| Runtime: | 30 minutes |
| Opentheme: | "Every Day Is Better Than Before" by Eydie Gorme |
| Composer: | Allyn Ferguson |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 13 (5 unaired) |
| List Episodes: | Life with Lucy#Episodes |
| Network: | ABC |
| Related: | The Lucy Show Here's Lucy |
Life with Lucy is an American sitcom starring Lucille Ball. Created by Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis, the series 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.
Developed amidst an industry-wide interest in comeback vehicles, ABC and producer Aaron Spelling coaxed Ball out of retirement for a new series. Unlike Ball's previous sitcoms, Life with Lucy was a failure in the ratings and poorly received by critics and viewers alike. Only eight out of the 13 episodes produced were aired before ABC cancelled the series. Its cancellation devastated her, and was the last television series or film she starred in before her death in 1989.
Ball plays a recently widowed grandmother who has inherited her husband Sam's half interest in a hardware store in South Pasadena, California, the other half being owned by his business partner, widower Curtis McGibbon (played by Gale Gordon). Lucy's character insists on "helping" in the store, even though when her husband was alive, she had taken no part in the business and hence knows nothing about it. The unlikely partners are also in-laws, her daughter Margo being married to his son Ted. And all of them, along with their young grandchildren Becky and Kevin, live together.
During the 1984–1985 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 careers of Bea Arthur and Betty White. ABC, looking to stage a similar resurgence for an older sitcom star and to boost Saturday night ratings, approached 75-year-old, five-time Emmy award winner and cultural icon Lucille Ball. Producer Aaron Spelling had been in talks with Ball and her second husband Gary Morton since 1979 about possibly doing another series; the popular success of her dramatic turn in the television film Stone Pillow had proved she was still popular with audiences. Ball was initially hesitant about returning to television, stating that she did not believe she could top the 25-year run of success she had had with I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy. Her longtime co-star Vivian Vance had died in 1979, and Gale Gordon was retired in Palm Springs. However, Ball eventually agreed, conceding she had missed having a regular project to work on daily.[1]
Ball's only conditions working on the series were that she be reunited with Gordon, and longtime writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh.[2] Although ABC had offered Ball the writers from the critical and ratings hit M*A*S*H, and she was open to other writers on the series, Ball was insistent that Carroll and Pugh supervise the writing. Both had worked for Ball since her 1948 radio show My Favorite Husband, and had been writers on all of her television series, plus several of her specials; more recently, they had worked on Alice. Gordon was coaxed out of retirement with the promise of a full season's pay for all 22 episodes, regardless of whether the show was picked up for such. 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 also called in crew members who had worked for her since the days of I Love Lucy. The most notable was sound man Cam McCulloch, who joined the crew during I Love Lucy’s third season in 1954. However, by 1986, McCulloch was 77 years old and quite hard of hearing, requiring the use of two hearing aids; he was still working actively in Hollywood at the time, mixing audio for WKRP in Cincinnati, Square Pegs and select episodes of Newhart. Ball was reportedly paid $100,000 an episode. Ball’s husband Gary Morton, carrying the title of executive producer, negotiated for $150,000 per episode.
The series was initially developed by Carroll and Pugh to resemble The Golden Girls, and Ball had offered to do something different from her previous projects.[3] [4] However, ABC wanted the series in the vein of Ball's previous series. According to a former assistant of Morton, "there was a lot of politicking going on between the Life with Lucy staff, the Spelling staff, and ABC."
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.
The show's theme song was performed by Eydie Gormé. An alternative theme was written by Ball's daughter, Lucie Arnaz with Cy Coleman, but was not used. [5]
Fourteen episodes were written, thirteen filmed, but only eight aired. The final to air, "Mother of the Bride", was the twelfth episode filmed and featured Audrey Meadows as Lucy's sister. Meadows 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 of Vivian Vance in Ball's previous series. (This was the only Ball sitcom in which Vance, who had died in 1979, never appeared). However, Ball and Meadows did not get along on the set, and Meadows turned down the offer. On November 17, the day of the taping the final episode, ABC informed Spelling and Morton that they were not ordering a full season, thus cancelling the series. Morton decided not to reveal the news to Ball until after the taping had ended.
Since only 13 episodes were produced, it was not possible for the series to go into heavy rerun rotation like I Love Lucy. Nevertheless, it aired on Nick at Nite as part of a Lucille Ball-themed marathon in 1996. Episodes can also be found at the Paley Center for Media in New York City and Beverly Hills, California.
Ball was devastated by the failure of the show, and she never again attempted another series or feature film; her subsequent interviews and other TV appearances were infrequent. Her last public appearance was as a presenter at the 1989 Academy Awards, where 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. Spelling said this experience had a lot to do with his rarely producing sitcoms.
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 [its] 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.[6]
Life with Lucys 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.
| 1 | "One Good Grandparent Deserves Another" | September 20, 1986 | 14.6/28 | 23 |
| 2 | "Lucy Makes a Hit with John Ritter" | September 27, 1986 | 10.1/20 | 57 |
| 3 | "Lucy Among the Two-by-Fours" | October 4, 1986 | 10.2/19 | 66 |
| 4 | "Lucy Gets Her Wires Crossed" | October 18, 1986 | 11.5/20 | 53 |
| 5 | "Lucy Is a Sax Symbol" | October 25, 1986 | 8.7/15 | 62 |
| 6 | "Lucy Make Curtis Byte the Dust" | November 1, 1986 | 8.0/14 | 71 |
| 7 | "Lucy, Leagle Beagle" | November 8, 1986 | 8.1/14 | 71 |
| 8 | "Mother of the Bride" | November 15, 1986 | 6.6/12 | 68 |
In September 2018, Time-Life released a DVD, Lucy: The Ultimate Collection, that included 4 episodes of Life with Lucy (which had never before been released to home media), as well as 32 episodes of I Love Lucy, two episodes of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, 24 episodes of The Lucy Show, and 14 episodes of Here's Lucy, plus a wide variety of bonus features.[7] [8]
On July 26, 2019, CBS/Paramount announced the release of all thirteen episodes on a separate Life with Lucy - The Complete Series DVD set, including the final five episodes that were produced but never aired. The set was released on October 8, 2019.[9]
In Australia, Life With Lucy - The Complete Series was released on April 1, 2020 and distributed by Shock Entertainment.