Life with Lucy

Life With Lucy

Title card for Life With Lucy.
Created by Bob Carroll Jr.
Madelyn Davis
Starring Lucille Ball
Gale Gordon
Ann Dusenberry
Larry Anderson
Jenny Lewis
Philip J. Amelio II
Donovan Scott
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 14 (5 unaired, 1 unproduced)
Production
Running time Appx. 23-25 min.
Production company(s) Lucille Ball Productions
Aaron Spelling Productions
Distributor CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network ABC
Original release September 20 – November 15, 1986
Chronology
Preceded by Here's 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. Only 8 out of the 13 ordered episodes were aired before ABC cancelled the series. Unlike Ball's previous sitcoms, Life with Lucy was critically panned and a ratings flop. In 2002, TV Guide named Life with Lucy the twenty-sixth worst TV series of all time.

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 and 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 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 Carrol Jr. and Madelyn Pugh Martin Davis, who had been writing for Ball since her 1947 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 Gale 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, award winner, and run for many years just as Ball had proven for nearly 25 years in the past.

The show's theme song was performed by Eydie Gorme. Apparently, an alternate theme was written by Ball's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, with Cy Coleman.[1]

Ratings and cancellation

The cast

Fourteen episodes were written, thirteen filmed, 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 filming had 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 Lucille's character a comic foil and partner, similar to the role previously played by Vivian Vance in Lucy's previous series. (This was the only 'Lucy' sitcom in which Vance, who had died in 1979, never appeared.) Meadows turned down the offer.

Life With Lucy'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 short-lived 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 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 never again attempted another series or feature film; her subsequent interviews and other TV appearances were extremely infrequent. Lucy'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 took full responsibility for the show's failure, blaming it on the decision to give Ball creative control.[2]

In July 2002, TV Guide named Life With Lucy the 26th worst TV series of all time, stating, in their words, 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 #21 on the list.[3]

Cast

Main

Recurring

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

Season 1: 1986

No. in
series		 Title Directed by Written by Original air date Production
code
1"One Good Grandparent Deserves Another"Peter BaldwinBob Carroll, Jr. & Madelyn DavisSeptember 20, 1986 (1986-09-20)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.

Guest Starring: Ruth Kobart as Mrs. Finley
2"Lucy Makes a Hit with John Ritter"Peter BaldwinBob Carroll, Jr. & Madelyn DavisSeptember 27, 1986 (1986-09-27)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 hurting 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 and makes the play a hit.

Special Guest Star: John Ritter as Himself
Guest Stars: Ruth Buzzi as Mrs. Wilcox, Greg Mullavey as Randy, Sally Kemp as Mary
3"Lucy Among the Two-by-Fours"Peter BaldwinArthur Marx & Robert FisherOctober 4, 1986 (1986-10-04)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.

Guest Stars: Peter Graves as Peter Marshall
4"Lucy Gets Her Wires Crossed"Peter BaldwinArthur Marx & Robert FisherOctober 18, 1986 (1986-10-18)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.

Guest Stars: Kellie Martin as Patty
5"Lucy is a Sax Symbol"Peter BaldwinArthur Marx & Robert FisherOctober 25, 1986 (1986-10-25)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.

Note: This plot may be a reference to an I Love Lucy episode.
6"Lucy Make Curtis Byte the Dust"Peter BaldwinArthur Marx & Robert FisherNovember 1, 1986 (1986-11-01)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.

Guest Stars: Dave Madden as Stanley Bigelow
7"Lucy, Leagle Beagle"Peter BaldwinRichard Albrecht & Casey KellerNovember 8, 1986 (1986-11-08)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.

Guest Starring: Dena Dietrich as Hilda Loomis, Allan Rich as Judge
8"Mother of the Bride"Peter BaldwinLinda Morris & Vic RauseoNovember 15, 1986 (1986-11-15)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.

Special Guest Star: Audrey Meadows as Audrey
Guest Star: Jacque Lynn Colton as Cousin Florence

Unaired Episodes

No. in
series		 Title Directed by Written by Original air date Production
code
9"Lucy and the Guard Goose"Peter BaldwinBob Carroll, Jr. & Madelyn DavisUnaired (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.

Guest Starring: Lou Cutell as Charlie Zellman and Charles Levin as Sgt. Green
Note: This episode would have aired November 22, 1986.
10"Lucy and Curtis Up a Tree"Marc DanielsBob Carroll, Jr. & Madelyn DavisUnaired (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.

Note: This episode would have aired November 29, 1986.
11"Lucy's Green Thumb"Marc DanielsMark TuttleUnaired (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.

Note: This would have aired December 6, 1986.
12"Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"Peter BaldwinRichard Albrecht, Casey Keller, & Laura LevineUnaired (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.

Note: This would have aired December 13, 1986.
13"World's Greatest Grandma"Bruce BilsonBob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Davis, Mel Sherer, & Steve GranatUnaired (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".

Note: This would have aired December 20, 1986.
Guest Star: Kellie Martin as Patty
14"Twas the Flight Before Christmas"Bruce BilsonLinda Morris & Vic RauseoUnaired (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.

Note: This episode was never produced, but the script allegedly exists.

References

  1. ↑ "Lucie Arnaz". Archive of American Television. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
  2. ↑ "Aaron Spelling". Archive of American Television. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
  3. ↑ David Hofstede (2004). What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History. Back Stage Books. pp. 159–161. ISBN 0-8230-8441-8.
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