lately i've been enjoying watching i love lucy clips on you tube. (my recommendations: vitameatavegamin, chocolatier, tango with eggs, squashing grapes, chester, baking bread, hair treatments, caperucita roja, the diet, and various clips of the gang in hollywood.) i grew up watching reruns and after all these years, i think it still holds up. perhaps growing up in LA has something to do with it my love of the show because i read in wikipedia that thanks to syndication, it's pretty much never gone off the air in LA ever since it went into production. ("as of july 2007, it remains the longest-running program to air continually in the los angeles area...")

why is "i love lucy" a classic sit-com, a pioneer even? it's not just due to its age, it's because of where and how it was recorded. when the show first aired, television was based in new york city and it tended to air live. "i love lucy" was produced in studios in los angeles and recorded in front of an audience. they then aired the recordings. we know the show well due to syndication and it could be syndicated because it was recorded onto a medium that did not become outdated. some television shows are forever lost to us because of the medium they were recorded on, which was inferior, if they were recorded at all. now television is based in los angeles and it is thanks to shows like "i love lucy". the three camera recording technique the show employed is still in use today for sit-coms. they were not the first to use it, but the first to use it combined with a studio audience. i learned this kind of shit when i took a course in television but i didn't know then that "i love lucy" was one of the first shows to become lucrative off syndication.

i feel that not only is "i love lucy" a pioneer sit-com, it's timeless. it might take place in the 1950s, but the episodes are still enjoyable. the stories that take place, the physical comedy, the dialogue, the timing of it all, everything about it. and as far as calling it a classic, well it's classy. not just for it's age or pioneer status, but because it's respectful humor, not derogatory. i like that the main characters are a mixed marriage of someone who has lived for generations in america and one who is an immigrant. in that way it speaks to both kinds of americans in the origin sense--you either moved here yourself or you are the descendant of someone who moved to this country. since i'm the product of such a mixed marriage, i could relate to the show more? no, it's just a great show!

after watching "i love lucy", i went for the polar opposite--i started watching clips of "the family guy". there is one very annoying scene that i saw on tv before and i don't know why i tortured myself to watch it on the internet, but it's where they are watching the opening credits of "maude". (view best of clips with that scene.) now, i never watched "maude", ever. but that damn theme song is stuck in my head! that's why i searched for clips of "maude" on you tube so i could get a sense of what the show was like. it's ok, kinda funny. then i read reviews of it and i guess you had to watch it when it aired.

reading about the history of the show, i learned that "maude" was a spin-off of "all in the family". damn, i really hated "all in the family" but i learned that that show created several successful spin-offs, even spin-offs of spin-offs. plus, it also has some technical achievements, such as being the first show to be videotaped in front of an audience instead of filmed, especially when it was the growing trend to use pre-recorded laughter. that's when i decided to search for more clips on you tube. if you're gonna read about something audio/visual, it'd be nice to have some media clip to go with it! that's what i really dislike about reading band interviews, when they discuss certain riffs or sounds, there is nothing for me to listen to. i watched maude's first appearance on "all in the family" to understand the tension between her character and archie bunker. then i watched a clip of the jeffersons on "all in the family" before they had their own spin-off to understand their dynamics. (by the way, i used to love watching "the jeffersons".) damn, was that clip racy! i can't imagine tv like that now. tv now seems tame or when it does push buttons, it's more to appeal the base senses. then i watched some clips of "good times" as it was a spin-off of "maude". as a kid, i only watched "good times" a little bit so i don't remember much. the clips on you tube are actually pretty good but they are from season one and i read that the quality of the show went down after that.