Lucille Balls Feminism in The Lucy Show

Lucille Balls Feminism in The Lucy Show Sitcom Title: The Lucy Show Years Aired: 1962–1968 Stars: Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon, Mary Jane Croft, many celebrities who guest-starred as themselves Feminist focus? Women, particularly Lucille Ball, can tell a complete story without husbands. The feminism in The Lucy Show comes from the fact that it was a sitcom focused on a woman, and that woman didnt always act in ways considered ladylike.  Lucille Ball played a widow, Lucy Carmichael, and Vivian Vance, for part of the show’s run, played her divorced best friend, Vivian Bagley. Notably, the main characters were women without husbands. Sure, the male characters included a banker in charge of Lucy’s trust fund and a recurring-role boyfriend, but shows that revolved around a woman without a husband were not common before The Lucy Show. Who Loves Lucy This Time? Lucille Ball was already a famous, extremely talented actress and comedian when The Lucy Show began. During the 1950s she had starred with then-husband Desi Arnaz on I Love Lucy, one of the most popular TV shows of all time, where she and Vivian Vance engaged in countless antics as Lucy and Ethel. In the 1960s, the comic duo reunited on The Lucy Show as Lucy and Vivian. Vivian was the first long-running divorced woman on primetime television. The original title of the series was to be  The Lucille Ball Show, but that was rejected by CBS.  Vivian Vance insisted that her character name be Vivian, tried of being called Ethel from her time with  I Love Lucy. Not a World Without Men Finding a little feminism in The Lucy Show does not mean there were no men. Lucy and Vivian did interact with plenty of male characters, including men they dated. However, the 1960s were an interesting time in TV history- a decade that saw inventive plot lines, experimentation outside the nuclear family model and the shift from black and white to color TV, among other developments. Here was Lucille Ball, proving again that a woman could carry a show. Gone were the I Love Lucy plots that so often revolved around tricking or hiding something from the husbands. Successful Women The Lucy Show was a top-ten ratings success as the women brought laughs to millions. Years later, Lucille Ball was asked why newer sitcoms weren’t as good as her classic sitcoms, despite a wider range of material. Lucille Ball answered that they were trying to make comedy out of reality- and who would want to listen to that?† While she may have rejected abortion and social unrest as sitcom material, Lucille Ball in many ways IS the feminism of The Lucy Show. She was a powerful woman in Hollywood who could do anything she wanted, for years, and who responded to the women’s liberation movement with a voice and viewpoint that were unique, decidedly brave and already liberated. Production Company and Series Evolution Desi Arnaz, Lucille Balls husband until 1960, ran Desilu Productions until 1963 when Ball bought his shares and became the first female CEO of any major television production corporation.   Arnaz, despite the divorce, was instrumental in talking the networks into taking on the new show.  Arnaz was the executive producer of fifteen of the first thirty episodes. In 1963, Arnaz resigned as head of Desilu Productions. Lucille Ball became President of the company, and Arnaz was also replaced as executive producer of  The Lucy Show.  Ã‚  The show was filmed the next season in color rather than black and white, though it was broadcast in black and white until 1965.  Cast changes introduced Gale Gordon and lost several male characters. (Gale Gordon had appeared on radio with Lucille Ball in a show  My Favorite Husband  that evolved into  I Love Lucy, and had been offered the role on  I Love Lucy  of Fred Mertz.) In 1965, differences over pay, commuting, and creative control led to a split between Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, and Vance left the series.  She appeared at the end of the run for some guest appearances. By 1966, the children of Lucy Carmichael, her trust fund, and much of the previous history of the show had disappeared, and she played the part as a Los Angeles based single woman.  When Vivian returned as a married woman for a few guest appearances, their children were not mentioned. Lucille Ball founded Lucille Ball Productions in 1967, during the life of  The Lucy Show.  Ã‚  Her new husband, Gary Morton, was executive producer of  The Lucy Show  from 1967 on. Even the sixth season of the show was very popular, ranked #2 in the Nielsen ratings. She ended the series after the sixth season, and began a new show,  Heres Lucy, with her children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., playing key roles. Pregnancy on Television Lucille Ball, in her original series I Love Lucy  (1951–1957) with her husband Desi Arnaz, had broken ground when, against the advice of the television network and ad agencies, her real-life pregnancy was integrated into the show.  For the seven episodes with her pregnant, the censorship code of the time forbid the use of the term pregnant and instead permitted expecting  (or, in Desis Cuban accent, spectin).

50 Nautical Terms in General Use

50 Nautical Terms in General Use 50 Nautical Terms in General Use 50 Nautical Terms in General Use By Mark Nichol The vocabulary of sailing has enriched the English language with the development, by analogy, of new senses for nautical terms. Here are fifty such words with their original meanings and their landlubber connotations. 1. Aboard: on a vessel (assisting or in sympathy with) 2. Aboveboard: above the deck (out in the open, honest) 3. Adrift: not tied or secured (acting or living without purpose) 4. Aground: resting on the seafloor on shore (halted by circumstances) 5. Anchor: a heavy object that holds a vessel in place (a person or thing that figuratively keeps another person or thing steady) 6. Awash: water level with or slightly covering the deck (overwhelmed) 7. Bail: to throw out seawater or rainwater that has collected in a vessel (to help, or to abandon) 8. Ballast: stabilizing weights placed in the hull of a vessel (something that steadies or weighs down) 9. Beachcomber: a sailor without a berth or a shipboard assignment (a person living on or near a beach or the shore or one who searches such areas for salvage, or both) 10. Bearing: one’s position (posture or deportment) 11. Becalm: to come to a stop because of a lack of wind (to halt progress) 12. Berth: a sailor’s assignment, or a sailor’s bunk (a position or placement, in a location or in rankings) 13. Bilge: the lowest part of a hull (outdated or useless comments or ideas) 14. Capsize: to overturn (to ruin or interfere) 15. Chart: a navigational map, or to map a course (a display of graphical information, or to set a course) 16. Cockpit: a steering or berthing compartment (the pilot’s compartment in an airplane, or a place for cockfighting or location notorious for violence) 17. Course: the direction a ship is sailing (a procedure or a way of acting) 18. Current: a movement of water (the prevailing mood or tendency) 19. Heading: the direction a ship is sailing (one’s course) 20. Headway: progress or rate of progress in sailing (progress in general) 21. Helm: steering apparatus, or to operate such equipment (a position of leadership, or to lead) 22. Jury rig: to rig makeshift equipment (to make a quick fix using available materials) 23. Keel: the backbone of a vessel, running along the center of the hull (balance, as when someone is on an even keel) 24. Keelhaul: to drag a sailor underneath the ship along the hull as punishment (to punish severely) 25. Leeway: sideways movement of a vessel because of current or wind (flexibility) 26. Log: originally, a length of wood attached to a line and tossed overboard to measure speed, then a device with the same function; also, a record of operation (an accounting of any activity or progress) 27. Lookout: a sailor standing watch (someone keeping watch, or the position from which the person does so) 28. Manhole: an opening in to a compartment (a hole providing access underground or into a structure) 29. Mooring: securing with anchors or lines, or a place where mooring occurs (a stabilizing influence) 30. Navigation: the operation of a vessel (direction for traveling or movement through a virtual area, as on a website) 31. Overhaul: to ready equipment for use (to rebuild or repair) 32. Pilot: a steersman, or to steer a vessel (an operator of an aircraft or spacecraft, or to operate such a craft or to direct an operation or procedure, or a business or organization) 33. Quarantine: temporary sequestration of a vessel because of the possibility of spreading disease, or the location of the sequestration (enforced isolation, especially because of contagion, or the place of isolation) 34. Quarters: assigned living areas or workstations on a vessel, or an assembly of all crew members (lodging) 35. Rudder: an immersed blade of wood, metal, or plastic attached to a vessel and turned remotely to change its direction (a guiding force) 36. Salvage: to rescue or save a ship and/or its cargo, or the compensation for doing so; also, the property salvaged (saving something from being destroyed or discarded, or what is saved) 37. Scuttle: to sink a vessel by cutting a hole in the hull (to ruin something by abandonment or sabotage) 38. Scuttlebutt: a cask for holding drinking water and, by extension, the idle talk exchanged while drinking from it (gossip) 39. Seaworthy: in condition to be operated (solid or valid) 40. Ship: to send cargo or passengers by sea (to transport or distribute) 41. Shorthanded: lacking enough crew members (not having enough people to perform a task) 42. Sounding: a measurement of the depth of water (seeking an opinion or a statement of intention) 43. Stow: to put away and, by extension, to keep one’s opinion to oneself (to arrange, load, or store) 44. Swamped: submerged (overwhelmed) 45. Tack: to change a vessel’s direction, or the new direction (to shift one’s viewpoint, as in â€Å"take a new tack†) 46. Tide: the change of surface level of a body of water because of gravitational fluctuations (a fluctuating or rising phenomenon) 47. Under way: in motion (in progress) 48. Wake: the visible track of a vessel through water (aftermath) 49. Waterlogged: filled or soaked with water but afloat (full of or saturated with water) 50. Watertight: capable of preventing water from entering (solid, flawless) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Writing a Reference Letter (With Examples)75 Idioms and Expressions That Include â€Å"Break†January 1 Doesn't Need an "st"