MovieChat Forums > I Love Lucy (1951) Discussion > Little Ricky Marathon

Little Ricky Marathon

posted 7 years ago by [email protected] (1732)
3 replies | jump to latest

After about a week or so away from "the old stuff", I settled down two nights ago and had
a "Little Ricky Marathon."

While far from my favorite character (babies and five year-olds don't add much to movies
or TV, except to add a "cutsie-poo" element - one reason I've never liked "Little House on
the Prairie"). Little Ricky served a great purpose on ILL. He brought out the tenderness
of Ricky and Lucy, and bonded the Ricardos to Fred and Ethel, who were his God parents.
He was never overused, even in the sixth season. Frankly, I can't imagine the show without
him (and it was smart to not have Lucy pregnant a second time, unlike Bewitched, which
fell into that trap). And besides, without Little Ricky, there'd be no Mrs. Trumbull! Perish
the thought.

Anyway, I put together five shows spanning him as a newborn, baby, toddler, and
five year-old.

No Children Allowed (I've seen this about five times in the last two months, but enjoy it!).
Baby Pictures (the Mayer Twins were so cute! Can't say the same for ugly "Stevie!").
Nursery School
Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums
Lucy and Superman

[–] [email protected] (5526) 7 years ago

'No Children Allowed' and 'Baby Pictures' are two of my favorites. I did think Little Stevie was kinda cute! I also enjoyed 'Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums'.

I DO agree it was a good idea not to hve a second baby on the show. I don't think the Arnazes even considered it. It wasn't exaclty a family type sitcom. It was geared towards Lucy and involving her friends in her crazy schemes. It worked best with just two couples, like The Honeymooners.

As far as Bewitched, well, Elizabeth Montgomery was having another baby in real life so I don't know how they could have written aROUND her big stomach! LOL But little Adam really did not add much to the show, agreed.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

Liz was almost five months along when she finished shooting season five of BW. They hid it quite well, with just a hint
of a baby bump in certain scenes. She started shooting the "pregnancy/new Darrin" eps in March. She shot three
episodes ("Jack and the Beanstalk", "Samantha's New Yoo-Hoo Maid", and "Samantha's Curious Cravings"). Liz
then went on maternity leave. She gave birth to her daughter, Rebecca, on June 17th 1969.

Liz returned to work in August, wearing a pregnancy "padding" to shoot the Julius Caesar ep, then giving birth
to Adam.

To me, they could've skipped over the pregnancy storyline and just let Liz return to work in August. It would've
been cutting things close, but they would've been about six shows ahead of air date (and they were tighter
than that in season one, due to Liz's delivery of her first baby). Adam just added nothing, and the pregnancy
shows are either good ("Jack and the Beanstalk") or lousy ("Julius Caesar") due to the scripts, not because
Liz was pregnant. I would've preferred just Tabitha. Just like Little Ricky.

[–] [email protected] (5526) 7 years ago

"Jack and the Beanstalk" was a pretty good episode. I watched it a few months ago when I bought season six. The new Darrin was a lot funnier than I remembered.

I suppose they could have shot around Elizabeth Montgomery's pregnancy. But obviously she and her husband didn't want to! I agree that baby added added nothing to the show. But they hardly mentioned him at all in certain episodes anyway. It was easy to forget about him.

"Samantha's Curious Cravings" affected me though recently. When Sam popped into that deli for a corned beef sandwich with extra mustard, that was ALL I could think about! LOL I bought a loaf of rye bread and deli roast beef. I ate that for three days.