TV GUIDE: FOUR DAYS

March 30, 1968

This is the 19th of Lucille Ball’s 39 TV Guide covers. Ball (and her infant son) appeared on the very first national issue on April 3, 1953. 

Mario Anthony Casilli (cover photograph) is best known for his work for Playboy magazine between 1957 and 1996. He also did many celebrity portraits for TV Guide. In 1986 he photographed Lucille Ball for “Life With Lucy.”

[Unfortunately, the remainder of the article was not available.]

In the New York City area, a syndicated rerun of “I Love Lucy” on Tuesday, April 2, 1968 at 7:00pm was “The Fur Coat” (ILL S1;E9) first aired in December 1951.

The final episode of “The Lucy Show” had aired two weeks earlier. The episode aired on Monday, April 1, 1968 was “Lucy Gets Jack Benny’s Account” (TLS S6;E6), originally aired on October 16, 1967.

Lucille Ball’s pose is deliberately reminiscent of Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins in the 1964 Walt Disney film. 

In “Lucy’s Mystery Guest” (TLS S6;E10), Lucy reports for work dressed like her prim Aunt (Mary Wickes), the underscoring plays “Chim Chim Cheree” from Mary Poppins (1964) and Mr. Mooney remarks “Good heavens, they’ve grounded Mary Poppins!”  In “Lucy Saves Milton Berle” (TLS S4;E14, inset) Lucy dresses as a poor flower seller, which Mr. Mooney calls a “cheesy Mary Poppins outfit” despite if resembling Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady.

During this week on television, various syndicated channels across the country also ran the Lucille Ball films The Magic Carpet (1951), Sorrowful Jones (1949), The Fuller Brush Girl (1950), Forever Darling (1956), The Big Street (1942), and The Affairs of Annabel (1938). 

In April 1968, Lucille Ball would play Mary Poppins in a sketch on the Dinah Shore special “Like Hep.”

The photo shoot with Mario Casilli also produced this alternate cover shot, which was not used. [property of MPTV]