Ralph Hart Movies
- 1964
In Volume 33 of a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, a soldier from Earth's future is sent back in time where he is captured by the government. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- 1961
Flight that Disappeared sugars its Vital Message with a sci-fi/fantasy coating. Three nuclear scientists prepare to deliver their report on the potentials of atomic weaponry to the President. En route to Washington, the scientists' plane disappears from view. They awaken to find themselves in the presence of benign aliens, possibly residents of the Afterworld. Before the scientists are permitted to leave, they have been persuaded that their nuclear report will need a healthy dose of anti-bomb rhetoric. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Craig Hill, Paula Raymond, (more)
Lucille Ball proves that her two-year absence from network television has not in any way blunted her comic expertise as The Lucy Show launches its first season. The episodes herein are pleasantly schizophrenic, with widowed mother Lucy Carmichael (Ball, of course) harvesting new comedy opportunities out of such situations as attracting eligible bachelors, raising money to augment her allowance, and wrestling with the trials and tribulations of single motherhood with daughter Chris (Candy Moore) and son Jerry (Jimmy Garrett), and at the same time capturing the carefree zaniness of the I Love Lucy days, vis-à-vis Lucy's misadventures with best her friend and housemate, divorcée Vivian Bagley, played by Ball's former I Love Lucy co-star Vivian Vance. For her part, Viv Bagley also must be both mother and father to her own kid Sherman (Ralph Hart) -- who, fortuitously enough, is Jerry Carmichael's best friend. On the "dating" front, things get off to a fine start with the series' second episode, in which Lucy and Viv finagle Jerry's math teacher (William Windom) into escorting both of them to a Saturday night dance; in later episodes, Lucy will try to win a guy (Frank Aletter) away from Viv by feigning an interest in classical music, and will go gaga over her new boss (John Vivyan) when she takes a temporary job as a society columnist. (Incidentally, Dick Martin of Rowan & Martin fame is seen throughout this season as Harry Conners, Lucy's next-door neighbor and occasional boyfriend.) As for her money-raising schemes, Lucy inaugurates her well-meaning torture of Mr. Barnsahl (Charles Lane), the banker handling her late husband's estate, when she accidentally writes a donation check for two thousand dollars and then goes to great and hilarious lengths to cover up the gaping hole in her bank account. And in a classic episode reminiscent of I Love Lucy at its best, Lucy and Viv set up a "factory" in their kitchen to mass-produce Viv's caramel corn recipe. Finally, our heroines gently intrude upon their offspring's private lives by making a big production of waiting for Chris' return from a date and becoming a public spectacle while refereeing Jerry and Ralph's football game; and best of all, Lucy imitates Charlie Chaplin in a comedy sketch staged for Chris' classmates. And on a pure slapstick-force level, few of the Lucy Show episodes can match the hilarity of the first-season episode in which Lucy and Viv become volunteer firemen, or the one in which Lucy takes singing lessons from guest star Hans Conried to qualify for a neighborhood barbershop quartet, or the installment wherein Lucy finds herself "driving" a dump truck. The first-season ratings of The Lucy Show proved beyond doubt that America still loved Lucy: her series ranked as the fourth most popular TV show in the country, sharing this honor with the popular Bonanza. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, (more)
Season three of The Lucy Show is something of a watershed for the series. To be sure, most of the episodes adhere to the formula established during the first two seasons, with wacky widow Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) and her divorced best friend and housemate Vivian Bagley (Vivian Vance) getting mixed up in zany, farcical I Love Lucy-style situations, and with Lucy and Viv trying their best to be both parents and pals to their children, Lucy's daughter Chris (Candy Moore) and son Jerry (Jimmy Garrett); and Viv's son Sherman (Ralph Hart). However, more and more episodes were devoted to the love-hate relationship between Lucy and bank president Theodore J. Mooney (Gale Gordon), who controlled Lucy's weekly allowance and who was regularly driven to fits of hilarious frenzy whenever Lucy hatched one of her many get-rich-quick schemes or one of her "clever" subterfuges to wheedle more money from the banks. Clearly, it would not be long before The Lucy Show would focus almost exclusively on the misadventures of Lucy and Mr. Mooney -- or at least, it was clear to co-star Vivian Vance, who decided to leave the series at the end of the third season (though she would return for several "guest" appearances over the next several years). The Lucy Show's future heavy reliance upon guest stars was already making itself felt during season three. Both Jack Benny and Bob Hope appear in the episode "Lucy and the Plumber" while future episodes this season bear such titles as "Lucy Meets Arthur Godfrey" and "Lucy Meets Danny Kaye." Also, "Lucy and the Countess" marks the first of several guest appearances by Ann Sothern as Countess Framboise, who turns out to be Lucy Carmichael's old school chum Rosie Harrigan. During the next season, Sothern would be teamed with Lucy as an ersatz Vivian Bagley in a number of comic misadventures. The Lucy Show finished its third season with a 26.6 Nielsen rating, making it America's eighth most popular series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, (more)
The second season of The Lucy Show finds zany redheaded widow Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) and her more levelheaded divorced housemate Vivian Bagley (Vivian Vance) still enmeshing themselves in comic situations cheerfully reminiscent of the actresses' glory days on I Love Lucy -- and still in glorious black-and-white, due to the fact that the CBS network was still, for all intents and purposes color-blind during the 1963-64 season. The most important development this year is the introduction of Gale Gordon as Theodore J. Mooney, new president of the Danfield National Bank, the institution handling the estate of Lucy's late husband. Mr. Mooney should have been prepared for what he was in for when, in his first appearance on the series, Lucy accidentally locks him in the bank vault -- twice. And yet, Mooney courageously remains in Danfield to handle Lucy's weekly allowance, suffering the hilarious consequences week after week after week. Since Candy Moore and Jimmy Garrett are still in the cast as Lucy's children Chris and Jerry -- ditto Ralph Hart as Viv's son Sherman -- many of the season two plotlines deal with Lucy and Viv's efforts to properly care for their kids. "Care" in their case generally meaning "interfere," especially when they chaperone Chris' beach party, and when Lucy cooks up a variety of lunkheaded stratagems to sneak a visit with Jerry at his military school. However, the season's best episodes eschew the series' "domestic" angle in favor of pure I Love Lucy farce, notably Lucy and Viv's outrageous spoof of the then-current Elizabeth Taylor film version of Cleopatra. Also, the second season finds a handful of guest stars involved in the heroine's shenanigans, notably Broadway star Ethel Merman, singer Roberta Sherwood, character actor John Carradine, comedian Wally Cox, golfer Jimmy Demaret, and even Lucille Ball's husband Gary Morton and her then ten-year-old son Desi Arnaz Jr.. It would, however, be two more seasons before The Lucy Show's "special guest star" policy would shift into high gear. The Lucy Show finished up its second season as America's sixth most popular TV series -- and its fifth most popular sitcom, after The Beverly Hillbillies, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Petticoat Junction, and The Andy Griffith Show. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, (more)
