State College

I Love Lucy Sitcom Parody Spoof (1981 - Montclair State College)

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• published: 03 Dec 2014
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It's 1981 and Lucy, unhappy with Ricky's constant philandering, decides to get high -- and watch what happens! Videotaped in the Montclair State College TV production studio in 1981 as part of a college project for the Broadcasting Department. Restored in 2014 via FinalCut ProX. (see more below) This sitcom parody won "Best Comedy" at Telerad 1981 (MSC Broadcasting Dept.) Cast: Ricky Riccardo - Bill Melo Lucy Riccardo - Karyn Poch Ethel Mertz - Joan Preztunik Fred Mertz - Steve Dalton Little Ricky - Vito Ziccardi Evette The Showgirl - Marion Mastrorilli Drug Dealer - Reggie Showgirls - Various MSC Broadcasting Students Officers of the MSC Campus Police Dept. Written by Lynn S. Zlotnick and Vito Ziccardi. Filmed on location at Montclair State College, Upper Montclair, NJ. Production Notes: The theme song is "Disco Lucy" by the Wilton Place Street Band. Yes, this was a real song from 1976! Filmed in black and white. I don't think we had any color equipment at the school in 1981. I do remember that we could borrow a color camera from the local community access TV station (which I did for another project the following year). Please remember: in the early 80s, there was no such thing as a small lightweight video camera. This equipment was huge and weighed a ton. This show was originally videotaped in a large VHS format (U-Matic 3/4" tape, larger than a regular VHS tape). The video quality isn't the greatest because this is actually a 3rd generation copy (U-Matic VHS to regular VHS to DVD to .mov file). I'm glad I finally got it into a digital format, because as you can see, the tape wasn't in the greatest shape. We didn't have very good props at the school's TV studio, so we improvised the best we could with bedsheets and stuff we brought from home. I love some of the "charming" mistakes -- the girl saying "ding dong" when the doorbell rings, the shots where you can see Vito holding the boom mic, etc. I didn't edit those out for YouTube because -- well, it's a student production and there were mistakes! It's not supposed to be perfect! The scenes from "Ricky's Dressing Room" were filmed in the office of the General Manger at WMSC-FM in the Student Center. The first half of the show included an annoying buzz because we forgot to shut off the studio's fluorescent lights! FinalCut masked some of it, but it was impossible to remove it totally. Was Little Ricky smoking a real joint in his scene with Lucy? To tell you the truth, I don't know, but it looks real, so I bet it was! When Lucy and Ethel are about to get arrested, Reggie is supposed to see the police, get scared, and have his hat fly off his head. The gag worked perfectly and got a lot of laughs at Telerad, but unfortunately because of tape noise and editing glitches on the tape, the "hat flying off his head" gag got lost along the way in newer generations of the video. The original "serious" music from Lucy and Ethel's arrest and fingerprinting scenes somehow got deleted along the way in newer generations of the video, so I added similar new music to those scenes. The scenes in the police station were so dark and shadowy because one of the lights broke and we had no time to replace it! I did my best to increase the brightness of those scenes with FinalCut. Kudos to the entire cast for their ad-libbing, and especially to Bill and Karyn for channeling the spirits of Ricky and Lucy so well! Joan and Karyn also did a great improv of "getting high" and being goofy afterward! The MSC Police Officers were great sports for acting in this video! Sometimes they missed their cues, but overall I was so happy with their cooperation and performances! It added to the overall kitsch of the piece. The last scene of Little Ricky driving away, blasting Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up," was totally the comedic writing genius of Vito Ziccardi. .....fun times!