Instead of that dreadfully bad 7th-season opener, "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana", I wish
the writers opened that first hour-length show with Caroline calling and saying that she and
Charlie (Hy Averback, please) wanted to come by for a visit. In their visit, they announce, they,
too, have bought a house in the country - right down the street! The Appleby's brag about
how "big" their home is, AND it has a swimming pool and tennis court. When they leave,
they invite Lucy and Ricky, and of course, Fred and Ethel, to visit.
Naturally, Lucy feels encroached upon, and is instantly jealous. But there's no way she can
get out of playing "happy-for-them", so she instead thinks of a way to outshine Caroline
at her OWN new house.
I think that would have been a fantastic opener! There would have been so many good scenes between Lucy and Caroline. Maybe one of the things Lucy would have come up with was to invite a celebrity friend over, as being the comedy hour shows had a guest star in each episode. Maybe there could have been a fight between Caroline and Lucy where maybe she pushes Caroline in the pool, that would have been funny haha.
That would have been a much better opener than that awful cruise to Havana which totally torpedoes Lucy and Ricky's backstory. And the Mertzes on their honeymoon?? In what universe could an old Bill Frawley play a young man on his honeymoon? yikes!
The first thing I thought of was Lucy getting a celebrity friend to one-up Carolyn. But in the Hollywood episode when Carolyn visited, she was really impressed with Lucy's celebrity "friends". She seemed to be too starstruck o be envious.
I could be wrong, but the two women seemed to have matured past their earlier jealousies. But having Carolyn and Charlie in a few episodes would have been a VAST improvement over some of the dreadful episodes that were filmed.
During the Superman episode it seemed to me that the Lucy/Carolyn rivalry shifted to a rivalry over motherhood. Of course that was evident in the baby pictures episode. Maybe another episode where the two women were involved in some sort of competition involving Stevie and little Ricky would've been funny.
I wonder if Mary Jane Croft felt slighted for being dropped from the hour-long shows. I wager not. First, she was very
underused in season six, and both she and Frank Nelson worked continuously in many shows. Croft was a
semi regular on Ozzie and Harriet as Clara, before, during, and after ILL.
I would've had Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel visit Caroline's new home, then, later, maybe had Tallulah over to Lucy's
with the Appleby's present, so Lucy could try to outshine Caroline with a star. Lucy could also invite Marion Strong
and her husband (Bill, whom we never saw), to come by and brag about THEIR new New York duplex!! Can you imagine
the various insults floating around between these women??
For added fun, Betty and Ralph could walk in in the second half, bragging about THEIR recent trip to Hawaii!!
I never cared much for the Ramseys, but I always found it odd that they seemingly just disappeared off the face of the earth once the show went to an hour. I think they might have been mentioned once or twice but of course we never saw them again.
Betty and Ralph were very underused. i would have preferred to see them instead of the endless stream of one shot celebrity appearances. But they didn't fit into the plan for the new series. The Comedy Hour was definitely NOT "I Love Lucy".
The new show with all its celebrity guest stars reminds of current sitcoms who do a "very special episode", usually during sweeps week. That's annoying enough, but when a show tries to do it every week it seems phony. The hour long episodes just don't have the charm and intimate feel of the half hour show.
The hour long show wasn't about Lucy and Ricky's neighbors and friends. It was about Lucy running into a celebrity every week. The Comedy Hour IS kind of sad to watch (I agree with AndrewHNPX2)