Like any Lucille Ball fanatic, I love every single series the legendary actress made – but, my favorite Lucille Ball post I Love Lucy series is The Lucy Show. I think the reason may be that, for me anyway, it seems like a wonderful continuation of I Love Lucy. Sure, there are added characters and (unfortunately) missing characters, but Lucy and Viv seem so much Like Lucy and Ethel to me that it has an extra special place in my heart.
The Lucy Show lasted six seasons, from 1962–1968. Ironically, the series was originally intended to air for just one season. Desilu (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s studio), was losing money after the glory days of I Love Lucy. He persuaded her to return to series television to help the studio out of its rut. Lucille agreed to do the show under three conditions:
- It aired on Monday nights as I Love Lucy had done.
- She had her beloved co-star Vivian Vance on board.
- The I Love Lucy writers were also on board.
The lady wasn’t just incredibly talented, she was incredibly smart. The arrangement she laid out worked.
You can find the complete Series of The Lucy Show on Amazon for a lot less than it’s worth. I’d pay over twice that much… but let’s not tell Amazon that.