Lucy Calls the President

If I didn't know any better I would have sworn that this was a pilot for yet another Lucille Ball series. Might have been a good one. But I doubt that the White House would have put its imprimatur on a TV series, a special but not a TV series by having a first family member appear.

I also don't think that Ed McMahon would have left the Tonight Show and Johnny Carson to do a series either.

McMahon and Lucy are a married couple in a small Indiana town. Ed's father Gale Gordon lives with them and Ed owns a bowling alley. Lucy on a national call-in show speaks to President Carter about a community problem and he decides to drop in as he's speaking in Indianapolis the next day.

The rest of the show is devoted to her frantic preparations for the presidential visit. Such Lucy friends as Mary Jane Croft, Mary Wickes, and Vivian Vance are also in this which features the usual Lucy schemes and situations.

Lucy fans and others will love it.

i remember this special, almost anything with lucy i can remember. i have this special uncut on video, it was given to me by a new friend. i think this was a great special. it was the last time lucy and vivan vance worked together. vivan became ill during the week and the night they taped the show. in a book i read eve arden was in the audience, and when lucy made her appearance on stage she went right over to eve and gave her a hug. the special was written by her original writers and the first i love lucy director directed this special also.

i think its a very funny show, ive seen it several times since i got the tape, and ive even showed it to friends, and they also liked it.

it was also good seeing lucy work with gale gordon, mary wickes and mary jane croft again

Thankfully, I don't recall them as looking incredibly old, but they must have been. I also don't recall alot of applauding. The only reason I do remember it is because Sis pointed out that Mary Wickes from . . . was in it and she had never worked regularly with Ball. The only jokes I can recall, if you could call them jokes, was something about a tray of hors devoures and the couch collapsing when too many people sat on it. The running joke was for some reason Lucy would be getting a phone call from then President Jimmy Carter. In the end, she did get a phone call, but not from Jimmy.

She got a phone call from Miss LIllian Carter, Jimmy's mother. And the woman herself actually appeared, but in an obviously prerecorded scene that looked like Miss Lillian was in Georgia. Miss Lillian wasn't a natural actress, either by the way. Not the funniest piece in the world, but by this time Lucy had become very set in her ways, but a good nostalgic bit. If anyone should ever see it, expect an overload of Lucy and the seventies, like Nick at Nite.

I do remember this TV movie just a little. Commenting on the other reviewer, on thing that I do remember about this show is the joke about the hors d'oeuvres. Mary Jane's character had made 50 deviled eggs that she was setting out for the president who was coming over. Vivian Vance went up to the tray and ate one as Mary Jane panicked and told her that each one represented a state and she had just eaten Kansas. Vivian Vance replied "for heaven's sake, I just ate my home state!" I didn't really get most of the jokes being just ten years old, but I do remember my grandmother laughing a lot.

This CBS special starring Lucille Ball is a treat for audiences and a treasure for any Lucy fan. Lucy plays 'Lucy Whittaker' a Bundy, Indian resident who calls the then President Jimmy Carter during his weekly radio show to state her concerns about the new low-cost housing project that the federal government plans to build on the outskirts of her town. If the new housing project goes through as planned it will destroy Camp Sunny Slope for under-privileged children. "How would you feel Mr. President if someone tore down Amy's tree house?", asks Lucy. Then covering the phone she exclaims to others in the room, "I've struck a nerve!" So, President Carter agrees to stop by her house the next day when he is in her area for a fund-raiser. With the President coming to dinner, everyone and their brother wants to attend! Good friend Viv chimes in, "Lucille, I'm gonna have to get my hair fixed, buy a new dress and loose twenty pounds by tomorrow!"

Penned by the original 'I Love Lucy' writers Madelyn Davis, and Bob Carroll Jr., "Lucy Calls The President" is ever-so fun to watch and co-stars several huge television personalities including Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon, Mary Wicks, Steve Allen, Mary Jane Croft and Ed McMahon.

Vivian Vance, recently diagnosed with cancer and recovering from a Bells Palsy episode, gives her usual excellent performance despite the slight paralysis in her face. She plays, Lucy's next door neighbor and best friend. (Go figure!) Playing her feisty Republican father-in-law, Gale Gordon turns in a strong performance that drums up visions of Mr. Mooney from Ball's second series, The Lucy Show. Ed McMahon, plays Lucy's husband, and it's the first time Lucille Ball plays a wife since cavorting on the screen in the late 50's with then real life hubby Desi Aranz. As always Mary Wicks as 'Aunt Mary' is flawless with excellent timing. Steve Allen is very funny as himself and Mary Jane Croft, joins the old friends too and gives an admirable and classy performance.

This appears to be the "Big Finale" for these tried and true "Lucy" players - even Marc Daniels, returns reuniting with Lucille Ball for the first time in 25 years to serve as director. Gary Morton, Lucy's second-husband, produces this funny, fast-paced vehicle for Ball along with Co-producers, Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr. It is the only 'Lucy Special' to be shot on video tape instead of film - so the performers look a little harsher here without the advantage of "film" make-up and lighting. Vance, Croft and Wicks work with Lucille Ball for the last time in this comedic venture. Sadly it is Vivian Vance's last public performance.

It is reported that Miss Ball stops the taping of the first scene in front of the live studio audience. It seems she became quite emotional, when she realizes for the first time in her television career, her deceased mother, DeDe, is not in the audience. Luckily, Lucy's long-time friend Eve Arden is in the audience and she seeks solace from her. But, like a true professional pulls herself together and delivers a tremendous performance.

You can imagine the hilarity that breaks out as these "quirky" television characters prepare dinner and await the arrival of the First Family. Nostalgia runs rampant in "Lucy Calls The President" with Vivian and Lucy performing a traditional vaudevillian turn when they get in a western style cake-icing fight! It is great to see these two comedy legends working together again along with the supporting cast of "Lucy" stars. The comedy is top-drawer! I give it 3 out of 4 stars! ***