Editor’s note: summer is a good time to finally crack open those books you’ve been meaning to read all year. Contributor Maurice Tougas gets things started with his review of Desi Arnaz, The Man Who Invented Television (Simon and Schuster), Lucille Ball – just Lucy to her millions of fans – has rightfully been elevated
I’ve raved about this before, but if you’re not listening to Lucille Ball’s “podcasts” recorded back in the mid-’60s, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do. The recordings are basically a re-edit of radio show conversations Ball had back in 1964-65. These ten-minute radio show episodes have been kept is a vault for years and number
Amy Poehler’s documentary on Desi and Lucy premieres Friday on Amazon Prime Video. Lucille Ball and husband Desi Arnaz’s iconic sitcom I Love Lucy (1951-’57) can still be seen weekdays in the greater Toronto area (on Hamilton’s CHCH) as well as on streaming platforms (Prime Video, Apple TV or your Roku device). If you’re new
If you thought Aaron Sorkin had some ‘splainin’ to do for liberties taken with his biopic “Being the Ricardos,” you might want to compare it to this new documentary from a first-time director who knows from comedy — Amy Poehler. With the help of 23 hours of recorded conversations left behind by Lucille Ball, Poehler
Way back in July of 1960, TV Guide ran its 10th cover story on Lucille Ball. The headline was terse: “Humiliated and Unhappy.” Writer Dan Jenkins caught up with TV’s “zany redhead” two months after her divorce from Desi Arnaz and right before a career misstep in a Broadway musical called “Wildcat.” Jenkins wrote that
Aaron Sorkin takes liberties. The creator/executive producer of The West Wing moved a few facts around in telling the story of electronic television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth with his Broadway play “The Farnsworth Invention” (2007). For one thing, he wrote that Farnsworth was defeated in court by wiley RCA boss David Sarnoff over his patent
You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do if you’re not celebrating 70 years of I Love Lucy. Television’s most enduring comedy began on Oct. 15, 1951. With the help of showrunner Jess Openheimer, Lucille Ball, who bounced from RKO comedies to chorus girl roles in movies, turned a radio hit into a TV sensation. She did
Thirty-two years after her death in 1989 at 77, Lucille Ball continues to surprise. Sirius XM recently launched a re-edited package of radio show conversations Ball had back in 1964-65. Re-imagined as a modern podcast, these ten-minute radio show episodes have been kept is a vault for years and number in the hundreds. Stitched together,