Description
About the Author Jess Oppenheimer, the man Lucille Ball called "the brains" behind "I Love Lucy," wrote comedy during radios golden age for such show
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business legends as Fred Astaire, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Al Jolson, Rudy Vallee, John Barrymore, and Fanny Brice. His association with Lucille Ball began in 1948, when he signed on as head writer, producer and director of her CBS radio series, "My Favorite Husband." Oppenheimer made the jump to TV with Ball in 1951, as producer and head writer of "I Love Lucy." "Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time," Oppenheimer's hilarious memoirs were published in 1996 by Syracuse University Press. After "ILove Lucy" Oppenheimer created and produced such TV series as "Angel", "Glynis" (starring Glynis Johns), and "The Debbie Reynolds Show." His other TV credits include "The General Motors 50th Anniversary Show," "Ford Startime," "The U.S. Steel Hour," "Get Smart," and "Bob Hopes Chrysler Theater," as well as specials for Danny Kaye, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Rosalind Russell, and others. He received two Emmy Awards and five Emmy nominations, a Sylvania Award, and the Writers Guild of America Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Achievement. Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr., Oppenheimer's co-writers on "My Favorite Husband", also moved to TV with Lucy, staying with "I Love Lucy" for the entire run of the series. Davis and Carroll later created "The Lucy Show" and "The Mothers-in-Law" (starring Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard). Other TV credits include scripts for "Heres Lucy," "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour," the motion picture "Yours, Mine, and Ours" (with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda), and Executive Producers for the TV series "Private Benjamin" and "Alice." They received two Emmy Nominations (for writing I Love Lucy) and the Golden Globe Award (for Alice), and the Writers Guild of America Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Achievement. Product Description This reprise of two episodes of the radio series that inspired I Love Lucy will amuse fans. In one episode, Liz is determined to finish what she starts; in another, she plays matchmaker - with riotous results. From AudioFile Fifty years ago, before there was "I Love Lucy," comedienne Lucille Ball starred in this hilarious sitcom about an impossibly indecisive wife and her long suffering husband (played by Richard Demming). This hour-long cassette resurrects the old radio show with staged performances of two episodes. Jeff Conaway plays George Cooper, and Marilu Henner plays the unpredictable Liz, with Harold Gould and Alley Mills as their friends, the Atterburys. Even though the humor is dated and politically incorrect, the performance is lively and entertaining and includes the original 1948 score, as well as reenactments of the original commercials. Henner is not Lucille Ball--but no one is. She nonetheless gives a great performance in this series of screwball misadventures. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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