I sort of wished the character of Carolyn Appleby was used more often. On the other hand, perhaps more of her might've made her grow stale. Nevertheless, all of the Carolyn ones are great; except for that later one (I think in the Connecticut period.) in which she's not as sassy.
shareI don't think Carolyn was in any of the Connecticut episodes.
Lucy and Ethel were friends with Betty Ramsey, then.
Agreed, she was only in the New York episodes. I wish she had been in some of the Connecticut episodes because I couldn't stand Betty Ramsey.
shareThat actress, Mary Jane Croft, later replaced Vivian Vance on The Lucy Show.
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Well, the two-couple format became a three-couple one in Connecticut.
Maybe the producers of THE LUCY-DESI COMEDY HOUR believed that it was just too much, so they dropped the Ramseys.
Personally, I believe the Ramseys might have improved the show; IMO, the hour-long specials stunk!
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I believe they weren't signed for the hour-long series because they knew that Lucy and Ricky would spend most of their time far away from home and wouldn't really need their friendly neighbors. Also, as someone else suggested, paying the big name guest stars kept them from needing more characters in the show.
I also agree with your sentiment that most of the Comedy Hour shows stunk. I saw them on some rerun station a couple of years ago and found them hard to watch.
The only one I liked was the crazy hunting for uranium episode with Fred MacMurray, although it was far from realistic, it was funny in a zany, Buster-Keaton-like way. It almost seems like it could have been the inspiration for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, from which my "signature" line below is taken.
Why don't we just shoot 'em down and be through with it?
I wonder how Carolyn Appleby would get along with Betty Ramsey.
shareI'm guessing that it would have been hate-at-first-sight.
And it never would have mellowed or blossomed into friendship.
I thought Betty was overall nicer than Caroline . Ralph of course was a far better character than Charlie Appleby . Funnier.
shareYeah, once Betty quit putting on airs, she was nice. Apart from that furniture episode---when Betty was acting so imperious by choosing Lucy's new furniture practically without consulting her at all---did they ever fight?
But what I liked about Carolyn was her snarky remarks---especially to Lucy with whom Carolyn seemed most competitive.
Yes, especially regarding their children.
Of course, Ricky and Charlie were just as bad.
Sometimes I wonder if Little Ricky became friends with Stevie Appleby, or did both boys reflect their parents' attitudes.
I'd like to think the former, since Stevie was willing to abandon his own birthday party and attend Little Ricky's when he heard that Superman would be there.
One of the series' best episodes, IMHO.
It was a funny episode until the end, when June Haver started bitching at her husband for losing a lousy $100.
And he acted like a total wimp!
In fact, that scene was a gender-reverse of Lucy and Ricky.
IRL, the MacMurray's were not like that; I can't see why they were on this show.
I enjoyed the Comedy Hour shows.
shareI liked the comedy hour shows, too (especially Tallulah Bankhead and Danny Thomas)
shareWasn't Carolyn Appleby first called Lillian. I believe in the episode when they elect a president for their club she's referred to as Lillian. She must have made an impression because she later became Carolyn.
shareShe was, but I read the writers decided to change her name from Lillian to Carolyn because Lillian and Lucy sounded too much alike. However, in Lucy Gets Into Pictures, Ricky refers to her as Lillian.
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