Lucille Ball guest-starred on dozens of TV variety shows. Here’s a look at three appearances between 1968 and 1973.
“The
Bob Hope Christmas Special”
~ December 9, 1973
Starring
Bob Hope (Host), Lucille Ball, Gary Morton, Marie Osmond, Shirley
Jones, and Doris Singleton
Uncredited
performers play the Jewelry Saleswoman and Lucy’s Maid
The
show also includes the AP All American Football Team featuring future
NFL stars Lucious
Selman, Randy White, Randy Gradishar, Andre Tillman, and Lynn
Swan.
Marie
Osmond sang “Paper
Roses” and
(with Bob Hope) “Silver
Bells.”
The
previous year, Marie’s brother Donny appeared on “Here’s Lucy.”
In 1977, Lucille Ball will guest-star on “Donny & Marie.”
This
annual Bob Hope Christmas Special was up against CBS’s “Mannix,”
a series that Lucille Ball fostered and supported after its initial
failure. Mike Connors played Mannix on a 1971 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”
There
was no new episode of “Here’s Lucy” the next day, Monday,
December 10, 1973.
The
sketch featuring Lucille Ball can be viewed on the Bonus Features on
the DVD “Lucy Moves To NBC.”
Lucy’s
sketch opens
in a Jewelry Store where Bob Hope buys a diamond bracelet for his
wife Dolores’ Christmas present. Not wanting her to find it before
the holiday, he has the saleswoman send it to his friend Lucille Ball
for safe keeping. The
unnamed Jewelry Store is later said to be Cartier.
Bob: “Nobody takes a comedian seriously.”
Lucy: “I never thought of you as a comedian, darling.”
Lucy
gets the package and can’t resist opening it. The card reads, “from
‘Bob”. Lucy can’t figure out which “Bob” it is from. She
guesses Robert Redford, Bob Goulet, Bob Young, and Bob Wagner before
realizing it is from Bob Hope.
Doris
Singleton drops by to visit Lucy, although Lucy never addresses her
by name. Singleton played Carolyn Appleby on “I Love Lucy” and
went on to play a variety of secretaries on “Here’s Lucy.”
After
Doris leaves, Lucy sings the title song from Mame
to the bracelet, but substitutes her own name for ‘Mame.’ Ball had
just finished filming Mame,
but the movie would not be released until the end of March 1974, four
months away.
When
Hope arrives, Lucy kisses him passionately. He attributes her
uncontrolled affection to his cologne.
Bob:
“They
warned me about this Hai Karate.”
Hai
Karate, a
men’s cologne made by Pfizer, is best remembered today for its
television
ads and
the inclusion of a small self-defense booklet with each bottle to
help wearers fend off women.
Lucy:
“I had nothing left. My chicks had flown the nest. My rooster had
left for the golf course. I was useless, unloved, unwanted. And then
your bracelet arrived and I’m alive!”
Bob:
(under his breath) “I’m
dead.”
Lucy
opens a small wooden box and removes a lock of Hope’s hair she says
she snipped from his head when they were making Sorrowful
Jones
together. The 1949 film was the first collaboration between Hope and
Ball.
She also shows him an ashtray from the hotel room in The
Facts of Life,
their 1960 film together.
Suitcases
in hand, Lucy wants them to run off to Rio together. Just then,
Lucy’s husband Gary Morton comes home.
As
the sketch finishes, Lucy says she’s grateful to Hope for giving them
the plot to their next Monday night’s show. Both
“Here’s Lucy” and this special were pre-taped / filmed, but the
following Monday night’s “Here’s Lucy” was “Lucy
and Chuck Connors Have a Surprise Slumber Party”
(HL
S6;E13). In reality, Ball was nearly finished filming her final
season of “Here’s Lucy.”
Oops! As
with most of Bob Hope’s specials, everyone’s eyes can occasionally be
seen glancing at the cue cards.
“The
Tennessee Ernie Ford Special” ~ November 16, 1968
Directed
by Robert Sidney
Starring
Tennessee Ernie Ford (Host), Lucille Ball, Andy Griffith, The
Golddiggers, and Jack Benny
Although
he had been working on the Desilu backlot filming “The Andy
Griffith Show” (which had just ended after 8 years), Andy Griffith would
not act opposite Lucille Ball again until 1973, when he appeared on
“Here’s Lucy.”
Jack
Benny makes a brief appearance plugging his special, “Jack Benny’s
Bag,” which followed this show on NBC. This was Benny’s answer to “Laugh-In.”
On
the evening this NBC special, CBS’s “Petticoat Junction”
introduced June Lockhart as Dr. Janet Craig, replacing Bea Benadaret,
who had died a month earlier. Benadaret was Lucille Ball’s co-star on
her radio show “My Favorite Husband” and was her first choice to
play Ethel Mertz. When she was unavailable, Lucy gave her a
guest-star role of Miss Lewis (above) on the first season of “I Love Lucy.”
The
special was also up against CBS’s “Hogan’s Heroes.” The series
stars Bob Crane (Hogan) and John Banner (Schultz) had guest-starred
on “The Lucy Show” in 1966.
The
next day, Sunday, November 17, 1968, NBC was involved in one of the
biggest blunders in television history: The Heidi Bowl. When a
football game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders was
running long, NBC made the error of starting their movie, Heidi,
instead of letting the game finish. It made the front page of the New
York Times,
was featured on evening news and proved to television executives the
appeal of pro football.
Two
days later (Monday, November 18) “Here’s Lucy” aired “Lucy’s
Birthday” (HL S1;E8).
Lucille
Ball’s appearance was her was her way of repaying Ford for appearing on
“The Lucy Show” in February 1967. Ford would also guest-star on
“Here’s Lucy” in March 1969.
Excerpts
from this program can be viewed on the “Here’s Lucy” Season 6 DVD
Bonus Features.
Ford
credits Lucille Ball with giving him his first big break in
television, appearing on “I Love Lucy.”
He
shares a couple of snapshots of two of his three appearances on the
series. The first is from “Tennessee Ernie Visits” (ILL S3;E28)
and the second from “Tennessee Ernie Hangs On” (ILL S3;E29) where
Lucy says she looks like Ma Kettle.
Ford:
“If
Ma Kettle looked like you, they’d put her on the Playboy centerfold!”
Ma
(and Pa)
Kettle
are
characters from the successful film series of the same name, produced
by Universal
Studios,
in the late 1940s and 1950s. They are a hillbilly
couple
with fifteen children whose lives turn upside-down when they win a
new futuristic home in a slogan-writing contest. Marjorie Main (right), the actor who played Ma Kettle, would play a supporting role in 1954′s The Long, Long Trailer.
While
Ernie is praising how elegant and sophisticated Lucy is (and the
camera is on Ford), Lucy has blacked out her teeth to look like a
hillbilly.
A
nearly wordless sketch starring Lucy and Andy Griffith depicts them
as a married couple living in a tiny camper, waking up, having
breakfast, and sending the husband off to work.
In 1954 Lucille Ball
and Desi Arnaz had explored this idea in the MGM feature film The
Long, Long Trailer. In the above photo Lucy and Desi are seen with Marjorie Main!
“The
Pearl Bailey Show”
(S1;E2) ~ January 30, 1971
Starring
Pearl Bailey (Host), Lucille Ball, George Kirby, Sergio Mendes with
Brasil ’66
Featuring
the Louis Bellson Orchestra, The Bob Sidney Dancers, and the Allan
Davies Singers
“The
Pearl Bailey Show” was a mid-season replacement that
ran 15 episodes on ABC. It was filmed at the Hollywood Palace
Theatre. Tough
competition from “The
Dean Martin Variety Show,”
“The
Carol Burnett Show,”
and
“Laugh-In”
helped
sink Pearl’s show.
Two
days later (February 1),
“Here’s Lucy” aired “Lucy and Aladdin’s Lamp” (HL S3;E21).
Excerpts
from this program can be viewed on the “Here’s Lucy” Season 4 DVD
Bonus Features.
For
her grand entrance, Lucille Ball is carried in on a fur-lined litter
by six of the Palace Theatre Pages (the Bob Sidney Dancers). Checking
the fur’s label, Pearl finds it reads “Stolen From Pearl Bailey.”
Lucy dismisses the Pages, who dance off singing “If
you ever need us we’ll be waiting in the wings, hanging on your every
word.”
Later
in the show, Lucy (wearing a yellow mini dress) does a march number
with the Bob Sidney Dancers. The song includes snippets of
“Stouthearted Men,” “You’re A Grand Old Flag,” “The
National Emblem March” and others.
Ooops! At
one point, Lucy forgets to lip-synch when she is supposedly startled
by the drums.
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