This weekend’s Catchy Binge gives a well-deserved nod to Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, sans their onscreen husbands, in The Lucy Show.
The marathon starts on February 24 at 12:00 p.m. ET with “Lucy is a Referee.” Lucy volunteers to officiate a football game at her son’s school but doesn’t know the rules. The binge features 84 episodes of Lucy and Vivian getting into their typical shenanigans, from Lucy getting a job as a reporter to working in an ice cream parlor to her becoming the captain of an all-woman volunteer firefighting crew.
The Catchy Binge ends on February 26 at 5:30 a.m. ET, when Lucy fakes being sick to go on a secret shopping spree. Unfortunately, she’s awarded Customer of the Year, complete with her photo in the paper.
The Lucy Show is a sitcom that ran for six seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1968, a successor to I Love Lucy. Ball won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1967 and 1968 for her role in the series. The show takes place after Ball’s real-life divorce from her former co-star Dezi Arnaz. The pair founded Desilu Productions, which made Ball the first woman to head a TV production company. The studio backed The Lucy Show and other memorable series, including Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, and The Untouchables.
Initially, there were concerns the comedy duo wouldn’t be accepted without their onscreen husbands, but the pair proved the two-woman show was a hit.
“Before, we were always being threatened by our husbands – we were always doing kooky things so that Ricky or Fred wouldn’t find something out,” said Ball in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1962, according to Catchy Comedy. “Now we’re substituting other kinds of threats – weather, lack of dates, our kids.”
Ball plays Lucy Carmichael, a widow living with her draught Chris and son Jerry. Vance played her divorced friend, Vivian Bagley, who rents a room from Lucy with her son Sherman. This is quite a switch from their previous living arrangements on I Love Lucy.
“I’m back playing the character I know best and like best – Lucy,” said Ball. “But I don’t think I’d be doing this if it hadn’t been for Viv. The studios had the idea, and the offers were fabulous. But the thing that jelled it all was Viv.”
Vivan Vance played Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy and was on The Lucy Show for three seasons. She was a stellar performer with the comedic chops to keep up with Ball. Acting talents aside, Vance was an early advocate for mental health, having struggled with anxiety and depression herself. She visited thousands of hospital patients and became a board member of the National Mental Health Association.
The Catchy Binge on Catchy Comedy runs a weekend-long marathon every weekend filled with episodes from classic sitcoms from the 1950s through the 1990s. Past binges have given nods to Laverne & Shirley, Gilligan’s Island, and The Andy Griffith Show.
Check out Catchy Comedy to find where to watch in your area or stream for free online or through paid streaming services such as Frndly TV and Philo.
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