Every Lucille Ball TV Show and Special: Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Stories
'I Love Lucy' to 'The Lucy Show,' 'Here's Lucy, 'Life with Lucy' and so many specials—they're all here
Classic television goes hand in hand with actress Lucille Ball, who, along with husband Desi Arnaz, revolutionized the medium with their sitcom I Love Lucy in the 1950s. But when it comes to Ball, she had an extensive film career prior to the show, and one in both film and television that continued for decades after.
The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy were significant parts of the 1960s and 1970s, as were various specials like The Lucille Ball Comedy Hour (1964) and Lucy in London (1966), which showcased her willingness to explore new formats and settings. It’s something she attempted to continue doing through a number of others, all culminating in her final series, 1986’s Life with Lucy.
Assessing them all is pop culture and Lucille Ball historian Geoffrey Mark, author of, among others, The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on Television, who offers exclusive behind-the-scenes commentary on each of them, as well as his honest views on which ones worked as well as the ones that missed the mark creatively.
‘My Favorite Husband’ (1948 to 1951, radio show)
Cast & Characters: Lucille Ball (Cooper), Richard Denning (George Cooper), Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury), Bea Benaderet (Iris Atterbury)
Premise: My Favorite Husband was a radio sitcom about Liz and George Cooper, a happily married couple navigating domestic life. The show revolved around Liz’s mischievous antics, misunderstandings, and her attempts to outwit her husband, often with humorous results.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: My Favorite Husband married the incredible talents of Lucille Ball to the situation comedy format for radio, and it was a match made in heaven. What was different about My Favorite Husband from a lot of its contemporaries is that many movie stars went into radio in a series of some sort, most of them playing some fictionalized version of themselves and the plots were very repetitive. The audience knew what they were getting with My Favorite Husband, because it was really the first sophisticated situation comedy about marriage and the relationships between an older couple and a younger couple. It broke new ground because of how the show was brilliantly written. They had nine million ways to go with plots, and many of those plots would end up on I Love Lucy, because they were the same writers on both shows.”
‘I Love Lucy’ (1951 to 1957)
Cast & Characters: Lucille Ball (Lucy Ricardo), Desi Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo), Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz), William Frawley (Fred Mertz)
Premise: I Love Lucy followed Lucy Ricardo’s constant schemes to break into show business, much to the exasperation of her husband, Ricky. Her antics often involved elaborate disguises, slapstick comedy, and teamwork (or rivalry) with Ethel.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: One hundred of the most talented craftspeople in Hollywood came together to invent the television situation comedy. In doing so, they created the best situation comedy that has ever been, solidified Lucille Ball as a superstar and broke racial barriers that we are still fighting with today in terms of a white person being married to a Latino.
‘The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show’ (aka ‘The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,’ 1957 to 1960)
Cast & Characters: Lucille Ball (Lucy Ricardo), Desi Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo), Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz), William Frawley (Fred Mertz); Guest Stars: Numerous Hollywood legends, including Bob Hope, Fred MacMurray and Red Skelton
Premise: A continuation of I Love Lucy, this hour-long series featured the Ricardos and Mertzes in new adventures, often involving celebrity guest stars.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: The success of I Love Lucy created a studio dynasty, and in order for Desi Arnaz to run Desilu Studios, which had become the largest studio in the world, Desi could no longer be Ricky Ricardo every week. So the decision was made to do hour-long versions once a month or so. So there were 13 of those made over the course of three years, allowing the plots to have more twists and turns, and the very generous use of guest stars. These specials pretty much exhausted every situation these four characters—Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel—could get into.
‘The Lucy Show’ (1962 to 1968)
Cast & Characters: Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Gale Gordon (Mr. Mooney)
Premise: Lucy Carmichael, a widow with two children, constantly found herself in chaotic situations, particularly in her job at a bank where she frustrated her boss, Mr. Mooney.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: Times change, tastes change and DesiLu Studios changed. What happens when the largest studio in the world is having trouble selling new shows to the networks? Lucille Ball comes back to television to save the day. It was only two years after the last series and she was done with television; Ms. Ball had to be coaxed into returning and wouldn’t do it unless Vivian Vance was with her and Desi had to be part of the startup team.
A new show was created basing the character on Lucy Ricardo, but making enough changes so that it wasn’t exactly the same. The show broke new ground because Vivian Vance played the first divorcee lead character in a sitcom. It also was the first of the sitcoms to, halfway through its run, almost completely change their format. That has happened many times since, but this was the first, taking the Lucy character from being a widow with children living in suburban New York State to being a de facto single woman whose children were invisible, working as a secretary in swinging Hollywood of the 1960s.
The quick story is that after the third season, following the departure of the original writers, the quality of the scripts went down and Vivian wanted input. When they brought in Gale Gordon, Vivian’s role was also lessened and Vivian said, “I’m flying here every week from my home in Connecticut to do this with you, and there are episodes where I’ve got three lines.” I’m exaggerating a little bit, but Vivian wanted to be included creatively. And the men who were running Desilu, because Desi was gone after the first season, told Lucille, “She’s trying to become your partner and we have to stop this.” And Vivian quit.
So Lucy wanted to end The Lucy Show after the third season, but then they said, “What if we move Lucy to LA and she’s wearing mod clothes and driving sports cars and is a swinging single woman with no Vivian and no kids, but we keep Gale Gordon.” It was one of the most awkward transition episodes I’ve ever seen in my entire life, but Lucille picked up the phone, called Bill Paley at CBS and said, “We’re coming back next year.”
NOTE: William Frawley (Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy) made a well-received cameo appearance on the show, which was his last role.
‘The Lucille Ball Comedy Hour’ (1964)
Cast: Lucille Ball (“Herself”/Bonnie Blakely), Bob Hope (“Himself”/Bill Blakely), Gale Gordon (Elliott Harvey), John Dehner (Mr. Henderson), William Lanteau (Mr. Potter), Jack Weston (Cash), Max Showalter (Walter Creighton), Joseph Mell (Sam)
Premise: Lucille Ball portrays the head of a studio trying to track down Bob Hope to star in a TV special about husband and wife television stars. In essence, the first part is focused on Lucy chasing down an elusive Bob Hope all over the world while the second is a show within the show starring the two of them.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: That show within a show is called Mr. and Mrs, based on an unproduced play by Sherwood Schwartz about television’s most famous, hottest married couple, who, it turns out, aren’t legally married and never have been. Sherwood told me he based it on Lucille and Desi, and that he’d found out that when they got married in 1940 at the Byron River Beagle Club in Connecticut, it wasn’t legal. His frame of reference was that when they got remarried in 1947, that was because people were starting to smell this and they got remarried in the church to stop it. Lucie Arnaz has the marriage certificate from 1940 and it is legal.
In the special, Lucille looks beautiful, and it’s something a little different for her to play this kind of bitchy glamor queen. She and Bob Hope are wonderful in it, and they did it because they’d just done two films together—1960’s The Facts of Life and 1963’s Critic’s Choice. They were even on What’s My Line? promoting their last film.
‘Lucy in London’ (October 24, 1966)
Cast: Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Anthony Newley (Anthony Fitz-Favorsham)
Premise: After writing a dog food jingle for a contest, Lucy Carmichael wins a free trip to London. When landing there, her tour guide, played by Anthony Newley, convinces Lucy to get rid of her list of standard sights to see and to put herself in his hands. He takes her around in his motorcycle and sidecar, and she gets a wild look at London.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: In 1960, between the end of The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and after she filmed The Facts of Life with Bob Hope, they made what may have been a 30-minute pilot; it could have been for a new sitcom for Lucille Ball or an anthology series, but there’s not enough in it to make it a new anything. Basically it’s Lucille Ball and Gale Gordon on a plane together and Lucille’s character has never flown before. It showcases all of the stupid things she does, because she has no idea what to do on an airplane, and drives the person next to her—Gale Gordon—crazy. It was directed by Desi Arnaz and was shown on television during a summer anthology replacement series where they aired pilots that didn’t sell.
Four years later, they did an episode of The Lucy Show where Lucy Carmichael wins a contest to go to London, so they took almost verbatim that scene with the two of them and reshot it. That was aired as an episode of The Lucy Show, and in the special she ends up in London with Anthony Newley playing the guy who drives her around London.
The Dave Clark Five is there to provide music and Lucille Ball ends up doing perhaps the first modern music video where she’s wearing all of these Carnaby Street mod clothes while the Dave Clark Five are singing a song written for this special about Lucy being in London. It ends with Anthony Newley doing a medley of his hits for her on the stage of the Palladium.
”Here’s Lucy’ (1968 to 1974)
Cast & Characters: Lucille Ball (Lucy Carter), Gale Gordon (Harrison Carter), Lucie Arnaz (Kim Carter), Desi Arnaz Jr (Craig Carter)
Premise: Lucy Carter worked for her brother-in-law at an employment agency while juggling life as a single mother. This setup allowed for guest stars and comedic workplace mishaps.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: Lucille Ball had grown accustomed to owning her own show, but when she sold Desilu Studios to Paramount’s parent company, the studio ended up owning The Lucy Show. To regain control over her work, she launched Lucille Ball Productions and set out to create a new sitcom. This decision pleased her, as it allowed her to maintain creative control over her product.
Additionally, with the social unrest of the late 1960s and her role as a mother, Ball wanted to keep a closer eye on her children. Bringing them onto the show gave them an outlet for their talents while allowing her to be with them five days a week. Thus, Here’s Lucy was born. Desi Arnaz Jr.’s status as a teen rock star with Dino, Desi & Billy—along with his undeniable good looks—helped boost the show’s ratings. Meanwhile, the series also launched the musical comedy career of Lucie Arnaz, for which we are all grateful.
‘Happy Anniversary and Goodbye’ (November 10, 1974)
Cast: Lucille Ball (Norma Michaels), Art Carney (Malcolm Michaels), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Rico)
Premise: Lucille Ball and Art Carney (beloved for his portrayal of Ed Norton on The Honeymooners) portray Norma and Malcolm Michaels, who have been married for 25 years. Once their daughter marries, they realize how unhappy they are with each other and decide to separate. Apart, they come to realize they still love each other.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: This is the first TV special after Here’s Lucy ended. It’s a one-hour sitcom shot live in front of an audience, just like Here’s Lucy had been. Her co-stars were Art Carney, Nanette Fabre and Peter Marshall, and it was the show that introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger to the American audience.
It works great. Ms. Ball was more intent than usual on making a good product, so more than usual she was a strict task mistress. There’s a very funny outtake where Nanette and Lucille were doing a scene in the living room, drinking coffee and eating danishes together. Nanette flubs her line and goes, “Oh s—. What do I say now?” And Lucille said, “After ‘oh, s—,’ you don’t say anything.!” Peter Marshall felt that it was not a happy experience for anybody; that she was so intent on this being good, that her costars were driven out of their minds.
‘Lucy Gets Lucky’ (February 21, 1975)
Guest Star: Dean Martin
Premise: In this special, Lucy Collins (Lucille Ball) heads to Las Vegas with the intent of seeing Dean Martin’s live show.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: They bring back the Lucy character, giving her a new last name, but she’s more or less Lucy Carter from Here’s Lucy. This show was not filmed in front of an audience; it was filmed like a movie, with one camera and on location in Las Vegas at the original MGM Grand Hotel. Lucy is a secretary who’s come to Las Vegas because her idol is Dean Martin and she wants to get to see his show, but can’t get tickets. She’s learns he does a special show for employees, so she gets hired as an employee so she can see the show. It was not as good as the first special, but the audience seemed to like it.
‘A Lucille Ball Special Starring Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason’ (December 1, 1975)
Guest Star: Jackie Gleason
Premise: Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason (revered as Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners) team up for a series of sketches, highlighting their unique comedic styles and chemistry.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: The subtitle is Three for Two—three sketches starring two people. An audience would have enhanced the performances of Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason. Lucille had a script for years for she and Jackie to make a movie, and Jackie wouldn’t do it. He would not get on an airplane, so he did nothing on the West Coast besides his very early films at 20th Century Fox. But when he finally did start to travel there, he began making movies again to do this. It was written by Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor, two enormously talented superstars. Joe was in the commissary, I think they were shooting at Fox, and he hears her voice saying, “You fat f—, you can’t even read the damn cue cards right.” This as they came in for lunch together, so that tells you how happy the set was.
‘CBS Salutes Lucy: The First 25 Years’ (November 28, 1976)
Guest Stars: Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon and others
Premise: This retrospective special celebrates Lucille Ball’s 25-year association with CBS. It features clips from her different series, interviews with co-stars and behind-the-scenes footage.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: A clip show of her television career with wraparounds by Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon and other people who worked with her, including Richard Burton, who said he hated her guts but did this anyway. [Lucille’s second husband] Gary Morton put this together; he said he spent entire nights sitting up helping with the editing, picking which clips to use and at the end used a clip of Ms. Ball receiving an award she had already been given on The Merv Griffin Show, accompanied by huge applause—but there’s nobody there, because there’s no audience. This is the last time that Desi Arnaz appeared in a Lucille Ball product.
‘Lucy Calls the President’ (November 21, 1977)
Guest Stars: Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon, Mary Jane Croft
Premise: After becoming concerned about a local issue, Lucy Whittaker (Lucille Ball) calls the President of the United States to voice her feelings. Shockingly, the president agrees to visit her hometown.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: A very good special. For once, the Lucy character is given a husband; she hasn’t had one since I Love Lucy. She’s working with Vivian Vance, Mary Jane Croft, Mary Wickes, Steve Allen, Ed McMahon—it’s a superb cast that should have been the stars of a new sitcom. Vivian would have had to have demurred, because she found out she had cancer the week she was shooting. Lucille Ball’s mother had just died as well, and this is the first TV thing Lucille did without her mother in the audience. In fact, Lucille starts the chose, chokes, yells, “Cut!” and adds, “Eve!” Eve Arden was in the audience, and she went to Eve’s arms to cry and they had to restart the show.
Was it I Love Lucy? No, but it was wonderful. She could still do it when she had the right script and the right people and the right director, because Marc Daniels, the original director of I Love Lucy, came back to direct that.
‘Lucy Comes to Nashville’ (1978)
Guest Stars: Tennessee Ernie Ford, Anne Murray
Premise: In this musical-comedy special, Lucille Ball travels to Nashville, where she becomes involved in the country music scene.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: This is a weird special. Lucille Ball Productions is not doing it; she owed CBS a special and her old director and producer, Jack Donahue, produced this. It’s done on videotape, as was Lucy Calls the President, the only sitcom she ever did on videotape. and it helps; it makes it look more live. But Ms. Ball seems a little bit lost in this. The writing was not strong and they relied on guest stars. This is what happens when Lucille Balls stars in something and her people aren’t there to protect her. And this is the only one of the specials that has never been put onto DVD or VHS. It has never been rerun and was never seen again.
‘Lucy Moves to NBC’ (February 8, 1980)
Guest Stars: Gary Coleman, Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, Jack Klugman, Gloria DeHaven
Premise: In a nutshell, Lucille Ball helps create programming for NBC in this special.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: Ms. Ball signs a contract with NBC, whose sitcoms are dying at that moment in the time before the advent of “Must See TV.” They hired Lucille Ball to literally help create sitcoms for them, and to get that started they did this 90-minute special shot in front of an audience. Doris Singleton, who played Carolyn Appleby on I Love Lucy, plays her secretary and Gale Gordon comes in to help her run the shows. And then, whoever was on NBC at that moment came into her office and did three or four-minute bits with her while the audience went crazy when they arrived.
She decides in the show that she’s going to create a sitcom for Donald O’Connor, so she and Gale Gordon have to convince him to do it. Then the last half hour is this sitcom, a show within the show, where Lucille Ball plays a takeoff on a Salvation Army lady. It’s a small part of a terrible half-hour of comedy. You would literally think it was 1954 again.
‘Life with Lucy’ (1986)
Cast & Characters: Lucille Ball (Lucy Barker), Gale Gordon (Curtis McGibbon), Ann Dusenberry (Margo), Larry Anderson (Ted)
Premise: Lucy Barker, a widow, moves in with her daughter’s family while co-owning a hardware store with her son-in-law’s father, Curtis.
Geoffrey Mark’s inside scoop: What happens when the biggest television star in history and one of television’s most successful producers come together to create a new sitcom? Unfortunately, the result was tepid at best. Life with Lucy suffered from a weak premise, a cast—aside from Gail Gordon—that wasn’t particularly well-suited for the show, and writing that seemed almost schizophrenic, attempting to be both a nostalgic throwback to I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show while simultaneously trying to reinvent itself as something entirely new. The show needed to commit to one direction or the other, but instead, it floundered between them.
It wasn’t that Lucille Ball had lost her talent. The real issue was that the producers placed too much trust in the original writers without making necessary adjustments. Gary Morton, as co-producer, didn’t step in to improve the show, and Aaron Spelling, who later expressed deep regret, felt that he had let Lucille Ball down. Compounding these issues, Ms. Ball was facing the inevitable challenges of aging and, behind the scenes, she was dealing with the heartbreaking reality of Desi Arnaz’s battle with cancer. All of these factors contributed to a final product that, unfortunately, just wasn’t very good.
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