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The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show
by Amy Derby
Produced by Desilu, The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (The Lucy-Desi Show) ran from October 1957 through April 1960. This show directly followed the ever-popular I Love Lucy show, taking up where I Love Lucy left off. Although The Lucy-Desi Show lost its appeal to some viewers, The Lucy-Desi Show remained popular with many because this show continued to feature both Lucy and Ricky, along with Little Ricky (Keith Thibodeaux) and the Mertzes, Fred (William Frawley) and Ethel (Vivian Vance), as well as many celebrity guest stars.
The Lucy-Desi Show consisted of 13 hour-long episodes with the exception of the premier show ("Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana," which aired on November 6, 1957) which had an original run time of 75 minutes (with commercials). Desi Arnaz refused to cut the "Havana" show down to an hour and negotiated with the sponsor of The United States Steel Hour, the show scheduled to air immediately following his show. For that night only, The United States Steel Hour ran only 45 minutes and achieved its highest ever ratings with Lucy as its lead-in.
Lucy and Desi, especially in this program, were noted for guest starring well known celebrities. They achieved this with a guest-star trade-off policy. If a star did Lucy's show, she'd do theirs. They began this policy in 1956 with I Love Lucy's sixth season premier episode ("Lucy and Bob Hope," which aired on October 1, 1956), for which Lucy and Desi appeared on The Bob Hope Chevy Show. This tradition continued into The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and began with the first show ("Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana"), in which Ann Sothern guest stars. Lucille Ball reciprocated by appearing as Lucy Ricardo on The Ann
Sothern Show. The Arnazes repaid Danny Thomas' appearance in "Lucy Makes Room for Danny" with a visit to The Danny Thomas Show. Milton Berle's appearance in "Milton Berle Hides Out" was repaid by the Arnazes' appearance on The Milton Berle Special.
Famous for her physical comedy, Lucille Ball is known for doing her own stunts -- even the dangerous ones. There was more than one instance during production of The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show when Lucille accredited director Jerry Thorpe with saving her life. In "Lucy Goes to Sun Valley," Lucille took a fall and slid on the ice during the skating-rink scene. In "Lucy Goes to Mexico," the heat got greater when a malfunctioning mechanical bull jumped off its track.
Although much of The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show was filmed in Los Angeles at the Desilu studios, a number of episodes were shot on location. "Lucy Goes to Sun Valley" brought the cast and the Arnaz kids to Idaho for 14 snowy days. Ironically, the snowy scenes in "Lucy Goes to Alaska" came from Lake Arrowhead, California.
The show has run under many names. The original network title was The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (1957-1960). CBS subsequently re-ran the show as a summer special under the name The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. In syndication, the hour-long shows were often broken into half-hour segments and called We Love Lucy. Now being sold on DVD as "I Love Lucy: The Final Seasons 7, 8 & 9," the episodes can be viewed in their (mostly) original, unedited versions. The DVD set also includes special features such as deleted scenes, flubs, original show openings and closings, original Ford Motor commercials, and a 40 minute Desilu/Westinghouse Sponsor Presentation for Desilu Playhouse.
Despite the great chemistry viewers saw between Lucy and Ricky on the show, the marriage of Lucy and Desi was going down hill fast during the production of The Lucy-Desi Show. They were divorced by May 4, 1961. Although Lucille Ball eventually bought out Desilu and starred in television shows The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and Life With Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Show would be the last show to feature Lucy married to Ricky. Lucille Ball re-married in November 19, 1961 to Gary Morton, but she will be forever remembered by many as the wife of Ricky Ricardo.
Amy Derby is a freelance writer living near Chicago, Illinois. Although she was born in the late 70's, she has a passion for 50's and 60's television, all things "Lucy" included.
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