TV TIMES

June 27, 1965

Every so often a new comedienne is hailed and toasted by the critics and public. None of them in the past 15 years has shown the talent or endurance of Lucille Ball. 

Cara Williams (1) was touted as “the new Lucy.” She never came close because the old Lucy was too good for her. Carol Burnett (2) has had some good innings, but is discovering that it takes more than a rubbery mouth and a knack for slapstick to be a great comedienne. 

Nanette Fabray (3) skyrocketed briefly as Imogene Coca’s successor with Sid Caesar, but without Caesar both gals found their comedy careers progressing at a very uneven gait. 

Elaine May (4) – of Nichols and May – is more a method actress than a comedienne and hasn’t much of a track record without her partner in comedy. Audrey Meadows (5) never found herself as a comedienne after The Honeymooners (with Jackie Gleason). 

Connie Stevens (6) tried to follow in the late Gracie Allen’s path of non sequiturs, but her timing is way off the mark. Elizabeth Montgomery (7) rang the Nielsen rating bell consistently this season, but no one knows for sure if she can do it without an imaginary broomstick for a prop. 

Martha Raye (8), who is a veteran at the business like Lucy, is the only comedienne that comes to mind as a genuine competitor in this league. Lucy beats her out in the versatility department because she can play it for the quick chuckle or the big belly laugh. With Martha it’s the big boffola or nothing. 

Lucy has that rare faculty for bringing a wild line of dialogue or an almost ludicrous situation into the realm of believability. When she and former husband Desi Arnaz were about to embark on the I Love Lucy TV series 14 years ago, a nervous CBS-TV program executive inquired, “But will people believe she is married to a Cuban bandleader?" 

His fears were groundless. It didn’t matter if it was a Cuban bandleader or a bowlegged Martian. Lucy can stare at the most hard-boiled skeptics with that wide-eyed by-golly-it’s-true look and convince them of ‘most anything’. 

Even within the cramped confines of weekly domestic situation TV comedy, Lucy is able to display enough sides of her many-faceted comedy personality to sustain threadbare plots. As with Charlie Chaplin, the audience savors the technique employed, even though they can foresee every turn in the script. 

At a CBS convention of affiliated station managers in Los Angeles last May, Lucy and Don Knotts posed as owners of a "35-watt TV station” in a short skit which wasn’t particularly loaded with laugh-lines. But Lucy in an old blue hat and a wraparound fur neckpiece, and Don in a luau shirt, knew just the attitude to strike. Just their way of standing there was enough to give this audience the message. Sinclair Lewis never said it any better in his novel “Main Street." 

Next season (her fourth without Desi) Lucy will play it minus the kids and Vivian Vance, who wanted no more of TV’s weekly treadmill. Lucy may be doing it only because she is responsible for a huge TV production corporation, but underneath that she may also have a feeling of responsibility to a talent she has spent many years developing. It’s fun to be the champion, too.

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FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) On the Desilu sitcom “December Bride” (1954) had Harry Morgan’s Pete stealing many scenes griping about scatterbrained wife Gladys (who was never shown on camera). When Morgan moved into his own spinoff series, Gladys was finally revealed in the form of Cara Williams on the initially popular “Pete and Gladys” (1960), a show not produced by Desilu. The program did not last long but Cara came was escorted directly into her own series “The Cara Williams Show” (1964). Molded by CBS as the next wacky redhead to follow in the comedy heels of Lucille Ball, the plans quickly went askew following an unfavorable network power shuffle and the canceling of her sitcom after only one season. With her momentum completely gone, her career went into rapid decline. 

(2) Although Lucille Ball did not give Carol Burnett her first big break (Broadway and Garry Moore did that), Lucy was her biggest fan and the two developed a life-long relationship that saw them both take turns starring on each other’s television shows.  If anyone can claim to be the heir to Lucille Ball’s Queen of Comedy title, it is Burnett. 

(3) Yet another funny redhead, Nanette Fabray was born in a trunk and was more known for her Broadway musicals than her television shows.  In 1974, Lucille Ball cast her in her first post-sitcom TV special, “Happy Anniversary and Goodbye”.  

(4) Elaine May was best known as a writer and monologist. She would be nominated for an Oscar for screenwriting in 1979.  She was best known for performing with Mike Nichols.  Not really a contender to Lucy’s throne, but in a class of her own. 

(5) Audrey Meadows was a real rival for TV’s 1950s housewife as Alice Kramden in “The Honeymooners”. They only problem was that Alice wasn’t funny, like Lucy, but tolerant and in love – like Ricky. 

In 1986, redhaired Meadows played Lucille Ball’s sister on “Life With Lucy”.  Although critics admired the chemistry between Ball and Meadows, they hated the show, which was canceled after that episode aired.

(6) Connie Stevens was a sparkling strawberry blonde, as sexy as she was ditzy. At the time of this article, she was appearing in a ABC sitcom titled “Wendy and Me” in which George Burns (as himself) was her landlord!  

(7) Elizabeth Montgomery had remarkable success playing Samantha Stephens, a witch married to a modern-day mortal in “Bewitched”.  Montgomery’s father Robert was an Oscar-winning film director. Her husband was William Asher, who was one of the original directors of “I Love Lucy.”  As director of his wife in “Bewitched” the show often strongly resembled “I Love Lucy”. Montgomery was more an actress than comedienne but she had the most fun playing Samantha’s mischievous twin cousin, Serena. 

(8) Martha Raye was known as "The Big Mouth” and considered the female equivalent to Bob Hope, combing her comedy with work for the USO during World War II and beyond. 

~ INSIDE TV WEEK ~

Monday, June 28, 1965 ~ a network re-run of “Lucy and the Old Mansion” (TLS S3;E22), first aired on March 1, 1965.

One redhead replaced another for the summer of 1965. “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” (a rarely re-run series), replaced “The Danny Kaye Show.” 

Wednesday, June 30, 1965 ~ The re-runs kick off with “Lucy Makes Room for Danny” (LDCH S2;E2), first aired on December 1, 1958.  It was a cross-over between “The Danny Thomas Show” aka “Make Room for Daddy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” aka “I Love Lucy” to mark the fact that “Danny Thomas” was taking “Lucy’s” time slot and ‘moving’ to CBS.  Lucy and Desi did a reciprocal appearance as the Ricardos on Thomas’s sitcom, which was filmed at Desilu. 

The day this TV Times supplement was included in the newspaper, this was the headline.