Ever found yourself lost in the nostalgic whirlwind of black-and-white comedy, or heatedly debating the merits of pineapple on pizza? That's where we land in our latest gabfest, as we, Natey and Katy, serve up a slice of laughter and controversy. Our podcast pays homage to the television trailblazer "I Love Lucy," unpacking the magic that has tickled generations and questioning its surprisingly modest bow on the IMDB stage. Katy, viewing the series with new eyes, joins me in assessing the chemistry that made Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred household names, while we scratch our heads at the show's understated recognition in the annals of TV legends.
Switching gears, we shine a spotlight on the poignant "Being the Ricardos," where the gloss of the silver screen meets the shadows of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's personal saga. As we juxtapose the cheerful antics of their on-screen personas with their off-screen complexities, we also touch on the show's cultural footprints—from its candid approach to pregnancy to the ripple effect of its six-season run. As we bid farewell, we leave you with an appetizer for our next discussion on the magic carpet ride that is "Aladdin," and a cordial invitation to weigh in on our social platforms. Don't just listen—join the conversation and help shape our future episodes with your suggestions!
Ever found yourself lost in the nostalgic whirlwind of black-and-white comedy, or heatedly debating the merits of pineapple on pizza? That's where we land in our latest gabfest, as we, Natey and Katy, serve up a slice of laughter and controversy. Our podcast pays homage to the television trailblazer "I Love Lucy," unpacking the magic that has tickled generations and questioning its surprisingly modest bow on the IMDB stage. Katy, viewing the series with new eyes, joins me in assessing the chemistry that made Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred household names, while we scratch our heads at the show's understated recognition in the annals of TV legends.
Switching gears, we shine a spotlight on the poignant "Being the Ricardos," where the gloss of the silver screen meets the shadows of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's personal saga. As we juxtapose the cheerful antics of their on-screen personas with their off-screen complexities, we also touch on the show's cultural footprints—from its candid approach to pregnancy to the ripple effect of its six-season run. As we bid farewell, we leave you with an appetizer for our next discussion on the magic carpet ride that is "Aladdin," and a cordial invitation to weigh in on our social platforms. Don't just listen—join the conversation and help shape our future episodes with your suggestions!
One's a movie buff, one watches movies just enough Together.
Speaker 2:fun will be had by all. This is Nady and Katie at the Movies.
Speaker 1:Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new episode of Nady and Katie at the Movies. I am your host, nathan aka Nady, of course, and with me on today's episode is my good friend Katie. Hi Katie, how are you?
Speaker 3:I'm good Sorry, I'm finishing a bite of Hawaiian pizza. Speaking of Hawaiian pizza, are you a fan? Controversial.
Speaker 1:You're always either driving or eating when we do these things, and I'm usually doing neither of those things because I like to be a professional podcaster. But the only way I can do that is if people follow the show and share it with their friends on all their social media and hashtag us at hashtag Nady Katie at Movies. That's right, I'm creating a hashtag on this episode right now Nady Katie at Movies Hashtag that.
Speaker 3:Anyway, you blew past my question, but let's talk about something that's not controversial, like Hawaiian pizza, like something that pretty much I would assume anyone who's watched it loved it, and that would be.
Speaker 1:La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la la. Lucy, you have some sparkle doo doo. That's right. We're reviewing. Are we really reviewing, though, though? Can you really rate this? Because it's a classic?
Speaker 1:It's I Love Lucy, starring the amazing Lucille Ball and her real life husband Desjardins, along with Vivian Vance as Ethel Mertz and William Frawley as Fred Mertz. I had to think about his name for a little bit, but before we get into our thoughts, we're gonna go over the synopthists. The wife of a band leader constantly tries to become a star in spite of her having no talent, and gets herself, along with her best friend, into the funniest predicaments. Again, I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball, desjardins, vivian Vance, william Frawley, and it is probably the one of the top comedies of all time. Lucille Ball was like ahead of her time. She basically created this whole entire TV show, which was actually based on a radio show that she was on my favorite husband, and it was translated to I Love Lucy, and she would only do the show if Desjardins, her real life husband, was playing her husband, which was kind of controversial a little bit, because they didn't want this all-American female character to be married to a foreign person, and she was like either he's my husband or I'm not doing the show.
Speaker 1:And the rest, as they say, is history. So I'm assuming, katie, you've seen I Love Lucy before. How big of a fan would you say you were before you watched? And maybe how do you feel about the show after watching the 16 Essential Episodes? We didn't watch the whole series, we watched 16 Essential Episodes, so what were your feelings on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's six seasons and I feel like I could watch all of the episodes. To give some backstory too, I'm obviously familiar. You can't be American without maybe having heard of I Love Lucy. But I'm gonna be honest, anything I don't know that I'd watched more than maybe a handful of episodes throughout my life like in its entirety, mostly because of access. Like where would I have seen it? But being a somewhat comedian myself and a female, I mean I was just like amaze, I was enthralled. She is incredible.
Speaker 3:The show, I think, for me was like that's good, it's funny, but her just specifically her delivery of every line absolutely incredible, loved it and, like you said, it's a classic. I have a question for you too, nathan. So this, truly, I mean I really it's hard to put this at the beginning of this season for us because it's just it's a hard place to have to beat of how good. So why do you think it's so low on the IMDB list? I mean, we're at the bottom of our list and I love Lucy's down there. Is it because it's older? What do you think? I think it deserves a little higher than that.
Speaker 1:Well, I think it's because in today's society our bar is very low when it comes to comedy and so very intelligent comedy won't be as highly ranked. So as we get up this list, I think the quality of the comedy and I could be wrong, you know, and not every show on this list is a comedy, but maybe comedies higher up on the list may not be as what we think is funny. As I love Lucy because it, like we've said before, we could say this a million times it was iconic and, yes, lucio Ball herself was hilarious. But I think what worked with the show is you have four characters that worked really well together on the show.
Speaker 1:Behind the scenes We'll talk about a little bit, but behind the scenes they weren't so hunky dory, but they were able to put all that real life stuff on the back burner a little bit to really shine on this show. And obviously you have Vivian Vance and Lucio Ball playing best friends. You have William Frawley playing Fred. He's really, really funny. It was just a really good ensemble show. And obviously, yes, at the forefront was Lucio Ball and Desi Arnaz real life married couple. But I think what really works for the show is just how they all worked really really well together.
Speaker 3:I think that's probably my big highlight as well, nathan. I think you're spot on. It's the chemistry. To have the chemistry between both married couples and then as the four of them, the four of them there was incredible. I had not realized again, because I've only watched, maybe clips of I Love Lucy how much he, ricardo, actually Ricky Ricardo, is singing. He sings full blown songs in some of these episodes and they're only 24 minutes long, so he's like definitely performing in a lot of them. So, yeah, I think my big highlight is her specifically delivery, facial humor, what was it called? Body humor? I guess I'm sure there's a theater name for it, nathan. But the chemistry, I think was just spot on and every character played their character well, like the kind of grouchy old maybe. If I had a critique there, it would be the unlikelihood of Ethel and Fred being married. I feel like maybe we're a little more hard of a cell of being a married couple.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, obviously they're supposed to be married longer than Lucy and Desi, so they have that. I don't think they're hard to believe as a old, grouchy married couple. You know as kind of like the foil of the younger, happier married couple who sometimes get into little spats, but you know they make up by the end of it. But let's get into a little bit of the background of I Love Lucy Now. My sister, becca, is a big fan of Lucy O'Ball. She even took a trip to New York to go to Jamestown, new York, where they have the I Love Lucy Museum where you can look at memorabilia and you know replicas of the set and all that kind of fun stuff. So she is like a diehard Lucy fan, which is kind of how I found my way into being a fan of I Love Lucy as well.
Speaker 1:You know we watched some of the most classic episodes the Vitavietta Benjamin episode. We watched the one where they have to try to herd chicks. We watched the one where Lucy O'Ball herself said her favorite episode was the Italian movie episode where she stomping grapes. Because it is just, she was just a master at physical comedy and back in those times, back in those days you didn't really see that as much with female actresses. You didn't see that physical comedy, which is, again, is why she's so iconic. But if you haven't, I would highly recommend a movie called being the Riccardo's starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Lucy O'Ball and Desirnes. It is based on their real life story. It's kind of sad, kind of tragic in a way. No one dies, but just the way well their marriage does, and it's just really sad to watch because it's a side of them that you're not used to seeing, a very serious side. And so have you seen that movie? I think I kind of mentioned it to you before we recorded. Have you watched any of it before?
Speaker 3:I watched it. I'm like about 30 minutes in. I mean I would much rather sit and watch I Love Lucy, but I will admit I think it goes back to where I'd rather not know information going in. If I was just watching I Love Lucy I think I'd have a different opinion, but now that I can't unknow the fact they're a real life married couple and that they had problems and that they end up getting divorced, it almost tastes every episode for me in a tiny way. I mean obviously I still enjoy it.
Speaker 3:There's that little tinge of like it's not as funny when they're actually having problems because they bicker non-stop in the show and that's kind of the trope. So it's like how much of this is real, how much of these attacks are real? Like Maybe a dislike of this show too is. I mean, obviously it's dated, so there's gonna be some off-color jokes that wouldn't wouldn't go today, and so maybe sexism. You know there's one episode where they decide, oh man, women really should stay at home and that really should go to work, but the the references to like infidelity and like leaving their husband is constant. So like I don't know that I this is not one I would like want my kids watching. I guess, to be fair, even though it is very silly, I'm like it's quite, quite adult humor, humor in my personal video. But All that to say the movie you're referencing, I feel like if you watch it you can't ever watch the episodes the same.
Speaker 1:I had seen it before and Before we started recording, I mentioned that I was watching episodes and I was like cracking up laughing and I had seen these Episodes before, like these are, and I found myself watching episodes that weren't necessarily on the essential list. But I would like scroll past To the essential episodes. I'm like, oh man, that's not on the list, I gotta watch that. That was hilarious because there's like one where there's home videos and Lucy tries to Make her own little home movie and it's. It's just hilarious. I mean, it's just classic stuff. So if you have the time, go watch. I love Lucy. It's a classic TV show. I don't really have that many dislikes. I guess I could kind of agree with you that some of the jokes wouldn't really land that well today, you know, and, like you said, the episode where they switch Places, where Lucy and Ethel try to get a job, which again is a classic episode because they the chocolate.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh. Yes, they're better, that's just.
Speaker 1:It's, it's like you. Just when you think of I love Lucy, you just think of those little moments like the Vitavita Benjamin and the conveyor belt with chocolate, and these images just pop in your head. You're like, oh my gosh, I have to go and watch that because it's just so funny. So I can kind of look past the, the dated stuff, because it still has that charm and it still has that appeal and it still has that hilarious Hilarity to it. And and that is what kind of makes it sad, if you know the real-life Story and you know that that's kind of the reason why I love Lucy kind of ended abruptly. It ran for six seasons. If you've ever watched the very last episode, it doesn't really have a finality to it, so it kind of just fizzles out, it kind of just ends.
Speaker 1:Now she did go on. Lucy O'Ball did go on and do other shows the Lucy show, the I'm pretty sure they did like a little Lucy dizzy comedy hour, one, one more time together. So there are other shows where Lucy tried to go out on her own. They didn't really do as well as I love Lucy, but still she was just phenomenal. And yeah, I mean, there's really nothing else you could say, except that this show is classic. You need to watch it, it's great.
Speaker 3:It is great and again I'm trying to just wreck my brain for how in the world it could be so low on the list, and I think maybe another reason it's lower on the top list is that it is sort of the same gig all throughout, right? So like yes, things change. This show was very popular for this reason and also kind of scandalous because they showed Lucy when she was pregnant. They referenced her giving birth. They had to like get that cleared because apparently that was just so wildly inappropriate at the time to reference that, which is crazy. So the number one, like most viewed episode of hers was when she like has a baby at the hospital. You don't even see her having the baby. She's barely in the episode at all.
Speaker 3:It was one of my least favorite episodes to watch, but just because everyone was anticipating all that being said, the day like each episode still feels a little bit repetitive. Same kind of you know it's the same jokes. I could imagine six seasons. If I really did watch every episode. I might get a little tired and I would imagine you saw some resurfacing of jokes. So I could see that being maybe a ding on the creativity. But another fun fact, and you just think about as, nathan, with what we have out today. There's a gazillion. We have streaming sites that are all creating their own shows.
Speaker 3:I think another big thing that was able to kickstart Lucy again. She's talented, no matter what I cannot even imagine. I think she told all of our attention even today. But I think her other big reason for success was it was all that was on TV in reference to, I think it was in the movie You're having me watch. They cut back to real people and one of the people said literally we had to. Department stores were changing their hours because no one was shopping on Monday nights because they were at home watching I Love Lucy. I mean, it was a cultural phenomenon, same same with, kind of with Elvis like just a household name, and I don't know that we'll ever live in a world where that happens again.
Speaker 1:I don't think we will, especially with streaming services now. I mean, you can watch them anytime you want and you can still go shopping on Monday nights, but that is. That is I Love Lucy. Those are our thoughts. Go out and watch it. You can watch on, ironically enough, a streaming service. Nowadays you don't have to watch them on TV. So if we were to try to write this and I said this before we started recording it's really hard to not give I Love Lucy like a perfect score because it's so iconic. But you did mention some dislikes, so I'm interested to see if you are going to give it a perfect score of six out of six.
Speaker 3:It's totally my type of humor and I just adore her. But again, for maybe getting a little old after a while, same jokes and maybe even Ricky not being my favorite actor like I didn't feel like he's very talented but acting could be a little work I'm going to give it a. I'm still going to give it a very strong five and a half because, wow, just I think she gets a five and a half. The show gets a five.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. So that is, I love Lucy. So now take a listen to our double feature episode next week. That's right, we're going to watch two movies and I'll tell you why after you take a listen.
Speaker 2:I think there's something written here Ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck. Say the magic word Jeannie, I wish for you to make me a prince.
Speaker 1:He has the lamb.
Speaker 2:We never going to get a hold of that lamb. I'm a lamb heart. Do you trust me? Don't you dare close your eyes, hold your breath to see. Let me share this whole new world with you. Keep your hands and arms inside the carpet. We are here. You stumbled upon an opportunity. I can make you rich, rich enough to impress a princess. What would I have to do? There's a cave of wonders. Bring me the lamp. Oh, great one, who summons me? I stand by my oath. Loyalty to wishes three. I'm kidding, watch this, watch out, you don't round me up. You ain't never had a prince like me. Hey, can you make me a prince? There is a lot of gray area in make me a prince. I could just make you a prince. Oh no, you all see my palace. You look like a prince on the outside, but I didn't change anything on the inside. Showtime no, I'm in charge. Okay, I say when it's time. Really, I thought a princess could go anywhere, not this princess. Princess, do you trust me?
Speaker 1:That's right. We're tackling Aladdin, disney's Aladdin the cartoon, and just for fun Even though I know Katie's not looking forward to it the live action Aladdin Because why not?
Speaker 3:Why not? I'll tell you why not Because this is supposed to be a list of top 250 movies and I'll tell you right now, the live action is not in that lineup.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it's somewhere in there. Probably not, but we are going to just for fun. I saw the live action in theaters and so I already have thoughts about it. Katie, you said you kind of watched little scenes and you're like I don't want to watch it, but now you're going to, just for me and our listeners. Right, she's nodding in silence. So I'm sure it's somewhere in there, probably not. I'm nodding in silence, so that's I Love Lucy. We're going to be talking about Aladdin next episode. Katie, how would you like to send us off for this? I Love Lucy episode.
Speaker 3:Lucy, you got some explaining to do.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to Nadie and Katie at the Movies. Feel free to leave us a review so people can find the show. Follow us on all our social media platforms and if there's a movie that you want us to watch, feel free to contact us at NadieandKatyatgmailcom. Thanks for listening and have a great day.