The supposed goal of a comedy is to make one laugh. Using that basis, I Love Lucy fails. It's simply not that funny. It can be absurdist, it has funny situations, it has "jokes" with punchlines, but in 50 years I've never laughed at anything on the show and only occasionally smiled, nor can I remember anyone watching with me that ever laughed. It's not only Lucy that fails the laugh test. Almost every sitcom of the '50s through '70s was written by writers that came from the Borscht Belt circuit. This was why almost every sitcom is similar with many pratfalls, contrived situations to create embarrassment, and at least one double-take in every episode. This is not to disparage the cast; the acting was uniformly good. However, if laughter was the objective, this show missed.

Honestly Lucy was the BEST at what she did! I wish she was still here! I remember watching her shows when I was younger and now that i'm 19, I actually know what their joking about and its more funnier than ever! She honestly brightens up my night or day when i'm watching her shows. She makes my anxiety and depression disappear and makes me think of the importance in life. I know there was more than what she was going through throughout her seasons of her "I love Lucy" but she is the best actress ever. Now days when I was Disney channel or nick they suck! Some can't even act but if they have a pretty face than it wouldn't matter. I recently learned about what she was going through with her husband and it made me realize that besides all the bullshit she lived an amazing life and was the humble and lovable person. I don't know her personally but she seemed like a wonderful person to be around with. She's the most strongest woman! I love her! RIP Luciell Ball! Forever In Our Hearts!

What can I say that many others have not? Everyone has their favorite episode or episodes, the series has not been off the air since it's debut in 1951, and it deserves all the allocades it has gotten over the years. If there ever was TV "comfort food", it is "I Love Lucy." Depressed or bothered by something? Watching "Lucy" will make you, at least for half-an-hour forget your troubles. For a show made 60 years ago, the stories and situations still seem fresh and undated, not something you can say about other, more recent sitcoms. The mere fact that I can still laugh out loud while watching any episode of this classic, is testament to it's enduring greatness. "Lucy" is still played many times a day here in the Chicago area, on cable as well as local channels, and anytime I come across an episode while "channel surfing", I have the urge to see the whole thing. Yes, I have seen every episode untold number of times, but my enjoyment of the show remains undiminished. The film prints on the DVD sets are in beautiful shape, and I have no doubt that 100 years from now, people will still be watching and laughing at Lucy's manic antics. This is the classic of classics, and will always be the benchmark by which other sitcoms are measured.

Whenever I think about the first times I watched I Love Lucy, with my family during the early 1960's, I recall just as clearly my mother's reactions as I do the show itself. I can still picture her jerking and writhing on the sofa as she laughed hysterically.I enjoyed I Love Lucy back then, too. I did not get the messages behind some of the more nuanced comments between Fred and Ethel or Lucy and Ricky, but at ages six and seven I certainly saw the humor in Lucy's mishaps, misadventures, and pranks, as well in her husband Ricky's frustration. A viewer does not need much intellect to find something to like about I Love Lucy, though as an adult s/he can better appreciate the show's basic premise: envious wife of popular band leader sometimes takes extreme measures to gain some recognition for herself. A viewer doesn't need to possess a keen awareness either to have noticed that I Love Lucy evolved before it became so popular.In one of the first episodes, Lucy and Ricky shout, sing, pound the floor, and beat on drums late at night to irritate their demanding neighbors in the apartment below. The two behave as if of the same ilk.Desi Arnaz may have decided sometime during the show's first season that he and Lucy could not both have impulsive and emotionally driven personalities. The formula for the show's repeated success may have resulted from his realization that his character needed sophistication to balance Lucy's lack of it.For a program that first appeared nearly 60 years ago and usually featured a grown woman who acted out her feelings like a 13-year old, I Love Lucy almost never comes across as corny. In fact (once I Love Lucy established itself), only one episode, when starstruck Ethel and Lucy take turns jumping and kissing John Wayne on the cheek, has served to remind me that I would probably feel like an outcast as an adult in the 1950's.In the great majority of cases, I Love Lucy continues to entertain. People recognize the imaginative situations, clever dialog, and the impressive performances.... despite the passing of time.