Has anyone seen the episode of "I Love Lucy" where she wants to fill in for a ballet dancer in one of Ricky's night club acts? If you get a chance to view this, please do so. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. There is not much in the way of technical dancing, but it is a wonderful piece of work by a great entertainer.

Yes, isn't it great? I love it when she gets her foot on the barre and can't get it back down -- now that I can relate to!

Very funny episode. By the way, wasn't Lucy actually a dancer in real life (before becoming a star)?

Yes, Lucy had a considerable stage career in musicals before she started her movie/TV life. Would you believe that she was a Ziegfeld Girl, and one of the Roxyettes - before they became the Rockettes? She started in movies as a "heavy" - gun molls, "bad girls" and such.

Lucy was a great physical comedienne. Her pas de deux with the barre is genius.
Mary Wickes as ballet mistress is hilarious too. :grinning:

Dancepig, if you enjoyed Lucy in ballet class, you must find the episode "Lucy Meets the Queen". In this episode Lucy will do anything to meet the queen of England and finds herself in Ricky's act (one of the only times with his permission) dancing a number called "Trained Ponies." Now you must find this episode for the outcome. :shhh:

I loved that episode too. They were re-running the Lucy Show here about five or six years ago and that was the only one I saw -- completely by chance. So it was perfect that it was the ballet episode It is perfect, deft, physical comedy. Gosh. In today's ballet world, she'd be doing Swan Lake, if only she could get those turns down.

Thanks for the tip on that episode. I'll look for it. I have never heard of it, but it sounds great. Do you know what year it was produced? Watching the ballet episode, makes you realize how talented Lucy was because it takes more talent to do what she did than to actually do it correctly!

I know the pony dance, but not the year it was created. Sorry about that.

Another fun episode with Lucy on stage exposing her beautiful gams is: "Ethel's Hometown." :grinning:

The sketch in the last-named episode is called the "drop man" routine. A headliner singer stands far downstage singing a highly sentimental chestnut, while the comedians cross back and forth upstage of her/him, doing outrageous things. There's always a running gag. In this one it's people carrying a little plant - which gets bigger and bigger with every cross.

lucille ball was in a film where she played either a ballet student or ballet dancer in a show, now i saw it moons ago, but i'll see if i can find out which it was.

well this might be it, but i guess my recall is faulty:

Dance, Girl, Dance: (1940; RKO). Lucille plays "Bubbles", the more popular dancer in this musical that co-stars Maureen O'Hara as an out-of-work ballerina who is forced to find work at a burlesque house---where the clientele doesn't appreciate the art of ballet. (Musical, 89 minutes/bw)

I haven't seen that one, pmeja. Do you know if it is available on video?

The only place I could find it on video was Amazon, there is only one copy and it's used, and the Seller wants $99.00 for it! So, I put in a request for it on half.com, but I'm not holding my breath. It does appear to be shown on TV, but we don't get any of the fancy channels.

Interesting that the film was directed by a woman, Dorothy Arzner!

That's most likely why the movie turned out so well. It also said that it was during the shooting of this film that Ricky first met Lucy

There was also a very funny episode of Ellen deGeneres' show that parodied the Lucy episode. I can't remember the entire plot, but somehow Ellen finds herself in a ballet studio, where she is expected to place one leg on the barre. Of course she can't get it there, and says to the girl next to her (with lovely form), "gee you must be popular!". Hilarious.

We didn't have TV for several years (and I loved it!) but now that we live "in the city" we get lots of channels without having to pay for cable.

My daughters seem to be trying to make up for their entertainment deprivation all in the space of a few months. Besides the typical "preteen" type shows on primetime and the occasional PBS kids show they LOVE Lucy. It's on twice every weekday here, and they get as many laughs from Lucy's kooky ideas and plotting as they do from "That 70's Show" which is their favorite comedy. When I had to start imposing limits on TV time Lucy was one of the shows that made the cut

The Lucy as Ballerina episode is a family favorite. I remember laughing over it when I was a kid, and my mother remembers the same thing when SHE was a kid. We live with my grandmother and now she watches with the girls.

50 years later and people still love Lucy. I guess that's what makes a classic.