DennisHinSF I'm part of the camp that adores "I Love Lucy", but REALLY dislikes her later shows. I love Lucy really had it all, cast chemistry, fantastic writing, great production values, a Manhattan setting, even some romance (Desi & Lucy are wonderful to watch together). TLS is another matter entirely. Some of it isn't her fault. between the end of ILL and the beginning of TLS she seems to have aged 10 years or more. Her entire demeanor has changed - after the 1st season everyone starts shouting all their lines. It's about as subtle as a truck. Lucy is the worst offender of all - you see the setup for all the gags coming, then their execution with the laugh track turned way up. I'm sure most of it is because Desi Arnaz produced the 1st year of the new show, and left after the last episode. In I Love Lucy, Desi's presence there allows her to show a vulnerable, feminine side to her character that is lovable and appealing. In TLS, that's gone, her makeup looks like it was spooned on with a spatula. The huge false eyelashes, the overly thick blue eye shadow, and red red lipstick make her face look like a mask. Hey, no one wants to hit 50, especially a woman who was as beautiful as Ball was in her youth & early middle age. But the worst is that she shouts her lines and people bodily over react as though they were in a silent film. The worst part is that she is now relying on cue cars, something she would have never done on ILL. Just a shame, and not funny.

DKosty123 This was Lucy's first series after the Lucy-Desi break-up. In many ways though it followed the same formula as I Love Lucy in that the comedy was set up just as well and Lucy is just as funny. Her character was developed as one that actually hit the times well. Lucy was portrayed here as a single woman and still energetic enough to pull it off. Folks like Garry Marshall were among the talented writers enlisted to do scripts and many of the scripts were very funny. Lucy with her talent added to all of them.Famous guest stars littered the shows, from her second encounter with legend John Wayne to Jack Benny and the first physical sighting of his famous vault where he squeezed his first dime. Gale Gordon was a great support actor as Lucy's boss at the bank she worked at during the series. That was the difference between this series & I Love Lucy is that most of the time Lucy was trying to keep her bank job with Mr. Mooney instead of trying to be a star.It is a subtle change but important to note that Lucy could still be funny in different situations. Viven Vance is always a delight when she is on this show. She could not be on all the time due to some health problems she had but she did appear a lot. Ratings for this show were number 1 until it's last season when NBC stripped a gear & Laugh-In came on board.

BumpyRide Add my opinion to the others...Vivian Vance added a great deal of class to all the "Lucy" shows. None was more evident than in "The Lucy Show" when she departed (much too soon). After Vivian left the show it was apparent that Lucy needed a sidekick and various guest stars tried to fill Vivian's shoes but none came close. Once the show was broadcast in color, Lucy doing too much (such as running Desilu) started acting with too many broad strokes thinking that whatever she did would be funny. It wasn't. Some of the later shows were actually embarrassing to watch and you realized that not only were the writer's out of ideas but Lucy should have ended this show years before.

Ripshin As many others have stated, the early years of this reincarnation of "I Love Lucy" are the ones worth watching. The show mutated over the years, with the deletion of her children and Vivian Vance, and the increased presence of the annoying Gale Gordon.Recently, I rented a DVD of some "Lost Episodes" that obviously came later in the series. They are painful to watch, with Lucy basically hamming it up with guest stars. The sets are garish, and the performances grating. Mary Jane Croft simply isn't a substantial substitute for Vance. Throughout Lucille Ball's career, Croft popped up in various roles. While Vance was still in this series, Croft played one character. Then, once Vivian left, Croft suddenly became another, more prominent, supporting player.Gale Gordon, of course, acted in every single radio/TV project in which Ball was involved. However, he only guested on "I Love Lucy," strangely enough. (He WAS her first choice for Fred Mertz, however.)This show was totally transformed into "Here's Lucy" in 1968, with Vance returning sporadically. It fares a bit better than the last seasons of "Lucy Show."