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The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour

The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
Lucy-DesiTitleScreen.jpg
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 (1957-11-06) – April 1, 1960 (1960-04-01)
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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Wikipedia

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