Eve Arden

[moirafinnie]

Need a post-Holiday lift? You might feel as though you've just bumped into an old and dear friend on the street when you come across this 2 part interview posted on youtube with Eve Arden, talking about her career, life and the people she's worked with, from Joan Crawford to Otto Preminger and many others. It's lovely to see her. Her tenderness, kindness and sense of humor just pour out of her here in an interview conducted around the time of the publication of her autobiography, "The Three Phases of Eve" (1985).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRUMCh0RLyQ&feature=user[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElGx8m8XBrw&NR=1[/youtube]

[mrsl]

moira:

I've been meaning to thank you for that link. Listening to Eve was a pleasure. She seems like a truly nice person doesn't she? I'd love to talk to her kids and find out what she was like at home.

Anne

[srowley75]

I recently acquired several episodes of Arden's 1950s television comedy series Our Miss Brooks, and I've enjoyed it very much - almost as much as the radio version (in fact, several of the television episodes were adapted from the radio scripts).

Personally, I find this series much funnier on average than I Love Lucy - not only because I think Arden was a wittier comedienne than Lucille Ball, but I'm also a major fan of Gale Gordon. I have no idea how Lucy developed such a cult while shows like OMB and I Married Joan have been all but forgotten these days.

-Stephen

[Ollie]

SR, some folks have written that DESILU - the studio and its choice to film its programs - is a strong component to I LOVE LUCY's ongoing popularity. They were able to syndicate that show while networks were reluctant to negotiate contracts where syndication fees were part of the participants' pay packages. Desilu owned it all and could syndicate as they saw fit.

I think the OUR MISS BROOKS was a longer-running radio program than Lucy & Richard Dennings' I LOVE LUCY-predecessor MY FAVORITE HUSBAND, which had many of its scripts translated into LUCY episodes. I believe MY FAV HUSB was a 2-year series on the radio, and I think OMB started earlier and lasted several more years - 5? 6?

Ronald Colman's HALLS OF IVY was also a couple of seasons long but I don't think the TV program lasted but 1, or maybe 2. AMOS & ANDY, of course, lasted several decades on the radio but only 70-odd episodes were filmed for the '51 and '52 season before CBS ended it.

It would be interesting to read notions of why radio shows - in general - lasted so long compared to their spin-off TV shows. Were the radio shows on their last legs and was their TV incarnation the nails in the coffin (as with AMOS & ANDY, or OUR MISS BROOKS)?

Then, you have GUNSMOKE Radio which lasted ?? 10 years ?? but the TV show stretched into 2 decades. That seems to be the great exception, though.

I'm disappointed that we haven't seen the fun MOTHERS IN LAW TV show brought onto DVD (with Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard).

[CineMaven]

I saw the Eve Arden YouTube interview and was totally enchanted by her. I've always loved her in movies. She brought the star down a peg with her pointed sarcastic dose of reality. "Mildred Pierce" "Stage Door" "Comrade X" and "Anatomy of a Murder" to name just a paltry few. Can you imagine going on the set for three days work, collecting your check and stealing the big star's scene.

She was amazing. And missed.

[srowley75]

From www.tvshowsondvd.com:

The Mothers-In-Law - MPI Home Video is Planning DVDs for the Eve Arden/Kaye Ballard '60s Sitcom

Expect the first of these releases, laden with supplements, out later this year
Posted by David Lambert
2/16/2009


MPI Home Video has given us the heads-up that the late '60s sitcom The Mothers-In-Law will be released on DVD by them, beginning later in 2009. the show ran for 2 seasons and produced 56 episodes, and MPI intends to release them all, including lots of extras. Below is the statement they provided us with, which has all the available information. Stay tuned for updates, as the studio continues work on these titles and finalizes info about the first of these releases!

MPI will be issuing the 1967-69 NBC-TV comedy series "The Mothers-In-Law" starring Eve Arden ("Our Miss Brooks") and Kaye Ballard ("The Doris Day Show"). The series also co-stars Herbert Rudley and Roger Carmel as their husbands, with Richard Deacon ("The Dick Van Dyke Show") taking over for Carmel in the second year. The comedy was produced and directed by Desi Arnaz and created by original "I Love Lucy" writers Bob Carroll and Madelyn Davis. Among the guest stars are Don Rickles, Larry Storch, Paul Lynde, Beverly Garland, Jimmy Durante, Scoey Mitchell, Ozzie Nelson, Desi Arnaz Jr and Desi Arnaz. In addition to all 56 episodes, MPI will include much bonus material on the DVDs, expected to be issued before the end of the year.

[jdb1]

I remember The Mothers-in-Law very fondly, and I'm happy to recommend it.

It was the typical Sunday night lead-in that we saw at the time; a minor warm-up to get us in the mood for the meat of the evening's programming. But it's gently funny, and the two leads really make it worth returning to.

Kaye Ballard was not quite as well known as Arden, being more of a stage actress, although she had been a regular on Perry Como's show. She is pretty darn good, and a good, expansive Italian counterpoint to Arden's slightly more staid and uptight WASP. But both ladies were expert verbal dart throwers, and they could get down and dirty on occasion in the best Lucy/Ethel tradition.

[klondike]

I'm disappointed that we haven't seen the fun MOTHERS IN LAW TV show brought onto DVD (with Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard).

Me too, Ollie!
I remember watching the half-hour sitcom "The Mothers-In-Law" as a young teenager, and even at that tender age, I laughed my butt off at all that oh-so puckish dialogue, particularly between Ballard & hubby Richard Deacon.
My folks (from an entirely different perspective) thought it was pretty darn funny as well!

[Vienna]

I think everybody loves Eve Arden! She stands out in any film she is in.
Famous for her wisecracking delivery, I wish she hadn't been quite so typecast. No reason really she couldn't do drama - or musicals. I 've heard Eve sing a few times including the funny "I'm unlucky at gambling". Also on the Dinah Shore Chevy Show.
In Mildred Pierce ,and The Unfaithful , she got the chance to be serious and did well.
Funny to see her in My Reputation where there were no wisecracks at all!
I see her in the same category as Rosalind Russell. Tall,elegant,deep voiced.
It's a while since I read her book but I recall being disappointed because there wasn't enough about her films and costars.
Wish someone would write a biography.
I cam never remember witty lines except for one and Eve didn't deliver it - Kate Hepburn looks her over in Stage Door and observes:"It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack!"