The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour
| The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by |
Jess Oppenheimer Madelyn Davis Bob Carroll, Jr. |
| Written by |
Madelyn Davis Bob Carroll, Jr. Bob Schiller Bob Weiskopf |
| Directed by |
Jerry Thorpe Desi Arnaz |
| Starring |
Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Vivian Vance William Frawley Little Ricky |
| Composer(s) | Wilbur Hatch |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 13 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Desi Arnaz |
| Producer(s) | Bert Granet |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Desilu Productions |
| Distributor | CBS Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | November 6, 1957 – April 1, 1960 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | I Love Lucy (1951–1957) |
The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour is a collection of thirteen black-and-white one-hour specials airing occasionally from 1957 to 1960 (as opposed to a thirty-minute regular series). The first five were shown as specials during the 1957-58 television season. The remaining eight were originally shown as part of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Its original network title was The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show for the first season, and The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Presents The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show for the following seasons. The successor to the classic comedy, I Love Lucy, the programs featured the same cast members: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, and Little Ricky (billed as Richard Keith in his post-Lucy-Desi acting assignments). The production schedule avoided the grind of a regular weekly series.
Desilu produced the show, which was mostly filmed at their Los Angeles studios with occasional on-location shoots at Lake Arrowhead, Las Vegas and Sun Valley, Idaho. CBS reran these thirteen specials under the "Lucy-Desi" title as five prime time summer replacements, from 1962 to 1965, with a final run in 1967. 1966–67 was the first TV season in which all first-run prime time network shows were in color. These "Lucy-Desi" repeats were the only black and white series aired that year, after which it, and I Love Lucy, went into syndication.
Desi Arnaz was often questioned why he changed the format of I Love Lucy, a weekly, 30-minute program produced at 25 new episodes a season very successfully, to the Comedy Hour format of one-hour specials shown weeks or months apart. He noted at the time: "You've got to change in this business. You can't stand still. I'd rather make a big change while we are still ahead. It would be ridiculous for us to wait until people got sick and tired of the regular half-hour every Monday night. We have been the luckiest show on the air, but we've worked for it. I have never worked so hard in my life. And while I suppose it's not really for me to say, I think I can honestly say that we have never done a really bad show in six years." He also noted the high stakes involved in the cost per episode ($350,000): "They not only have to be good, they have to be great. We're going to be in an awful spot with these shows; they've got to be good."
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