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''The Lucy Show'' was Lucille Ball's television comeback that almost didn't happen
Even though CBS gave Ball great offers to do the show, Vivian Vance is why the comeback happened.
After the series finale of I Love Lucy in 1957, viewers thought they'd never see Lucille Ball as the loveable character on their television screens again. The actress spent time on Broadway and in successful motion pictures during her television hiatus. In 1962, she returned as Lucy in The Lucy Show, but there were a few changes.
The character's last name was no longer Ricardo, it was Carmichael, and she was a widow with two children. Vivian Vance's character, Ethel Mertz, was now named Vivian Bagley, and she was divorced with one child. The new change made this highly anticipated comeback a mixture of exciting and worrying for Ball.
In an interview with the Chattanooga Daily Times in August 1962, two months before the show's debut on CBS, the actress talked about how she hoped viewers would accept the new plot. "I think they're going to miss Ricky and Fred," she began. "After all those years. But I hope, and pray, they'll like the show enough and that it's funny enough to help accept us without the husbands."
Although the two men were no longer a part of the show, Lucy and Vivian were the same characters who always found themselves in bad situations, arguing and dressed up in hilarious costumes.
Even though Ball was away from television acting for a while, she insisted that it was easy for her to get back into the hang of things. "[It's] like I've never been away," she added. "And I'm back playing the character I know best and like best, Lucy. But I don't think I'd be doing this if it hadn't been for Viv."
Vance thought working with Ball again was perfect, which was why the comeback happened.
"The studio had the idea, and the offers were fabulous. But the thing that jelled it was Viv," Ball said. "She said let's go back to working together, she'd been busy doing one thing or another and was getting homesick for regular work, hard as it is. We're great friends, and we love to work together. So here we are."
The Lucy Show was a success, producing six seasons of comedic episodes and the wild adventures of two best friends.
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Here is a photo ( different costume though) from Pinterest.
Lucille Ball in Kid Millions, 1934.
I also liked "Here's Lucy," and I hope to get the DVD series box set of that one eventually.
Why?
Well, as I said on other postings, these were the "Lucy" shows I grew up with in the 60's and 70's (I was born on Sunday, April 29, 1962, five months before "The Lucy Show" premiered), and they remind me a lot of my childhood days. And Lucy and Viv were at their funniest (for example, in the "Together for Christmas" episode from the first season). And to be fair, as I've said before, different strokes for different folks!
By the way: "The Lucy Show" was based on a book called "Life Without George" by Irene Kampen. If I ever find a copy of that book, I've got to read it and see how Lucy got her inspiration for "The Lucy Show" (that book is *very* hard to find, even on Ebay. I suppose once the official DVD's of "The Lucy Show" were released, most people began taking notice of that and looked for a copy of "Life Without George").
Decades Network. as it "pertains" to both "I Love Lucy" and The "Lucy Show." The topic of the article.
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I'll keep the post about the "Movies!" network up for a bit, as you've most likely read it. However not interested in the whole Analog vs Digital signal debate.
You can find the information on your select series ( Gomer Pyle, Happy Days) as any of us would. ( Look it up, research it, Google it)
He was a drunk way before the 60's😂😂