After reading the previous comments by someone in Wales, all I can say is that my recollection of The Debbie Reynolds Show was that it was a spoof of things -- at least that's what the opening credits where Reynolds and her husband rush towards one another in a field of daisies, arms outspread -- but then miss each other completely.
However much it was derivative of I LOVE LUCY, Reynolds was very funny. Too bad that Monty Python and the Brits didn't get it. As for the previous comment that Lucille Ball was not talented, I simply don't know what to say except that the "untalented Miss Ball" starred in the best and longest running sitcom in the history of the world.
The androgyny required by female comics was balanced precariously by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in their sitcom. Jess Oppenheimer apparently did not understand the need for a sexual undertone when casting Reynolds, who lacked the gentile sexuality of Lucille Ball -- though could surpass her as a flat out clown in most instances. Ball had the feminine need of her husband and it came across on screen. Reynolds' character had no time for that.
CBS at that time was attempting to make Doris Day into their new Lucille Ball in THE DORIS DAY SHOW and she had the opposite problem of Reynolds -- a lot of girl next door female allure, but not enough androgynous clownishness.
In any event, for anyone in the UK to dismiss The Debbie Reynolds Show as imitative fluff either didn't see the original show in its original airings and/or didn't understand its American context of suburban spoof. Lucille Ball herself said that she took some umbrage at the TV show LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY (interestingly it was a comedic period piece set in the 50's -- the moral innocence required for a sitcom like that to thrive was oppressed by the swinging sixties, one supposes) for ripping off her Ethel/Lucy antics.
Even though THE DEBBIE REYNOLDS SHOW hit the screen during the middle of London's mod "Austin Powers" era, there were enough workaday types in the US, like my suburbanite family -- who remember the Reynolds show as very very funny. She and the actress who played her sister were hysterical and I was only in third grade but still recall it fondly. Reynolds, unlike Lucy Ball, didn't want Phillip Morris ciggie advertising, and she pulled the plug. I'd love to see it on DVD.
