Network: CBS
Episodes: 156 (half-hour)
Seasons: Six
TV show dates: October 1, 1962 — March 11, 1968
Series status: Cancelled/ended
Performers include: Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon, Mary Jane Croft, Sid Gould, Carole Cook, Dick Martin, Roy Roberts, Jimmy Garrett, Mary Wickes, Ann Sothern, Lucie Arnaz, Ralph Hart, Donald Briggs, Desi Arnaz Jr., Joan Swift, Carol Burnett, Lew Parker, Candy Moore, James Gonzales, and Charles Lane.
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TV show description:
Comedienne Lucille Ball stars as Lucy Carmichael, a recent widow and a resident of Danfield, New York. Lucy and her two children, daughter Chris (Candy Moore) and son Jerry (Jimmy Garrett), move into a house with her recently divorced friend, Vivian Bagley (Vivian Vance), and her son Sherman (Ralph Hart).
Lucy’s late husband leaves her a rather large trust fund and she tries to convince banker Mr. Barnsdahl (Charles Lane) to loosen his grip on it. The first season focuses on the two single moms struggling to pay the bills, raise their children on their own, and to find new love.
In the second season, president of the bank Theodore J. Mooney (Gale Gordon) takes over the role of the grumpy banker assigned to Lucy’s trust fund. Her attempts to obtain more of her money increase once she begins working as Mr. Mooney’s secretary.
Later in the series, when Vivian remarries and Lucy’s children leave home, Lucy follows Mr. Mooney to California to continue working as his secretary. She spends her days working at the bank and catching up with her old friend Rosie Harrigan or “Countess Framboise” (Ann Sothern) as she’s become better known. Like Lucy, The Countess is also a widow. But instead of leaving her with a trust fund, the Countess’ husband has only left her with a stack of bills.
As time goes on, Lucy becomes good friends with Mary Jane Lewis (Mary Jane Croft) and tries to get closer to the slew of celebrity stars that she meets at the bank, including Dean Martin, Jack Benny, George Burns, and Joan Crawford.
On Saturday August 6 Lucille Ball would Have Been 111 years Old. Happy Birthday Lucille Ball.
[…] comedienne made us laugh in five TV shows — I Love Lucy, The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy, and Life with Lucy — as well as through dozens of TV specials, radio […]
I agree with the above comment.
The Lucy Show was definitely at its best the first two, or maybe three seasons, when Vivian Vance was still Lucy’s main partner.
After that, I thought the series when downwhill considerably, however, Lucy was always fun and enjoyable to see in just about anything she did, however, the later shows had too
many other guest stars and the plots just didn’t seem quite so funny or interesting.
Now here’s a show that changes formats so often that the end product is nothing like start. Except for Ball clowning around. I watched season one of TLS right after watching the last three installments of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. Those shows aired in 1959-1960. TLS began in fall, 1962. Arnaz is back as Executive Producer for TLS, until show 9 when he leaves Desilu Studios, selling his shares to Ball for 3.5 mil. Some think the show started going downhill then. TLS was his idea as a vehicle for Ball, who had been off tv since Lucy-Desi went off… Read more »