Product Details

• Actors: Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, William Frawley, Richard Keith, Vivian Vance
• Directors: Desi Arnaz
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: August 1, 1995
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303521495
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,281 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucy and Desi take on the legendary Tallulah Bankehad, July 18, 2001

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour 2: Celebrity Next Door [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Originally written for Bette Davis, "The Celebrity Next Door" is infamous for Lucy and Desi's encounter with Tallulah Bankhead OFF screen, but it is also a very funny hour of television comedy. The story has the temperamental actress moving in next door to the Ricardos, so Lucy and Ethel begin spying on her through binoculars. When Tallulah comes over to use the phone, Lucy embarrasses herself and ends up inviting the star to a disastrous dinner where Fred and Ethel pretend to be the butler and maid. Things then get progressively worse, and funnier: Lucy accidentally sprays paint all over Tallulah who then gets Lucy to sit in a painted chair as the war escalates.

"The Celebrity Next Door" is far and way the funniest of the five Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show specials that constitute the seventh season of the "I Love Lucy" format. The episode is rather infamous because Tallulah Bankhead spent the week either drunk or acting up (or both) throughout rehearsals, terrifying Lucy and Desi, who babied their guest star the entire week and then were stunned when the actress was letter perfect during the taping. Apparently, Bankhead usually did this when she was up against another major actress as she was with the Queen of Comedy. Actually, the funniest woman in this show ended up being Vivian Vance, who steals her scenes as "Ethel Mae" the Ricardos' maid.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful show...bad editing, November 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour 2: Celebrity Next Door [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is my favorite Lucy-Desi outing, but a very poor editing job ruins it. The whole premise of Lucy's revenge on Tallulah is making her eat strawberry pie...which Tallulah is allergic to. However, the scene that sets this up in the original version (Ethel trying to serve it to Tallulah during a dinner party, only to have it ruined) is cut out from this video. This is also the version they show on Nick-At-Nite, and it is a shame such a hack got his hands on it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucy And Tallulah a perfect match, November 27, 1999

By 

Michael Anderson (San Francisco, Ca.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour 2: Celebrity Next Door [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I watch this video over and over as it is hilarious! Tallulah Bankhead shows remarkable comedy timing as well as a willingness to sacrifice her own dignity for the good of the story. I'm not sure what video the other reviewer was watching but the crucial scene with Ethel serving Tallulah is included in my video. I, too, would be upset if this had been edited. The writing is so superb (usually) that any missing pieces can certainly ruin the comedic payoff at the end.