Life with Lucy (1986) User Reviews (29)

Sad Times

[parkerr86302 · 6/10 · 16 December 2019]

The show was Lucille Ball's only failure, and many people have debated why it happened. What I recall most vividly, though, was the savagery of the critics. They were absolutely gleeful to see a mighty person fall, even if it was Lucy. I recall most of them proclaiming LIFE WITH LUCY to be the worst series in the history of television. With a response like that, why would any viewer give it a chance?

But I digress.....it really wasn't all that bad. The main problem was, at her age, Lucy was too old to be playing her patented zany character anymore. Furthermore, the type of humor she had perfected had become outdated by the 1980s, and she didn't seem to realize this. These two things alone were a recipe for failure. If one wasn't comparing it to Lucy's older material, it wouldn't have seemed half so bad to everyone.

It is sad to see IMDB reviewers jumping on the bandwagon here after all these years, using words like "horrendous" and "garbage" to describe the short-lived show. It was neither. At worst, it was an ill-advised idea, but Lucy fans today still might find it mildly amusing, if they could stop the horrible words of critics from ringing in their ears.

Now that it has had a DVD release, give it a chance.

Granny a No-No

[BumpyRide · 5/10 · 27 June 2007]

When one thinks of this show the word "illconceived" comes to mind. This wasn't a bad show, nor was it good. It was just average fodder that was being pumped out in the 1980's. It's unfortunate that Lucille Ball didn't go with her first intuition and leave well enough alone. A golden opportunity was missed. If the show had been about Lucy Ricardo as a retiree living with Little Ricky and his family, that might have had some possibilities. But this show suffered from scripts and stories that we have seen over and over again, along with characters that were bland, also to be a bit blunt, watching an old lady perform some of the stunts she did just didn't work. Broad slapstick was gone and was replaced by clever writing that was shown on The Golden Girls. Times and tastes had changed and it's too bad that Lucy didn't realize this. A sour note to end a stellar career that didn't tarnish her overall body of work.

Shame this happened

[philhayes80 · 5/10 · 13 October 2018]

Lucy deserved a lot better then being asked to do this. For her must've been hard for her to see that this was her last legacy.

Horrendous

[Ripshin · 28 April 2005]

In the era of "The Golden Girls," Lucy attempted a comeback utilizing a comedic style three decades old. It was a BAD idea. Nobody wanted to see a rehash of "I Love Lucy," melded with a vacuous 80s sitcom family.

IMAGINE Lucy, at that age, in something MUCH better. Her comedic timing is legend, and she deserved a more sophisticated finale. I saw her in person, a few years prior to her death, and her caustic wit was astounding. Most likely, she feared moving away from the tried-and-true image she had established.

Eve Arden suffered a similar fate, and I would have killed to see the two of them in a series together.

I admire Ball's loyalty to her original creative team, but the enterprise is clearly a mistake, that her family and advisers should have stopped her from making.

Yes, I watched the series during its original run. The supporting "family" cast is appalling. Good grief, even if they'd just presented her and Gale Gordon as an older married couple, it might have survived.

She appeared on, I believe, The Tonight Show, after the failure of this sitcom. She was in tears, and it broke my heart. It is said that her despair over the failure of this show quickened her death. Whatever the case, she deserved much better.

Entertaining series

[andrew12111211 · 7/10 · 18 June 2022]

I have recently finished watching the series on DVD and enjoyed it although I can see why it failed at the time. The problem lies within the poorly written 'sitcom jokes' which are cringy and predictable. The supporting actors are also rather average although the show is not meant to be about them so it doesn't matter so much. On a positive, the storylines themselves are actually quite good (albeit very simple) and typical of something you might see on Here's Lucy. Overall it is a easy show to watch that probably should have lasted a full season. BTW, my favourite episode was "Curtis Bytes the Dust".

Nostalgic but hopelessly dated

[JAtheDJ · 2/10 · 11 February 2006]

If you loved Lucy, you couldn't help but enjoy seeing her again in her last, very short-lived show, especially the episode with guest star Audrey Meadows.

Unfortunately, the writing didn't evolve at all from her 1960's "Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy" series. Also, casting a very old Gale Gordon for comic counterpoint added more than a little tedium to the experience.

Lucy occasionally consulted ex-husband Desi Arnaz (who had a great sense of comedy) as to what worked and what didn't in her later shows. He was very ill when this show was produced and presumably couldn't offer much advice.

Somehow, "Love With Lucy" seemed to be a copy and paste affair, with little forethought as to what would please current (1986) viewers. Thus, it was hopelessly dated, and Lucy doing even mild slapstick at age 75 just didn't click.

A sad conclusion to an otherwise stellar career.

Doggone Shame

[lambiepie-2 · 2/10 · 15 July 2007]

Lucille Ball was the Queen of TV comedy. After "I love Lucy" she had other noticeable TV shows but this - this was a doggone shame.

The 80's was a time of greed on all levels and to "make a profit from anyone at any cost". This show's development seemed to fit along those lines. It's not as if Lucille Ball could NOT have had a successful family show in the 80's, it's just that this one was not drafted all too well for her talents and age and most appropriately - the time.

To me it viewed like old, scripts that they dug up, tried to brush off and make a go of it in the mid-80's hoping it would catch on and revitalize Lucille Ball's career. And as much as we loved Lucy, those watching had high hopes for it. But it fell like a pancake, and this was NOT the way I would have like to have seen the youngest generation to see such a wonderful comedic actress like Miss Ball. It would have with better writers who were of the time, and of course with Miss Ball in a more appropriate place, time and light.

But(her?)the love affair with her old staff of writers, etc. was the major downfall as well as how it transposed on screen. In watching it, I was thinking: "They need to fire the production and writing teams and give this show another chance". Now, decades after the fact you wonder what would have happened if they did.

Such stars always shine bright!

[lorilopez13 · 8/10 · 12 March 2009]

I would like to note that Lucille Ball in whatever format is a legend, and such stars of her magnitude always shine bright! In my opinion, we were blessed by every moment she graced the screen, whether large or small. It was courageous and born from her love of performing that she returned to television in a fourth series at the age of seventy-five. She brought with her decades of experience as both a masterful comedian and a consummate professional, for she had once been in charge of a major Hollywood studio at a time when there were few female chief executives. The position required her to be quite tough and demanding. Yet I have heard she was kind as well and more demanding of herself than anyone else. It breaks my heart she felt we no longer loved her. I think she deserved better.

Harsh criticism of her final show reminds me of seeing the fourth "Indiana Jones" movie, "Kingdom Of The Crystal Skulls" -- which also received unfair reactions. Sure, Indy might be older, but it felt great to see him in action again! My grown sons and I went to a theater for the first time in ten years for the occasion. I wish I could have attended a taping of "Life With Lucy". What a privilege every moment would seem. She has truly enriched the world and left behind a legacy of proud achievements. I cannot imagine "life without Lucy" . . .

It was bad, and why the heck was the duck in the titles

[J Lane · 1/10 · 2 June 2006]

I remember this being on British TV about a year after it was cancelled in the US. It wasn't good. The old Lucy shows are not that bad if dated. This was terrible. The main trouble was that a septuagenarian Lucy was doing bizarre physical comedy. The had her chasing ducks, skating, dancing along to Jane Fonda. Most of the time you thought it was going to end up with a hip transplant gag! The Biography channel recently showed a clip from this show in a programme about Lucy. It was a clip where she was sitting talking, and it was funny. It was a shame that her verbal comedy wasn't the driving force for this show. Sadly Lucy died soon after thinking that the public had turned her back on her due to the poor ratings of this show.

Not Perfect, but better than today's "sitcoms."

[crazydude1989 · 10/10 · 19 August 2007]

Considering I was not born yet when Life With Lucy first aired in 1986, I really never got a chance to watch this show until recently when I acquired a DVD of it off Ebay with the 8 episodes that aired, one that did not air, and the cast party video. ABC really should've given Life with Lucy a chance and improved on the writing. It looked like a promising sitcom. The only thing is, a lot of the jokes were just not funny, (especially in the saxophone episode which was OK but with a lot of stupid jokes) and it seems like after every joke or gag, there is a huge applause from the audience, which I think is definitely canned. One example was Lucy ironing and the ironing board wouldn't stay up so she got Kevin (the grandson) to hold it up. I thought that was just not funny at all. But other than that there were some good moments. I have a few favorite episodes, like the pilot, the one where they get a new computer in the store to do inventory, and the one where Lucy's sister comes to visit. Also, Lucille Ball was 75 and Gale was 80. And since Lucy died in 1989 (a month before I was born) the show wouldn't have lasted long anyway. I would've definitely watched Life with Lucy during it's run--but I would've had to be born in the late 60s if I wanted to be a big enough Lucy fan in time to watch this show.

I don't care what other people say. This show was fine and should've stayed on the air for a year or more if they had improved on the writing. But now I know why it didn't do so well and got cancelled after 8 episodes. It really did seem like such a sad ending to Lucille Ball's career and she deserved so much better because of the laughter she gave us for years. 7.5/10.

Deadly dull

[clerkinjohn · 3/10 · 25 July 2021]

Lucy at her worst, still trying to sell the comedy that made bank for her in the 50s, only with little success by this date.

So sad

[15231 · 21 August 2003]

I feel sorry for Lucille Ball. Once we declared that we Love Lucy, we expected her to be that Lucy character (although reworked a little) in her subsequent Lucy Show and Here's Lucy. She was young enough to carry off the physical comedy in those series, but we seemed unable to allow Ms. Ball to portray any other type of character. She therefore had to have a physical comedy role in order to get back on television.

This time, though, she seemed too old for that physical character and the geriatric version of Lucy trying to do the physical comedy of a Lucy forty years younger just didn't work. The show's concept and scripts were not of good quality and the whole feel of the show was that it was rushed into production without much thought or time being put into its development. It just didn't work as her past three series had. I can't help but wonder if ABC had allowed Miss Ball to play a different type of role and to have the show more script driven than relying on slapstick if maybe she might have had a chance at a hit.

Sadly, we will never know.

America collectively roared "We DON'T love Lucy!".

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 17 May 2022]

"Life with Lucy" is an ill-conceived and misguided sitcom from the mid-1980s...one that you are amazed they made in the first place. After a 12 year absence from her last weekly television series, "Here's Lucy", Lucille Ball (age 75) is back with this sitcom...along with her perennial co-star Gale Gordon (age 80).

The series finds Lucy moving in with her daughter and her family. The husband's father (Gordon) is not thrilled to have her there, as she now insists on going to work with him since she has been the co-owner of his hardware store. Much of the antics that follow are quite forced and seem much like the banter Ball and Gordon had in the previous series.

This series only amounted to 13 episodes and the network didn't even bother showing all 13 before pulling the series...a series that only lasted about two months. Why? Well, most of it seemed to be because the pair could NOT just walk into their old roles. Too many years had passed and the leads just looked moribund...and the overreliance on pratfalls and slapstick was simply painful to watch. The writing and canned laughter weren't very good...and the supporting cast wasn't particularly distinguished. Had the show offered a DIFFERENT formula and had better writing, perhaps it might have worked. As is, it's a very sad experience watching these re-runs on YouTube unless you are one of those diehards who simply loves every single think Lucy did...and thinks they all are comedy gold. Gold this isn't!

Would be a hit Today

[wesmith-26405 · 4/10 · 5 April 2022]

I watched every episode and loved it. I laughed a great deal. Gale Gorden was great. With all the things going on today, people would love it. Good storylines.

I don't get it. Good Show!

[sigmapi30 · 10/10 · 22 January 2008]

I have read many unflattering posts about Life With Lucy. Most people say this was a horrible show. Although I vaguely remember it originally airing, I have the show on tape and enjoy it. No, it is not as good as I Love Lucy, but it holds it's own. None of her follow up shows are "as good" as ILL. With that said, each show is EXCELLENT in it's own right. I am a true Lucy fan and love each and everyone of her shows. Lucy is the best comedic talent of all time. Life With Lucy was light, clean, fun entertainment. I think this show is an important part of Lucy's television history. I just hope it get's a just release on DVD!!! Please vote for this show's DVD release at tvshowsondvd.com.

Its still Lucy, better than all the rest

[kenponagajba · 10/10 · 30 May 2020]

This show was not given a chance although I will admit that a big mistake was made with The Supporting Cast. I wish Lucy Had bitten the bullet and had taken the role offered her as Bea Arthur's mother on The Golden Girls. Not that I didn't love Estelle but Lucy deserved a better swan song vehicle. The show had inspired moments and is worth watching even if it's just for Gale Gordon doing cartwheel at his age and Lucy battling with a lazy boy recliner. Just fast forward to the scenes without Lucy and you'll love it. And as for the other featured review on here which says Gary Morton made Lucy do it for the money is outrageous and unfounded and ridiculous

It was bad but was actually getting better just before it was cancelled.

[tarzanalso · 12 October 2000]

Although the series was pretty bad ( because of the awful slapstick) it actually was getting better. The writers were told to tone down the slapstick. One of the last episodes aired was a wedding flashback episode that also starred Audrey Meadows as Lucy's sister. This episode was a turning point in the writing. It was amusing without any slapstick. This is what the series could have been from the beginning. It is too bad that it was yanked off so soon. It was just beginning to correct its mistakes.

Loved it

[rommelg · 10/10 · 11 January 2021]

Well, I loved it, good clean fun ,situation comedy. Some familiar faces and some new ones, all the cast were great in my opinion, Lucy gets into so much trouble, with i what we came to expect from a Lucy sitcom.

Actually a pretty good show.

[qormi · 8/10 · 14 April 2024]

Both Lucy and Gale Gordon were as sharp and funny as ever. Lucy was in great shape for a woman of 75, and did physical stunts that most women in their fifties couldn't do. Great cast with the exception of Ann Dusenberry, who played her daughter. She always shouted out her lines, which was very annoying...why couldn't the director, or Lucy or somebody simply have told her to speak in normal tones? The kids who played the grandchildren were very good actors, and the tall guy who played her son in law was quite funny. It's s shame that there were 13 shows in the can, but it was cancelled after only six episodes.

The Reason This Show Failed

[RedRiver48 · 31 December 2004]

I've heard it said that Lucy and Gale were too old for the roles in this show, but that isn't the reason that this show failed. There is one reason this show failed and that one reason is a man known as Aaron Spelling! Abc pitched an idea to Aaron about producing a show starring Lucille Ball. He was sold from the start and every actor was signed except for Lucy. It took a lot of talking into from Gale and Gary (Morton) and she finally said "YES." Under one condition- she have Bob Carroll, Jr. and Madelyn Davis write the show. As they did for I Love Lucy, The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy! Both were basically Lucy's writers.

To make a long story short, Aaron Spelling got the idea of "Power" in his head. He would often take a script written by Bob and Madelyn and make drastic changes to parts he didn't like or parts that he didn't think were funny. Had Aaron just left the scripts alone and let Lucy run the show, the show would have been a bigger success than it was. The John Ritter episode was the funniest because Aaron wasn't able to get his hands on the scripts right away.

HAPPY TRAILS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR RED RIVER48

overall, a really great show, with great comedic talent, including the guest stars

[appleimacdude-04083 · 10/10 · 11 August 2023]

This series deserved much better than what it received - this is another of Lucy's series that I would gladly watch over and over, I would love for it to have had a second season, Ann Sothern would have been a great guest star to have had on. The theme was very catchy and inspiring, and the show very uplifting, while dealing with interesting personalities and situations. Lucy's comedy was as good as ever, the child stars were great, as well as the adult supporting cast. And who hasn't wanted to operate a hardware store? I find myself thanking Lucy for all of the hard work she put into this series. Now of course, going back in time - in 1986 I was 24 years old - and I would have to check what else was on the tv schedule to see what I would have watched back then - but this is definitely one of the shows I would have considered watching with my mom - and I think my mom would have enjoyed this series a great deal.

Very Sad

[WalletGuy · 9 September 2003]

Very, very, sad. At 75, Lucille Ball was coaxed from retirement to reprise the shenanigans of her former glory (and what glory it had been). With the help of her longtime writers Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr. and her old pal, actor Gale Gordon, Lucy joined the 1980's as though the world stopped spinning in 1974 when Here's Lucy has signed off. "I didn't know that moving me in could be such a turn-on!" said Ball's character (named Lucy, of course) after catching daughter Margo (Ann Dusenberry) kissing son-in-law Ted (Larry Anderson). The ancient slang was all too indicative of Life with Lucy, and as critics savaged the series, audiences ignored it. Lucy's fans expected more, and Lucy desevered better.

Life with Lucy

[johncastellano1967 · 22 February 2006]

Its just about 20 years since Lucille Ball came back to Television in the short lived, "Life with Lucy." I feel great stars work until the very end, like Lucy (she was on the Academy Awards with Bob Hope a few weeks before her death in 1989), Bette Davis dying of cancer and still made films shortly before her death.

Lucy wanted to work (certainly it was not for the money), America wanted to see her but not in the same manner as we did in 1950's-1960's shows. I feel her late husband did her in, he was a glory hog and mismanaged her. Why did he need Lucy in that vehicle--to put a few more bucks in his pocket? The show has a dull cast, its very 80's (shoulder pads, severe make up and pointy earrings). I think Lucy should have come back as a more serious actress, I always thought she could have played the Jane Wyman role on Falcon Crest. I as a fan was willing to see Lucy in different types of work the fans forced her to "paint on" the face of long ago Lucy. She was Lucille Ball a legend she should not have done this. In one of her books someone asks her while on a flight whats the fame like, she replied, "see all those lights down there, I could go to any house and it would be the most exciting thing that has ever happened to the residents." this was so true.

But what happened to Lucy happens to other, ie: Joan Crawford in the horror movies, Mae West in 1980 in Sextette playing it like she was 30 not 85.

Why?!??! Oh, why?!?!?!?!??!

[deejay_bill · 24 July 2000]

A few years ago, Nick at Nite aired the first episode of this miserable piece of garbage as part of some kind of "Lucython." I was in Bad-TV heaven; I watched this catastrophe when it first aired in 1986, and I was delighted to see it again in all of it's badly-written, poorly executed glory.

What was the problem? Do you have a few hours? First of all, casting a 75 year-old comedienne LONG past her prime in a series that involves extensive physical comedy is downright pathetic. This sort of thing is difficult for someone in her twenties; watching Lucy and Gale Gordon (who was in his EIGHTIES at the time) was just downright painful. It was impossible to laugh because there was so much concern about these two senior citizens seriously injuring themselves.

Secondly, the scripts were awful. Nothing but a bad rehash of older Lucy shows....only this time the stuff wasn't funny. This show wouldn't have been funny in 1956, let alone 1986.

Third, the annoying hooting and hollering of the studio audience every time the star showed up on the set was unbearable.....think "Married...with Children" but without the subtlety.

Easily one of the most ill-conceived, badly executed, poorly written shows in the history of television, "Life with Lucy" belongs on the list of the top-five worst TV "Mistakes" in history. The series was pulled off the air in less than two months and RARELY surfaces in reruns. If you ever get a chance to see it, make sure you do. In fact, I urge you to write, call, or e-mail Nick at Nite and TV Land and BEG them to show an episode or two of this miserable piece of crap. You won't believe your eyes.

Why the YELLING?

[jkingqm-1 · 23 June 2021]

I found the first episode online. Tried to watch it but Dusenberry sounded like she was yelling. It was too annoying. Also too annoying was the audience applauding after every gag.