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<blockquote data-quote="Crimson" data-source="post: 438751" data-attributes="member: 5079">I&#039;ve seen all of those 70s specials; I think they range from decent to awful.&nbsp; &quot;What Now, Catherine Curtis?&quot; and &quot;Happy Anniversary &amp; Goodbye&quot; are the decent ones; both a peek into what Lucille could have done if she had tried a new sitcom in the mid-70s, adapting her comedy to the new era.&nbsp; Lucille wasn&#039;t quite as stodgy as she&#039;s sometimes made out.&nbsp; She disliked &#039;blue&#039; comedy for sure, but her criticisms of Norman Lear&#039;s shows was about the language used not their topicality.&nbsp; Those two specials showed she was willing to do comedy rooted in more mature themes.But, as was the case in her entire career from 1960 to 1986, she always retreated to the safety of &quot;Lucy&quot;.&nbsp; The two &quot;Lucy&quot; specials are especially bad, although &quot;Lucy Calls the President&quot; is notable for being the last time she worked with Vivian, Mary Jane Croft and Mary Wickes.&nbsp; (Shame she didn&#039;t bring back Doris Singleton too.)Worst of all is &quot;Three for Two&quot;, which appallingly wasted her pairing with Jackie Gleason.&nbsp; &quot;Ralph&quot; married to &quot;Lucy&quot; should have been a no brainer.&nbsp; But it was probably doomed no matter what.&nbsp; Lucille rarely worked well with those 50s TV comics like Gleason or Skelton.&nbsp; Her comedy style and work technique was too different from theirs.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crimson, post: 438751, member: 5079"] I've seen all of those 70s specials; I think they range from decent to awful. "What Now, Catherine Curtis?" and "Happy Anniversary & Goodbye" are the decent ones; both a peek into what Lucille could have done if she had tried a new sitcom in the mid-70s, adapting her comedy to the new era. Lucille wasn't quite as stodgy as she's sometimes made out. She disliked 'blue' comedy for sure, but her criticisms of Norman Lear's shows was about the language used not their topicality. Those two specials showed she was willing to do comedy rooted in more mature themes. But, as was the case in her entire career from 1960 to 1986, she always retreated to the safety of "Lucy". The two "Lucy" specials are especially bad, although "Lucy Calls the President" is notable for being the last time she worked with Vivian, Mary Jane Croft and Mary Wickes. (Shame she didn't bring back Doris Singleton too.) Worst of all is "Three for Two", which appallingly wasted her pairing with Jackie Gleason. "Ralph" married to "Lucy" should have been a no brainer. But it was probably doomed no matter what. Lucille rarely worked well with those 50s TV comics like Gleason or Skelton. Her comedy style and work technique was too different from theirs. [/QUOTE]

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