I LOVE LUCY wins favorite classic TV comedy show tourney...

It's official...I LOVE LUCY wins the Favorite Classic TV Comedy Show Tournament with a 10-7 win over The Dick Van Dyke Show in the final match. I want to thank everyone who voted and I hope you enjoyed it. Congrats on Lucy once again!

It's I LOVE LUCY vs THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW for all the marbles

For the favorite classic tv comedies tourney that began with 32 favorite shows last month, it has come down to the final two. I Love Lucy will face The Dick Van Dyke Show in the final match to decide your favorite classic tv comedy show as voted on by you. In their semi-final matches, the two number one seeds, I Love Lucy edged out The Carol Burnett Show 11-9 while The Dick Van Dyke Show crushed Green Acres 16-5. You can vote on the match on the right sidebar and spread the word as it will be up and running through next Sunday.

1 I LOVE LUCY
1 THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW

Final Four of The Favorite Classic TV Comedies now underway

We began with 32 top classic TV shows and now we're down to the final four. First let me wrap up the results of last round's matches:

GREEN ACRES edged out THAT GIRL 16-11

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW defeated BEWITCHED 18-10

I LOVE LUCY crushed MY THREE SONS 23-4

and THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW upset another top seed ANDY GRIFFITH 20-8

Now here are the four shows competing in the two semi-final matches to decide

who will be playing the final championship match

1 THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW

2 GREEN ACRES

1 I LOVE LUCY

2 THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW

I have to say that this is a pretty good final four as I love all these shows. Polls can be found on the right sidebar and will be open till Sunday evening.

Bracket 1 of the Favorite Classic TV Comedy Shows Tourney results

The first 4 matches in the bracket 1 of the Favorite Classic TV comedy shows Tourney are now complete and here are the results:
Top seed I Love Lucy crushed Hogan's Heroes 14-1, My Three Sons edged out The Jack Benny Program 8-6, The Beverly Hillbillies doubled up on Ozzie and Harriet 10-5 while Leave It to Beaver had no problem with The Life of Riley 11-3. Thanks to all those who voted and I will have the next bracket of matches up by noon today.

I LOVE LUCY 14-1 over HOGAN'S HEROES
MY THREE SONS 8-6 over THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM
THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES 10-5 over OZZIE AND HARRIET
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER 11-3 over LIFE OF RILEY

The Favorite Classic TV Shows Tourney is now underway...cast your votes for your faves!

I decided to go ahead and start the Favorite Classic TV Shows tourney a day early with the first four matches in the first bracket. But first let me explain the tourney to those who may be new to my page.  Based upon the excellent book, Sitcoms: The 101 Greatest TV Comedies of All Time, I selected 32 classic TV series to compete for favorite show as voted on by all the followers out there in blog land. I broke them down into four brackets with the top seeds being I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The George Burns/Gracie Allen Show. Then I chose the match-ups by randomly selecting the names out of my trusty easter basket which I have used for many tourneys before. I begin with bracket one featuring I Love Lucy and these match-ups:

1 I LOVE LUCY
8 HOGAN'S HEROES

4 THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES
5 OZZIE AND HARRIET

2 THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM
7 MY THREE SONS

3 LEAVE IT TO BEAVER
6 THE LIFE OF RILEY

Polls are on the right hand side bar and it's one vote per match through Wednesday. After those matches are concluded I will  post the second bracket matches with top seed The Andy Griffith and 7 more classic series. I will keep going until we get down to the final four shows in a winner take all two match set up. This should be very fun and exciting and hope I got most of everyone's favorites competing. Stay tuned! 

The Greatest TV Comedies - I LOVE LUCY (1951-1957)

I have written about the greatest TV comedies of all time before on my blog and it makes for perfect timing as Lucille Ball is my TV goddess of the month. And without a doubt, her series, I Love Lucy is one, if not, greatest sitcom of all time. I know any number of fans can chime with their all time greatest but if you made a list of top 5 sitcoms of all time, I Love Lucy would probably be on 99.9% of those lists. 

Lucy in a typical Lucy situation

Lucille Ball created one of the most famous characters in TV history with the zany housewife Lucy Ricardo, who was married to Cuban bandleader Ricky (real life husband at the time Desi Arnaz). She would continually try to get into the biz herself through some kind of crazy shenanigans, usually involving her best bud, Ethel Mertz (played by good pal Vivian Vance). Ethel was married to Fred (played by William Frawley). The couples lived in the same apartment building which made for perfect comedic situations.

Fred, Ethel, Lucy and Ricky

The chemistry between the four leads was about as good as it gets. Ricky, usually losing his cool after finding out about Lucy's latest scheme...and the madder he got, the less English he would speak. And Lucy herself was perfect..playing off everyone with great timing. She wasn't called the First Lady of Television for nothing.

The Ricardos

The series produced 179 episodes over the course of six years to huge success and several Emmy wins. Everyone has their favorite episodes but once you start talking about them, a smile comes across your face and the memories come flooding back. Everyone remembers Lucy and Ethel working at the chocolate factory or Lucy get hammered on Vitameatavegamin, as she pitches the medicine for an advertisement. There are so many classic episodes to choose from that you can't go wrong with any of them.

Classic Lucy expression

Facts and trivia:

The original choices to play Fred and Ethel were Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet, the co-stars of Lucille Ball's radio show, My Favorite Husband.

William Frawley and Vivian Vance actually hated each other in real life. In the show, displays of affection were forced.

Voted #2 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Show of all time.

Desi Arnaz invented the rerun during the pregnancy episodes of this series by re-airing some episodes from the first season to give Lucy some rest.

Lucy and Vivian each won an Emmy for their performances during the series 6 year run. The fellas did not. The show itself notched 2 Emmys for Best Situation Comedy in 1953 and 1954.

Follow-up series: which both had lengthy runs as well...

The Lucy Show (1962-1968, 156 episodes)
Here's Lucy (1968-1974, 144 episodes)