page_title: The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour
section_title: Description and evaluation
hierarchical_section_title: The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour / Description and evaluation
caption_attribution_description: A scene from "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" from the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour in 1957. This program was an outgrowth of the original I Love Lucy television program. In this scene are Ann Sothern, Rudy Vallee, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Cesar Romero, Vivian Vance and William Frawley.
context_page_description: The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour is a collection of thirteen black-and-white one-hour specials airing occasionally from 1957 to 1960. 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, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, and Little Ricky. The production schedule avoided the grind of a regular weekly series.
  Desilu produced the show, which was mostly filmed at their Los Angeles studios with occasional on-location shoots at Lake Arrowhead, Las Vegas, and Sun Valley, Idaho. CBS reran these thirteen specials under the "Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour" title as prime-time summer replacements, from 1962 to 1965, with a final run in 1967. 1966–67 was the first TV season in which all first-run prime time network shows were in color.
context_section_description: 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 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 and June Haver; Betty Grable and Harry James; Fernando Lamas; Maurice Chevalier; Danny Thomas and his Make Room for Daddy co-stars; Red Skelton; Paul Douglas; Ida Lupino and Howard Duff; Milton Berle; Bob Cummings; and, in the final episode, "Lucy Meets the Moustache", Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams.
  Comedy Hour episodes focused on Lucy's interaction with the celebrity guest stars. Although still a key character, Ricky isn't 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's 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. Unfortunately,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 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.
  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 only 3 in the final season (1959–1960).  Arnaz had signed Debbie Reynolds 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 s
caption: The first episode "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" is an extended flashback of how Lucy met Ricky. L-R: Ann Sothern, Rudy Vallee, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Cesar Romero, Vivian Vance and William Frawley (1957)
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