quote]Lucy in London even has its own Wikipedia page

Thank God it doesn't have it's own statue.

I imagine Lucy in London borrowed much from A hard Day's Night...

A number of stars from the older generation totally embarrassed themselves in the late 60s by trying to be more "youth-oriented." The results were quite strange. Even Frank Sinatra got in on the act, showing up on TV in some bizzarre Mod outfit and singing with the 5th Dimension.

Can someone explain to a young gayling here the “Viv in Vilnius“ thing?

[quote]A number of stars from the older generation totally embarrassed themselves in the late 60s by trying to be more "youth-oriented."

Some of us looked GREAT!... and many of us ran over to Swinging London to make a movie and get in on the scene

A casual shot of Lucy before makeup during the London shoot.

Remember when Batman went to Swinging London in 1966?

Foggy Londinium and Barnaby Street?

But of course they didn't really go, just recreated it to great effect on the backlot in Hollywood,

[quote]Can someone explain to a young gayling here the “Viv in Vilnius“ thing?

It was Vivian Vance's 1967 special.

A warehouse fire in 1971 at the Desilu studios destroyed the tapes, that's why you can't find it on YouTube.

Viv goes to Vilnius to look up distant relatives and discovers she has an identical cousin.

The guest star was Mel Tormè with Hans Conried, John Byner, Kathleen Freeman, and Gary Puckett & The Union Gap.

Lucy and Mary Jane Croft make a cameo appearance at the airport.

R136 My EYES @ Francis Albert Sinatra in his Mod outfit! I'm not sure if he looks more like Liberace or Louis The 14th

With a special appearance by Ethel Merman as Leonid Brezhnev R143.

Did Lucy have a smashing time?

I know you gurls will like this.

Yes, that's Cher.

[quote]With a special appearance by Ethel Merman as Leonid Brezhnev [R143].

No one did Brezhnev quite the way Merman did.

What a lady!

After Lucy Did London

Lucy insisted on being Dick Van Dyke's British dialect coach for "Mary Poppins"

"I'm just a young Dolly girl, Guv'ner," Lucy would say convincingly...

R149 Your timeline's off, sweetie.

But what of Viv in Vienna, with a pre-Young and Restless Eric Braeden - then known as Hans Gudegast - as an East German spy?

Surely that image in OP’s post is devil worshippers summoning something hideous from the nether regions — apparently successfully?

Look how it hovers over them, eyeing our plane of existence, radiating dark glory ....

Wtf did I just watch?

Margo....

As if anyone couldn't tell from that cigarette ash laden-voice it was Her.

OMG! It's Miss Ruta Lee!

At least Lucy didn't show up in London, Ontario.

Oh Archie!

Archie never did like Lucy much anyways.

He always said she was a mouthy broad sorta like my cousin Maude....

Oh, I made a rhyme!

The young Dezi in R87's Shut Up and Dance video is gorgeous.

Bump it

I saw Dezi jr in the first episode of Here's Lucy and he was very good looking. Lucy said he was 15...

DeSi ya dumfucks!

Spic 'N' Spanish

Whenever I visit, mom seems to have one or another Lucy sitcom playing on her TV, but a few weeks ago, it was The Lucy and Desi Comedy Hour on Decades.

I had never heard of this -- we're these specials or was it a separate series?

r164 After "I Love Lucy" ended, they did a bunch of one-hour specials as part of a rotating series of programs under the "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse" banner. They each featured a prominent guest star (or stars.) And they carried on with the four principal "I Love Lucy" characters.

Lucy pronounced "Desi" in a different way - maybe she was using the Cuban pronunciation.

She also pronounced "wonderful" in a odd way, something like "won-da-ful".

OMG 😮

R136's post is hilarious.

I tried to watch it, couldn’t make it.

I did notice that was Captain Peacock that stamped her passport.

for some reason, I had an urge to listen to this song this morning!!

Could somebody, anybody, PLEASE post the entire Lucille Ball hot coffee incident?

[quote] I did notice that was Captain Peacock that stamped her passport.

He tried to stamp MY passport once. My pussy went mad!

R170 is what happens when you drink Mimosas on an empty stomach.

The second dance scene with Miss Ann Miller(loved the first one) must surely hold the record for the most dancers on a stage at one time, that didn't involve a rotating, curtain-draped staircase.

I think she’s tremendous!

the whole thing is someone's LSD dream

I'm always amazed at how the stars from the Golden Age (Broadway, movies, or TV) tried so desperately to fit into the fads of the 1960s. It was their last gasp at remaining relevant, I guess (that sounds harsher than I mean it to be). It's like Arlene Francis going from evening gowns on What's My Line? to Pucci pantsuits, and the men going from dinner jackets to blazers and turtle necks. Tragic.