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 "Life with Lucy" opening title screen. | ||||
| Basic Information | ||||
| Developed for TV by: | Bob Carroll Jr. & Madelyn Davis | |||
| Created by: | Bob Carroll Jr. & Madelyn Davis | |||
| Spinoff of/ Preceded by: |
Here's Lucy | |||
| Cast Information | ||||
| Executive Producer(s): | E. Duke Vincent Madelyn Davis Bob Carroll Jr. Linda Morris Vic Rauseo | |||
| Starring: | Lucille Ball Gale Gordon Ann Dusenberry Larry Anderson Jenny Lewis Philip Amelio Donovan Scott | |||
| Theme music: | Eliot Daniel Harold Adamson | |||
| Opening theme music: | "Every Day Is Better Than Before", sung by Eydie Gorme | |||
| End theme: | Same as opening theme | |||
| Production company: | Lucille Ball Productions Aaron Spelling Productions | |||
| Studio: | Desilu Studios | |||
| Distribution and Broadcast Information | ||||
| First aired: | September 20, 1986 | |||
| Last aired: | November 15, 1986 | |||
| Seasons: | 1 | |||
| No. of episodes: | 14 episodes total, 8 aired | |||
| Current status: | Cancelled | |||
| Country: | United States | |||
| Language: | English | |||
| Original TV Network: |
CBS-TV | |||
| Series runtime: | 30 minutes | |||
Life with Lucy was a sitcom starring Lucille Ball that aired for one season on ABC-TV from September 20 to November 15, 1986. It is the only Lucille Ball sitcom to not air on CBS. Only 8 out of the 13 episodes produced were aired before ABC cancelled the series. Unlike Ball's previous sitcoms, Life with Lucy was a failure in the ratings and poorly received by critics and viewers alike, ranking among the worst sitcoms in broadcasting history.
Premise[]
Ball played a widowed grandmother who had inherited her husband's half-interest in a hardware store in South Pasadena, California, the other half being owned by his partner, widower Curtis McGibbon (played by Gale Gordon). Lucy's character insisted on "helping" in the store, even though when her husband was alive she had taken no part in the business and hence knew nothing about it. The unlikely partners were also in-laws, her daughter being married to his son, and all of them, along with their young grandchildren, lived together.
Creative control and production[]
During the 1984–85 television season, NBC had experienced a huge success with its Bill Cosby comeback vehicle The Cosby Show, following it up the next year with The Golden Girls, which likewise revitalized the career of Bea Arthur. ABC, looking to stage a similar resurgence for an old sitcom star and to boost Saturday night ratings, decided to try for the greatest sitcom star of all time—then 75-year-old four-time Emmy award winner and cultural icon Lucille Ball. TV production giant Aaron Spelling had been talking with Ball and her second husband Gary Morton since 1979 about possibly doing another series. Ball was hesitant, but she was given complete control over the series.
ABC offered Ball the writers from the huge hit M*A*S*H, but Ball insisted on her longtime writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh Martin Davis, who had been writing for Ball since her 1948 radio show My Favorite Husband. They had written over 500 television and radio episodes for Ball, plus the occasional TV special and feature film. Ball called in crew members who had been working for her since the days of I Love Lucy. The most notable around the set was sound man Cam McCulloch, who had worked on I Love Lucy starting with its third season and by 1986 was 77 years old and quite hard of hearing. Ball also insisted on coaxing four-time Emmy nominee and sitcom veteran Gale Gordon out of Palm Springs retirement. Gordon had worked with Ball on Jack Haley's radio show and more consistently on My Favorite Husband. He was the first choice for the character of Fred Mertz and had guest-starred on I Love Lucy and The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour before becoming a main cast member on The Lucy Show in its second season and acting on all six seasons of Here's Lucy.
Gordon was only drawn to the show with the promise of a full season's pay for all 22 episodes regardless of whether the show lasted. According to cast and crew members, the then 80-year-old Gordon never once flubbed a line on the set during the 13-episode duration. Ball was allegedly paid $100,000 an episode and husband Gary Morton, carrying the title of executive producer, negotiated for $150,000 an episode. The pilot was sent through without network interference or even test screenings. Many people involved believed the show would be a ratings smash and award winner and run for many years, just as Ball's other shows had done.
Ball's character's surname, Barker, continued her tradition of using surnames containing the letters "ar" (as in Ricardo, Carmichael and Carter on Ball's previous sitcoms), in tribute to her ex-husband Desi Arnaz.Template:Cn
The show's theme song was performed by Eydie Gormé. Apparently, an alternative theme was written by Ball's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, with Cy Coleman.[1]
Ratings and cancellation[]
The cast
Fourteen episodes were written, thirteen videotaped, but only eight aired. On the day of the last filmed (but unaired) episode, producer Aaron Spelling learned of the show's cancellation by ABC; he decided to tell Ball's husband Gary Morton, who decided not to reveal the news to her until after taping ended. The last episode to be aired, "Mother of the Bride", featured Audrey Meadows, who was offered to be cast as a regular to give the show a new direction and Ball's character a comic foil and partner, similar to the role previously played by Vivian Vance in Ball's previous series. (This was the only Ball sitcom in which Vance, who had died in 1979, never appeared.) Meadows turned down the offer.
Life With LucyTemplate:'s premiere episode on September 20 made the Nielsen's Top 25 (#23 for the week) for its week; however, subsequent episodes dropped steadily in viewership; Life With Lucy went against NBC's The Facts of Life in the same Saturday night lead-off timeslot and never gained ground against it. It ranked only 73rd out of 79 shows for the season (the seventh-lowest-rated show on TV for the season), with a 9.0/16 rating/share. The show was never syndicated, nor was it ever released on home video; it briefly aired on Nick at Nite as part of a Lucille Ball-themed marathon in 1996, but otherwise has never been rerun (although episodes can be found on YouTube, as well as the five unaired episodes, and at the Paley Center for Media in New York City and Beverly Hills, California). Biographies of the actress reveal that she was reportedly devastated by the show's failure, and she never again attempted another series or feature film; her subsequent interviews and other TV appearances were infrequent. Ball's last public appearance was as a presenter on the 1989 Academy Awards telecast in which she and fellow presenter Bob Hope were given a standing ovation. She died a month later, in April 1989. In a 1999 interview with the Archive of American Television, Aaron Spelling attributed the failure of the show to his decision to allow Ball to do the same type of shows she had done in the past. Spelling said that at her age the audience were more worried for her safety than laughing at her pratfalls. He took the blame for allowing her full creative control, because he said Ball had offered to do something different if he thought that was best, but he felt her ideas were more likely to succeed. Spelling said this experience had a lot to do with his rarely producing sitcoms.[2][3]
In July 2002, TV Guide named Life With Lucy the 26th-worst TV series of all time, stating that it was, "without a doubt, the saddest entry in [their] list of bad TV shows of all time". In his book What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History, author David Hofstede ranked the series at No. 21 on the list.[4]
Cast[]
Main[]
- Lucille Ball as Lucille "Lucy" Barker
- Gale Gordon as Curtis McGibbon
- Ann Dusenberry as Margot "Margo" Barker McGibbon
- Larry Anderson as Theodore "Ted" McGibbon
- Jenny Lewis as Rebecca "Becky" McGibbon
- Philip J. Amelio II as Kevin McGibbon
- Donovan Scott as Leonard Stoner
Recurring[]
- Kellie Martin as Patty
- Brandon Call as Max
- Tom Williams as various voice overs
Guest stars[]
Life with Lucy had two special guest stars—John Ritter ("Lucy Makes a Hit with John Ritter") as himself and Audrey Meadows ("Mother of the Bride") as Lucy's sister, Audrey.
Episodes[]
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original Air Date | Prod. Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "One Good Grandparent Deserves Another" | Peter Baldwin | Bob Carroll, Jr. & Madelyn Davis | September 20, 1986 | 101 |
| Curtis McGibbon (Gale Gordon) has just returned home from his Hawaiian vacation with the idea of moving in with his son, Ted (Larry Anderson). He arrives to learn that Ted's mother-in-law, Lucille "Lucy" Barker (Lucille Ball), Curtis's business partner is deciding to move in with her daughter, Margo (Ann Dusenberry) who happens to be married to Ted. So now, Curtis doesn't just have to deal with the stress of working with Lucy, he has to live with her too.
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| 2 | "Lucy Makes a Hit with John Ritter" | Peter Baldwin | Bob Carroll, Jr. & Madelyn Davis | September 27, 1986 | 104 |
| John Ritter happens to be in town doing a play. He stops by the hardware store to buy some door-handles for the set. Lucy tries to be helpful, but ends up being hurtful. She ends up inadvertently injuring his hands and his foot. Lucy then insists that Ritter stay at the house with them. But when John Ritter's co-star and leading lady drops out of the play, Lucy rushes to the aid by joining as John's co-star.
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| 3 | "Lucy Among the Two-by-Fours" | Peter Baldwin | Arthur Marx & Robert Fisher | October 4, 1986 | 106 |
| Lucy's old flame (and a business prospect for Curtis) comes to the store one day. After a date with her old flame, Lucy decides she doesn't share the same feelings he has for her.
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| 4 | "Lucy Gets Her Wires Crossed" | Peter Baldwin | Arthur Marx & Robert Fisher | October 18, 1986 | 103 |
| One day, a talk-show host comes to the Hardware store, Lucy talks him into inviting Curtis on the show for a "Mr. Fix-It" segment. Curtis ends up allowing Lucy to do the segment with him after urging from grandchild Becky (Jenny Lewis). Lucy tries to glue a lamp together, but ends up gluing herself to Curtis.
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| 5 | "Lucy Is a Sax Symbol" | Peter Baldwin | Arthur Marx & Robert Fisher | October 25, 1986 | 105 |
| Lucy finds her old saxophone while trying to look for things for a garage sale. She then encourages Becky to take up playing it. However, Becky finds playing the saxophone unsatisfying, as does Curtis. | |||||
| 6 | "Lucy Make Curtis Byte the Dust" | Peter Baldwin | Arthur Marx & Robert Fisher | November 1, 1986 | 108 |
| Lucy and Curtis buy a computer to help organize the books at the shop. When she uses it to order some un-returnable merchandise, Lucy tries to get to the bank to stop the check from arriving at the bank — and accidentally informs them that Curtis had died.
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| 7 | "Lucy, Leagle Beagle" | Peter Baldwin | Richard Albrecht & Casey Keller | November 8, 1986 | 110 |
| While trying to pass off her grandson Kevin's teddy bear as her own during a clean-up sale (to avoid Kevin from being taunted by friends), Lucy sticks it in a bag. The bag is then purchased with the teddy bear in it, so Lucy stars putting reward posters around town. When a woman finally comes back for the reward, she begins to ask for a lot more than the $50.00 that Lucille is offering.
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| 8 | "Mother of the Bride" | Peter Baldwin | Linda Morris & Vic Rauseo | November 15, 1986 | 112 |
Lucy's sister Audrey (Audrey Meadows) comes to town to see Margo and Ted renew their vows. Sister Lucy's excitement is diminished when Audrey begins to make all the wedding arrangements, which results in a cake fight between the sisters.
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| 9 | "Lucy and the Guard Goose" | Peter Baldwin | Bob Carroll, Jr. & Madelyn Davis | Unaired | 102 |
| The hardware shop is robbed when Lucy foolishly leaves the key in plain sight. She then decides the shop should be guarded by a goose. But the goose never gets a chance to scare the thieves because it is too busy scaring the owners.
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| 10 | "Lucy and Curtis Up a Tree" | Marc Daniels | Bob Carroll, Jr. & Madelyn Davis | Unaired | 107 |
| Margo and Ted are very worried that Curtis and Lucy are spoiling their children. This situation isn't helped out when Curtis decides to build Kevin a tree house, which causes a fight between the couple. While working on the treehouse, Lucy and Curtis decide to relieve Ted and Margo's burden by arguing over who will move out—and Kevin walks off the ladder, leaving the two of them trapped. | |||||
| 11 | "Lucy's Green Thumb" | Marc Daniels | Mark Tuttle | Unaired | 109 |
| Lucy makes health shakes for the family and they show their appreciation by pouring them into an ailing plant. When the plant shoots up overnight, Curtis thinks he has a million dollar plant growing supplement—but Lucy can't seem to remember what she put into it. | |||||
| 12 | "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" | Peter Baldwin | Richard Albrecht, Casey Keller & Laura Levine | Unaired | 111 |
| Curtis sells Lucy his share of the shop so he can retire. Lucy goes all-out for a solo-ownership celebration and winds up nearly broke. So she interviews candidates to take over Curtis's position before finally settling on Curtis—who found retirement less satisfying than he expected. | |||||
| 13 | "World's Greatest Grandma" | Bruce Bilson | Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Davis, Mel Sherer & Steve Granat | Unaired | 113 |
| Lucy is jealous that everyone else in the family has a trophy to boast about. Becky encourages Lucy to join a talent show and win the trophy as the grand prize. After trying singing, dancing, telling jokes, and doing magic, Lucy settles on reciting a song. But when she loses, the grandkids give her a trophy for being the "World's Greatest Grandma".
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| 14 | "Twas the Flight Before Christmas" | Bruce Bilson | Linda Morris & Vic Rauseo | Unaired | 114 |
| The family goes to a friend's cabin in Colorado, but become stranded on the plane in Denver and discover that Christmas is more than presents, but about spending time with your family.
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References[]
- ↑ Lucie Arnaz.
- ↑ Aaron Spelling.
- ↑ Aaron Spelling Interview Part 6 of 6.
- ↑ What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History,David Hofstede (2004). pp. 159–161. Back Stage Books. ISBN 0-8230-8441-8.
