Vivian Vance Movies

In addition to highlighting some of Lucille Ball's funniest TV moments, Lucy's Lost Episodes includes various commercial endorsements and appearances, as well as providing information on her contribution to charities. The actress herself was very much involved with making a difference in the lives of those afflicted with cerebral palsy and debilitating heart conditions. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Lucille Ball is honored in this program which features many of her television and film appearances. ~ All Movie Guide

In this drama, two middle-aged businessmen decide to chuck it all and get back to the land. Unfortunately, they too soon discover that living a "natural" life isn't all it is cracked up to be; they return to the rat race from whence they came. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Joan Crawford makes her TV sitcom debut in this dancin'-and-singin' half hour extravaganze, which also features former Lucy Show regular Vivian Vance). When their car breaks down near Joan's house, Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Vivian enter the place to use the phone. They are surprised to find the living room stripped of furniture and the famous movie diva on all fours, scrubbing the floor (yes, even here she's a neatness freak--and note the absence of wire coat hangers!) Unaware that Joan is having her furniture repaired and that it's the servants' day off, Lucy and Viv jump to the conclusion that La Crawford is flat broke--whereupon they hatch a scheme to restore her fortune by staging a musical titled "Speakeasy Daze." (Urban legend time: Lucille Ball was reportedly so demanding and dictatorial with Joan Crawford during filming of this episode that Joan was heard to exclaim, "And they call ME a bitch!") ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tony Curtis stars as The Great Leslie, a hero among heroes whose purity of heart is manifested by his spotlessly white wardrobe. Leslie's great rival, played by Jack Lemmon, is Professor Fate, a scowling, mustachioed, top-hatted, black-garbed villain. Long envious of Leslie's record-setting accomplishments with airships and sea craft, Professor Fate schemes to win a 22,000-mile auto race from New York City to Paris by whatever insidious means possible. The problem is that Fate is his own worst enemy: each of his plans to remove Leslie from the running (and from the face of the earth) backfires. Leslie's own cross to bear is suffragette Maggie Dubois (Natalie Wood), who also hopes to win the contest and thus strike a blow for feminism. The race takes all three contestants to the Wild West, the frozen wastes of Alaska, and, in the longest sequence, the mythical European kingdom of Carpania. This last-named country is the setting for a wild Prisoner of Zenda spoof involving Professor Fate and his look-alike, the foppish Carpanian king. When Leslie and Fate approach the finish line at the Eiffel Tower, Leslie deliberately loses to prove his love for Maggie. Professor Fate cannot stand winning under these circumstances, thus he demands that he and Leslie race back to New York. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk as Fate's long-suffering flunkey Max, Keenan Wynn as Leslie's faithful general factotum, Dorothy Provine as a brassy saloon singer, Larry Storch as ill-tempered bandit Texas Jack, and Ross Martin as Baron Von Stuppe. The film also yielded a hit song, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's The Sweetheart Tree. The Great Race was dedicated to "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Several changes occurred in the I Love Lucy format during the series' sixth and final season on the air. For one thing, little Richard Keith, a talented six-year-old drummer, was cast in the role of Little Ricky, the son of Cuban bandleader Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) and his wacky wife Lucy (Lucille Ball) (the character had previously been played by uncredited infants). For another, Ricky had quit his job at New York's Tropicana Club and opened his own nitery, the Club Babalu. With more money coming into the Ricardo household, Lucy and Ricky decide to leave New York City and move into an attractively appointed ranch house in suburban Connecticut. Not surprisingly, the Ricardos' longtime friends Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance) likewise make the big move to the 'burbs. The change of locale also permits the introduction of two new characters, the Ricardos' next-door neighbors Ralph and Betty Ramsey (Frank Nelson, Mary Jane Croft). Despite the scenery shifting, I Love Lucy still delivers laughs in its classic, time-tested manner with Lucy hatching zany schemes and getting her family and friends knotted up in a variety of ridiculous situations. One episode, "Lucy Raises Chickens," features the longest sustained audience laughter in the series' history -- proof positive that the bloom was definitely not off the rose for this venerable property. Other highlights of I Love Lucy's final season (at least in its half-hour format) include guest appearance by Bob Hope, Orson Welles, and George Reeves (in his familiar guise as "Superman"); a Christmas episode comprised of clips from earlier seasons, which for many years was removed from the series' syndication package and did not resurface publicly until 1989; and the last I Love Lucy installment, "The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue," in which Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz' real-life son Desi Arnaz Jr. makes his TV acting debut. ~ All Movie Guide

Even though I Love Lucy was still America's top-rated series as it entered its fourth season, the producers -- including Desi Arnaz, who also starred as Cuban bandleader Ricky Ricardo -- decided it was time to freshen up the format a bit with a change of scenery. Thus, Ricky, his zany wife Lucy (Lucille Ball) and their friends Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vivian Vance, William Frawley) leave their familiar Manhattan environs and head Westward to Hollywood, where Ricky is slated to star in a musical movie version of Don Juan. With this in mind, it is only logical that I Love Lucy would for the first time in its existence traffic heavily in celebrity guest stars during its fourth season. Among the Hollywood notables making hilarious guest appearances are William Holden (who struggles manfully to keep a straight face as Lucy sets her false nose afire), Van Johnson, Richard Widmark, Cornel Wilde, and Hedda Hopper. The uncontested high point of this "big star" syndrome is Lucy's unforgettable encounter with the great Harpo Marx, recreating the classic "mirror scene" from the Marx Brothers' 1933 movie Duck Soup. ~ All Movie Guide

America's third most popular TV show during its first season, I Love Lucy skyrocketed to number one during Season Two -- no small thanks to the fact that the real-life pregnancy of Lucille Ball was brilliantly written into the script (though such was TV censorship at the time that the would "pregnant" could never be spoken). On January 19, 1953, Lucy Ricardo was wheeled into the delivery room -- the same night that the actress who played her gave birth to her son Desi Jr. "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" was not only the most-watched TV episode up to that time, but the news of the "double birth" was of sufficient import to knock coverage of President Eisenhower's first inauguration off the front pages of newspapers all over the country! Even without the legendary "Lucy is expecting" story arc and climax, Season Three of I Love Lucy deserves special mention in the record books for yielding one of the series' all-time best and funniest episodes: "ob Switching," in which Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) end up working the conveyor belt at a candy factory -- with marvelously messy results. In addition to regulars Ball, Vance, Desi Arnaz (as Ricky Ricardo), and William Frawley (as Fred Mertz), the third season of I Love Lucy featured a stellar collection of top character actors including Charles Lane, Hans Conried, and Elizabeth Patterson in her first appearance as the Ricardos' fussy neighbor, Mrs. Trumble. ~ All Movie Guide

Arguably the most popular TV situation comedy in the known world (and possibly a few worlds beyond that!), I Love Lucy has never stopped playing in rerun form since it originally aired over CBS from October 15, 1951, through June 24, 1957. It can be said without much fear of contradiction that everyone -- yes, everyone -- loves Lucy...and Ricky? and Fred? and Ethel. The first sitcom to be filmed with three cameras before a live audience, I Love Lucy starred real-life husband and wife Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, who throughout most of the series lived in a modest New York apartment house managed by their best friends, Fred and Ethel Mertz. Cuban-born Ricky was the bandleader at the Tropicana Club; redheaded Lucy was a housewife who yearned to break into show business -- or, failing that, to become fabulously wealthy through some hairbrained get-rich-quick scheme or other, usually hatched in collaboration with her partner in crime, Ethel -- much to the dismay of the easily excitable Ricky and the eternally crotchety Fred. To call Lucy "zany" would be putting it mildly; there seemed to be no end to the ridiculous situations she could get herself into, nor any limit on the wild plans she cooked up on her own or with Ethel. But no matter how crazy things got, Ricky and Lucy invariably ended up in each other's arms, Ricky declaring his undying love and (at least temporary) forgiveness. During its first season on the air, I Love Lucy was the nation's third highest-rated program. Thereafter, it was ranked number one or very close to it. When during the series' second season Lucy Ricardo had a baby (to coincide with Lucille Ball's genuine pregnancy), the episode on which the blessed event occurred enjoyed the largest viewership of any single program up to that time -- and, since both Lucy Ricardo and Lucille Ball gave birth on the very same day (January 19, 1953), the news was of such magnitude that it pushed President Eisenhower's first inauguration off the front pages!

To keep the series fresh from season to season, I Love Lucy's extraordinarily talented team of writers would every so often alter the format, never more spectacularly than in season four, when the Ricardos and the Mertzes headed to Hollywood so Ricky could star in a movie musical version of Don Juan. In keeping with its tinseltown ambience, the episodes emanating from this premise positively glittered with such celebrity guest stars as Richard Widmark, William Holden, Cornel Wilde, and most memorably, Harpo Marx. The "Lucy in Hollywood" format spilled over into the next season, yielding an unforgettable two-episode story arc involving John Wayne. Season Five also saw the four principals heading to Europe, accompanying Ricky's band on tour. The most significant changes occurred during the sixth and final season. Ricky had quit his job at the Tropicana to open his own night spot, the Club Babalulu, and the increase in the Ricardos' bank account enabled the couple and their son Little Ricky (played from the fall of 1956 onward by Richard Keith) to move to an expensive ranch house in suburban Connecticut. Naturally, the Mertzes moved next door, while on the other side of the Ricardo estate there lived another couple, Ralph and Betty Ramsey (played by Mary Jane Croft and Frank Nelson, who also essayed several other supporting roles on the series). Although the half-hour version of I Love Lucy ceased production at the end of the 1956-1957 season, the four stars (and "Little Ricky") went on to appear in 13 hour-long "Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" specials, filmed between 1957 and 1960. And while Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz divorced in 1960, their production company Desilu remained a prolific TV-series factory for the next decade, turning out such hits as The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek. On her own, Lucille Ball continued playing the "Lucy" character in two more series, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, which though very successful on their own never quite captured the unique chemistry and charm of I Love Lucy. ~ All Movie Guide

The Secret Fury works best if one is willing to suspend one's disbelief from the outset. Claudette Colbert stars as Ellen, a famed concert pianist who, on the day of her wedding, is accosted by a stranger who insists that she's already married to someone else. Ellen is willing to laugh this off, until the stranger produces witnesses, records and the justice of the piece. Has Ellen lost her mind, or is she merely the victim of an elaborate scam. With the help of fiancé David (Robert Ryan), Our Heroine begins her own investigation -- and ends up accused of murder and shunted off to a mental institution. And the story isn't over yet! Featured in a pivotal role is future I Love Lucy co-star Vivian Vance, who'd previously worked in an L.A. theatre company with Secret Fury-director Mel Ferrer. For reasons best known to himself, Willard Parker, a fairly well-known film actor in 1950, appears unbilled. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lucille Ball proves that her two-year absence from network television has not in any way blunted her comic expertise as The Lucy Show launches its first season. The episodes herein are pleasantly schizophrenic, with widowed mother Lucy Carmichael (Ball, of course) harvesting new comedy opportunities out of such situations as attracting eligible bachelors, raising money to augment her allowance, and wrestling with the trials and tribulations of single motherhood with daughter Chris (Candy Moore) and son Jerry (Jimmy Garrett), and at the same time capturing the carefree zaniness of the I Love Lucy days, vis-à-vis Lucy's misadventures with best her friend and housemate, divorcée Vivian Bagley, played by Ball's former I Love Lucy co-star Vivian Vance. For her part, Viv Bagley also must be both mother and father to her own kid Sherman (Ralph Hart) -- who, fortuitously enough, is Jerry Carmichael's best friend. On the "dating" front, things get off to a fine start with the series' second episode, in which Lucy and Viv finagle Jerry's math teacher (William Windom) into escorting both of them to a Saturday night dance; in later episodes, Lucy will try to win a guy (Frank Aletter) away from Viv by feigning an interest in classical music, and will go gaga over her new boss (John Vivyan) when she takes a temporary job as a society columnist. (Incidentally, Dick Martin of Rowan & Martin fame is seen throughout this season as Harry Conners, Lucy's next-door neighbor and occasional boyfriend.) As for her money-raising schemes, Lucy inaugurates her well-meaning torture of Mr. Barnsahl (Charles Lane), the banker handling her late husband's estate, when she accidentally writes a donation check for two thousand dollars and then goes to great and hilarious lengths to cover up the gaping hole in her bank account. And in a classic episode reminiscent of I Love Lucy at its best, Lucy and Viv set up a "factory" in their kitchen to mass-produce Viv's caramel corn recipe. Finally, our heroines gently intrude upon their offspring's private lives by making a big production of waiting for Chris' return from a date and becoming a public spectacle while refereeing Jerry and Ralph's football game; and best of all, Lucy imitates Charlie Chaplin in a comedy sketch staged for Chris' classmates. And on a pure slapstick-force level, few of the Lucy Show episodes can match the hilarity of the first-season episode in which Lucy and Viv become volunteer firemen, or the one in which Lucy takes singing lessons from guest star Hans Conried to qualify for a neighborhood barbershop quartet, or the installment wherein Lucy finds herself "driving" a dump truck. The first-season ratings of The Lucy Show proved beyond doubt that America still loved Lucy: her series ranked as the fourth most popular TV show in the country, sharing this honor with the popular Bonanza. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide