TV GUIDE: LOST & FOUND

December 16, 1989

On December 16, 1989, Lucille Ball was featured on the cover of TV Guide on a side bar story about the long-lost “I Love Lucy Christmas Special”.  The main cover story profiled Neil Patrick Harris star of “Doogie Howser M.D.” a series about a young prodigy doctor.

The inside article was penned by Neane Rudolph. This was one of many posthumous TV Guide cover images for Lucille Ball, who passed away eight months earlier.

The article states that the show was first discovered and partly aired after Ball’s death and gradually was restored to completion for this December 18, 1989 broadcast.  

The first telecast in 1989 was entirely in black and white, although in 1990 the wrap-around segments (new material) was colorized, but kept the flashbacks in black and white.  Eventually, the episode was fully colorized and became a Christmas tradition for CBS, pairing it with a newly colorized episode from the 179 episode catalog of “I Love Lucy” programs.  This tradition has been paused in 2020, likely due to the worldwide pandemic’s disruption of resources to colorize a companion episode.  It is, however, available on DVD.

In addition to the article about the special, there is an ad from the CBS affiliate and a TV Guide Close-Up talking about the special and its 33 year absence from the airwaves.  

Ratings Winner! The special easily won its time slot for CBS with a rating of 18.5, against the second half hour of ABC’s “McGyver” (11.6), Fox’s  “21 Jump Street” (5.4), and the ABC TV remake of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (11.5).  The special’s lead-in was a re-run of “Major Dad” (13.6). It was the ratings winner that evening, even beating “Monday Night Football” by a half a ratings point.  Clearly, there was an appetite for Lucy, and this incentivized CBS to pursue future telecasts from their catalog of “Lucy” episodes.  

On the same date (Saturday, December 16, 1989) The Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette’s TV Vision supplement featured the special on their front page. The article was written by Jay Bobbin of Tribune Media Services.  

Michael Hill of the Baltimore Evening Sun dedicated his syndicated column to the special, although it appeared in papers on various dates. On December 16th it was printed in The Owensboro (KY) Messenger-Inquirer, among others.

Lisa Meals of the Jackson (TN) Sun, chose to profile local Lucy-lover Darlene Allen’s reaction to the unearthed Christmas special.

Even Canada got excited about the special when Mike Boone of the Montreal Gazette included it in his Channels column.

Perhaps not coincidentally (since the he is a central part of the Christmas episode), December 16, 1989 also saw a spate of articles about Keith Thibodeaux, who played Little Ricky. Many concentrated on his drumming career, but some talked of him being the last surviving cast member. The Christmas Special, however, was not the central topic of the various articles, which were from AP and Gannett sources.