At five or six years old
on holiday near Swanage
we watched TV for the first time
and what we saw was
I Love Lucy
an American sit-com
my Dad was not a fan
American rubbish
he declaimed
but with a longer view
the series was quite bold
ahead of it’s time
depicting as it did
an inter-racial marriage
that might seem
commonplace today
back then caused
moral outrage
but we British children
more taken up with
the novel medium
saw nothing amiss
in the union of
the eponymous Lucy
and her husband Desi…
Andrew Wilson, 2024
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Melissa Lemay in Uncategorized invites us to write about favourite TV shows…
Oh yes! I have watched endless re-runs through the years. Thanks for the joyous memories. She was “one in a million” ~~
Thanks Helen – she was irrepressible…
Nice one Frewin
Thanks for dropping by to read mine
Much❤️💚love
Thanks Gilena…
I do remember that this one was shown in Sweden as well… but the only thing i remember my father complaining (not about the racial part, but the sitcom laughter)
That I don’t remember but I suppose we quickly got used to it…
I remember watching this. I know now she was ahead of her time in terms of keeping control of her business and supporting others, and not wanting to just be another pretty face.
I think it was a while before my parents then bought a TV at home but this was definitely my first memory of it…
I still watch Lucy today. She’s one of my favorite actresses. Side note: one of the first shows I watched on the was Alf.😅
I should find a rerun somewhere and see what I think now…
*on tv
What am I going to do with myself with all these typos. Need more sleep.
You are burning the poetic candle at both ends Melissa…
I loved that show as a kid. I still say, “Lucy, I’m home!” to the cats when I return from being out and about. The expressions on Lucy’s (and Ricky’s!) face were so entertaining! Never even thought about “mixed race marriage” when watching it. I know Lucy and Ricky went on to build a television empire together.
We didn’t see it as a mixed marriage either but we were used to students of all colours coming to our house whose common denominator was intelligence and their race was immaterial so I guess we were inured to it…
P.s. Andrew, I’m happy that was your first experience with American TV. It could have been something like Dragnet, which was a real downer to me, even though the co-star was the Michigan-born Harry Morgan.
Me too – and I think my Father was being a bit snobbish…
Love your choice, Andrew. I think I can recite half the show’s dialogues!
So I didn’t even need to revive memories Sara…