Lucille Ball got her start in movies, fielding bit parts (11 in 1934 alone) before gradually establishing herself— in the words of film encyclopedist Ephraim Katz—as “Hollywood’s female clown” on par with Red Skelton. But none of her films were especially memorable and the indelible impression we have of her was left on smaller screens. Along with her husband, Cuban bandleader-cum-comic Desi Arnaz, Ball formed her own television production company and launched the program by which she’s remembered, “I Love Lucy” (1951-1957), a hit that kept coming back for decades in syndication.
Although “I Love Lucy” would stand at the summit of her career, Ball continued to work and amass high ratings with other projects.
Ball’s 1968-1974 weekly TV finale has been released in a massive DVD set, “Here’s Lucy: The Complete Series.” The show was a light-hearted romp across the generation gap with Ball facing a teenage son and daughter played by her real children, Desi Arnaz, Jr. and Lucy Arnaz. Ball plays a single mom trying to keep ends together, yet she lives with her kids in an upper middle class dream house with brick fireplace and glass doors leading to a patio. In Hollywood’s comfortably cushioned impression of generational upheaval, the children roll their eyes at mom’s old-fashioned notions, but remain dutiful. The son plays drums in a rock band more suited for prom night than Woodstock.
Most of the fun in “Here’s Lucy”—then and all these years later—comes from the mordant exchanges between Ball and her boss/in-law, acted (and voiced) with the magnificent aplomb by Gale Gordon, an actor that emerged out of radio comedy. Gordon plays the owner of a slightly wacky employment agency with the fussy air of an old-time plutocrat whose stinginess is exceeded only by Jack Benny (a guest star in an early episode). His plummy enunciation adds luster to his putdowns of Ball, who proves so helpless as a secretary that her lips stick to an envelope while trying to lick it shut—and then the phone rings and she must answer it!
Ball continued to star in TV specials but had the good sense to cancel her weekly show as the ratings dipped and the material ran dry by the end of season three. Despite the enthusiastic dottiness of her memorable characters, she proved to be one of the smartest people in show business.
