(1950 TV Movie)

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6/10
A bit silly but it did make me smile
planktonrules29 September 2014
Joan Davis stars in "Let's Join Joanie"--a TV pilot for a series that unfortunately was never made. I say unfortunately because it was funny and in many ways it played a bit like "I Love Lucy" but was about a wacky single lady, not a nut married to a Cuban band leader.

When the show begins, Joanie is asleep and quickly wakes up for work. How she got ready for work was quite funny and they played it up well. Soon, however, her morning routine is interrupted when a hunky neighbor arrives. Joanie is all over herself and it's VERY obvious she's smitten with the guy. However, he says he wants a very athletic wife--something Joanie is not. So, she goes to a health club and tells them to give her 'the works'.

The show was a bit uneven--and perhaps this was why the networks passed on this one. I enjoyed it but some of the humor WAS a bit broad and very silly. But, most importantly, I did laugh. If you want to see this cute show, it is available for free viewing or download at archive.org--but be forewarned, the print is a bit washed out and has obviously seen better days.
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5/10
Maybe not the Queen of Comedy, but how about the clown princess?
mark.waltz3 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Joan Davis has always given me a few moderate chuckles here and there, and in a few instances, some downright knee-slapping moments as well. Some of her TV comedy a bit forced and obvious, with little regards to timing and sometimes seemingly too desperate to please. If Lucy was the physical comic, Eve Arden the verbal comic and Betty White the innocent, overly cheery comic, then where does Joan Davis fit as far as '50s female TV comedy stars fit? Sort of potpourri, a mixture of both Lucy and Eve, and if not as youthful as Betty, she is definitely as enthusiastic as the still working golden girl would remain.

Here, Joan is a man-hungry hat salesgirl desperate to catch a man, and she ends up being trained by none other than the ultra large and ultra masculine Hope Emerson, the very same year she terrorized Eleanor Parker in "Caged" right to an Oscar Nomination. Emerson ended up as her neighbor on "I Married Joan", proving that allegedly mannish women can be funny as well as imposing. This pilot didn't sell but has some really funny moments that really make you wish it had.
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