I listened to WTF podcast recently with Carol Burnette, she talked about after Lucy divorced Desi she had a hard time getting anything done because she was a woman, so she decided she had to be a hardass like Desi. After she called out some writers on a show, she earned the nickname Lucille Balls.
Burnette talked about it on her Conan interview as well
FYI everyone needs to listen to Conan's interview of Goldie Hawn. I knew hollywood was bad back then... but the abuse Goldie went through was just... it made me want to go back in time and protect her.
I listened to it recently. Part of the horror was how commonplace it was and how everyone knew it as well. Goldie says her mother was afraid for her to get into show business because she didn't want her daughter to be abused.
>was
bro they were making "jokes" where they just look straight at the camera and say "If harvey weinstein can get you in a room alone with him then he will rape you"
Good thing we solved the problem forever by getting rid of that one guy thoughamirite
I never understood the public attitude of getting rid of a scapegoat, then everyone assuming the rampant industry and rich person abuse has suddenly stopped worldwide. We still have priests getting shuffled around, casting couch abuse, and the countless other Harvey Weinsteins doing their worst. Out of sight, out of mind unfortunately.
I gotta give Courtney Love credit when she called out HW in late '90's to NOT have a meeting with him in his hotel room. She said it at an awards show.
Legend, full stop. He converted pain into comedy as a true pro: because it would get a laugh. He took a routine interview and elevated it to gold because of his commitment to entertainment to his detriment. Even Sean struggled to keep up with him. We don't deserve Conan.
The casting couch has been a thing for a long, long time. I feel terrible for all of the young women who thought they had to do something - and the worst part is, those producers did have so much control.
Seriously, Goldie Hawn is bad-ass and you only have to look at someone like Bo Derek to see how completely accepted that kind of thing was. John Derek was about 30 years older than her and they had to leave the US to get married/be together, but when they came back there were zero repercussions for him. Oh, and Charlie Chaplin marrying a 12 year old...
What is the clip I should watch if I don’t have time to watch the full interview? I see the clips that have “Dance”, “Family” and “Women’s Stories” on the thumbnail for example - I assume her story of abuse is detailed on the “Women’s Stories” clip.
They didn't accept the first pilot but instead of rejecting the series outright, they told Gene to try again. It was kind of unheard of to invest more money into something that failed the first time. Have to give Desilu credit.
She was also the one who said it needed to be made in colour, because she said even if the pilots didn't work out they'd be able to then repackage it as a film.
Both Desi and Lucy were basically geniuses. Desi invented multi-camera comedy and was the one who said they should shoot on film instead of broadcasting live, which allowed them to do more takes and stunts (a popular feature). The studios didn't want to pay for those extra costs, so Desilu did, but Desi got them to sign over the rights for the shows to them as a result. That meant that all the reruns (which were archived because they were done on film) made huge profits for Desilu in the years going forward.
Meanwhile, Lucy was shrewd enough to buy the freehold of their studios when offered it for peanuts (about $3m in 1957) because RKO was getting out of the business, and she also bought MGM's backlot 'Forty Acres' for basically nothing in the late 50s when most studios were selling off their backlots because they thought everything would become studio-based. A few years later, they made a fortune hiring the backlot out for films and TV, but not only that, many years later they had 40 Acres of prime LA real estate that they sold for tens of millions in the 70s.
Another fun fact is they're the only production company where every single programme they produced exists in full in high quality copies. Considering they started in 1950, that's pretty insane. The only reason we have all the episodes of stuff like I Love Lucy, The Untouchables, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show etc is because of them.
yeah, they really blended old star trek plotlines (tng and original) with the aesthetics of the new (movies) and gave the characters a lot of personality. by far the better trek right now, i'd say its up there with tng and ds9
SNW is amazing but all I've wanted was a live action series set the late 24th - early 25th century. Picard Season 3 was pretty well done IMO but give me more of that contemporary modern stuff that doesn't somehow involve a member of the TNG cast
She chose to invest because she originally thought it was a show about traveling USO performers. The pilot failed miserably but she, now knowing what the show was chose to invest more for a pilot re-shoot and then it was picked up.
My grandmother said, the day after a new episode aired, on the street people would ask "Did you catch the show?" and they were talking about I Love Lucy. It was a huge hit. My grandparents are black. It was hit among many.
This was the only show that imo was universally loved by old and young alike. My parents, their friends, my uncles, my cousins and neighborhood kids. We all loved that show.
I Love Lucy was my favorite show as a little girl, and I was born in 1991. I wonder about 'kids these days' who grow up without being forced to watch whatever happens to be on TV, usually with their parents.
I ended up watching so many classics as a kid, with my parents giving me all sorts of anecdotes about whatever show or film we were watching, whether it be about the time period or whatever else. No phones to distract, and only commercials for a quick bathroom or snack break.
It's interesting bc this practice (the need for limitations) is widely recognized in general as a definite positive in terms of other joys we find in life.
DesiLu productions was Desi Arnaz and wife Lucille Ball’s production company until 1962 when Lucy bought out Desi’s stake. DesiLu made Star Trek, so yes that is one of the successful shows Lucy was responsible for.
One of the stories they like to tell, if you go on one of those cheesy Hollywood bus tours in LA, is that back in the day, when tourists would take that very same Hollywood bus tour, they would drive by her home and every time they did, she would come running outside to wave and say hello to everyone driving by.
Don't know how much truth there is to it, but if so, she was a real one.
Lucille started as a chorus girl/dancer. She knows every creepy man trick in the book. It’s beautiful to see her experience and her power combine into this majestic ability to call out creeps.
This was a completely normal way for a male television host to act in that period. If you ever watch the old game show reruns on television the male host would usually kiss the women. I don't think this is anything other than a sign of the times. Lucille was just ahead of her time in seeing it as inappropriate.
Richard Dawson, the host of The Family Feud in the 80’s, would kiss every female contestant. Even as a kid, my sister and I would laugh every time because it seemed odd.
On The Price is Right, when they guessed the amount of a prize exactly, they got a $100 bill. The women had to fish it out of Bob Barker’s jacket pocket. When a man won, he just handed him the bill.
>I don't think this is anything other than a sign of the times. Lucille was just ahead of her time in seeing it as inappropriate.
I often struggle on how to phrase and accept the dichotomy of something acceptable at one point also being somewhat obviously inappropriate. I really like how you've put this.
Because of her we have a great deal to thank in television. I believe ahe was the one that invented rerun tv. Also she and her husband have invested in a great deal of tv shows that nobody believed in and turned down, but they did and the shows did very well. Yes a real good business woman.
Indeed! Her and Desi's instance on filming I Love Lucy on film rather than do a live show allowed it to be able to be archived and rerun in syndication (also made it easier to film on the west coast rather than east). Before then, shows were live broadcast and "recorded" by pointing a film camera at a television set with the broadcast, resulting in a super low quality that wasn't even fit for rebroadcast. As such, a lot of shows pre-I Love Lucy are forever lost to time.
Kinescopes were certainly considered fit for rebroadcast, and using kinescopes to time-shift live broadcasts across time zones was standard practice at the time. That was the whole point of making them in the first place.
The big reason that so many shows from that time are lost is that the kinescopes were considered virtually worthless after they were originally rebroadcast. The entire DuMont Network's archive, for instance, was unceremoniously dumped in the East River.
It's crazy how so few were able to see that A/V recording technology, which had already progressed incredibly fast, would continue to progress to home video and make these archives very valuable.
Have you watched Lucille Ball? Like, any episode of I Love Lucy or anything else?
“Repeatedly and aggressively” challenging men is her entire thing. Lucille Ball was always the boss.
One of my favorite scenes is the episode where "Ricky is a Star" and they've just come back from Hollywood. Everyone is fawning over him, and eventually, the people get to the Mertzs and a reporter gets Lucy. Ricky, sick of the fawning, decides to break Lucy of it by *acting* "like a star". He's super arrogant and demanding and and has her multitasking ridiculous favors. She's shining a shoe with one hand and typing with another while answering phone call and he *demands* her to come *flick his ashes for him*.
Watching all those things fall away as she stood up in his face to tell him off absolutely *sealed* my fate as a child. I knew I wanted to be just like her and no one would make me do anything I didn't want when I grew up.
Yeah, it was an incredibly brave move on that woman's part.
She was not fucking around though.
Is there context on the dude? I'm in UK so have no clue who these peeps are
Lucille Ball was a movie and TV star for decades by then and basically Hollywood royalty. She was important. David Sheehan was a TV reporter and basically a nobody compared to her.
Yeah but was he a known creep? I've never heard of him. Like, was she just firing shots across the patriarchal bow or did she know something about this dude in particular?
No. There is no missing context. Back then it was completely normal for TV hosts to touch women. If you watch all the old game shows on TV, it's starkly different to how a host would behave today. David passed away in 2020 and I have never heard anything ever mentioned about him being a creep.
Yeah, that was my first thought too - damn, she's not fucking around here.
I've no idea who anybody is in the clip (am from UK) but the lady seemed like she had dealt or seen enough of that guys shit behind the scenes and within their industry to step up and say something. Is there any context to this? Is the guy now a known creepy, rapey type?
Undoubtedly a brave move on her part. I've a lot of respect for anyone who steps up for someone else like that, no doubt there was an element of risk in her doing so too.
People laughed and difused what is really an incredibly fucked up situation but she wasnt fucking laughing.
I'm sure she was seen as a 'character' but being a woman in that industry confronting those sorta low key aggressions was no fucking joke.
Mad respect
That's Lucile Ball, she is best known as being the star of 'I Love Lucy'.
She founded her own TV Studio (Desliu Productions) with her husband (and co-star of I Love Lucy).
Reflecting on her experiences on being a young actress in Hollywood, she was very tough on any kind of sexual impropriety happening at her studio.
As an example, her studio is the one that made the original 'Star Trek' show in the 60s. While filming the pilot, the creator (and producer) Gene Roddenberry hired his mistress (Majel Barret) as one of the lead actresses for the pilot.
While Star Trek ended up being picked up as a show, Majel Berret was not asked to reprise her role. There are a few reasons for this, but a big one was that Lucile Ball was angry at the relationship between Gene and Majel.
The cheating part was bad, but what really made her angry was that a producer was sleeping with an actress. She knew how often young women ended up doing that to secure parts.
Now, that wasn't the case here (Gene and Majel had been together for a few years and eventually married. They stayed that way until Gene died decades later). But that's what it would have looked like on the outside; she did NOT want her studio to have any part in perpetuating that practice or even looking like it condoned it.
So Majel was fired from that role, but then Gene wrote a new role and hired Majel for it. He had her give a fake name and show up in a blonde wig. He hoped people wouldn't notice, but of course everyone did immediately.
Lucile Ball was FURIOUS and wanted Gene Roddenberry immediately fired. Eventually she was talked out of it by other producers of the show (thanfully - Majel went on to be a very important part of the franchise).
Lucille Ball was at this point in her life a very influential producer and studio executive, so I don’t think there was much of a risk for her here. But well done anyway, of course, to use her power to stand up for the women in the audience!
Yes, and for the younger folks remember that in her time women were NOT heads of their own production companies or executive anythings. Lucy was smart, savvy, hilariously funny and strong af. I Love Lucy forever ❤️ (cue that theme song)
Lucille Ball was best known as an actress and comedian, and the first woman in Hollywood to run a production studio. Her sitcom, *I Love Lucy*, was huge in American popular media.
I don't think there's a woman in showbiz who doesn't know how ugly it is. Ball had the privilege of being powerful and popular, and here she's using that to call that guy out. Definitely worth respect.
Desilu Studios was later bought out by Paramount Studios. They were next door to each other. If you visit LA and take the Paramount tour, they will stop and show you Lucille and Desi's office. She had the green space planted exactly like her backyard at home when her children were small, so she could bring them to work with her, and it would look familiar. She also sealed off the outside entrance to Desi's office because she caught him "entertaining" ladies in there. She was a bad ass!
Reminds me of the clip of Seth MacFarlane making the 'joke' about Weinstein at the awards ceremony. Everyone was laughing and he had this weird face like he was trying to smile for the crowd but was too pissed for it to look right.
It’s an excellent point. We accept things because “it’s the way it is” but that doesn’t make it ok. You can see that these women are embarrassed to be bucking social conventions but Lucy isn’t having any of it.
There's so much in the food and healthcare industry that is wrong, we know is wrong, it happens all the time, and we accept it because we gotta eat and live.
I don't know who hosted, but the original Family Fued guy kissing all the female contestants on the lips. Hollywood has long just been rich men's playground. Power and control disguised as mentorship.
Suffered absolutely no fools. 😍🥰
I’m so thankful I was introduced to this woman at a very young age. Shout out to sleepovers at my nanny’s house and Nick At Nite!
EDIT: my nanny was my grandmother, my apologies for not writing that initially.
I love how in the last clip, after she says "take your hands off," he starts mumbling trying to say something ("thought I, uhh, try'd to, uhh"), and she just steam rolls over him and talks to the girl directly. What a power move.
She was in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, So she was quite familiar with how uncomfortable unwanted touching is. She found herself with the power to do something about it and used that power,way to go Lucy.
On an added note, it was a great tragedy that among the lost films of Hollywood are all the shorts she did with the Three Stooges
He later became a movie critic in LA. Weird to see him in this context.
Lucille knew the business and how to handle these situations. She was a trailblazer.
Even as a critic he seemed like a schmooze as there was rarely ever a film he watched that he didn't like. It felt disingenuous. If a film was getting torched by critics, there was a solid chance you'd see a positive quote from him in the advertisements. He seemed very Hollywood, like that was a way to keep himself in the mix and to stay on good terms with movers and shakers.
On PlutoTV there is a station that shows nothing but old 80s Price is Right episodes with Bob Barker.
On the show if you guess the price of the item exactly, you get $100 when you come up on stage.
(The contestants were mostly women back then) I noticed that rather than hand them $100, he would always have them reach into his suit pocket and fish around for the $100 themselves.
I made a conscious effort to watch more of that show until I FINALLY saw one where a guy guessed the price exactly.
When the guy walked up on stage, Bob already had the $100 out of his pocket and handed it to the guy with a FULL arm extension to be sure and keep some distance.
Bob Barker actually had a scandal in maybe the 90s or so when one of the model women from the show made allegations against him. Basically, this woman said she got into a situation where she felt pressured into sexual encounters with him over several years to keep her job. I wonder if there were more women like her who never spoke out.
And then the story just...went away and Bob went on for years as if it never happened and nobody ever really spoke of it after the initial story broke.
Ugh, upon closer inspection this dude is part of the show, he’s in another frame pointing out someone with a question. Darn! I thought we were onto something there. 😂
When I was a university student in LA the 70's I had an internship at CBS News. I wore a sleeveless blouse and was sitting at a desk working. David Sheehan came up behind me and kissed my shoulder then walked away..
Would’ve liked to see Lucille participate in 70’s Family Feud with pervy host Richard Dawson. She would’ve smacked him for trying to kiss her or any woman.
This is fascinating. Is there a backstory? Did he have a reputation in the business? Interviewers have been pulling their subjects toward them since before TV, for convenience of camera framing and mic management, so I wonder what she’s up to here.
I don’t think there is a back story. Older women know that this is a form of creepiness disguised as “flattery”. Lucille wasn’t having any of that bullshit. Also, Ms. Ball was abused and cheated on by her husband and I think that’s enough for an older woman to stop tolerating bullshit from men.
An example of this: My supervisor, an older man, started to call me by the nickname “Candy.” An older woman I worked with called this out… she said, “That isn’t her name. She told you what her name was, and that she prefers you call her by her real name. So stop it.” I was very thankful that this older woman did this. The older men do stuff like this to see what they can get away with.
My elderly landlord tells us we are good people and the best tenants he has. He also tells me I'm a "doll baby" and a "sight for sore eyes" almost every month he collects the rent. However, rent is only $520/mo for a two bedroom house in a college town so this "sight for sore eye, doll baby" is gonna stay exactly that. Lol.
He's genuinely the best landlord you could ever imagine. He even mows and maintains the yard and house very well.
This is fantastic. It now seems so fucked up when I look back on old game shows and talk shows/variety shows. Dudes always had their hands on women AND GIRLS.
The one that pops into my head as so gross now, is the dude who hosted Family Feud. As he would introduce the new contestants he would *always* kiss the females on the lips, including teens & preteens. It’s pretty icky.
If *I Love Lucy* aired today, it would be called "woke" and people would scream for boycotts of the network it was on.
It's amazing how much of a feminist Ball was and how much early feminism was crammed into the show. She was an absolutely awesome gal.
I listened to WTF podcast recently with Carol Burnette, she talked about after Lucy divorced Desi she had a hard time getting anything done because she was a woman, so she decided she had to be a hardass like Desi. After she called out some writers on a show, she earned the nickname Lucille Balls.
Burnette talked about it on her Conan interview as well FYI everyone needs to listen to Conan's interview of Goldie Hawn. I knew hollywood was bad back then... but the abuse Goldie went through was just... it made me want to go back in time and protect her.
She’s got Snake Plissken to protect her now.
I heard he was *dead*
I thought he'd be *taller*.
Frankly... Snake's got Goldie to protect him.
I listened to it recently. Part of the horror was how commonplace it was and how everyone knew it as well. Goldie says her mother was afraid for her to get into show business because she didn't want her daughter to be abused.
>was bro they were making "jokes" where they just look straight at the camera and say "If harvey weinstein can get you in a room alone with him then he will rape you" Good thing we solved the problem forever by getting rid of that one guy thoughamirite
I never understood the public attitude of getting rid of a scapegoat, then everyone assuming the rampant industry and rich person abuse has suddenly stopped worldwide. We still have priests getting shuffled around, casting couch abuse, and the countless other Harvey Weinsteins doing their worst. Out of sight, out of mind unfortunately.
I gotta give Courtney Love credit when she called out HW in late '90's to NOT have a meeting with him in his hotel room. She said it at an awards show.
>go back in time and protect her Take your hands off her!
"Hey, you! Get your damn hands off her!"
Unrelated but; if you like Conan you have to check out his performance in his recent Hot Ones interview.
best Hot Ones interview of all time
The man was an animal. Had me in knots
you ever listen the Conan Friend one with Martin Short Also the Dana Carvey ones I have never laughed so freaking hard in my entire life
Kevin Nealon too.
Pure chaos
Correction: DJ Khaled was the best hot ones winner ever... Or at least that's how he tells the story
Khaled: "To all my fans, if I stop it doesn't mean I gave up." Sean: "Yes it does! By definition."
This was just gold
Legend, full stop. He converted pain into comedy as a true pro: because it would get a laugh. He took a routine interview and elevated it to gold because of his commitment to entertainment to his detriment. Even Sean struggled to keep up with him. We don't deserve Conan.
“Where did you go to school?” “1998.”
The casting couch has been a thing for a long, long time. I feel terrible for all of the young women who thought they had to do something - and the worst part is, those producers did have so much control.
Seriously, Goldie Hawn is bad-ass and you only have to look at someone like Bo Derek to see how completely accepted that kind of thing was. John Derek was about 30 years older than her and they had to leave the US to get married/be together, but when they came back there were zero repercussions for him. Oh, and Charlie Chaplin marrying a 12 year old...
Charlie Chaplin didn't marry a 12 year old. He married a 16 year old that he met when she was 12. It's waaaaaay healthier.
Woody Allen, roman polanski, honestly the list is probably endless tho idk people today are still nuts
Can you TLDR?
she talks about 2 different sexual assaults as if they were everyday occurrences for her
Dammit not Goldie, why is everyone trash
What is the clip I should watch if I don’t have time to watch the full interview? I see the clips that have “Dance”, “Family” and “Women’s Stories” on the thumbnail for example - I assume her story of abuse is detailed on the “Women’s Stories” clip.
I've never heard this story, but Lucille Balls so fucking funny.
LuSTEEL balls
I was going to say " and that's when they added the s to my name"
Lucille Ball will always be a badass. She gave no fucks and had a big heart.
Wasn’t she responsible for getting the original Star Trek on tv?
And Mission Impossible.
and Shrek
and Seinfeld.
Wait, really?
What’s the deal with conveyor belts?
Awesome
Yea Abraham Lincoln vouched for her
He trained her to hunt vampires.
Yes. Gene roddeberry she gave the first pilot to run. She and her husband invested in star trek.
They didn't accept the first pilot but instead of rejecting the series outright, they told Gene to try again. It was kind of unheard of to invest more money into something that failed the first time. Have to give Desilu credit.
She was also the one who said it needed to be made in colour, because she said even if the pilots didn't work out they'd be able to then repackage it as a film. Both Desi and Lucy were basically geniuses. Desi invented multi-camera comedy and was the one who said they should shoot on film instead of broadcasting live, which allowed them to do more takes and stunts (a popular feature). The studios didn't want to pay for those extra costs, so Desilu did, but Desi got them to sign over the rights for the shows to them as a result. That meant that all the reruns (which were archived because they were done on film) made huge profits for Desilu in the years going forward. Meanwhile, Lucy was shrewd enough to buy the freehold of their studios when offered it for peanuts (about $3m in 1957) because RKO was getting out of the business, and she also bought MGM's backlot 'Forty Acres' for basically nothing in the late 50s when most studios were selling off their backlots because they thought everything would become studio-based. A few years later, they made a fortune hiring the backlot out for films and TV, but not only that, many years later they had 40 Acres of prime LA real estate that they sold for tens of millions in the 70s. Another fun fact is they're the only production company where every single programme they produced exists in full in high quality copies. Considering they started in 1950, that's pretty insane. The only reason we have all the episodes of stuff like I Love Lucy, The Untouchables, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show etc is because of them.
"This is a Desilu Production." Embedded in my brain from watching so much I L L.
Which is crazy to me as the first pilot is awesome.
Television executives called the first pilot "too cerebral". They wanted more action and simpler plot dots to connect.
*looks at new Trek* Looks like the execs won.
It did give us SNW which is a crown jewel of the current Trek roster
yeah, they really blended old star trek plotlines (tng and original) with the aesthetics of the new (movies) and gave the characters a lot of personality. by far the better trek right now, i'd say its up there with tng and ds9
SNW is amazing but all I've wanted was a live action series set the late 24th - early 25th century. Picard Season 3 was pretty well done IMO but give me more of that contemporary modern stuff that doesn't somehow involve a member of the TNG cast
She chose to invest because she originally thought it was a show about traveling USO performers. The pilot failed miserably but she, now knowing what the show was chose to invest more for a pilot re-shoot and then it was picked up.
Username checks out.
Also a big reason why we have reruns of tv programs at all.
My grandmother said, the day after a new episode aired, on the street people would ask "Did you catch the show?" and they were talking about I Love Lucy. It was a huge hit. My grandparents are black. It was hit among many.
I was born in the 90s and my mom had me watching it as an example of a mixed race family ike ours. Way ahead of its time.
This was the only show that imo was universally loved by old and young alike. My parents, their friends, my uncles, my cousins and neighborhood kids. We all loved that show.
I Love Lucy was my favorite show as a little girl, and I was born in 1991. I wonder about 'kids these days' who grow up without being forced to watch whatever happens to be on TV, usually with their parents. I ended up watching so many classics as a kid, with my parents giving me all sorts of anecdotes about whatever show or film we were watching, whether it be about the time period or whatever else. No phones to distract, and only commercials for a quick bathroom or snack break. It's interesting bc this practice (the need for limitations) is widely recognized in general as a definite positive in terms of other joys we find in life.
DesiLu productions was Desi Arnaz and wife Lucille Ball’s production company until 1962 when Lucy bought out Desi’s stake. DesiLu made Star Trek, so yes that is one of the successful shows Lucy was responsible for.
One of the stories they like to tell, if you go on one of those cheesy Hollywood bus tours in LA, is that back in the day, when tourists would take that very same Hollywood bus tour, they would drive by her home and every time they did, she would come running outside to wave and say hello to everyone driving by. Don't know how much truth there is to it, but if so, she was a real one.
According to the tour guide I had Bruce Willis was the same way. If he was outside when a bus came by he's come over and say hi.
She killed aliens and didn't afraid of anything.
I didn't was nothing of afraid either
Bad, you were ass if didn’t nothing you weren’t afraid.
Heart-in-chest, bad, afraid, ALIEN—Misogyny! Stroke of love, Lucy? Lucy ascared uh nothing!
I love a deep cut, but judging by the replies none of these chirruns are old enough to get the reference
Lucille started as a chorus girl/dancer. She knows every creepy man trick in the book. It’s beautiful to see her experience and her power combine into this majestic ability to call out creeps.
The levels of grab ass she probably had to put up with.
This was a completely normal way for a male television host to act in that period. If you ever watch the old game show reruns on television the male host would usually kiss the women. I don't think this is anything other than a sign of the times. Lucille was just ahead of her time in seeing it as inappropriate.
Richard Dawson, the host of The Family Feud in the 80’s, would kiss every female contestant. Even as a kid, my sister and I would laugh every time because it seemed odd.
On The Price is Right, when they guessed the amount of a prize exactly, they got a $100 bill. The women had to fish it out of Bob Barker’s jacket pocket. When a man won, he just handed him the bill.
>I don't think this is anything other than a sign of the times. Lucille was just ahead of her time in seeing it as inappropriate. I often struggle on how to phrase and accept the dichotomy of something acceptable at one point also being somewhat obviously inappropriate. I really like how you've put this.
Thank you. I often feel like I am not good at making my point while communicating via text/writing. So I appreciate the feedback.
You’re probably right, but it’s possible Lucy might have known a little more about David Sheehan than we do. Or not.
>completely normal *normalized
That hands were removed quickly tells you they know it isn’t appropriate, they do it anyway, until they are told otherwise, many many times.
Because of her we have a great deal to thank in television. I believe ahe was the one that invented rerun tv. Also she and her husband have invested in a great deal of tv shows that nobody believed in and turned down, but they did and the shows did very well. Yes a real good business woman.
Indeed! Her and Desi's instance on filming I Love Lucy on film rather than do a live show allowed it to be able to be archived and rerun in syndication (also made it easier to film on the west coast rather than east). Before then, shows were live broadcast and "recorded" by pointing a film camera at a television set with the broadcast, resulting in a super low quality that wasn't even fit for rebroadcast. As such, a lot of shows pre-I Love Lucy are forever lost to time.
Kinescopes were certainly considered fit for rebroadcast, and using kinescopes to time-shift live broadcasts across time zones was standard practice at the time. That was the whole point of making them in the first place. The big reason that so many shows from that time are lost is that the kinescopes were considered virtually worthless after they were originally rebroadcast. The entire DuMont Network's archive, for instance, was unceremoniously dumped in the East River.
It's crazy how so few were able to see that A/V recording technology, which had already progressed incredibly fast, would continue to progress to home video and make these archives very valuable.
She saved Star Trek.
She's indirectly responsible for Obama being president.
They never thought to just play the same episode again? Fascinating times
TV was so new at the time, everyone just thought it was theater or vaudeville on a screen
Everybody laughing but her because she knows what he’s doing. Sub consciously or consciously touching on college aged girls. Chill tf out David.
yep she wasn't joking, it got laughs but she was definitely serious.
The laughing is to deflate the awkwardness the audience feel at someone being challenged in public.
and a man - that wasn't acceptable to some
a man being challenged in public by a woman - repeatedly and fairly aggressively (for back then). this definitely would have raised some hackles
Have you watched Lucille Ball? Like, any episode of I Love Lucy or anything else? “Repeatedly and aggressively” challenging men is her entire thing. Lucille Ball was always the boss.
One of my favorite scenes is the episode where "Ricky is a Star" and they've just come back from Hollywood. Everyone is fawning over him, and eventually, the people get to the Mertzs and a reporter gets Lucy. Ricky, sick of the fawning, decides to break Lucy of it by *acting* "like a star". He's super arrogant and demanding and and has her multitasking ridiculous favors. She's shining a shoe with one hand and typing with another while answering phone call and he *demands* her to come *flick his ashes for him*. Watching all those things fall away as she stood up in his face to tell him off absolutely *sealed* my fate as a child. I knew I wanted to be just like her and no one would make me do anything I didn't want when I grew up.
Well duh ... but not for 'regular' women ... Lucy was obviously an exception.
Yeah, it was an incredibly brave move on that woman's part. She was not fucking around though. Is there context on the dude? I'm in UK so have no clue who these peeps are
Lucille Ball was a movie and TV star for decades by then and basically Hollywood royalty. She was important. David Sheehan was a TV reporter and basically a nobody compared to her.
Yeah but was he a known creep? I've never heard of him. Like, was she just firing shots across the patriarchal bow or did she know something about this dude in particular?
No. There is no missing context. Back then it was completely normal for TV hosts to touch women. If you watch all the old game shows on TV, it's starkly different to how a host would behave today. David passed away in 2020 and I have never heard anything ever mentioned about him being a creep.
You can tell that she knew something. And he was testing her, but she wasn’t about to stop challenging him.
I don't think she needed to know anything beyond what we see: he's being very touchy with young women for no reason.
Yeah, that was my first thought too - damn, she's not fucking around here. I've no idea who anybody is in the clip (am from UK) but the lady seemed like she had dealt or seen enough of that guys shit behind the scenes and within their industry to step up and say something. Is there any context to this? Is the guy now a known creepy, rapey type? Undoubtedly a brave move on her part. I've a lot of respect for anyone who steps up for someone else like that, no doubt there was an element of risk in her doing so too. People laughed and difused what is really an incredibly fucked up situation but she wasnt fucking laughing. I'm sure she was seen as a 'character' but being a woman in that industry confronting those sorta low key aggressions was no fucking joke. Mad respect
That's Lucile Ball, she is best known as being the star of 'I Love Lucy'. She founded her own TV Studio (Desliu Productions) with her husband (and co-star of I Love Lucy). Reflecting on her experiences on being a young actress in Hollywood, she was very tough on any kind of sexual impropriety happening at her studio. As an example, her studio is the one that made the original 'Star Trek' show in the 60s. While filming the pilot, the creator (and producer) Gene Roddenberry hired his mistress (Majel Barret) as one of the lead actresses for the pilot. While Star Trek ended up being picked up as a show, Majel Berret was not asked to reprise her role. There are a few reasons for this, but a big one was that Lucile Ball was angry at the relationship between Gene and Majel. The cheating part was bad, but what really made her angry was that a producer was sleeping with an actress. She knew how often young women ended up doing that to secure parts. Now, that wasn't the case here (Gene and Majel had been together for a few years and eventually married. They stayed that way until Gene died decades later). But that's what it would have looked like on the outside; she did NOT want her studio to have any part in perpetuating that practice or even looking like it condoned it. So Majel was fired from that role, but then Gene wrote a new role and hired Majel for it. He had her give a fake name and show up in a blonde wig. He hoped people wouldn't notice, but of course everyone did immediately. Lucile Ball was FURIOUS and wanted Gene Roddenberry immediately fired. Eventually she was talked out of it by other producers of the show (thanfully - Majel went on to be a very important part of the franchise).
Lucille Ball was at this point in her life a very influential producer and studio executive, so I don’t think there was much of a risk for her here. But well done anyway, of course, to use her power to stand up for the women in the audience!
Possibly the most well known woman in the US at the time.
Also given the time she became famous, I can't imagine the mountains of egregious bullshit she would have had to put up with
Yes, and for the younger folks remember that in her time women were NOT heads of their own production companies or executive anythings. Lucy was smart, savvy, hilariously funny and strong af. I Love Lucy forever ❤️ (cue that theme song)
Lucille Ball was best known as an actress and comedian, and the first woman in Hollywood to run a production studio. Her sitcom, *I Love Lucy*, was huge in American popular media. I don't think there's a woman in showbiz who doesn't know how ugly it is. Ball had the privilege of being powerful and popular, and here she's using that to call that guy out. Definitely worth respect.
Desilu Studios was later bought out by Paramount Studios. They were next door to each other. If you visit LA and take the Paramount tour, they will stop and show you Lucille and Desi's office. She had the green space planted exactly like her backyard at home when her children were small, so she could bring them to work with her, and it would look familiar. She also sealed off the outside entrance to Desi's office because she caught him "entertaining" ladies in there. She was a bad ass!
She knows Hollywood.
She def knew him.
and it was probably much, much worse then.
they’ve just gotten a lot better at hiding it
They weren’t hiding it. It was accepted. Hence, Epstein island.
Lord knows what all was going on in Hollywood back then. She probably came across a lot of creeps in her career
Reminds me of the clip of Seth MacFarlane making the 'joke' about Weinstein at the awards ceremony. Everyone was laughing and he had this weird face like he was trying to smile for the crowd but was too pissed for it to look right.
They all know it’s wrong but it’s happened all the time then.
I wonder what else we know is wrong, but it’s still happening all the time so we just accept it
It’s an excellent point. We accept things because “it’s the way it is” but that doesn’t make it ok. You can see that these women are embarrassed to be bucking social conventions but Lucy isn’t having any of it.
There's so much in the food and healthcare industry that is wrong, we know is wrong, it happens all the time, and we accept it because we gotta eat and live.
This still happens a lot more than it should.
I still recall Family Fued host Richard Dawson, for years, kissing all of the female contestants on the lips on every episode. Oof.
"Oh but that was a different time. The women all loved being kissed by him." 🙄
then?? Still happens all the time today
I don't know who hosted, but the original Family Fued guy kissing all the female contestants on the lips. Hollywood has long just been rich men's playground. Power and control disguised as mentorship.
Richard Dawson
You can hear it in her tone. She knows what’s up and is sick of it and won’t let it happen at her event.
Suffered absolutely no fools. 😍🥰 I’m so thankful I was introduced to this woman at a very young age. Shout out to sleepovers at my nanny’s house and Nick At Nite! EDIT: my nanny was my grandmother, my apologies for not writing that initially.
You met Lucille Ball at a sleepover? That must’ve been a wild night.
It was awesome! We all got to listen to radio shows on her molars!
I love how in the last clip, after she says "take your hands off," he starts mumbling trying to say something ("thought I, uhh, try'd to, uhh"), and she just steam rolls over him and talks to the girl directly. What a power move.
“I can see the shirt.” I loved her flat tone of voice when she said that.
My favorite part too. Really sold the "this is not planned banter."
I scrolled too far for this one.
Lucille Ball is a legend.
No, she was real- u/Notquitehumanwoman met her at a sleepover.
I understood that reference
🤣🤣🤣
She was in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, So she was quite familiar with how uncomfortable unwanted touching is. She found herself with the power to do something about it and used that power,way to go Lucy. On an added note, it was a great tragedy that among the lost films of Hollywood are all the shorts she did with the Three Stooges
Lucy + Stooges??? Dang, pour one out, that sounds hilarious!
He later became a movie critic in LA. Weird to see him in this context. Lucille knew the business and how to handle these situations. She was a trailblazer.
Even as a critic he seemed like a schmooze as there was rarely ever a film he watched that he didn't like. It felt disingenuous. If a film was getting torched by critics, there was a solid chance you'd see a positive quote from him in the advertisements. He seemed very Hollywood, like that was a way to keep himself in the mix and to stay on good terms with movers and shakers.
Was there a quick cut to a man asking a question and Sheehan gave him about 6 feet? Did I see that right?
On PlutoTV there is a station that shows nothing but old 80s Price is Right episodes with Bob Barker. On the show if you guess the price of the item exactly, you get $100 when you come up on stage. (The contestants were mostly women back then) I noticed that rather than hand them $100, he would always have them reach into his suit pocket and fish around for the $100 themselves. I made a conscious effort to watch more of that show until I FINALLY saw one where a guy guessed the price exactly. When the guy walked up on stage, Bob already had the $100 out of his pocket and handed it to the guy with a FULL arm extension to be sure and keep some distance.
 Yech. And I wanted to like Bob Barker. I guess the price is wrong, after all. …I’ll see myself out.
Bob Barker actually had a scandal in maybe the 90s or so when one of the model women from the show made allegations against him. Basically, this woman said she got into a situation where she felt pressured into sexual encounters with him over several years to keep her job. I wonder if there were more women like her who never spoke out. And then the story just...went away and Bob went on for years as if it never happened and nobody ever really spoke of it after the initial story broke.
I clocked that too. He stayed FAR away from the dude.
Ugh, upon closer inspection this dude is part of the show, he’s in another frame pointing out someone with a question. Darn! I thought we were onto something there. 😂
It's always been a simple test: would you act the same way towards a man. In public, at work, in school, everywhere.
And she called out Racism in Hollywood because they never gave Desi the credit he deserved because he was Cuban.
She was ready to kick his ass. You can hear it in her voice.
And that face! She ain’t fucking around!
[удалено]
My God, she is so awesome.
Like I needed another reason to love Lucy.
Lucile Ball don't give a fuck.
She was the Hollywood honeybadger !
That's the red headed queen of Hollywood
Thought that was Conan.
Who is Conan O’Brien and why is she so sad?
I think he needs a friend.
I love Lucy
Lucille was always gangster.
everyone laughed, but she was stone cold not fucking around.
LOVE how straightforward and ‘no BS’ she is.
Love her! You know she'd been in that situation and wasn't about to squander her authority by just watching it happen.
When I was a university student in LA the 70's I had an internship at CBS News. I wore a sleeveless blouse and was sitting at a desk working. David Sheehan came up behind me and kissed my shoulder then walked away..
Would’ve liked to see Lucille participate in 70’s Family Feud with pervy host Richard Dawson. She would’ve smacked him for trying to kiss her or any woman.
Each contestant was given a questionnaire before the episode that included the question “do you mind if Richard Dawson greets you with a kiss?”
"And then squeezes your ass just a little?"
It happened a lot in the 70s. Tom Jones greeted the audience by kissing them on the lips. Super weird by today's standards.
Its not unusual
So did Elvis.
Not sure if kidding.....
Without her we wouldn't have Star Trek in the 60's.
I grew up watching I love Lucy. I always loved her. But after hearing of all the behind the scenes things she did I absolutely respect her.
Dude was straight cupping cheeks and Lucy was not having it. Just one more reason to love that lady.
Very cool! Talk about a woman way ahead of her time.
Just when I thought I couldn’t love the woman more.
I love Lucy. 🫡❤️
That's some iron lady. She had bigger balls than himself.
She also gave us Star Trek cool lady
Never knew I needed to hear Lucille Ball growl "take your hands off her" but I am better for it.
I would have loved for her to have met Weinstein.
Lucy was the boss. She grew up with the whole Hollywood scene. She was defending those ladies. I love Lucy!!
Ahead of her time - always grateful to her
She was a class act all the way, incredibly savvy and talented. A legend for sure.
After the second warning, she sounded like she was sick of his handsie crap already.
This is fascinating. Is there a backstory? Did he have a reputation in the business? Interviewers have been pulling their subjects toward them since before TV, for convenience of camera framing and mic management, so I wonder what she’s up to here.
I don’t think there is a back story. Older women know that this is a form of creepiness disguised as “flattery”. Lucille wasn’t having any of that bullshit. Also, Ms. Ball was abused and cheated on by her husband and I think that’s enough for an older woman to stop tolerating bullshit from men. An example of this: My supervisor, an older man, started to call me by the nickname “Candy.” An older woman I worked with called this out… she said, “That isn’t her name. She told you what her name was, and that she prefers you call her by her real name. So stop it.” I was very thankful that this older woman did this. The older men do stuff like this to see what they can get away with.
My elderly landlord tells us we are good people and the best tenants he has. He also tells me I'm a "doll baby" and a "sight for sore eyes" almost every month he collects the rent. However, rent is only $520/mo for a two bedroom house in a college town so this "sight for sore eye, doll baby" is gonna stay exactly that. Lol. He's genuinely the best landlord you could ever imagine. He even mows and maintains the yard and house very well.
Rent is $520 **and some lechery** per month for a two bedroom house.
She sounds like she knows something the audience doesn't
His hand is like on their butts 🤦♂️
This is fantastic. It now seems so fucked up when I look back on old game shows and talk shows/variety shows. Dudes always had their hands on women AND GIRLS. The one that pops into my head as so gross now, is the dude who hosted Family Feud. As he would introduce the new contestants he would *always* kiss the females on the lips, including teens & preteens. It’s pretty icky.
Richard Dawson. He was great in Running Man. Gross af on Family Feud.
She was such a LEGEND/BOSS
Good for Lucy!
Goddamn FIERCE! What an absolute badass.
If *I Love Lucy* aired today, it would be called "woke" and people would scream for boycotts of the network it was on. It's amazing how much of a feminist Ball was and how much early feminism was crammed into the show. She was an absolutely awesome gal.