radio

I Love Lucy - Behind the Scenes is a fabulous look back at the career and antics of one of t.v. and radios funniest ladies. With all of the demoralizing venues on the "boob-tube" today, it is refreshng to recall a time-gone-by when good clean fun could still be funny. Jess and Gregg Oppenheimer have compiled a wonderful memory book of everyone's favorite comidianne. The reader - Larry Dobkin who as I understand it, was a guest actor on several I Love Lucy episodes, delivers this story with the warmth and humor it so deserves. I give this audiobook 5 stars!

This book is full of insight on the show I Love Lucy; also on the radio show My Favorite Husband which inspired I Love Lucy. Lucille Ball stared in both shows. The book was written by Jess Oppenheimer and his son Gregg Oppenheimer. Jess Oppenheimer was the creator, writter, and producer of I Love Lucy. Sixteen chapters full of information for any Lucy Lover, would like to read about. The book has exclusive photos of the stars and other people behind the show. Each photo has a description about it. The book also comes with a Lucy's Lost Scenes CD. On the CD there are some episodes of I Love Lucy's lost scenes, also some episodes of other I Love Lucy episodes such as "Lucy Does a TV Commercial" There is also some episodes from My Favorite Husband. The book also has scripts from I Love Lucy and My Favorite Husband inside the book. The scripts are original scripts that as you can see when looking at it had lots of changes to make it better. Inside the book talks about the authors. Full of information that you probably wouldn't be able to get anywhere else. This is probably the best book to read it all from the beginning. How and why did I Love Lucy ever existed. Who better to explain it than the man who created it!!

I'd like to start with a clarification: this book is not a biography of Lucy, it is the creator's (Jess Oppenheimer) memoir. As such, there are many parts of the book that have nothing to do with Lucy, including episodes from Oppenheimer's childhood and young adult life.

However, this is still a GREAT book! It is well-written and full of entertaining annecdotes. "Laughs, Luck, and Lucy" follows Oppenheimer's slow rise to the top in the Hollywood radio industry. He describes Lucille Ball's program, "My Favorite Husband," which became the basis for "I Love Lucy." The book also includes some behind the scenes information about the making of "I Love Lucy."

The included audio cd is fun because it has clips from both "I Love Lucy" and "My Favorite Husband."

If you are only interested in information specifically about Lucille Ball, this might not be the book for you (try her autobiography, "Love, Lucy"). However, if you (like me) are fascinated with everything surrounding "I Love Lucy" and the Hollywood entertainment industry of the 1940s and 1950s, this is a great read!