''The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour'' is a collection of thirteen black-and-white one-hour specials airing occasionally from 1957 to 1960 (as opposed to the thirty-minute regular series, '' I Love Lucy''). The first five were shown as specials during the 1957–58 television season. The remaining eight were originally shown as part of '' Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse''. Its original network title was ''The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show'' for the first season, and ''Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Presents The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show'' for the following seasons. The successor to the classic comedy, ''I Love Lucy'', the programs featured the same cast members:

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Gold ...

, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, and Little Ricky (billed as Richard Keith in his post-''Lucy–Desi'' acting assignments). The production schedule avoided the grind of a regular weekly series.

Desilu Desilu Productions () was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as ''I Love Lucy'', ''The Lucy Show'', ''Mannix'', ''The Untouchabl ...

produced the show, which was mostly filmed at their

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

studios with occasional on-location shoots at Lake Arrowhead,

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

, and

Sun Valley, Idaho Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1406 at the 2010 census, down from 1427 in 2000.syndication.

Premise

Arnaz was often questioned why he changed the format of ''I Love Lucy'', a weekly, 30-minute program produced at 25 new episodes a season very successfully, to the ''Comedy Hour'' format of one-hour specials shown weeks or months apart. He noted at the time: "You've got to change in this business. Lucy is my favorite character ever and I love ''I Love Lucy'' it's my favorite show. I'd rather make a big change while we are still ahead. It would be ridiculous for us to wait until people got sick and tired of the regular half-hour every Monday night. We have been the luckiest show on the air, but we've worked for it. I have never worked so hard in my life. And while I suppose it's not really for me to say, I think I can honestly say that we have never done a really bad show in six years." He also noted the high stakes involved in the cost per episode ($350,000): "They not only have to be good, they have to be great. We're going to be in an awful spot with these shows; they've got to be good."'The "I Love Lucy" Book, Bart Andrews, 1985 Arnaz's determination to change scheduling formats went back several years, as far back as 1954. "When I first suggested it, CBS wouldn't listen. Last year (1956) again, they talked me into continuing with the weekly half-hour. But this time (1957) I made up my mind." Keeping the main plot line of the ''I Love Lucy'' program allowed ''Comedy Hour'' to retain the main cast. It also allowed Arnaz to drop any hint of continuity by releasing all of the ''I Love Lucy'' characters and substituting them with celebrity guest stars. That concept, which proved so successful during the program's Hollywood episodes in seasons 4 & 5, was what Arnaz had in mind when he commented "you can't stand still." Except for the main characters (still played by Ball, Arnaz, Vance, Frawley, and Thibodeaux) one character from ''I Love Lucy'' appeared on ''Comedy Hour'': Lucy's mother Mrs. McGillicuddy as Little Ricky's babysitter, in "The Ricardos Go to Japan"; columnist Hedda Hopper played herself in "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" as she had in the season 4 ''I Love Lucy'' episode "The Hedda Hopper Story." Arnaz believed the use of celebrity stars would allow him to demand higher fees, take some pressure off himself portraying Ricky Ricardo, and keep the "Lucy" concept fresh by encouraging continued ratings success. Although done during the last season of ''I Love Lucy'', the move to Connecticut allowed the writers to expand possible script ideas as they had "used up every conceivable story line that could be set in the tiny New York apartment." Not noted publicly at the time, Arnaz was suffering serious health problems, and had been ordered by doctors to cut back on his work and acting schedule. When he entered into negotiations with CBS, for a seventh season of ''I Love Lucy'', Arnaz insisted Desilu be allowed to change to the hour format and a monthly production schedule. CBS president William S. Paley would have sued Desilu had Arnaz's health not been an issue but instead agreed to the change. Arnaz quickly found a new sponsor for the 1957–1958 season:

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

. Originally ''Comedy Hour'' was slated to produce 10 original episodes per season. However, due to high production costs Arnaz cut that to eight, then five episodes. Five were produced in season one (1957–1958) and season two (1958–1959) then cut back to three in season three (1959–1960).

Description and evaluation

Lucy Goes To Havana Lucy Desi Comedy Hour 1957

During the final season of ''I Love Lucy'' (episode 14), the Ricardos, soon followed by the Mertzes, had moved to Westport, Connecticut, reflecting the growth of the suburbs throughout

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

during the 1950s. Ricky commuted into New York City where he now owned Club Babalu. A key part of the ''Comedy Hour'' format was guest stars in each episode, including Hedda Hopper; Ann Sothern; Rudy Vallee; Cesar Romero; Tallulah Bankhead;

Fred MacMurray Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series, in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film le ...

and June Haver; Betty Grable and

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...

; Fernando Lamas;

Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", " Louise", " Mimi", and " Thank H ...

; Danny Thomas and his '' Make Room for Daddy'' co-stars;

Red Skelton Richard Red Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program ''The Red Skelton Show''. He has stars ...

; Paul Douglas; Ida Lupino and

Howard Duff Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

; Milton Berle; Bob Cummings; and, in the final episode, "Lucy Meets the Moustache",

Ernie Kovacs Ernest Edward Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was a Hungarian-American comedian, actor, and writer. Kovacs's visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years afte ...

and Edie Adams. ''Comedy Hour'' episodes focused on Lucy's interaction with the celebrity guest stars. Although still a key character, Ricky is not a major part of the episodes and has less interaction with Lucy. Nearly every episode features his not allowing her to do something, which allows Lucy to interact with the guest stars to confound Ricky. Ricky's 'manic' personality has changed as well, and by the last episode (aired in April 1960) he is more subtle, almost depressed, and appears tired. His contributions are generally low-key (with the exception of the 'Berle' episode). Fred and Ethel are featured in fewer plot themes after the move to Connecticut, although Ethel does help Lucy carry out her schemes. Although noted in ''I Love Lucy'' as the main reason they were able to afford moving to Connecticut, the joint Ricardo-Mertz egg business is only mentioned once. Fred assumes his role as Ricky's band manager. As noted Arnaz had each episode written to 'stand alone' in order to expand themes and plots using celebrity guests. He also expected those guest stars to have significant screen time. Arnaz, Vance, and Frawley all had their dialog and screen time reduced a great deal compared to ''I Love Lucy''. This reduction was not well received by Vance, who considered leaving. Frawley, however, was happy with the reduction which gave him more time to attend to his other interests. New friends from the ''I Love Lucy'' Connecticut episodes, the Ramseys (or the Mortons), were not in the Comedy Hour cast and are only mentioned twice, each as babysitters for Little Ricky. Besides the Mertzes the only character from the ''I Love Lucy'' show to appear on the Comedy Hour were Lucy's mother (who appeared briefly in the "Japan" episode) as Little Ricky's grandma. The first hour had Hedda Hopper in "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana". This episode originally ran 75 minutes and Desi had to get permission to air the show intact, cutting into the next show on the network-schedule. After the initial showing on CBS Prime-Time it subsequently was edited down to fit in the 60 minute version that aired during the summers of 1962-1965 and finally 1967. Little Ricky is used more but is still a minor character. Most of his appearances feature him playing the drums, coming and going (examples include "The Celebrity Next Door" and, in several, off to school or some other function); he has no friends, unlike the 6th season of ''I Love Lucy'', where a few are noted ("Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright", "Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums", several of the Connecticut episodes, etc.); and no plot theme centers on him. Also the Ricardos do not interact with any neighbors in Westport ("The Celebrity Next Door" is the exception, although Bankhead appears in only that episode and features Lucy's only work with the PTA); and the town, a major plot theme in season 6 of ''I Love Lucy'', is hardly mentioned except in passing. Lucy wins racehorse 1958

Episodes are one hour. Production costs were estimated to be $350,000 per episode. Arnaz had originally proposed to run 10 episodes (one per month) but the high production costs forced Desilu to taper this to 5 episodes each in the 1957–1958, 1958–1959 seasons and 3 in the final season (1959–1960). Arnaz had signed

Debbie Reynolds Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portra ...

to appear in a season 4 episode to be broadcast in January, 1961 and had been preparing to produce 3 specials for the 1960–1961 season. Ball and Arnaz divorced in May, 1960. After the final Lucy-Desi program the two never worked together onscreen again, although Arnaz executive produced the first 15 of '' The Lucy Show'' episodes before leaving Desilu Productions in 1962. Ratings for each episode broadcast (including reruns) during the 1957–58 and 1958–59 seasons were all good. However, by the start of the 1959–60 season, with the habit of viewing ''Lucy'' broken up every few months, being broadcast on different nights, as well as the tension revealed between Ball and Arnaz (due to their real-life marriage unraveling), viewing dropped and it was no longer a major hit in the ratings. Critics commented on the lackluster quality and poor scripts. Cast performances were also panned. The interaction between Ricky and Lucy, a major element of the original program's success, was not up to par (reflecting Ball's and Arnaz's personal problems). Because of these problems (and Desi spending more time trying to maintain

), the live studio audience was replaced with a laugh track by the final season (although both Milton Berle and writer

Bob Schiller Robert Achille Schiller (November 8, 1918 – October 10, 2017) was an American screenwriter. He worked extensively with fellow producer/screenwriter Bob Weiskopf on numerous television shows in the United States, including '' I Love Lucy'' (195 ...

stated in ''The Lucy Book'' by Geoffrey Mark Fidelman, that for the ninth-season premiere, "Milton Berle Hides Out at The Ricardos", a live audience was brought in for some of the scenes to give a sense of timing). In the penultimate episode of the series, titled "The Ricardos Go to Japan", Lucy was red-eyed due to her crying during the arguments between herself and Desi (although not seen on-screen due to the show being filmed in black and white). Red Skelton Lucille Ball Lucy Goes to Alaska

Red Skelton Lucille Ball Lucy Goes to Alaska

While in production of the final episode, "Lucy Meets the Mustache", tensions between them were so high that Ball and Arnaz could not speak to each other without having loud arguments or shouting matches on set. They soon realized it would be best if they did not speak directly to each other there and instead used surrogates to carry messages or questions back and forth. This allowed them time to calm down and stay in character when the script required them to act. Filmed on March 3, 1960, Ball started divorce proceedings the next day. In the final episode, Edie Adams chose to sing "That's All", later commenting that she personally chose the song, unaware of Ball and Arnaz marital problems or their pending divorce. Adams and her husband, the avant garde comedian

, guested starred on what turned out to be the final new episode ever made of ''The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour'' and the last time its characters: Fred, Ethel, Little Ricky, Ricky and Lucy would ever be seen. Adams commented that Ball's emotions were up and down the entire week of rehearsals and that she had commented to Kovacs how harshly Ball was treating her. Kovacs passed that along to Arnaz who took Adams aside and explained to her that Lucy was under a lot of pressure and was not feeling very good. And that she should just be herself and not let Ball push her around. She took his advice and things between them were fine. Kovacs never commented publicly about the episode or the famous couple. Adams stated that the mood on set was tense and sad. Although it had yet to be publicly announced, all of the Desilu executives, the cast and crew knew the fate of the stars' marriage and the effect their divorce would have on the series. Critics have generally regarded the series as a rather pallid continuation of ''I Love Lucy'', with not enough of the original show's brisk pace and memorable sketchwork, and an excessive use of celebrity guest-stars. Still, many fans enjoy the series because of the cast, which remained intact from the original. ''The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'' is occasionally seen on nostalgia outlets like

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cl ...

in its original hour-long format, or in edited thirty-minute installments (beginning in 1987) as ''We Love Lucy'' and run directly after the sixth season of ''I Love Lucy'' the additional "episodes" broadcast as a 7th season of ''I Love Lucy''. Me-TV broadcast the program in the original one-hour format during the summer of 2012. The Decades Channel ran a weekend binge marathon of ''Lucy-Desi'' in August 2015 and again in August 2021. With 13 episodes produced and broadcast during its 3-year run the series was released as one DVD box collection separate from the ''I Love Lucy'' sets. The show is briefly memorialized in the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in

Jamestown, New York Jamestown is a city in southern Chautauqua County, in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 28,712 at the 2020 census. Situated between Lake Erie to the north and the Allegheny National Forest to the south, Jamestown is the largest po ...

Cast

Lucille Ball Fred MacMurray Lucy Hunts Uranium

Fernando Lamas Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz 1962

Lucy Ricardo Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Luci ...

* Desi Arnaz as

Ricky Ricardo Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, also known simply as Lucy and Ricky or the Ricardos, are fictional characters from the American television sitcom ''I Love Lucy'', portrayed respectively by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The Ricardos also appear in '' The ...

* Vivian Vance as Ethel Mertz * William Frawley as Fred Mertz * Keith Thibodeaux, billed as Richard Keith as Ricky Ricardo Jr. (Little Ricky)

Theme song

With the new hour-long show, Desi Arnaz wanted to keep the famous '' I Love Lucy'' theme composed by Eliot Daniel, but with some changes. The task of updating the theme fell to music arranger Frank Comstock, who kept most of the theme (like the harp "hits") similar, but added were more syncopation and flourishes, as well as a few "punch" notes. Even though Wilbur Hatch was still musical conductor, studio musicians were employed to record the theme, as the Desi Arnaz Orchestra had been disbanded. Most, if not all, end credit music themes on each episode have been edited for time in the syndicated versions of the series. However, in 2018 a fan uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

a complete theme song, reconstructed from the different episodes.

Episodes

Jerry Thorpe directed ten, and Desi Arnaz three, of the ''Comedy Hour'' episodes. Ball, Arnaz, Vance, Frawley, and Keith appeared in all 13 episodes.

Home media

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment) released the entire series of all thirteen ''Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'' specials on DVD under the package name ''I Love Lucy: The Final Seasons 7-9'' on March 13, 2007, in Region 1, and is presented with certain edits such as "The Celebrity Next Door" when Tallulah Bankhead remarks about being allergic to strawberries (a significant plot point) and digitally remastered.

Other releases

In September 2018, Time-Life released a DVD, ''Lucy: The Ultimate Collection'', that contains two episodes of ''The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'', and which also collected 32 episodes of '' I Love Lucy'', as well as 24 episodes of '' Here's Lucy'', 14 episodes of '' The Lucy Show'', and 4 episodes of the short-lived ABC-TV series ''

Life with Lucy ''Life with Lucy'' is an American sitcom starring Lucille Ball that aired for one season on ABC from September 20 to November 15, 1986. It is the only Lucille Ball sitcom to not air on CBS and the very last sitcom she starred in before her dea ...

'' (which had never before been released to home media), plus a wide variety of bonus features.https://timelife.com/products/lucy-the-ultimate-collection/

Notes

External links

*
Episode guide and descriptions for ''The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour''

''The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'' at TVLand.com
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