She was a phenomenon, she was unshakable and she was the best. The unrivaled Queen of Comedy and as someone who was raised and has lived my entire life in Southern California, she was pretty much always there. Even today in the 20-twelve, channel 11 plays at least an hour every weekday and 2 hours EVERY Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Lucy and Los Angeles are forever, which reminds me of a funny story. I once had to visit a local emergency room back in May of 1994. Nothing serious, I survived but being broke and insurance-free it was necessary to go to a county hospital and I chose Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, a hospital funded by Los Angeles County, located in the Sylmar neighborhood of northern Los Angeles. Now let me set the scene; a large ER waiting room, roughly split in two with about 40 seats in each section. The chairs are arranged in rows but the two sections are facing each other and there is a single large TV over each section facing inward. In other words, each section watched the TV over the heads of the people they were facing. It's a weekday around 9 or 10ish and the place is PACKED. It's Los Angeles and a county hospital, it can be assumed it's never not packed. So anyway, as my wife and I sat patiently waiting and watching TV (both TVs were on different channels) it turns 10AM and the all too familiar "I Love Lucy" theme starts on our TV and almost the entire other side simultaneously stood up as if choreographed and turned around to watch the other TV with the Lucy. It was an amazing Lemming moment and living testimony to not only her greatness but also the undeniable impact Desi had on the rising tide of Latin immigrants whom had even then in the early 1950s brought their huddled masses to our shores. Long live Lucy & Desi!
This the fourth episode of the fifteenth season of the "American Masters" documentary series.
Finding Lucy (2000) (TV)
Cast: Edie Adams, William Asher, Fred Ball, Carol Burnett, Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Davis, Fran Drescher
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