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Nicole Kidman doesn't look like Lucille Ball, and for that reason alone, I'm sure I won't like this movie.
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The first full trailer.
Honestly, it's not horrible. I wouldn't go as far as saying it looks good, but I might be able to live with this. Nicole is a bit too embalmed looking, but at least there's an attempt at making her look like Lucille Ball rather than drag queen-eque exaggeration of Lucy Ricardo.
The plot is what I expected, focusing on the week Lucy's career was in jeopardy after being accused of being a Communist.
Honestly, it's not horrible. I wouldn't go as far as saying it looks good, but I might be able to live with this. Nicole is a bit too embalmed looking, but at least there's an attempt at making her look like Lucille Ball rather than drag queen-eque exaggeration of Lucy Ricardo.
The plot is what I expected, focusing on the week Lucy's career was in jeopardy after being accused of being a Communist.
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I might have the give this a look because my wife's got Amazon Prime.
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That would be interesting. I'd like to see a behind-the-scenes look at how Lucy's post-I LOVE LUCY career and how she transitioned from THE LUCY SHOW, and all the production issues that show had, and how she sold Desilu, formed Lucille Ball Productions, and went ahead with HERE'S LUCY for another six years.
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The legacy of Lucille Ball, TV’s first female comic lead
The star of I Love Lucy broke new ground for female comedians both in front of the camera and behind it.
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I recently reorganized by book shelves, and realized I had far more books about Lucy than I imagined.
The Lucille Ball Bibliography, roughly organized as autobiographies, biographies, career-specific and miscellaneous. Those in bold are my recommendations.
LOVE, LUCY by Lucille Ball. Essential reading, if only for Lucy's life in her own voice. As a celebrity autobiography, it's not especially deep or insightful. In fact, it reads like a draft -- which is what it is. Lucy undertook her memoirs after her divorce as a form of therapy, but abandoned it because she wasn't ready to publicly dredge up painful memories. Towards the end of her life, she signed a book deal for her autobiography and planned to start anew; apparently she forgot this manuscript even existed. Lucie Arnaz found it after her mom's death and published it; she also narrates the audiobook in Lucy's "voice".
A BOOK by Desi Arnaz. It's been ages since I've read this -- and it's no longer in my collection, except as an audiobook -- but this is well regarded among Lucy fandom for its frankness. Desi Jr. declined to narrate the audiobook, apparently because he couldn't mimic his dad's Cuban accent.
Quite a few friends and associates of Lucy have published memoirs that were heavily focused on their relationships with her.
LAUGHING WITH LUCY by Madelyn Pugh Davis & Bob Carroll Jr. Lucy's longtime writers, from her radio show through her last, failed sitcom in the 80s. Some interesting anecdotes, but not as revealing as one might expect either about their (often rocky) relationship with Lucy or their own craft. The story of one of the few female writers of TV's early days should have been more interesting than this.
LUCY IN THE AFTERNOON by Jim Brochu. The author was a friend of Lucy in her later years; his dad also had an affair with Joan Crawford that's detailed. Not so much a memoir as a series of gossipy anecdotes, revealing Lucy's acerbic opinions on fellow celebrities. The book was published awfully fast after her death, giving it an exploitive feel.
I LOVED LUCY by Lee Tannen. Tannen was the nephew of Lucy's second husband and part of her inner circle from the 60s through her death. Although he obviously knew her well, the book has an insufferable tone: he presents himself has having given Lucy unfailingly good advise that she usually ignored.
I don't own and haven't read the following, but included here for completism.
LAUGHS, LUCK AND LUCY by Jess Oppenheimer. Written by the producer and head writer of Lucy's radio show and I LOVE LUCY.
LUCY LOVED ME by Paula Stewart. Lucy's co-star on Broadway and lifelong friend after.
I HAD A BALL by Michael Stern. Acknowledged by Lucy as her "Number One Fan".
Moving onto the biographies ...
FOREVER LUCY by Joe Morella & Edward Z. Epstein. Published in the mid-80s, this is a serviceable biography, if a bit circumspect (possibly because Lucy was still alive). Morella previous wrote LUCY: THE BITTERSWEET LIFE OF LUCILLE BALL in the early 70s.
LUCY: THE LIFE OF LUCILLE BALL was also published in the mid-80s.
LUCILLE: THE LIFE OF LUCILLE BALL by Kathleen Brady. A thorough accounting of her life, although marred by the controversial inclusion of a photo claiming to be a nude Lucille from the early 30s (whoever that is, she looks nothing like Lucy to me).
BALL OF FIRE: THE TUMULTUOUS LIFE AND COMIC ART OF LUCILLE BALL by Stefan Kanfer. My favorite of the biographies: accurate, insightful and analytical.
LUCY & DESI by Warren G. Harris. A dual biography. (I was surprised to find this on my shelf; I have no recollection of it!)
LOVING LUCY by Bart Andrews. Biography in photos, accompanied by text. Aside from great photos, many critical reviews of Lucy's movie work is included; which wouldn't be found in more traditional biographies.
Career-specific books ...
THE I LOVE LUCY BOOK by Bart Andrews. Andrews was among the first "Lucy scholars" and most subsequent books are heavily indebted to his work. This one is a thorough account of the creation of the show, along with episode synopsis. Some factual errors that later authors would correct, but nothing egregious.
THE LUCY BOOK by Mark Fidelman. My own favorite of all the books published about Lucy; an invaluable guide to her entire TV career.
DESILU by Tom Gilbert & Coyne Sanders. A detailed account of the business side of Lucy & Desi: running the studio, the creation of her first two sitcoms, plus THE UNTOUCHABLES, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and STAR TREK among others.
LUCY AT THE MOVIES by Cindy De La Hoz. A coffee-table photo book with an exhaustive examination of Lucy's underappreciated film career and loads of photos.
I LOVE LUCY: A Celebration of all Things Lucy by Elisabeth Edwards. Beautiful coffee-table photo album.
THE I LOVE LUCY SCRAPBOOK by Elisabeth Edwards. A curiosity: a coffee-table style book mimicking a scrapbook.
The miscellaneous books ...
LUCY COMES HOME by Christopher T. Olsen. Another coffee-table photo book, but with a very specific focus: covering Lucy & Desi's visit to her hometown of Jamestown NY for the premier of their movie FOREVER DARLING.
LUCILLE BALL FAQ by James Sheridan and Barry Bonush; LUCY A TO Z by Michael Karol. Both are encyclopedia-style books about Lucy; the former is more detailed than the later.
THE COMIC DNA OF LUCILLE BALL by Michael Karol. An analysis of Lucy's comedic style, but pretty skimpy.
The Lucille Ball Bibliography, roughly organized as autobiographies, biographies, career-specific and miscellaneous. Those in bold are my recommendations.
LOVE, LUCY by Lucille Ball. Essential reading, if only for Lucy's life in her own voice. As a celebrity autobiography, it's not especially deep or insightful. In fact, it reads like a draft -- which is what it is. Lucy undertook her memoirs after her divorce as a form of therapy, but abandoned it because she wasn't ready to publicly dredge up painful memories. Towards the end of her life, she signed a book deal for her autobiography and planned to start anew; apparently she forgot this manuscript even existed. Lucie Arnaz found it after her mom's death and published it; she also narrates the audiobook in Lucy's "voice".
A BOOK by Desi Arnaz. It's been ages since I've read this -- and it's no longer in my collection, except as an audiobook -- but this is well regarded among Lucy fandom for its frankness. Desi Jr. declined to narrate the audiobook, apparently because he couldn't mimic his dad's Cuban accent.
Quite a few friends and associates of Lucy have published memoirs that were heavily focused on their relationships with her.
LAUGHING WITH LUCY by Madelyn Pugh Davis & Bob Carroll Jr. Lucy's longtime writers, from her radio show through her last, failed sitcom in the 80s. Some interesting anecdotes, but not as revealing as one might expect either about their (often rocky) relationship with Lucy or their own craft. The story of one of the few female writers of TV's early days should have been more interesting than this.
LUCY IN THE AFTERNOON by Jim Brochu. The author was a friend of Lucy in her later years; his dad also had an affair with Joan Crawford that's detailed. Not so much a memoir as a series of gossipy anecdotes, revealing Lucy's acerbic opinions on fellow celebrities. The book was published awfully fast after her death, giving it an exploitive feel.
I LOVED LUCY by Lee Tannen. Tannen was the nephew of Lucy's second husband and part of her inner circle from the 60s through her death. Although he obviously knew her well, the book has an insufferable tone: he presents himself has having given Lucy unfailingly good advise that she usually ignored.
I don't own and haven't read the following, but included here for completism.
LAUGHS, LUCK AND LUCY by Jess Oppenheimer. Written by the producer and head writer of Lucy's radio show and I LOVE LUCY.
LUCY LOVED ME by Paula Stewart. Lucy's co-star on Broadway and lifelong friend after.
I HAD A BALL by Michael Stern. Acknowledged by Lucy as her "Number One Fan".
Moving onto the biographies ...
FOREVER LUCY by Joe Morella & Edward Z. Epstein. Published in the mid-80s, this is a serviceable biography, if a bit circumspect (possibly because Lucy was still alive). Morella previous wrote LUCY: THE BITTERSWEET LIFE OF LUCILLE BALL in the early 70s.
LUCY: THE LIFE OF LUCILLE BALL was also published in the mid-80s.
LUCILLE: THE LIFE OF LUCILLE BALL by Kathleen Brady. A thorough accounting of her life, although marred by the controversial inclusion of a photo claiming to be a nude Lucille from the early 30s (whoever that is, she looks nothing like Lucy to me).
BALL OF FIRE: THE TUMULTUOUS LIFE AND COMIC ART OF LUCILLE BALL by Stefan Kanfer. My favorite of the biographies: accurate, insightful and analytical.
LUCY & DESI by Warren G. Harris. A dual biography. (I was surprised to find this on my shelf; I have no recollection of it!)
LOVING LUCY by Bart Andrews. Biography in photos, accompanied by text. Aside from great photos, many critical reviews of Lucy's movie work is included; which wouldn't be found in more traditional biographies.
Career-specific books ...
THE I LOVE LUCY BOOK by Bart Andrews. Andrews was among the first "Lucy scholars" and most subsequent books are heavily indebted to his work. This one is a thorough account of the creation of the show, along with episode synopsis. Some factual errors that later authors would correct, but nothing egregious.
THE LUCY BOOK by Mark Fidelman. My own favorite of all the books published about Lucy; an invaluable guide to her entire TV career.
DESILU by Tom Gilbert & Coyne Sanders. A detailed account of the business side of Lucy & Desi: running the studio, the creation of her first two sitcoms, plus THE UNTOUCHABLES, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and STAR TREK among others.
LUCY AT THE MOVIES by Cindy De La Hoz. A coffee-table photo book with an exhaustive examination of Lucy's underappreciated film career and loads of photos.
I LOVE LUCY: A Celebration of all Things Lucy by Elisabeth Edwards. Beautiful coffee-table photo album.
THE I LOVE LUCY SCRAPBOOK by Elisabeth Edwards. A curiosity: a coffee-table style book mimicking a scrapbook.
The miscellaneous books ...
LUCY COMES HOME by Christopher T. Olsen. Another coffee-table photo book, but with a very specific focus: covering Lucy & Desi's visit to her hometown of Jamestown NY for the premier of their movie FOREVER DARLING.
LUCILLE BALL FAQ by James Sheridan and Barry Bonush; LUCY A TO Z by Michael Karol. Both are encyclopedia-style books about Lucy; the former is more detailed than the later.
THE COMIC DNA OF LUCILLE BALL by Michael Karol. An analysis of Lucy's comedic style, but pretty skimpy.
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Well, I watched Aaron Sorkin's BEING THE RICARDOS and I have opinions.
To start with the casting: Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem. Neither particularly look like their subject, but the performances are awfully good. As a beautiful redhead of a certain age, Nicole should have been fine casting as Lucille; my only objection is that her Botox'd face is distractingly anachronistic for 1953. Beyond that, her performance is really remarkable; the voice, the movements, the mannerisms, the personality are all there. The portrayal of Lucille is honest and accurate. Her talent and perfectionism are on display, but so are her rudeness and tactlessness. Bardem looks even less like Desi than Kidman looks like Lucy, but his performance does a surprisingly good job of capturing Desi's charm and energy; there were moments when Bardem's mannerisms were to close to Desi's, I forgot I was watching a recreation.
The movie is at its best as a portrayal of the weekly production of I LOVE LUCY, with some added drama. The production schedule and creative process provided a good framework for the film; the interactions of the cast and crew -- their friendships, rivalries and resentments -- provide dramatic and comedic moments that felt honest.
The historical accuracy of the film is not great. The plot revolves around a basic falsehood: that Lucy being accused of being a Communist, Desi's philandering making it on the cover of Confidential Magazine, and Lucy's second pregnancy all occurred in the same week. For the sake of dramatic license, I could live with this; it condenses a lot of true drama into a smaller time frame. (DeMille called this "telescoping".)
Beyond that false central conceit, there are a surprising number of inaccuracies and anachronisms. Some of these are petty. A poster for Ingrid Bergman's STROMBOLI is on display 8 years before the movie was filmed. Sorkin has some weird notion that Judy Holiday was a major film star in the early 40s and Lucy's chief rival. The movie states that Lucy was fired from RKO at the age of 39 (she was 31); if the movie's math was accurate, Lucille would have been nearly 50 at the start of I LOVE LUCY. Ten minutes on Wikipedia could have cleaned up this sloppiness.
The worst aspect of the film is that Sorkin couldn't hide his contempt for I LOVE LUCY; he assigns his modern perspective to Madeline Pugh, using her as a 2021 mouthpiece to decry the "infantilization" of Lucy Ricardo. To portray one of the few successful female TV writers of the early days of the medium as being contemptuous of her own work isn't the stroke of feminism that Sorkin thought it was. (The scene also underscores that oddity that Sorkin apparently thought Lucille was older than she was. Madeline was only a decade younger than Lucy, but the film treats them like they were generations apart.)
Which makes is odd that the ILL recreations in the movie are actually funny. The scenes of the show portrayed here are not just precise, they're performed with genuine comic flair; particularly J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda as Bill and Vivian. I've seen numerous recreations of LUCY through the years and they're usually embalmed and unfunny.
To start with the casting: Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem. Neither particularly look like their subject, but the performances are awfully good. As a beautiful redhead of a certain age, Nicole should have been fine casting as Lucille; my only objection is that her Botox'd face is distractingly anachronistic for 1953. Beyond that, her performance is really remarkable; the voice, the movements, the mannerisms, the personality are all there. The portrayal of Lucille is honest and accurate. Her talent and perfectionism are on display, but so are her rudeness and tactlessness. Bardem looks even less like Desi than Kidman looks like Lucy, but his performance does a surprisingly good job of capturing Desi's charm and energy; there were moments when Bardem's mannerisms were to close to Desi's, I forgot I was watching a recreation.
The movie is at its best as a portrayal of the weekly production of I LOVE LUCY, with some added drama. The production schedule and creative process provided a good framework for the film; the interactions of the cast and crew -- their friendships, rivalries and resentments -- provide dramatic and comedic moments that felt honest.
The historical accuracy of the film is not great. The plot revolves around a basic falsehood: that Lucy being accused of being a Communist, Desi's philandering making it on the cover of Confidential Magazine, and Lucy's second pregnancy all occurred in the same week. For the sake of dramatic license, I could live with this; it condenses a lot of true drama into a smaller time frame. (DeMille called this "telescoping".)
Beyond that false central conceit, there are a surprising number of inaccuracies and anachronisms. Some of these are petty. A poster for Ingrid Bergman's STROMBOLI is on display 8 years before the movie was filmed. Sorkin has some weird notion that Judy Holiday was a major film star in the early 40s and Lucy's chief rival. The movie states that Lucy was fired from RKO at the age of 39 (she was 31); if the movie's math was accurate, Lucille would have been nearly 50 at the start of I LOVE LUCY. Ten minutes on Wikipedia could have cleaned up this sloppiness.
The worst aspect of the film is that Sorkin couldn't hide his contempt for I LOVE LUCY; he assigns his modern perspective to Madeline Pugh, using her as a 2021 mouthpiece to decry the "infantilization" of Lucy Ricardo. To portray one of the few successful female TV writers of the early days of the medium as being contemptuous of her own work isn't the stroke of feminism that Sorkin thought it was. (The scene also underscores that oddity that Sorkin apparently thought Lucille was older than she was. Madeline was only a decade younger than Lucy, but the film treats them like they were generations apart.)
Which makes is odd that the ILL recreations in the movie are actually funny. The scenes of the show portrayed here are not just precise, they're performed with genuine comic flair; particularly J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda as Bill and Vivian. I've seen numerous recreations of LUCY through the years and they're usually embalmed and unfunny.
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I'd love to have THE LUCY BOOK and LUCY AT THE MOVIES.
I didn't realize my wife had cancelled her Amazon Prime subscription, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to watch BEING THE RICARDOS. Reading what you liked and disliked gives me a little slice of the movie, although it's still tough for me to judge whether or not I'd like it without seeing it for myself. Perhaps I'll rent it on Amazon and watch it.
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If you want any book about Lucy in your collection, I highly recommend The Lucy Book; it's an invaluable source of info and tidbits and awfully fun to read.
It's a decent movie. It's pretty solid as a drama, and I think an accurate representation of personalities and relationships. Its chronology is a fiasco, but I imagine that wouldn't irk most people the way it irked me.
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Yeah -- That book has been in my shopping cart on Amazon and eBay many different times. I know Wikipedia references it a lot on the page dedicated to THE LUCY SHOW and its multiple format changes.
Well -- I'm not as a well-versed on Lucy's life as you appear to be, so some of the chronological errors might not really bother me. But some of the inconsistencies of the timeline surrounding them would definitely irk me.
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Among her many appearances, Lucille Ball was in some Three Stooges shorts as well.
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I've often heard that, but I've never seen anything concrete to prove it. Just like some fans believe Jean Harlow played schoolteacher Ms. Crabtree in the OUR GANG comedy shorts, but that's not true.
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The episode i called "Three little pigskins"
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Yes, she did. I was literally going to post about her doing ROOM SERVICE with the Marx Brothers, but you beat me to the punch.
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When I heard she was coming back to tv in the mid 80’s I was excited because I thought it would be in a drama. The sit-com didn’t work and they should have known it wasn’t going to work. I watched it loyalty because I loved Lucy. And I didn’t hate it, but that’s the extent. On the other hand, returning in a prime time soap, now that would have been interesting.Me, neither....
Lucy starred in a serious (some would say maudlin) TV-movie in 1985 called Stone Pillow that was very well-received. People had forgotten she'd started as a dramatic film actress, and this makes it clear she could do other things besides "Lucy Ricardo, the Golden Years".
At the time Spelling was producing Dynasty. Black had run up the stairs and was choking Alexis, presumable to death. Krystal was being held back my Ben. The real cliffhanger was what was going to happen now that Alexis owned everything. No one thought she would die.
Enter Lucille Ball, walking into the foyer and smelling the flowers sitting on the table in the middle of the room, then calmly stating, “Go ahead Blake, finisher her off and everything here will be mine.” Now we have ever more questions: who is this gravelly voiced beauty, why would everything be hers, might contract disputes send JC packing once and for all, is LB really taking over Dynasty, what’s going on? Then all summer people would have been talking, much like “who shot jr?” T-shirts with Lucy’s face, “who is this woman?”