I (Will Always) Love Lucy

The I Love Lucy show premiered the year I was born so I can literally say I have watched Lucy all my life.  I remember when I was very young I beleived my grandmother, who was quite a comedian herself, was actually Lucille Ball and what that crazy redhead on TV.  Looking back, I can see of course they looked nothing alike, but still, they were boistrous, funny and tender.


I honestly don't remember watching Lucy in first run episodes until later in the 1950's.  By then she had moved from the city to Connecticut and soon went from the weekly series to hour specials.  And she was in black and white.  In fact it was the first thing I wanted to see on TV when my grandmother bought her first color TV: Lucy's red hair.  By then it was The Lucy Show or maybeHere's Lucy.  Seems like until her death in 1989, there was always a Lucy show of some sort.  And as bad as some the later ones were, I, in fact most of the country, still loved Lucy.


Lucille Ball the real person once said, "I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done."  She proved that every time she stepped in front of a camera.  She also did so much for women during her career that really goes unnoticed.  And if you check out I Love Lucy reruns and pay very close attention, the themes and comedy of the show really parody and satirize many human foibles and political mores of the day.  It is subtle, but it is there.  And perhaps that is why the reruns seem so fresh, even after the umpteenth viewing.  No matter how many times one has seen the chocolate factory episode or the wine stomping one or the bread baking show or vitavegamem or when the Martians landed, one finds oneself laughing like it is the first time.


Yes, I love I Love Lucy and I loved Lucille Ball for all the wonderful laughs and fun she gave us.  On this the 100th anniversary of her birth and the 60th anniversary at hand of the premiere of the pre-eminent situation comedy of all time, I raise my glass to that fabulous redhead and salute her for living life so as to have regrets for what she did...along with all the great memories that go with them.