Customer Reviews

The Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour 2: Celebrity Next Door [VHS]

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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.

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.

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.

The original plan was for Bette Davis to play the lead in this episode, but it is hard to imagine anyone doing a better job than Tallulah Bankhead did in creating such a wonderful comedy which was by far the best of all the Lucy-Desi series. She kept the cast of the series on edge by pretending to be drunk in the rehearsals, but in the final take, all her lines came off like clockwork, which explains the tension that is rather evident among the cast members in the episode.

The episode opens with Lucy and Ethel spying on a new neighbor moving in, whom they suspect is a "lady junk dealer" because of the old furniture she has. Thus enters Tallulah Bankhead into the picture, already with Lucy on the wrong foot. The only way she can make things up is by hosting her for dinner, and so she does, with Ethel and Fred posing as maid and butler. The meal turns out to be a disaster, but the comic scene at the table with Ethel reminiscing over Tallulah's acting career steals the show. The school play that ends the episode is, of course, hilarious and contains some classic Lucy slapstick to make it complete.

It is regrettable that the episodes in the Lucy-Desi series are not yet available on DVD. When they will be available, I will be one of the first to add them to my collection.

This is a very funny hour. Lucy was terribly concerned about Bankhead's performance, as she was "taking nips" during rehearsals.(Bankhead purposely threw her co-stars off during rehearsal rather ingeniously): when the cameras rolled, she was letter perfect and brilliant in her timing and delivery. You can actually sense Lucy is a little nervous and her performance is a bit uneasy. Vivian comes off best as Ethel Mae - she's terrific and she actually looks younger than Lucy does. Desi looks tired and his performance is strained; the Arnaz marriage was really over by this time and there is some evidence of this in the performances - they seem a little tired and forced. Vivian has great chemistry with Bankhead (when she enthusiastically praises Bankhead and her plays), Lucy remarks "Ethel Mae, you are boring Miss Bankhead"! - to which Tallulah retorts "When Miss Bankhead is BORED, Miss Bankhead will let you KNOW!!"

This is one of the best episodes of the Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour. Tallulah Bankhead is the perfect diva and her rivalry with Lucy is full of the classic comedy that makes you love Lucy.