quote:

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3. I Love Lucy was the first television comedy to use the three-camera format in front of a live studio audience.
Cinematographer Karl Freund developed a system for lighting the set from above so that production wouldn't have to change lighting when camera angles switched. Christopher Anderson of the Museum of Broadcast Communications writes, "Although the technique was not generally used outside of [Ball's production company] Desilu until the 1970s, it is now widely used throughout the television industry."

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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 08-06-2011, 05:28 PM:
 
Bobby, can you post a screen cap of the Google page? We don't have it on Google here.
 

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Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 08-06-2011, 06:15 PM:
 

quote: Pravin Ratnam

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I am thinking of shows like Dick Van Dyke which is a desilu production.

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I don't think The Dick Van Dyke Show was produced by Desilu...though you're correct to point out it used a similar filming technique (35mm/multi-camera/live audience) as I Love Lucy.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-06-2011, 07:09 PM:
 
Google isn't allowed in Australia? Huh? That's strange. Are you prevented from searching "Google Doodle" and bringing up the various doodles that way?

Here's a cropped image out of a screen shot:



The TV set plays a few different clips from the I Love Lucy show.
 

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Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 08-06-2011, 07:17 PM:
 
The Dick Van Dyke show was a Calvada Production that was filmed at Desilu.

It's sad that some of the shows Hallmark is using are fuzzy and dull looking, and sometimes lacking contrast.

The prints we used in syndication back in the 1970's looked much better than these do.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-06-2011, 09:16 PM:
 
I grew up with the followup to "I Love Lucy," which was "The Lucy Show." Lucy played basically the same character, maybe a little less goofball but still just as crazy. She was a widow and a bank secretary to Mr. Mooney, played wonderfully by Gale Gordon.

Some of those shows are hilarious. I'm surprised it's gotten so much less attention than the "I Love Lucy" shows. One of my favorites was the episode where Mooney is trying to get Jack Benny to open an account in the bank, so Lucy suggests that the bank build "the world's greatest vault" to give Benny confidence in the bank. Of course, the vault is a direct descendant from Benny's radio show. Great stuff. "Those aren't rocks....they're giant snapping turtles!"
 

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Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 08-07-2011, 11:23 AM:
 
I heard a DJ on the radio say that Lucille Ball directed some episodes of Star Trek. I had never heard that before, so I immediately got online to check it, which it was of course FALSE.

However, I did find out somethings I did not know. Star Trek was originally a Desilu production. Also after the first pilot was not approved Lucille Ball insisted on it being redone until it was approved. Also she apparently would hang out on the set while filming, sweeping up and doing other odd jobs (at that point in her career, she definitely didn't need to). She was the first Star Trek fan.
 

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Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 08-07-2011, 08:47 PM:
 

quote: Joe Elliott

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I did find out somethings I did not know. Star Trek was originally a Desilu production.

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quote: Bobby Henderson

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Google isn't allowed in Australia? Huh? That's strange. Are you prevented from searching "Google Doodle" and bringing up the various doodles that way?

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Well, yes and no. We have the internets here since a good 12 months now. It didn't occur to me to search for it but the news services seem to have covered it.

Thanks for adding the picture. Good for the archives too.
 

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Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 08-08-2011, 10:43 AM:
 
Michael, I haven't seen a original Star Trek episode since Next Generation came out in the 80s. I have seen every original episode, but I am a Next Generation fan. Not that I didn't enjoy the original series, I'm just not a fan of it.

I was in my teens back then, and oblivious to things like production companies, and actors names etc. I new people by what movies they had been in. It wasn't till IMDB came about that I would learn names. I didn't have time for credits, there were more movies to watch!!!
 

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Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 08-08-2011, 11:45 AM:
 
I personally ran a 30 minute "Lucy" 35mm print in a screening room. The print was wonderful quality, good contrast.

fwiw: desilu was once RKO Radio Pictures. Louis
 

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Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 5226) on 08-08-2011, 06:40 PM:
 
Check out, "Image Entertainment" who distributed an excellent dvd a few years ago "CBS Salutes Lucy" 1976, also available on dvd is "The Long Long Trailer" from 1954..a very funny movie.

 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 08-09-2011, 11:19 AM:
 
I remember 'I Love Lucy' being on television, but It wasn't something that I watched; I would have been quite young at the time. However, among the hundred or so telephones in my collection I do have two of the 'Lucy' model. the WE 302. One is an early metal-bodied one from 1938 which is in full working order, and I do use it from time to time. There's a picture of it alongside another American model, an Automatic Electric 40. I think the actual 302 which Lucy used was a later, plastic-bodied one.



Here's another picture of the 'Lucy' 302 alongside two roughly contemporary British models for comparison:



The 1/232 in the centre looks much neater without the bellset mounted underneath it.

The 302 is still a very popular model, and the voice quality on it surprisingly good; better than many younger models.

The cords are new reproductions; everything else is original.

My other 302 was given to me by a worker on a demolition site in Camden, NJ, where it had sat in a hole in the ground full of water and mud. Some of the parts are salvageable, and I'm thinking about re-building it as a 5302; all of the necessary parts are available.
 

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