Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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I Still Love Lucy CBS airs a little-seen Christmas episode from 1956 TV by DEAN ROBBINS What are the odds of a black-andclothing line called Mob Candy. New white 1950s sitcom being funny in wives join the cast, including Alicia, 2013? Extremely low – unless the whose husband has been indicted sitcom is I Love Lucy. In the I Love for racketeering, extortion and Lucy Christmas Special (Friday, 8 conspiracy to murder; she herself p.m.), CBS offers us a holiday gift pleaded guilty to embezzlement. by airing two 1956 episodes, "The As always, though, the Mob Wife Christmas Episode" and "Lucy's you can't take your eyes off is Big Italian Movie." The only concession to Ang. She lives up to her name with modern-day impossibly big lips audiences is and big breasts, colorization. not to mention a Otherwise, the big heart. Big Ang acting, writing gives everyone and staging are the benefit of the for the ages. doubt, including "The Alicia. Christmas "I think Alicia's Episode" is a really good of particular person," she says Mob Wives interest. It wasn't in her thick New included in the series' decades of Yawk accent. rebroadcasts and was thought to be Can an admitted embezzler be a lost until CBS rediscovered it in 1989. good person? It is possible, at least In other words, this is a TV gem you for an hour a week on Thursdays. probably haven't seen. Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Ricky (Desi Christmas In Washington Arnaz) decorate a Christmas tree with Friday, 8 pm (TNT) their friends Fred (William Frawley) Christmas in Washington —it's and Ethel (Vivian Vance) while kind of sad that TNT is saddled reminiscing about life before their son with that title for its annual was born. The reminiscences come holiday special. Many Americans in the form of clips from previous are now repelled by the idea of episodes — and I dare you not to Washington, D.C., given the laugh out loud at the one where Ricky, government shutdown and other Fred and Ethel try to keep Lucy from examples of dysfunction. Christmas singing (badly) in their barbershop in Guantánamo Bay is the only quartet. Or the one where they do a imaginable title that would earn practice run for getting Lucy to the lower ratings. hospital when she goes into labor. And it's too bad, since stars Hugh From the repartee to the double takes, Jackman, Anna Kendrick and Sheryl the chemistry among these four comic Crow will make this an enjoyable pros is nothing short of astonishing. variety show. Is it too late for TNT I was also struck by the characters' to change the location and name to warmth and bonhomie. Though the Christmas in Washington State? apartment set looks flimsy by today's standards, Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel I Am Britney Jean make it feel like home. Sunday, 8 pm (E!) Britney Spears is known for Mob Wives singing and scandals. For expressing Thursday, 10 pm (VH1) herself verbally, not so much. This reality series unearths Over the course of her career, that Mob Wives is like The Real we've learned that she's deeply Housewives with no legal or moral uncomfortable with self-reflection, constraints. The reality series' so why devote 90 minutes to a sostars are romantically involved called in-depth interview? E! asks with New York gangsters and don't Britney to bare her soul on the eve give a damn what anybody thinks of her Las Vegas residency, but this of their "lifestyle," as they call it. is an entertainer much more adept at (Yes, murder and robbery are now a baring her body than her soul. lifestyle choice.) They're loud, foulHow about skipping the interview, mouthed and combative. You got a sticking with footage of the singing problem with that? and scandals, and keeping I Am I said, you got a problem with Britney Jean to a brisk half-hour? that? I bet no one would complain — In season four, Renee markets a not even Britney herself. 20 UCW DEC. 18-24, 2013 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM