The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on Television [Paperback]

Geoffrey Mark Fidelman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1580630510 | ISBN-13: 978-1580630511 | Publication Date: June 12, 1999 | Edition: 1st

Written with the cooperation of Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr., who both consented to rare interviews, The Lucy Book is an amazing retrospective of the five-decade television career of America's favorite redhead. Containing hundreds of original interviews with cast members, guest stars, production people, contemporaries, family, and friends, this book will tell you for the first time what it was really like to work with Lucy.

Year by year, episode by episode, television appearance by television appearance, you can follow the meteoric careers of this comedy legend. Her five series--I love Lucy
(1951-57), The Lucille Ball-Dezi Arnaz Show (1957-1960), The Lucy Show (1962-68), Here's Lucy (1968-74), and Life with Lucy (1986)--are thoroughly covered, as are her myriad guest appearances on other situation comedies, dramas, games shows, talks hows, variety shows, commercials, and specials. All told, more than 1,000 television appearances are extensively chronicles in this book. The Lucy Book contains:

--cast and crew information, along with background anecdotes and current interview quotes for each entry.
--particulars about several Lucy TV scripts that were never produced.
--a critical analysis of Lucy's enormous effect on the television industry.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lucy fans and radio and television scholars for decades will be indebted to Geoffrey [Fidelman] for not only providing them with this wealth of comprehensive and detailed information, but also for making it such an enjoyable read."--Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.

About the Author

Geoffrey Mark Fidelman wrote The Lucy Book over a twenty-fiv year period. a freelance pop-culture writer, Grammy-nominated albumn-notes wrtier, and talk-show host, he is also the author of First Lady of Song: Ella Fitzgerald for the Record.

Product Details

• Paperback: 387 pages
• Publisher: Renaissance Books; 1st edition (June 12, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580630510
• ISBN-13: 978-1580630511
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,006,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( B ) > Ball, Lucille

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lucy is still #1 to me, May 29, 2000

By 

JGC - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on Television (Paperback)

First lemme say I am a huge sitcom fan and I think Lucille Ball is the #1 queen of TV. This book included a detailed description of every episode of I LOVE LUCY and all the other sitcoms that Lucy stared on. I enjoyed a lot of the book. But I felt like it was missing something. Some of the details were very boring such as the furniture being changed constantly on I LOVE LUCY. I wanted to hear more commentary from Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, but for some reason their comments in the book were rather brief. THE LUCY BOOK was written almost like a textbook. It would have been more interesting if it were more fan-oriented. Some months back I read an excellent book COME AND KNOCK ON OUR DOOR about the sitcom Three's Company. And I think THE LUCY BOOK would have been much more interesting if it were written in the same manner. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in getting factual accounts about Lucy's TV sitcoms (such as dates and times). But I do not recommend this book to anyone who wants to have an entertaining reading experience. However if you do want to read a really good book about Lucy I recommend the book LOVE LUCY which was written by Lucille Ball. And if you're interested in books about sitcoms in general then I recommend: COME AND KNOCK ON OUR DOOR, GROWING UP BRADY and ARCHIE AND EDITH MIKE AND GLORIA THE TUMULTUOUS HISTORY OF ALL IN THE FAMILY.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for all Lucy Fans!, June 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on Television (Paperback)

If you LOVE LUCY, then this is the book for you. It is an encyclopedia of every single TV appearance Lucille Ball has ever done. Everything from commercials, variety show appearances, Award shows, guest appearances, and, of coarse, her four television series: I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and Life with Lucy. The book is filled with tidbits of information which will make watching an episode as if it were the first time. Mr. Fidelman's writing style is easy to read and filled with humor and wit. This is a really fun book to read! If you need a reason to watch a Lucy program for the one thousandth and one time, this book will provide more than a few. I LOVE "The Lucy Book!"

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only Lucy Book You'll Ever Need!, November 23, 2002

By 

Keith Coppage (CONCORD, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on Television (Paperback)

... because it's all here--backstage gossip, production info, out-take dialoge and best of all its researched, researched, researched. This is for those of us that can recite whole snatches of dialoge, who wondered about odd cuts and gaffes, critical (but loving) comment and not just the "I Love Lucy" series but tons of things on the uneven "Lucy Show" and the rest. Geffrey is the ultimate fan and he presents the information fairly and if I may say so, like a gentleman. (Note: Steve Allen writes a forward and is quoted--intriguingly--but is not the co-author as this amazon.com heading would imply) Great, funny and touching quotes from Lucie, Desi Jr., Gale Gordon, etc, as well as Desilu regulars like Kathleen Freeman, Doris Singleton, Shirley Mitchell and the whole gang. This book has been years in the making. Your copy will be dog-eared and falling apart quickly if you use it for constant reference. Go ahead and buy a second! : > Great companion to the "Desilu" book.