MOM SETS HARD RULES

August 13, 1968

By HAROLD HEFFERNAN, North American Newspaper Alliance

HOLLYWOOD – “You kids are getting on-the-job training and I hope you realize bow lucky you are.” It was Lucille Ball talking. Her remark was addressed to a pair of young performers who will be featured on her new program next season. 

“And the first thing you must learn,” continued the redheaded comedienne with a trace of scold in her voice, “is that we have strict rules around here. No shenanigans. You’re here to do a job and we want discipline first of all. We dare not fail to know our lines or the business we have to do before the camera. When the curtain goes up, just remember that the audience doesn’t care what our problems were in preparing the show. They only care about results." 

Miss Ball plays Lucille Carter, a widow with two teenage children in her new series, "Here’s Lucy,” which will go out over the CBS-TV network in her familiar time slot of Monday evening. 

The new cast members are, of course, her own children, Lucie Arnaz, 17, and Desi Arnaz, Jr., 15. They play Kim and Craig Carter, her stage children. For Lucie, who had a birthday July 17, show business is a completely new happening. On the other hand, Desi, Jr., still in high school, has already carved a name for himself, as a musician – a credit, by the way, that doesn’t seem to impress his mother since most of her stern advice is aimed directly at him. Junior is a carefree type, much like his father, whom Lucy divorced 10 years ago.

“ATTENTION to detail Is the difference between right and wrong,” Mother Ball  expounded while members of the cast and crew looked on and listened to this unique exercise in family tutoring. “We pride ourselves on this show that we seldom have retakes or add or delete scenes. This takes experience and planning. We don’t expect perfection – not at the start anyway – but we do want it to be your goal.”

Young Desi, the lively, independent thinker, stirred restlessly in his chair, then got up and began pacing the stage nervously. “He’s going to be hard to direct,” Lucy confided. “He has the feeling that rehearsal is a bore and that if he has his lines learned by Thursday night (when the show is filmed) everything should be okay. He’s forever telling me he should be permitted to study and act in his own way. He hasn’t goofed yet, but I keep saying that we can’t go through the week having heart failure in fear that he might." 

GORDY HENSMAN, a grizzled grip, who has known and worked with Lucy since 1937, when she broke in as a teenager at RKO Studio, was working the camera boom here on the Paramount lot – and doing some remembering. 

"Lucy was the liveliest, most precocious kid I ever encountered in all my time on sound stages,” the old timer recalled fondly. “She was a great practical joker and was forever figuring out a way to have fun. I’ve often wondered why RKO didn’t take advantage of her natural talents for comedy. She was the swiftest and funniest ad libber I ever knew. 

Her daughter is the dedicated performer, Lucy declared, looking proudly out to center stage as Lucie speaks her lines, letter-perfect. Tall, lithe and lovely (she stands almost 5-10), she has studied voice and, under the skilled direction of her mother, has become an expert at pantomime. "And she sings and dances far better than I ever could,” Lucy added. “But Desi procrastinates as an actor and never wants to take things seriously,” she complained. “He’s always asking questions about the production end of it and I have a feeling that is how he’ll wind up – producing or directing like his Dad.” 

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