Pioneers of Television (TV Series) Funny Ladies (2013) User Reviews

Very Disappointed

[DrabMac · 2/10 · 29 July 2014]

Although I enjoyed seeing most of this I was astounded that there was not even a mention in passing of one of the first and best known of all the women of television comedy, namely Imogene Coca. She was the trail blazer that made it possible for women like Mary Tyler Moore and Lucy to be taken seriously.

The producers found time to devote a whole segment to one of the foulest women of the day, Moms Mabley, but not one word of Imogene. Anyone who was alive at the time wouldn't even consider putting Moms Mabley on and leaving Imogene off.

Every now and then PBS rears its ugly PC head and this is certainly one of the most blatant. The rest of the series was good but this episode was very disappointing.

Obviously NOT the same quality as the show had once been.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 13 November 2015]

The first season of "Pioneers of Television" is an amazingly good series about the early days of TV. I cannot recommend it enough. Because I loved it so much, I was excited to find more episodes on YouTube. However, after watching "Funny Ladies" I realized it just wasn't the same program and the show lacked all the wonderful qualities of the first season. The narration was spoken too quickly, the ladies they spoke about were talked about WAY too briefly and superficially, great ladies of TV were occasionally neglected in favor of minor ones (such as Moms Mabley) and the show seemed like a cheap dumbed-down version of the old series. Perhaps other shows are better...but this season three show is poorly paced (SLOW DOWN, DARN IT!!!! SLOW DOWN the pace of this show) and was a huge disappointment. I sure hope Season Two was better than this.