Tony Maietta:: 1:04
Hello, I'm film historian Tony Maietta.

Brad Shreve: 1:07
And I'm Brad Shreve, who's just a guy who likes movies.

Tony Maietta:: 1:11
We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's golden age. We go behind the scenes and share our opinions too.

Brad Shreve: 1:17
And of course, being the average guy, my opinions are the ones that matter.

Tony Maietta:: 1:22
As does your self-delusion. Welcome to Going Hollywood. 

You know, I was thinking. One of the hallmarks of the Going Hollywood podcast is our Lucy moment. There's always some link, some tie, some reason to reference the woman that Vivian Vance lovingly referred to as Big Red. Huh. And we haven't done that in a while. So I thought in order to even the score, we needed to have one big Lucy moment this week. Entire episode. Aren't you excited? I am. But wait, wait, don't switch off this podcast because this one is different. This one is different. I'll definitely want you to listen, and I think you'll definitely want to listen to this because I have a very special guest joining us today to share it with me. We're going to be talking about a very unique, interesting special from 1966 entitled Lucy in London. And without any further ado, making his second appearance on Going Hollywood is my friend, my sometime employer, and Lucy expert and aficionado, Thomas J. Watson. Welcome, Tom.

Tom Watson: 2:44
Thank you so much, and thank you for inviting me back.

Tony Maietta:: 2:48
Oh, I am thrilled to have you here. Um, Tom is Tom was our very first guest way back last year. Remember, Tom? Yep. We talked about Lucy and the Red Scare.

Tom Watson: 2:58
I felt like we were charting new territory. What did they say at the beginning of Star Trek? I can't remember. Well, no, it's kind of like when Lucy and Desi went into television, it wasn't there wasn't a whole lot of that out there in those days. So they were charting new territory. And I felt like we were doing the same thing.

Tony Maietta:: 3:16
We kind of were. We kind of were. You know, so when Tom was here before, uh, we talked about Lucy and the Red Scare and what really happened back in that week in 1954, uh, when Lucille had to answer accusations regarding her registration in the Communist Party. And that was a lot of fun. Um, and it was good to set the record straight, I felt. But um, for those of you who didn't hear that episode, go listen to it by the way. But by way of refresher, Tom is a producer, an author, a writer, and a former employee of Lucille Ball's and friend, and friend of mine as well. Um, would you just tell the people, Tom, a quick recap about your history with the redhead?

Tom Watson: 3:56
It started when I was almost when I was born, insofar as uh I was three years old when her TV series went on the air. Yeah, do the math. And so uh, you know, throughout my childhood, she was there, and uh I knew from the beginning, my dad sold TVs, and so I was what part of what they called the television uh generation. It was my babysitter because I was back in small country. And uh anyway, it was the number one show, and it was my favorite show as a child, and I knew I wanted to go into television in some way, shape, or form, and I didn't know what I could do, but uh I wound up working at CBS in New York, and then they sent me out here to Los Angeles, and during that period of time I also uh took over and rejuvenated the Lucio Ball fan club, and that sort of introduced me to her because uh she was impressed that an executive at CBS Television was running her fan club. That's normal, you know. Anyway, when she went back into television in the mid-80s after uh sort of semi-retiring, after Here's Lucy, she needed to put a staff together again, and I raised my hand and said, I'm ready, willing, and able, and she hired me sort of on the spot. And uh I was with her for a few years, and then unfortunately she left us. But uh the fan club continued, and then we did some uh Lucy conventions where people came together from all over the world uh in Burbank and we celebrated her uh various productions, and uh I had written a couple of books. In the meantime, where all this other stuff was going on, I had written a couple of books about her, and she was always very grateful that unlike the other authors at the time, uh we didn't get into all the smut and uh all the innovative and all that. They were basically books that celebrated her career and her achievements and that sort of thing. So that's basically been what I've been all about most of my life in one way, shape, or form.

Tony Maietta:: 6:18
Well, I remember I remember Loving Lucy in particular, the the book you wrote, the gorgeous book loving Lucy. Um, also written books with Betty White. You do you right?

Tom Watson: 6:30
I wrote a book with Betty uh called Pet Love because she wanted to get into book writing and she was afraid. Uh she needed somebody to take her by the hand and lead her in. And I for I did that. She and I worked on a book for almost a year, and uh she loved it. And then she went back to work herself in first Mama's Family and then The Golden Girls. So she was right from that point on, she didn't need a co-author, and basically she wrote at home at night after working all day on one of these TV shows, you know. I I've got to admit, she Betty White and Lucy O'Ball were both in a way, I don't, there's no negativity here, but they were kind of workaholics. They loved work, they love to be on, they love to express themselves. They are both very creative in their way. And uh when they weren't working at the studio, they wanted to be doing something else. So with Betty, it turned out to be books.

Tony Maietta:: 7:34
That generation, that there's a certain generation of actresses. I'm thinking of all those broad Joan Crawford, Betty. And when I say broad, I mean broad lovingly and affectionately. Right, no, I get it. Elaine Stritch, even. I mean, though they wanted to work, it was all about the work, you know, and that's certainly true. God, that was certainly true of Lucy. In fact, the special that we're gonna talk about today happened because Lucy didn't want to go on vacation, right? Isn't that right?

Tom Watson: 8:01
Yes, and no, it also happened because at the uh she was uh, you know, she had done nine years of the Ricardo's and the Mertz's through I Love Lucy and then what became a Lucy Dessie comedy hour or the Lucy A Ball Dessianais show, whatever title you want to give it, the hour-long shows. They had nine years of that, and then uh when that show ended, they she took a couple of years off and wanted to get back into it. And that can be very dangerous for an actor, uh, because once you've had a big hit with something, you can basically count on two hands or maybe even one, the number of really successful television stars who have come back in something different.

SPEAKER_07: 8:50
Right.

Tom Watson: 8:50
Because, you know, it you it just has seldom worked. So anyway, when she came back to television uh in the Lucy show, it sort of was different, but it was also the same because it was her and uh Vivian Vance uh basically doing this, they had basically the same characters, uh slightly altered as they had played for nine years in the earlier series. And that was planned and it worked beautifully, and the audience welcomed them back. As the third season was starting, Vivian Vance announced to Lucy and the World that this is going to be my last year doing this because since the I Love Lucy period, after it ended, she got married to uh a man who in the publishing business, speaking of books, and he was headquartered in New York, and they had a lovely home out in Connecticut. Well, for three years, she was flying back and forth every week while the Lucy show was in production.

Tony Maietta:: 9:54
That's amazing.

Tom Watson: 9:55
She did that for almost three years, and she said, Lucy, I can't do it anymore. And Lucy accepted that, and there was a piece of Lucy, all almost grateful, in the sense that she too, as an actress, felt like they were still doing Lucy and Ethel, even though they're now Lucy and Viv. And as a creative actress, she was sort of looking for other things to do as well. And uh she had done during the third season of the Lucy show, as though she wasn't busy enough, she was a wife and mother, and uh she was the star of a major television series and the president of the world's largest studio, geared especially for television. But then on her time off, CBS asked her to do a special.

Tony Maietta:: 10:51
But this is how, let me just say this. This is how the whole Lucy in London this the special is Lucy in London. That's that's the special that we're talking about, and it is very special. And what I was trying to what I was saying to Tom was was the fact that this happened smack dab in the middle of the Lucy show. And she had a she had some time off, right? And she didn't want to take the time off, she wanted to work on this special, which you just told us the background about. That's correct, right? And Cleo produced it.

Tom Watson: 11:18
It was season four.

Tony Maietta:: 11:20
Mm-hmm.

Tom Watson: 11:22
But it was season four that where the all these the material I just mentioned happened during season four.

SPEAKER_07: 11:29
Right.

Tom Watson: 11:29
They wound up doing a season four, five, and six of the Lucy show because even though Lucy, even though Vivian had retired, and Lucy was saying to the told the networks, you know, if Viv's leaving, why don't we just put a big red ribbon around the show and we'll end it? Well, PS did not want to end it, and the sponsors definitely didn't want to end it, and because it was like a top ten show, you just don't walk away from something like so. Anyway they talked her into it, and uh so it's during that fifth, the fourth season. Well, she was she and Mr. Mooney moved to Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_07: 12:07
Right.

Tom Watson: 12:08
They did a whole, you know, the last I I call it the Lucy Show part two, uh was total because it was really different because she now she's a working woman.

SPEAKER_07: 12:16
Yeah.

Tom Watson: 12:17
But on the the uh as soon as that season was finished, as a matter of fact, she went right into a special with Carol Burnett, the Carol Plus Two special.

Tony Maietta:: 12:28
I think the Tom Tom produced the DVDs of the Lucy show. That's how we know each other. And you put those out like what, 15 years ago, about 15 years ago, uh, which is unbelievable to me. So the special that we're gonna talk about, Lucy in London, is on those DVD sets, season five. In fact, Tom has a wonderful documentary about the making of Lucy in London called Lucy in London Revisited, right? Right. Tom, that's the name of it, right? Which is wonderful. And so uh it's a wonderful documentary, even though I'm not in it. Um hard failing. I was in New York at the time, so I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. But um what I wanted to ask you is is that so this Lucy in London special that we're talking about, that we just talked about, how it came together. It was really a a change of pace for her, right? That's kind of mythic in the Lucy mythos. The the different, it's not Lucy Carmichael. I mean, her name is Lucy Carmichael in the special, but it's not your usual special, your usual Lucy, right? Am I correct in that?

Tom Watson: 13:31
Yes. Uh she specifically did not want to do the same old uh special like that. Like she and when when I Love Lucy ended, she and Desi did three years of one-hour specials, including Lucy goes to Alaska and Lucy Goes to Mexico and that sort of thing. That she was did not want to do that. She wanted something new and different.

SPEAKER_07: 13:56
Right.

Tom Watson: 13:57
And this was 1965, and one of the things that was going on in the world was what we called the British invasion. And it was basically spearheaded by you know the four Moppets called the Beatles. The music took over the world, really, and uh they were extremely popular, and even in the TV networks, suddenly being young and youthful and all that, the whole style of everything sort of changed overnight. And the uh, you know, yes, we still had shows like Lawrence Welk, but we also had things like Hullabaloo and Shindig and things like that, which showed teenagers on television dancing in ways that their parents had never dreamed of. And anyway, it was a whole there's a whole culture thing happening. And uh Lucy sort of wanted to sample some of that, and they thought that with life with uh Lucy in London, they could uh when she she would go to London and witness some of that.

Tony Maietta:: 15:16
Well, I think what's it's what's amazing is it's like it's a truly unique outing in her career because if there's no studio audience, no laugh track, no Vivian Vance, no Gail Gordon. I mean, she is it's really I mean, the character, her character's name in the special is Lucy Carmichael, and in the show before this, the Lucy show episode before this, she goes they show her getting on the plane to go to London. But it's unlike anything else in the Lucy show.

Tom Watson: 15:41
That was intentional.

Tony Maietta:: 15:44
So it could stand alone, so it could stand alone on its own. You don't have to know the history of the Lucy show to enjoy the special.

Tom Watson: 15:50
Right. And yeah, like I say, that she wanted to try something new and uh totally different because again, the actress loved the challenges and loved new creativity type of thing, and she felt like she didn't want to do the same old stuff, blah blah blah blah blah in something different, and she wanted to expose the audience to something different.

Tony Maietta:: 16:18
See, I love that. I love that about her. I love the fact that she was people always think of her as doing the same thing over and over again.

Tom Watson: 16:24
And she Well, and as a matter of fact, that became in some circles would say part of her downfall in a way, insofar as she uh she tried. She tried things like in London, uh, but the things the audience really glommed on to was uh was the Lucy character.

Tony Maietta:: 16:47
I get yeah, I get that. But I what I love the fact that was that she was trying. She was always trying. She was always she would go a certain amount of years and then she would try something, and either worked or it didn't.

Tom Watson: 16:57
And usually usually things for her worked from a critical point of view, but the audience was going, oh uh I I mentioned, for example, 20 years later she did uh a TV movie called Stone Pillow, where she played a bag lady on the streets of New York. It got extremely high ratings, it got well reviewed, but the audience was sort of, oh, I I I want Lucy back.

Tony Maietta:: 17:27
Well, that's yeah, I mean, that's the problem. That's the problem. She's pigeonholed in that thing. But I I love the fact that she tried and she put together now now, considering that she was basically doing this special on her summer vacation, they put together an incredible team of people here. I think I'm blown away by it. I'm blown away by it because it's not the usual Lucy suspects, right? Right. So so, first of all, we have, as we said, we've got Lucy's cousin, Cleo Smith, uh producing this along with Steve Bender, who also directed it. And Steve Bender's credits, I mean, very impressive. After this, he would go on to direct Elvis Presley's 1968 Compact special. So this is pretty amazing. Uh, we've got Ron Friedman and Pat McCormick writing it, two very impressive talents. And we've got music by Billy Goldenberg and Erwin Costell, who had just won, or who was about to win, an Oscar for the sound of music, right? Right. And if that's not enough, the song, the song Lucy in London, was written by who's it written by, Tom? Tell the people. Phil Spector, right. Phil Spector, Phil Spector, who at this time was huge, big, big, I mean, huge.

Tom Watson: 18:46
Well, again, though, usually with the youth market or the younger people. I mean, Lawrence Welk wasn't near this show, thank God. Um nothing against the gentleman. I'm just saying, you know, it she was going for uh a different flavor, you know.

Tony Maietta:: 19:02
This is what, yeah, and this is my point. Totally different. One camera filming. I mean, what um what we also want to say about this time, too, was that her cinematographer, uh, Fuat Saeed, he was a famous Hollywood cinematographer. He was shooting iSpy at the time.

Tom Watson: 19:16
This is iSpy was amazing. I Spy just happened to be headquartered at Desi Lu, too.

Tony Maietta:: 19:21
Well, there you go. I mean, the woman knew where the talent was, obviously.

Tom Watson: 19:25
They had this remarkable remote truck where they loaded everything into a big van, and you could put that, you know, on a 747 or 777, whatever it happened to be, and fly it all over the world, which they did for i Spy.

Tony Maietta:: 19:40
Well, that's what's what I'm yeah, that's what I'm what's amazing is that in the time of technology at this point, that's happening. You couldn't have done that five years before, but because cameras were light and portable, that's how the Mazel brothers did their films. That's how Greg Gardens was basically made with a handheld camera and a VW bug in the driveway. And because of that, because that's Technology had had had been at this point, they were able to get these, it's almost like guerrilla filmmaking. Right. They were able to shoot to shoot the biggest star in Hollywood on the streets of London in a motorcycle sidecar. Right. When you think about it, it's astounding. So I guess my point is that the woman was always trying to stretch herself.

Tom Watson: 20:20
Definitely, definitely.

Tony Maietta:: 20:22
All the way from being a three-camera in a studio audience and very by the book, I love Lucy style. And then she does this special with one camera in London, no soundtrack, no studio. It's remarkable to me. I love that. I love that about her.

Tom Watson: 20:36
And that was their whole intent was to do something new and different. And trust me, you know, the when the Lucy group gets together in the world, uh, the audiences, new and different are not the first two adjectives that fall into the vocabulary. They like the old, comfortable whatever. And that's sad in a way because it held her back.

Tony Maietta:: 21:03
It did. It did. And that's what's but but the actress, the artist inside her was longing to stretch. And once in a while she came out and stretched and see how the water was, and then she went back. Which she did in this special. Right. So this special, I want to say that this special aired in October of 1966. A great year. October 24th, 1966. It preempted the Lucy Show and the Andy Griffith Show, which I think is great. She's preempting herself for this hour-long special.

Tom Watson: 21:29
And it co-starred. It co-starred Anthony Newley. Originally, they wanted two of them to be uh part of it. It was going to be Anthony Newley and um Lawrence Olivier.

Tony Maietta:: 21:42
I was going to ask you that. If if it was true about Olivia.

Tom Watson: 21:45
She pitched it to him herself. He was traveling, he was here in this country uh in some one of their plays that was touring, and she went, she went, she and Cleo went, and they went backstage, and Lucy took pitched the idea to him. He loved the idea, and he said, When's it when are you doing it? And she they came, they threw out the date, and he goes, Oh, I can't. He was already committed. He was involved with, I think, the National Theatre Group or something in London.

SPEAKER_07: 22:13
Yeah. Sure, of course.

Tom Watson: 22:14
Just no way. I I I can't. I'm sorry. And rather than replace him, the writers just said, okay, let's uh and they just made it Anthony Nilly.

Tony Maietta:: 22:24
So basically the basic premise of the special is that Lucy Carmichael wins a jingle contest. Right. And the surprise is one day. She has one day in London. She arrives, she has a day, and then she has to leave. So she has to see as much of London as she can in a day. And she just so happens to have this uh eccentric, off-the-wall tour guide named Tony, a very good name, played by Anthony Newley. And Anthony Newley at this point, I think it's pretty safe to say was about as hot as ever as he was ever gonna be. I mean, stop the world, I want to get off, roar the grease paint. Do you know how did she? I mean, obviously she loved Newley. Was she very, very there were some people she loved. Was Newley one of those people?

Tom Watson: 23:08
Uh not for her so much, but Cleo. Cleo ah, the cousin wants him. She had seen the broad, she seen him on Broadway and just thought he was wonderful. And uh unfortunately he was also doing uh Dr. Doolittle, the movie Dr. Doolittle.

SPEAKER_07: 23:27
Yes, yes.

Tom Watson: 23:29
But fortunately, uh Cleo uh talked to the producers, and there was a couple of weeks where they didn't really need him that they could shoot around him, and she says, if he'll do it, I'll well that's when we'll take him. And so he was able to leave Dr. Doolittle, fly over, do this special with Lucy, and then go back. And uh so it all worked out, but it was, you know, uh one of those things of just trying to get people when you gotta work around schedule.

Tony Maietta:: 24:00
Well, well, that was what was so great about the guerrilla filmmaking is that they could grab the camera and shoot these things. Now I know there was a second unit that would film doubles from far away, but there are so many shots. I'm like, that's Lucille Ball in a motorcycle sidecar going through Piccadilly. That's Lucio Ball.

Tom Watson: 24:17
Incredible. Definitely, definitely. And uh it just one of those things where it all seemed to come together, and because part of the filmography, if that's what you want to call it, of the period, uh young filmmakers were taking over the industry, you know, to a great extent, particularly for the young audience. And some of the movies being done by the Beatles and some of the other younger uh performers introduced the idea of things like still photography and also uh sped up photography, where to get from point A to point B, you simply double or triple the speed of the film, and so you see them running real fast across the stage. And they uh incorporated some of that stuff into this special. So not only was the flavor of the show different from a storyline point of view, but she'll get herself into a mess and suddenly the film speeds up and she just runs, and it's that you know, like 50 miles an hour, which is not something we're normally used to seeing, you know, Lucy Ricardo or Lucy Carmichael or Lucy, whoever, doing.

Tony Maietta:: 25:38
It's no, not at all. That's and that's the point. This this special is so unique, and I think it is I think the one of the reasons why, and we'll get to this. I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but the reason why it was not well received at the time, but to me, it seems so it's it's almost current now, it's almost of the moment now because it's so up to date, it's just nothing, nothing that she ever did before with that same kind of thing, that whole help Beatles kind of energy to it. Right, and it doesn't rely on any of the old Lucy tropes, it's all fresh and new.

Tom Watson: 26:12
Exactly, exactly. That's what they were thinking, and unfortunately, the audience wasn't ready somehow. I quite honestly, quite honestly, I blame some of the uh Thessilou and uh CBS people who I think when they saw what the crew came home with, they were a little astounded. And originally the the you had mentioned that the week before Lucy Carmichael wins the contest and we see her flying to London. Yeah, that was never planned, that was planned after.

Tony Maietta:: 26:52
Ah, of course, of course. Because the special was shot before, but yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

Tom Watson: 26:57
Some of the people at the network and at the studio was afraid Lucy in London was going to be too odd and too different. They uh had they came up with this uh special episode of the Lucy show where it explains what's going on. Right. And to me, that was that was deadly because it put the regular Monday night audience in that groove where they were trying desperately to get out of that groove by doing these new and wonderful inventive things. I also think it did not do itself any favors by being scheduled Monday night at 8:30. If it had been on Friday night at 10, in some other totally different time period, interesting, uh, it might have, but seeing it on Monday nights in the Lucy time period, uh the all it got huge numbers because Lucy always got huge numbers, but the audience was like, huh.

Tony Maietta:: 28:00
Well, we're gonna talk about the reception, but I wanna I'm gonna talk about the special, and another thing that's very unique about this special, and we should probably I I we don't do plot point by plot point on this podcast, but we need to give you an overview of exactly this special. What I also find so unusual about this special and so interesting is it's divided into three acts, like a play. Three separate acts, and you get that act one, and this is what happens, act two, and this is what happens. So I want to talk a little bit about each of the acts um and the crazy things that happened to our favorite redhead. Um, when she arrives in London. So she act one is Lucy arriving in London and getting off the plane. And here's, okay, right off the bat, we know this is something unusual because there it's still photography shots. It's not a filmed moment. It is actually a series of still photography shots shot by none other than Bob Willoughby, right? Who's a mythic still photography? He had just done this whole series of jazz artists, and here he is taking photos for Lucio Ball special. So it's a soundtrack. You know what it reminded me of?

Tom Watson: 29:04
It's going, but the there are stills, and you're she's talking under it.

Tony Maietta:: 29:08
There are a series of very fast, beautiful stills with the soundtrack. And I thought, okay, right out of the gate here, we're saying this is something totally new and different and unique.

Tom Watson: 29:18
Well, that was yes, that was telegraphing. Like this is not your normal Lucy special, folks.

Tony Maietta:: 29:24
Exactly. She's not looking for her luggage and getting caught on the conveyor belt or getting, you know, getting her dress unraveled on the off the runway of the plane. It's this wonderful series of beautiful still photography that gets us so fast into the plot where she meets her tour guide, um, played by Anthony Newley from Royal Luxury Tours. And she's expecting, of course, he gets in a Rolls-Royce, right? She thinks he's going to be in this fabulous Rolls-Royce, and that's actually ends up being a motorcycle sidecar.

Tom Watson: 29:51
Motorcycle sidecar. Well, and and and to his point, and it's logical, she can see everything from there. You know.

Tony Maietta:: 29:59
It's the best way to see London. I think he, you know, he says that to her, and she goes, I only have a day. And she has this big long list, and he's like, Don't worry, you'll see everything. And well, one of my favorite things is he goes, We will not hurry, we will rush. He says, There's a difference. Hurry, hurry, hurry, listen to the sound, hurry. We're going to rush. And it's just, it's very, it's a very charming opening. It's a very charming opening.

Tom Watson: 30:21
Definitely. I I can't disagree with that.

Tony Maietta:: 30:24
So she gets in the she gets in the sidecar of the motorcycle and they're tooling all around London. And of course, because it's Lucy, there is one Lucy thing. She has to end up in the Thames. I mean, it's just Exactly, exactly. You can't have a Lucy special in which she doesn't end up in a river or a lake or something like that that gets her messed up. So what amazed me was now this wasn't too long after Catherine Hepburn fell into the Venice Canals and came away with a lifelong eye infection.

Tom Watson: 30:54
Right.

Tony Maietta:: 30:54
Um, in summertime. And Lucy still did. I mean, I know the Thames was not nearly as polluted as the Venice Canals, but she still did it. She still went in the Thames herself. Wasn't that a surprise to people?

Tom Watson: 31:06
It was to the people working on the thing. They didn't expect it, huh? They would find a either a swimming pool or some kind of a uh a substitute and do cut-ins. I mean, they would film it separate and then edit it in so that it looked like she was still with Tony on the Thames, and she said, No, no, no, no, no, you can't do it like that. Hold the camera back, and I'll go in and you'll see the whole the whole kit and caboodle. And it was like, okay.

Tony Maietta:: 31:36
This is what is so amazing about this woman. I mean, I mean, it's you know, at this point in her career. She just said, go for it, you know. She didn't have to do any of this stuff. She had a top five-rated sitcom. She was running the biggest television studio in Hollywood, she was the most powerful woman in Hollywood at this time. And she's going, I hate pardon my French, she's going ass up in the Thames. I mean, it's just, it's, it's astounding to me that she would take these chances at this point. And that's one of the reasons why I love her so much as an actress, is because she was fearless with this kind of stuff.

Tom Watson: 32:09
Exactly.

Tony Maietta:: 32:09
And she doesn't get enough credit for that. People go, oh, she does the same thing. No, she doesn't. She's fearless with this stuff. So she goes, so she gets, of course, they get soaked in the Thames. So Tony has to take her shopping. And where would they go, of course, but to Carnaby Street. Now, having just been in London earlier this year, I love Carnaby Street, but Carnaby Street now is was much different than Carnaby Street was then.

Tom Watson: 32:33
Again, it was the youth generation had taken over London, and you know, everything was very mod clothes.

Tony Maietta:: 32:41
Swinging 60s. And did you now? I don't think she was Twiggy yet, but did you see Twiggy when you obviously you've seen this a million times, I'm sure. But Twiggy's in it. Twiggy has a cameo in this part.

Tom Watson: 32:55
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, in that scene.

Tony Maietta:: 32:58
My mind is blown here. It ain't Milton Burrell, it ain't Red Skelton, it's Twiggy in a Lucy O'Ball special. It's it's just so wonderful. So Lucy goes shopping, and this is really my favorite part. This is this is where they decide to plop down a music video, basically, of Lucy, the song Lucy in London that was written by, yes, believe this, Phil Spector. Oh my god, that's that's incredible. What do you think of that? Can you tell us a little bit about that little sequence?

Tom Watson: 33:29
Well, I it's just that again, they wanted to uh talk to the youth market as well as the older people, and they did it uh that way, you know, by having a quote production number, but have like I you know, like the some of the more youthful dancers, uh, you know, they had the TV shows like Hullabaloo and Shinji, things like that. Well, they wanted to kind of get into that just a little bit by having her dance with uh some of the young uh you know, a young chorus.

Tony Maietta:: 34:04
Incredible, incredible. And it's a series of stills, but as as as Tom said earlier, that they also do, you know, they do they slow down the film, they speed up the film, there's jump cuts, there's double double exposure. It's it's a fascinating, it's a music video. It's a music video, it's basically MTV in 1966.

Tom Watson: 34:21
Right, right in the middle of a show, right?

Tony Maietta:: 34:22
You know, it's not right smacked out. It's a and she, you know, she usually parodied 60s fashions on her sitcoms, but she's not parodying, she's not parodying them here, and she looks fantastic. Yeah, exactly. She looks wonderful in those. It's it's a it's a high fashion photo shoot. It's such a fun, fun little sequence. I love that with all the trick photography. And so that takes us to the end of act one. That's the end of act one. And then act two, and this is really my least favorite part, is when she goes to Madame Tussaud's. And just because I think it is, I think this part of the special, and please, if you have a different opinion, please jump in, is really kind of like the Lucy Strowe special stuff. It's not nearly as unique, it's her being a little too manic in Madame Tussaud's and and going a little crazy.

Tom Watson: 35:08
Uh part of it is to me, uh I don't know, I've just never personally been all that turned on by the whole idea of wax figures, wax reproductions of human beings. Somehow it it it you know, I love to go to a museum and see paintings and that sort of thing. To me, like I say, wax models, so so that in and of itself starts out a little weird for me. Yeah, uh anyway.

Tony Maietta:: 35:39
I just think it's kind of cheesy, the whole Madame Tussauds thing. And it's I just feel like you lift it right out. So because we've seen what we've seen so far is so groundbreaking and so out of the ordinary for Lucy O'Ball and for this character that it goes kind of to this very air quotes Lucy situation.

Tom Watson: 35:55
Well, they kind of they kind of save it in a little in a way, insofar as again, they do spat up uh they do and whatnot to get them out of there and what I think they just want to get the hell out of Mount Tussauds.

Tony Maietta:: 36:08
Um they only had a day to a night to film it, right?

Tom Watson: 36:11
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Anyway, uh yeah, it's but there's got it's something there's something for everyone because I'm sure there are people who look at the show and say, Oh, I really like that sequence.

Tony Maietta:: 36:22
Yeah. I wonder how many people went to Mount Tussauds after saying that. So Lucy goes to Mount Tussauds, she sees some wax figurines, she gets freaked out, and she runs out. And that's the that's the end of Act Two. Act two is just Madame Tussauds, and then there's act three, and as again, these are all divided. This show is divided into three acts. So act three is astounding. It's it's just an amazing, amazing uh portion of this show. Tony Newley takes her to Great Foster's and she goes, Great Foster's Grace Foster, Great Foster's, and it what Great Fosters is, is it's now a fabulous hotel. And by the way, Tom, I looked this up. You know, you can stay there now for about$3.50 per night. That's not too bad.

Tom Watson: 37:03
Yeah, it's sort of a Downton Abbeys type of place. Yes, exactly. The people who used to live there were family, and it got to the very expensive, obviously, to maintain, and so uh it became accessible to the public.

Tony Maietta:: 37:20
But it was one of those old estates that they're a sixteenth century Tudor Estate, a grand English manor house at the time, and with an amazing maze garden. Right. That maze garden is phenomenal, it's unbelievable. And so Lucy's at this incredible estate, and she goes, she goes uh exploring through the maze garden, and she comes upon someone that she thinks is a gardener, Peter Weingard, right? But he's not a gardener, he's an actor. Of course he is. Of course he is.

Tom Watson: 37:54
Wouldn't you be? Yes.

Tony Maietta:: 37:57
I'm like, of course you're you're a Shakespearean actor. I love how she always has to give Shakespearean actors tips. She'll do the same thing with Richard Burton when he's on here. She'll tell him, you might want to try saying it this way. It's so funny. But of course, and it's what happens with Lucy is you know, he invites her to a is it a rehearsal of the taming of the shrew they're doing? Yeah. And I just love the fact that she he invites her, this total stranger, to do to join him, a gardener slash actor, in a rehearsal for the taming of the shrew in full Elizabethan attire.

Tom Watson: 38:33
What yes. Why not?

Tony Maietta:: 38:36
Why not? I mean, it's gorgeous Anne Boleyn type gown. Her hair is done with wig, wig. I mean, she looks fabulous. She looks fabulous. And this is a really funny, this is a really interesting thing. So she looks like this, and I want you to tell the story. She looks, she looks wonderful. I mean, she really's in this Elizabethan gown. She looks like Anne Boleyn. And wasn't didn't Cleo tell a story at one of your Lucy uh fanfests about when Lucy was was um resting in the manor. Oh, yeah and one of the guests saw her.

Tom Watson: 39:05
She was she was she was had full makeup, had the hair and everything, and they weren't quite ready. So she was sitting in the hallway, and one of the either the owner of the estate or a guest, someone else who was loo using the estate, came out and saw her sitting there, and it was like you know, five o'clock in the morning because they were getting an early start, and he was like, Oh my, he was about 85. And you know, I mean, okay, you know, he he did not understand that she was an actress waiting for her cue or waiting for her to be called to the set. She was and he just thought, Oh my god, that is Anne Boleyn. And she again, the lights weren't on or anything, so she's sort of sitting over there, and it's you know.

Tony Maietta:: 39:54
I always thought it'd be funny if they said, Don't worry, sir, don't worry, sir, it's not Anne Bolin. And then he goes, Oh, thank. God. They go, it's Lucille Ball. So that's okay. He wasn't freaked out because he thought it was Lucio Ball. He was freaked out because he thought it was Anne Boleyn. It's very funny. Don't worry, sir. It's not Ambolyn. It's Lucio Ball. So they do this wonderful little recreation of the scene from Tammy of the Shrew. And Peter Wingart gets very physical with her. Now in 2025, you're kind of like, hmm, but again, that's Shakespeare. You know, that's in the play.

Tom Watson: 40:26
On the physical side, yeah.

Tony Maietta:: 40:28
A bit on the physical side. She gets freaked out. She runs away. And this is where the film gets sped up. Jumps in the sidecar, and Anthony Newley takes her to London Bridge. And she's still in her Anne Boleyn attire. Now I wonder what happened to that mod outfit she bought on Carnaby Street. And also what happened to her real close she wore when she came to London. I don't know. That must be a pretty big sidecar to carry on.

Tom Watson: 40:51
I was going to say, yes, there's no where's the room for the suitcase, but so they go ahead. They run into another guest.

Tony Maietta:: 41:00
Yes, I was going to say, well, he he invites her to take a bowl of chalk. And she says, a bowl of chalk? And she says, a bowl of chalk. It's a stroll. That's what the Brits do. They take a stroll along the London Bridge. And as they do, they they begin to sing Pop Goes the Weasel. And also, who else is on that bridge that begins to sing?

Tom Watson: 41:22
The Dave Clark Five.

Tony Maietta:: 41:23
The Dave Clark Five. Now I knew nothing about the Dave Clark Five.

Tom Watson: 41:27
They were very, a very popular group back in the 60s, right along with the Beatles and all that. They were part of that uh Beatles uh English invasion.

Tony Maietta:: 41:39
British Invasion.

Tom Watson: 41:40
Yeah, English Invasion.

Tony Maietta:: 41:41
Well, apparently they knocked the Beatles out of uh they knocked I Wanna Hold Your Hand out of the number one spot.

Tom Watson: 41:46
So they were very, very popular at the time.

Tony Maietta:: 41:49
So that's very cute because you know she has her little musical sequence. She and Tony Newley are singing Pop Goes the Weasel, and uh the Dave Clark Five are singing London Bridge, and they blend really well together. And I just think, you know, she looks so happy in that little section. The woman loved to do musical numbers.

Tom Watson: 42:07
Well, and and indeed the character is supposed to be very happy because this is her dream come true to see London like this.

Tony Maietta:: 42:14
So yeah, it's a sweet sec, it's a sweet, it's a very, very, very sweet sequence. Um then we get to act three, and she's lost the unbillian costume, she's back in her original outfit. She arrived in London, and it must have dried by now. And we think he's I we think that Tony Newley, whose character's name is also Tony, is going to take her to the Palladium, but he doesn't. He takes her to this little theater called the Scarlet Theater, where of course he's Anthony Newley. Hello, he's gonna put on a show.

Tom Watson: 42:45
Right. And see, and he sings a couple of his own. Exactly.

Tony Maietta:: 42:48
He's gonna plug a song, he sings um, he sings uh look at that face. He says uh sings a once in a lifetime, gonna build a mountain. But what I this is another thing I love about this special is it's just the two of them in this empty theater, right? And he's up there and suddenly he's in a tuxedo and he's performing for her. She's the only one in the audience, and then she does a very Lucio Ball thing and she starts to play other characters who are watching. It's so surreal. What are your thoughts on that?

Tom Watson: 43:16
Exactly. Like so off the wall, but it's wonderful in its own way, you know.

Tony Maietta:: 43:22
It really is. You know, he's like, I think there's a re I think they called him the British Al Jolson. And I've always felt that Anthony Newley's definitely an acquired taste, you know. Because he is very he's very singular and he's very unique in his presentation, like Jolson. Um, but people loved him. People loved Tony Newley. Lucy's cousin loved Tony Newley. Right. Cleo loved it. Cleo loved him. And what I love about Lucy in this is that in this first part is that when she plays the Queen, they have different shots of her in the audience. She's the Queen. She is uh an apple, like an Apple Annie type character. And of course, she's the conductor, you know. Yeah. And I mean, just these little shots of her. And I thought, it's just so interesting. It's again, I've said this word five times during this podcast. It's so unique, it's so unlike anything we've ever seen with her.

Tom Watson: 44:17
Right. No, or even today, you know, no one's doing this type of thing. So it's not. And then finally the show ends with sort of a one-woman special where she plays all the parts.

Tony Maietta:: 44:28
Well, exactly, exactly. And that's what's so it's so wonderful because they're just little snippets. Because, oh, there's the queen, oh, she's with the queen now, oh, she's Appalachia now, oh, she's the conductor now. It's just it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. And then um at the end, it's her turn to go on stage. And she kind of does. You want to tell people uh what she does at the end for her l the last little bit of this special?

Tom Watson: 44:51
Well, she she is again in sort of like the tramp outfit from I Love Lucy, if you will, the the Fred Skelton's game. Um she basically is uh singing, and it ends with her saying it all in one day type of thing, and it's all it's very personal. It's almost like she's talking directly to each one of us.

Tony Maietta:: 45:21
Didn't Dan Wingate say in your in your special on this uh on your documentary on this special that it's almost like she's breaking the fourth wall. She's not Lucy Carmichael.

Tom Watson: 45:31
Right. She's us, yes. Almost like Lucy O'Ball herself is talking to the audience.

Tony Maietta:: 45:37
Speech just telling about well, I love that the pantomime is so sweet. It's just a sweet little pantomime. It's not, it's like a minute, if that. Yeah, she's just this cute, sweet little pantomime. And then a la Judy Garland, she sits on the side of the stage at the Palladium, you know, not the palladium, but it might as well be the palladium, and does this little little monologue, a little bit of a song, and she looks beautiful, absolutely gorgeously shot. Um, beautiful, beautiful in this. And that's where it ends. The best day of my life. It's it's it's the best day of my whole life, she says as they're leaving. And that's the end of the special. It's done, it's incredible.

Tom Watson: 46:18
And well, then they show uh probably other people, I don't know, but they're on a motorcycle going heading back to the to the airport with the credits roll.

Tony Maietta:: 46:31
That's yes, and that's when she says, best day of my whole life. That's when she says that, yeah.

Tom Watson: 46:35
We're talking to each other. Tony and uh Lucy.

Tony Maietta:: 46:39
He's taking her back to Heathrow to get this crazy redhead out of here. It is it's such a unique, I just can't stress enough how unusual and what a change of pace this is. And and that's why I I love this so much. And what makes me sad is the fact that, yes, as you said, now it was broadcast on October 24th, 1956, and it was very high viewership. It finished as the most watched telecast of that week. Right. I looked it up. And the problem was that the critics didn't get it.

Tom Watson: 47:13
Well, neither did the audience. The audience was expecting like Lucy goes to Alaska and Lucy goes to Mexico, they were saying Lucy's going to London, and you know, you know, she's gonna get. They expected the I Love Lucy type Pratt Falls. And while there's there's a little bit hint hint of that, it's a tour. It's almost you know, Lucy O'Ball tour of London, but uh it's ever more entertaining than those other specials that had been done over the years that were, you know.

Tony Maietta:: 47:47
Well, it's so much, it's so much it's got so much entertainment in it, and it's so much unusual entertainment. And that's what I think. I really believe it was ahead of its time.

Tom Watson: 47:55
And it was new and different, and therefore frightening to part of the audience, including the critics.

Tony Maietta:: 48:04
So I know it's I see that's that's and what makes me sad is this that that she let that and you know, God bless her, she let that affect her.

Tom Watson: 48:14
Because when she was doing all of this, she had in the back of her mind actually, she had a contract for this show, and there would be a second one in the spring. There'd be something else, totally, but anyway, it would be another uh special. And when the the critics and the audience response was so if not negative and certainly lukewarm, she said, Well, why bother?

Tony Maietta:: 48:42
And right, wasn't it weren't they gonna be directed by Steve Binder who directed this?

Tom Watson: 48:47
No, not necessarily. No, they there was no s nothing specific. Uh but anyway, uh she wanted to do things. I think one of the she wanted to do a whole series of these if they work. One of them I know was uh like doing something in Nashville, again, incorporating country music instead of the British music and things like that. But anyway, they just put it all away and said, forget it. And she went back to being Lucy Carmichael. Now, the one the one thing she did do as a result of this was to cry try to incorporate as much different as possible into the Lucy show. And to this day, there are many fans who don't like that because it's not just you know Lucy and Viv in Connecticut or Lucy and Ethel in, you know, uh the Murts Apartment building. It's you know, she and like they do a various episodes of I of the Lucy show are totally weird.

SPEAKER_07: 49:56
Like there's one, a two-part or with Mel Tormay USA things like that.

Tom Watson: 50:02
It was again a result of if I'm stuck in this that come every Monday night for the rest of my life, I'm going to make it as different and challenging as we possibly can. And so a lot of the shows are not again what the audience would necessarily have expected.

Tony Maietta:: 50:20
Right. Well, you know, it's funny because we've been on this season of Going Hollywood, we've been posing a lot of what ifs uh with Lucy. Like you and I talked about the Manchurian candidate. What if she'd done that? Uh Valley of the Dolls, Helen Lawson. And it seems like every once in a while she would get this urge to stretch herself and she would consider doing these things, which would totally change her persona and and her just would totally change TV history, actually. And she would try them and she'd test the waters, and then she would retreat back into Lucy Carmichael. Into Lucy Carmichael.

Tom Watson: 50:54
It has happened to a lot of uh actors, actresses over the years. I remember when I was at CBS when Carol Burnett uh ended a Carol Burnett show, and one of the things she did uh was a made-for-tv movie called Friendly Fire.

SPEAKER_07: 51:11
Right, right.

Tom Watson: 51:12
A very serious, sad story about, you know, uh one of her children was shot by was in the army and got shot by his own man. Um you know, friendly fire is when somebody in your unit uh accidentally shoots you. Type of thing. Anyway, um it was it's a totally change of pace. And when the the audience, a lot of the audience treated Carol the same way, and I guess really I think the uh her attitude was tough.

Tony Maietta:: 51:46
That's why she's still with us.

Tom Watson: 51:48
That's why she's still with us. She wasn't gonna go back to doing the Saturday night variety forever.

Tony Maietta:: 51:54
I think that, yeah, I think that I think old times were different. It was later times people could be more accepting of somebody taking a risk. And I think I think Carol was probably more successful than Lucy was because we even talked about the fact that she was trying to do it all the way up to 85, all the way up to Stone Pillow. Right. She was still trying to stretch herself as an actress. It's amazing to me. And people weren't, they just weren't accepting of it. It's so sad.

Tom Watson: 52:19
Right. Well, part of it, part of it I've always thought is because the world fell so heavily, madly in love with the Ricardos and the Mertz's, uh, and the dawn of television. And these things all happened in our own living rooms, week after week after week, for a generation, you know, and the show never went off the air. It's not off the air today because it's rerun someplace, even as we speak, and that puts her in a different, somewhat different category, I think. Unfortunately, and it and it's a golden cage because on Oh my god, I was just gonna say that, Tom.

Tony Maietta:: 53:00
I was literally thinking that it's a golden cage, it really is.

Tom Watson: 53:04
On one hand, it's lovely because my god, Lucy O'Ball, uh the world knew her, the world loved her, but at the same time, that meant she had certain there were certain expectations attached to all that.

Tony Maietta:: 53:21
Yeah, that's so true. Well, but despite the fact that this show was not as successful as they would have liked, and 66 was a pr still a pretty good year for Lucy Obama, Desilu. I mean, she won an Emmy, her first Emmy since when? 1953?

Tom Watson: 53:36
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:: 53:37
Do you think maybe that Emmy she won for air quotes the Lucy show could have possibly had something to do with the special too? I don't know. I like to think maybe.

Tom Watson: 53:46
No, not really.

Tony Maietta:: 53:47
Not really, no.

Tom Watson: 53:48
Well, I think it had to do with the fact that she reminded people I'm still here, you know. Yeah. And that she had other things to to to do.

Tony Maietta:: 54:00
It's uh I well, I think that I mean that she won she won the Emmy, the first Emmy she'd won in 13 years, and then oh yeah, she greenlit a little show called Star Trek.

Tom Watson: 54:10
I mean, you know, so not a terrible year there for for for Well no, and they also were doing Mission Impossible and all those kinds of things too, which helped put the studio back on the map. And anyway, it was uh very challenging but very creative time. And just after this, then you know, in 67, I think, is when she went, she and Henry Fonda got together and did yours, mine, and ours. And so again, oh, I've got a vacation coming up from the series. What a light, you know.

Tony Maietta:: 54:43
Which was you know, which was a which is a very much more of a loosey project. Yes, huge hit.

Tom Watson: 54:49
Going back to what you were saying earlier. Some people, when they have a vacation from work coming up, let's see, I'll go lay in the sun someplace in Hawaii, or I'll go to New York or watch some show see the shows and whatnot. Not that lady. It was sort of like what what will we do? Uh what are we gonna do? You know, hello, who thinks that way? She did.

Tony Maietta:: 55:11
These these these women, it's it's yeah, they were amazing. So the special was only seen once. Once, and it never aired again. No. And then how did it come about that you ended up including it on season five DVD of the Lucy show and then doing the documentary?

Tom Watson: 55:27
Well, one of the things that I was involved with was called bonus material or added value material, because some people, some of the companies, some of the studios were just putting out exactly what the label said. If you're putting out Bewitched or Leave It to Beaver or I Dream a Genie or whatever, they put out uh season one or just the episodes. Well, CBS No, I'll give credit where credit's due. When when they first started doing the VHS tapes, that's what they did. When they uh when DVDs started, no one in the industry was sure that people were going to give up their DVD, their uh VCRs, uh VHS tapes. VCRs or VHS things to to embrace a new technology, and so CBS engaged Greg Oppenheimer, Chess Oppenheimer's son, to to be an advisor as they're putting the shows, I Love Lucy shows on DVD. And one of the things while VHSs were being done here in Hollywood of movies, they were also bringing a lot of their movies out on Laser Discs. Now Laserdiscs had more capacity than the Jess case. Uh and so one of the things the studios like MGM and whatnot were doing were they would put out, you know, a big movie on Laser Discs, but hey, you know what we also have in the vault are the trailers and all kinds of material for the movies that no one's seen those in 30 years. Why don't we fill up our laser discs with those? And people bought the laser discs and love the valued added what they call valued added material. Consequently, when uh Greg pitched the idea to uh to do that on the I love Lucy DVDs and they bought it, they bought the idea. They said, fine, if it doesn't c if it's not gonna be exorbitant uh to expensive to do that, let's try it, and the audience loved them. And he did the first five seasons because his dad was involved in those first five seasons, and I helped him along the way, and he was gonna bow out after that, and he recommended me to CBS management, and he said, fine, if he's willing. So anyway, I got on board to do season six, and then uh a young gentleman at Jonathan Angus uh wanted to help, and he was he came up with some material, and we talked them into doing the Lucy Desi comedy hours as well. And anyway, they were successful, so we started pitching right away can we just continue doing the Lucy show? And finally, after they took a year off, and then they brought the Lucy show back uh on to DVD, and Jonathan and I were going to be working on uh the value added material. And then you walked into my lot.

Tony Maietta:: 58:46
And I am eternally grateful to you two because I've been working off that for years.

Tom Watson: 58:52
That was the part that I was involved with was the the value-added material, and you and I came up with the idea of interviewing people because you had been doing some of that type of work over at Warner's, I believe.

Tony Maietta:: 59:06
Uh yeah, Warner's and Turner Classic Movies. I I think I'd done I'd done you saw me in Moguls and Movie Stars. Right. That's what it was. Yeah. But but we knew each other because I was in the We Love Lucy fan club. Right. So we hadn't actually met, but you knew of my work, and I knew of your work, and that's how that's how that all came together.

Tom Watson: 59:25
Where you put up a bunch of uh of uh stills and things on one of the like eBay sites, and I bought them and you said, Well, instead of mailing them, why don't I just deliver them? I'm just over the hill. And we had lunch, and it went from there.

Tony Maietta:: 59:41
Yeah, an amazing lunch. A lunch that changed my life. And I want to thank you for that. I hope I bought lunch that day. If not, I owe you a lunch or two.

Tom Watson: 59:54
But anyway, no, the thing was the what's wonderful about the Lucy material. Material the entire library is that it's known almost the world over, and you can find you can sit down to us next to a stranger, you know, in a bus terminal, and if there's nothing else to talk about, somehow she comes up in conversation and everybody can participate. Yeah. Because they a lot of people experienced her through one of her series or another. And again, it's in the privacy of your own home, and it's uh uh it's a very uh personal relationship people have with her.

Tony Maietta:: 1:00:35
It is, that's very true. That's very true of her. And you know, I'm it's what a gift. What a gift those DVDs not just for the people who actually who got to work them, but the people who got to watch them. What a gift those DVDs are. And that you included this special, which people hadn't seen in the 30 years, 40 years?

Tom Watson: 1:00:57
Originally they didn't want to do it, and because it was gonna take up too much space, because usually the value-added material was a minute of this or two minutes of that, or three minutes of something. This is gonna add 60 minutes to the package. And finally we convinced them that just what you said, people had not seen this. This is a Lucille Ball performance that people hadn't seen since it aired. And it's it's a it's a sales, it's a real additive.

Tony Maietta:: 1:01:27
So unique, so different, so unlike anything she ever did before or since. So, as a fan, I thank you for putting it on. I'm so grateful that you did. People go buy if I'm I'm sure people still love DVD players. You can see it. I'm sure it's on some platforms. I'm not gonna tell you where to find it. I want you to go buy the DVDs. I want you to go to Amazon and buy the DVDs and because Tom also has a fabulous documentary on the DVD about Lucy in London. And I we talk about he talks about other things that we talked about today, too, which is fascinating.

Tom Watson: 1:01:56
That was the reason we did that was the reason you're doing this show was uh the special was so wack-adoo different. Yes, we wanted to explain what it was and why she was doing it, and why you've never seen it before.

Tony Maietta:: 1:02:15
I well, I think it's I think it's wonderful. I think it's special and unique, and thank you for coming on and talking about it with me.

Tom Watson: 1:02:23
Yeah, it's been fun. Thank you for thank you for thinking of it, because of all the reasons to do a a Lucy uh episode of your series, I even I hadn't thought of this. So no, really. I you know, it's like uh you come up with some really fabulous topics.

Tony Maietta:: 1:02:42
Oh, thank you.

Tom Watson: 1:02:42
So as a member of your audience, I thank you for that. Oh, well thanks.

Tony Maietta:: 1:02:46
Well, you know you're welcome anytime to come back anytime, and we'll we'll we'll think of something else to talk about. So thanks so much, Tom. You take care. All right, and I'll thank you again. And thank you, everyone, for listening. Brad will be back next week with me from Spain. He will, I have verified. And we have a couple more episodes for you before we call it a day on season two of Going Hollywood or series two. Hey, we're in London with Lucy. Why not call it series two of Going Hollywood? And I want to just thank all of my guests who helped me out over the past few weeks. We have to thank Brandon Davis, my own personal Countess Fran Blos, Randy Schmidt, and of course the wonderful Thomas J. Watson. But most of all, I want to thank all of you for listening and being there with me every step of the way. So, since you've been my co-host too during this interesting time, I'm gonna say it to you. But I don't want to say it. So let's not say goodbye.
Let's just say GGFM.

Tom Watson: 1:03:59
GGFM?

Tony Maietta: 1:04:01
Ta-ta for now.