In praise of a second banana's second run

A look at how Lucy's sidekick blazed her own unlikely trail in television history.



The Lucy Show, "Lucy Joins an Art Class"
OB: January 13, 1964, CBS, 8:30 EST
I was born the day after this episode first aired.

This blog is part of the TV Sidekick Blogathon, hosted by the Classic TV & Film Cafe.


I've mentioned before how when I was born made me discover true classic TV at awkward times. The first episodes of The Andy Griffith Show I ever saw were in color, and I knew Howard Sprague before I ever met Barney Fife. To me, Rod Serling was the curator of the Night Gallery before he ever became my guide to The Twilight Zone. I got to know Lassie as a forest ranger's dog before I ever realized she belonged to a boy...two, in fact. Dennis Weaver was the dad from Gentle Ben and then he was McCloud before anyone ever told me he was Chester, or had any connection to Dodge City. I didn't even know, in fact, there was a Chester (or a blacksmith played by Burt Reynolds, for that matter) on Gunsmoke. But I always knew there was a Festus.

And by that same fluke, I somehow got to know Lucy Carmichael and Vivian Bagley before I even got to know Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz. I didn't even know there were any other men in their lives, in fact, except maybe for Mr. Mooney.

I've mentioned earlier that the Ricardos and the Mertzes still meant big money for CBS, with the daytime reruns of I Love Lucy continuing well into the 1960s. However, its disappearance from the CBS daytime lineup when the rights finally expired in 1966, and its release into syndication a year later, meant there was a year I didn't see it. (CBS occasionally still reruns color-enhanced episodes as specials even now, indicating how much Lucy still means to CBS.) Meanwhile, I saw the primetime version of The Lucy Show a lot and then the daytime reruns began on CBS in 1968. So, I got to know two single women before I ever got to know a Cuban bandleader and his grouchy but friendly landlord. When I finally did discover all the comic glory of I Love Lucy, it was being rerun in syndication on WBRC, Channel 6, the local ABC affiliate in Birmingham (and now a Fox affiliate where I happen to work).

But there are much worse things than being forced to dig out some of the greatest TV shows of all time, which actually had the effect of reinforcing my love of classic TV.

And that brings us back to The Lucy Show. It's tough to follow the most legendary TV show of all time, especially when two of its familiar cast members will be in totally different characters. But the show still had the perfect pedigree before it began its evolution. The quality was hit and miss over the years, but I honestly think, had the entire show been as great as its best episodes, we'd almost think of it now the same way we think of I Love Lucy.

And while there's a lot that can be and has been said about The Lucy Show, and how it reflected Lucille Ball at that moment in time (evolving away from a family life before Here's Lucy doubled back toward it), let's turn our attention to the woman who's one of the greatest second bananas in television history--the incomparable, legendary, groundbreaking and perhaps still underrated, Vivian Vance.

Most of America never heard of Vance before the first episode of I Love Lucy. That's because most of her best work was stage work, which is where Desi Arnaz found her, in fact. She had appeared in a few movies, but wasn't remembered for them. And we don't always get to see her in an old movie or old rerun and say "Hey! That's Ethel!" like we do so many future stars. (Even Lucille Ball turned up in one of the "Three Stooges" shorts that often popped up in afternoon reruns.) The first Lucy episode is as close as we'll get to that.

Born in Kansas in 1909 (making her two years older than Lucille Ball), the acting bug bit Vivian Jones very early. She even ran away from her disapproving religious parents at one point to Oklahoma, where things didn't work out in the theater community. Then her family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where her involvement in the Little Theatre accelerated her dreams, and ultimately career. (It's also when she changed her last name to Vance.) She was so popular the people in that area even chipped in to send her to New York. (There's an episode of I Love Lucy during the "trip to Hollywood" story arc, in fact, that alludes to this. When the four revisit Ethel's hometown, also in New Mexico, the locals think it's Ethel, not Ricky, who's landed a movie role.)

After a slow start on Broadway, she landed a supporting part in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein musical, "Music in the Air." She understudied for Ethel Merman in "Anything Goes" and landed a major role opposite comedian Ed Wynn in "Hooray for What!" She appeared in a number of other productions, most notably "Let's Face It!" with Eve Arden and Danny Kaye. However, a 1945 nervous breakdown during a road tour of "Voice of the Turtle" landed her in psychotherapy, and eventually brought her to California. (In fact, she was one of the first celebrities to openly discuss her psychotherapy.)

Meanwhile, Lucille Ball was negotiating to move her popular radio sitcom, My Favorite Husband, to television, but that evolved into something in which her real-life Cuban bandleader husband, Desi Arnaz, would star opposite her. As unlikely as that seemed to CBS executives in the early 1950s, they eventually worked it out. But the supporting couple from the My Favorite Husband radio show, Bea Benederet and Gale Gordon, weren't available for the new TV show. Benederet was contracted to play the next door neighbor on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show while Gordon was tied up with the radio, and upcoming TV versions, of Arden's classic, Our Miss Brooks (a long-forgotten sitcom that really shouldn't be). It was at the La Jolla Playhouse where Arnaz found Vance and hired her to be Ethel Mertz, who would be to Lucy was Blanche was to Gracie Allen. Her husband, Fred, would be played by a down-on-his-luck alcoholic, William Frawley. The two didn't get along too well, though it's often said their animosity was exaggerated. But still, when the show took off in the ratings, they all worked together.

Her relationship with Lucille Ball didn't start out well either. Ball was said to be cold to her at first. At late as the second season, Bart Andrews wrote that a pregnant Ball had taken over Vance's dressing room close to the stage, sending Vance to a much farther one. When she almost missed a cue due to a quick wardrobe change and long distance, Ball chastised her about being on time. That's when Vance reportedly said, "I'd tell you to go f--- yourself but I see Desi already took care of that!"

But relations between the two thawed and they became lifelong best friends. And I Love Lucy became an iconic classic, and Ball and Vance became quite possibly the most beloved female comedy team in television history. Lucy evolved into television's equivalent of Charlie Chaplin, and many of her iconic routines had Ethel at her side. When the classic chocolate assembly line scene from the episode "Job Switching" was later immortalized on a U.S. postage stamp. the image depicted both Ball and Vance.

Vance stayed on during the series' entire six year run, then for three more years of hourly monthly specials, The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, which ended in 1960...one day before Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz ended their own, real-life troubled marriage. (Vance turned down a chance to co-star with Frawley in a "Fred and Ethel" spinoff, because she just couldn't stand working with him. But Frawley landed on his own feet as the grandfather on My Three Sons.)

Vance struck out on her own at that point, making a pilot, Guestward Ho! but being replaced by Joanne Dru in the actual series, which yet again only lasted a season. Meanwhile, Vance divorced her third husband, Phil Ochs, after alleging he abused her, and moved to Connecticut. She married her fourth husband, John Dodds, in January 1961, and they would stay married until her death.

She was making frequent appearances with another famous redhead on The Red Skelton Hour in the early 1960s when Lucy came calling again. Desilu was losing money as shows like Harry Morgan's Pete and Gladys were being cancelled, leaving ABC's The Untouchables as its last remaining show. So the studio needed some new income and production. CBS talked Lucy into a new show, which she agreed to do only if the show aired on Monday nights (the old I Love Lucy timeslot) and if Vance would appear with her. For her part, Vance asked for more money and equal billing and got it. General Foods and Lever Brothers signed on as alternating sponsors, just as they were during the last seasons of I Love Lucy. And so, after the hour-long specials (now renamed The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour) were rerun all through the summer of '62 to get everyone used to the idea of  Lucy being on television again, The Lucy Show was one of the two big premieres on Monday, October 1, 1962. (The other: Johnny Carson taking over The Tonight Show later that night.)

The animated first season opening was a nod to the original I Love Lucy opening from the 1950s, set to a Wilbur Hatch theme that appeared to shout "Lucy! Lucy!" over and over. And sure enough, stick-figured Vivian appeared next to stick-figured Lucy. One other demand from Vance: she was sick of hearing people shout "Ethel!" across the street to her, so she wanted a character with her own first name. Sure enough, Lucy Carmichael's roommate would be Vivian Bagley.

The new series was based on Irene Kampen's book "Life Without George," about her own experiences as a divorced woman living with another divorced woman and their combined children. But CBS preferred Lucy play a widow on the show, lest everyone think she divorced Ricky Ricardo (who they just saw weeks earlier in a rerun of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour and possibly even that day on the still-popular daytime reruns of  I Love Lucy). Divorce in general was still a skittish subject on television in those days, especially comedy series. (Even eight years later, CBS wouldn't let Mary Tyler Moore be a divorcee on her own new show, while ABC still sweated the divorce themes on The Odd Couple.) But considering the source material, CBS did at least let Vance's character be a divorcee, thus allowing her to mark another historic first for television. The IMdB and Wikipedia both say she's the very first such regular in prime time (though Wikipedia is still begging for a source), but she does appear to be the very first in a comedy series.

Yet the network and writers didn't treat this as a big deal as perhaps it should've been. Single parents were still fairly new and rare in television. The first Lassie mother, played by Jan Clayton, was a widow. Single fatherhood came to comedy series when Jean Hagen was written out of Make Room for Daddy in 1956, leaving Danny Thomas' character a single father (for about a season). In 1957, the classic nuclear family of Leave It to Beaver premiered, but it did so along with single-dad shows like Bachelor Father and The Rifleman. By the time The Lucy Show premiered in 1962, Vivian Bagley would be joining Sheriff Andy Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show and Steve Douglas from My Three Sons in the classic TV version of Parents Without Partners.

Indeed, divorce itself was always present and growing in the real world; one source said divorce stood at 5% immediately after the Civil war and grew to 34% by 1964. But Vivian Bagley would move in with Lucy Carmichael just before a divorce revolution would kick off in the mid-1960s, with more women heading to college to make themselves more independent, and never again vulnerable to the financial, starting-over issues of a marriage break. By the end of the decade, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan (himself a former actor and divorced man) would sign the nation's first no-fault divorce law.

But Vivian's divorce, and her frequent phone calls to her attorney when her alimony ran late, was far from the point of the show. In another decade, a divorced mother and her trials and tribulations would be the whole point of a show--as it was when One Day at a Time premiered in 1975 and Kate and Allie arrived in 1984. For the time being, it was simply an exercise to allow two single women to live together, with their children, and get into whatever misadventures they may without husbands getting in the way. (Then again, not making it a big deal could, itself, make a big deal, like the way Star Trek assembled one of the most diverse casts to be found in 1960s television but didn't beat everyone over the head with the idea.)

Still, the writers instilled another male presence in the series, and who they picked turned out to be substantial: a banker, controlling the money they received. Lucy's character was a widow whose late husband's estate (we never heard about the man so much) only allowed her a monthly allowance she overspent every month, while Vivian's husband paid alimony and was always late with it. (Why not child support, I don't know, unless it was considered too serious for a sitcom.) And so, a banker was a constant presence in their lives, holding the purse strings, and their struggles with money, made Lucy and Vivian relatable to the audience and often set off many of the plots. And it added a touch of realism to the life of single mothers, though having the president of the bank drop by the house on a regular basis might have been pushing it.

Lucy still didn't get her wish to have Gale Gordon on the show during the first season (he was still appearing as the second Mr. Wilson on Dennis the Menace) . But then the first banker, Mr. Barnsdahl, was written out of the show when actor Charles Lane had trouble remembering lines in front of a live studio audience. (Fortunately, the beloved "bad guy" character actor landed on his feet with a recurring role as Homer Bedloe, the conniving railroad baron on Petticoat Junction.) And that first season of The Lucy Show happened to be the final season of Dennis the Menace.


Gale Gordon was a veteran character actor, a jack-of-all-trades in the golden days of radio. Despite his tendency to play pompous slow-burn characters, usually someone's boss or a judge or something, he was actually the first man to play Flash Gordon on radio. He played Willie the Weary Stork and Oscar the Ostrich on the beloved children's Christmas serial, The Cinnamon Bear, and the lawyer who moved to a farm on Granby's Green Acres, later adapted to television as Green Acres. He was also well known for playing Mayor LaTrivia on Fibber McGee and Molly. He and Lucille Ball first worked together on The Wonder Show with Jack Haley in 1938, and--the first time he'd play a banker in Lucy's life--her husband's boss in the radio sitcom My Favorite Husband. His all time most loved--and longest running--non-Lucy role was as the pompous and easily irritated high school principal, Osgood Conklin, on the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks. While the Arnazes couldn't get him as Fred Mertz, he did make guest appearances as Ricky's boss, the nightclub owner, and as a judge on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

His first appearance on The Lucy Show as Theodore J. Mooney was in the all-time classic season two episode in which he and Lucy get locked in the bank vault together. It was such a memorable episode, Homer Simpson was still talking about it three decades later.

Season two marked a big change that viewers didn't see at the time: the show was now filmed in color. What's interesting is, CBS didn't show it that way. The network's use of color was still very limited at that point, unlike NBC and ABC, but viewers would finally see Lucy in color in 1965.
For that reason, the pictures in this post will alternate between black and white, as it was first broadcast, and color, as the episodes first appeared on CBS daytime reruns in 1968 and ever since.

The chemistry between Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance not only returned with a vengeance, but it was now center stage. There were more classic routines between the two, physical routines--such as the time they installed a TV antenna on the roof, and the time Lucy had to use stilts to get into a bunk bed--that rivaled anything we could see on I Love Lucy. It wasn't unusual for the two to appear in visually appealing matching outfits, like hospital candy-stripes or volunteer firefighter uniforms, which also had the effect of making Vance appear equal to Ball. And in perhaps the series' best remembered sight gag, Vance not only complemented Ball's comic skills, she literally saved her life.

It was a simple premise--a do-it-yourself home improvement project goes wrong--but staged elaborately, with the two women caught in a flooded shower whose drain is closed and whose door was installed opening the wrong way. But Lucille Ball later admitted she almost drowned during the actual filming, in front of a full crew and a large studio audience. She credited Vance with pulling her out of the water by her hair, not only rescuing her but also getting laughs in the process.

Even tough Vance only appeared on the series for roughly half of its run, she was one of the show's three best remembered faces. She was popular enough that when Lucille Ball wanted to appease the sponsors by having the cast do commercials, but still too busy to do them herself, it was Vivian Vance who picked up much of the slack, and went to work each week selling Jell-O pudding and Lux beauty soap.

The episode "Lucy Joins an Art Class" is a perfect example of the kind of thing Lucy and Viv could do that Lucy and Ethel never could: fight over the same guy.

The two characters dated a lot and even had steady boyfriends off and on. This is despite the fact both were married in real life, and Ball's husband, Gary Morton, had a large behind-the scenes presence on the show and even appeared in one episode. (He even got to say "I love you, Lucy!" in a great example of an alpha male move now that Desi was out of the picture.) A first season episode, "Lucy and Viv Fight Over Harry," would've had the two apparently conflicted over their neighbor, played by Dick Martin. The script reportedly bombed so badly, production on the episode was shot down and it never aired.

It's easy to get what's wrong with "Lucy Joins an Art Class" out of the way first: what's supposed to be its sight gag highlight late in the show, doesn't come off very satisfying, perhaps because of the way it's staged. The art class scene itself is so funny that it comes off way short. Perhaps the kitchen scenes  before and after it could've been shortened.

The actor who played the art teacher, John Carradine, actually appeared years earlier in a movie with Lucille Ball ("Five Came Back," a jungle thriller from 1939). But the episode does almost nothing with that fact or his part. Today that would be a ratings stunt and there would even be an in-joke referring to the previous movie (or just the fact that appeared in one together, and Carradine would've had a bigger part more suited to his nature). He gets no funny lines, not even a quick face-palm. As a result, his part doesn't look as much like "Look who's back together again!" as much as "John Carradine needed a quick paycheck and hit up Lucy for a part on her show."

And now, what's right with the episode: both women look very pretty considering their ages, in their early 50s. (That wasn't as common then as it is now.) The script is full of crackling one-liners; any time Lucy and Ethel or Lucy and Viv insulted one another or adopted "tones," it was usually comedy gold, and this is no exception. And it's an excellent vehicle to show off Vivian Vance.

Aired the very night before I was born, and sponsored that night by Jell-O and Dream Whip, the episode begins in an art supply store, whose clerk invites Vivian and Lucy to join a night art class. At first they turn him down, saying they haven't gotten anything out of the night classes they've attended. "We haven't met a bachelor yet," says Viv.

As Viv heads to the market, the woman who helped rule Monday nights on CBS stays behind and finds herself face to face with another customer: John Brooks III, played by Robert Alda. Fifteen years later, his son, Alan Alda, would help rule Monday nights on CBS as part of the cast of M*A*S*H. It turns out John's there to pick up a framed version of a cheap print of the Mona Lisa (future sight gag alert coming in from the telegraph office).

When she overhears John ask for an application for the advertised art class, Lucy suddenly decides she's been wanting to enroll in one for years, and requests an application. Lucy then tells John that raising her children, alone, kept her out of an art class earlier, and says his wife must help take care of his. Of course, he tells her he's not married. A very happy Lucy says she'll see him in art class and heads home, still looking at him as she leaves.

A short time later, Vivian shows up with two large bags of groceries to get a parking ticket validated. John asks if he can help, and she starts to say no but then turns around to get a glimpse of him.

"I'm in charge of the Danfield welcome wagon," says Vivian. "I can't imagine how we happened to miss you!" Then, using the same tactic as Lucy, she says, "I'll just bring the wagon over if you'll just tell me when you and your wife will be home?" "But I'm not married," he replies. "Then I'll bring my wagon right over!" says Vivian. He leaves, and before she can ask, the clerk hands her an art class application.

After a commercial break, we find Lucy, Vivian and all of their children enjoying breakfast. Apparently no one will be around to do the dishes since Lucy and Vivian are both "going out tonight," and the children have things to do. Then they both say they signed up for the art class. "You know, Viv, I got to thinking, there's going to be a big cultural explosion in America, and I want to be a part of it!" Vivian responds she met a cute guy, too. They eventually get it out of each other, it's the same guy. ("Listen, Vivian, you give me John Brooks the Third, and you can have John Brooks the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh!")  They then declare "every woman for herself" and "no holds barred."

The next scene--the funniest one of the whole episode--takes place at the art class, with poor, almost-forgotten John Carradine as the art teacher. Seeing John Brooks III next to a woman, Vivian quickly steals the stool on the other side of him, to Lucy's frustration, then pointed tries to use her sketch pad to block Lucy's view of him. The professor (Carradine) unveils a bowl of fruit and asks the class to sketch the still life any way they see fit. Lucy asks the woman on the opposite side of John to switch seats with her, prompting the gentlemanly John to say he'll be happy to do it, thus leaving Lucy no better off than she was.

When Vivian finishes her work, Lucy says it's very good, then asks, "Why aren't you drawing what the rest of the class is drawing?" Lucy finally gets a chance when Vivian breaks her pencil, and when she leaves to get a new one, Lucy steals her stool. When Vivian turns around, Lucy is complimenting John on his work and tells, Vivian, "Sit down, dear!" For a comic duo known for their broad sight gags, the subtlety of their performances in this scene is at once refreshing, and hilarious. I could've actually seen this scene last longer. Vivian is especially good, going from exaggerating her laughter and good time (to needle Lucy) to the conniving look in her eyes as she plots her next move.

The professor then asks for a volunteer to model for a "real life" picture, prompting Vivian to ask if Lucy has a tear in her dress. When Lucy asks where, Vivian says "under your arm," and as she raises her arm, Vivian grabs it and says "Professor!"

Lucy is now stuck modeling for the class, away from everybody, but has the last laugh when John stokes her ego as he compliments her "high cheekbones." Or so she thinks: she's now stuck for half an hour in that pose.



The cattiness in the next scene, set the next day in the kitchen, is hilarious. Vivian has apparently won Round One: she has a date that night with John. Lucy, who's tired of hearing about it, calls Vivian underhanded, to which she suggests Lucy spend the evening "entertaining yourself by sketching a bowl of sour grapes." Lucy, saying Vivian's right, she shouldn't be a sore loser, says she'll clean up the kitchen while Vivian gets ready for her date. "I am ready!" Viv shoots back. Lucy then asks if Flo's Beauty Shop is open late so Vivian can have her hair done. "I had my hair done this afternoon!" says Vivian. Lucy responds: "Oh, I'm sorry, I see it now. I guess even Flo has her off days." Lucy offers to go in Vivian's place, but her attempt to undermine her self-esteem fails.

Vivian then gets a pie out of the oven, and says it's dessert that night, after they get back from dinner. She's taking the pie by his apartment, picking him up from work and then they'll head to dinner. She rather chipperly tells Lucy not to wait up for her.

Lucy calls her son Jerry in to go to the store for her, to pick up three jars of hot peppers, two cans of anchovies, and a bottle of Tabasco sauce. "I am going to bake an apple pie!" she declares.

Using the key under the doormat that Vivian told her about, Lucy sneaks in to John's apartment (how does she know where he lives? We never find out) to switch out the apple pies. Sure enough, the framed Mona Lisa is standing on the kitchen counter. When she takes Vivian's out of the oven, it's hot (Vivian had it on warm) so she knocks over the Mona Lisa and drops the pie on it. The pie lands dish side down, and sure enough it burns a hole in the Mona Lisa's face, almost perfectly to the spot. When she hears Vivian and John return she quickly moves everything and closes the blinds to the kitchenette.

The two return, and John mentions the apartment and the pictures he has yet to hang. He then asks for Vivian's opinion on the Mona Lisa frame, saying it looked fine in the store but now thinks it should be darker. When he reopens the folding doors to the kitchen...do I even have to say what happens next?

As they chat, John says it's a shame Vivian couldn't talk her friend, Mrs. Carmichael, into coming along. Vivian claims she tried, but lately she hasn't felt much like going out. She then calls John over to tell him to take a second look at that picture. "Mona Lisa is Mona Lucy!" she says, delivering the episode's punch line. (It might have been funnier had the glare of the studio lights not washed out the Mona Lisa part a bit.)

Vivian then tells John she has an idea and asks him to play along. "Do you mind if I have a little fun?" she asks.


"Do you know what I've always had a mad desire to do?" Vivian asks. "Paint a mustache on Mona Lisa!" she declares, suddenly getting a frown out of the Mona Lisa. John hands her a palette and a brush and says, "The print only cost a dollar!" "Oh you are a sport, Johnny!" Vivian says as she heads toward the painting.

Vivian draws the mustache, then big, bushy eyebrows, as John says, "How about a beard!" That's when Lucy finally says "All right, Viv, that's it!" Lucy starts to storm out but John invites her to stay, making Vivian not happy. "I've been wanting to meet some interesting people in this town, but I sure hit the jackpot!" he tells the mustached Lucy. They then start on the pie...the one Lucy brought and Lucy has forgotten about the switch...and gets the first, bitter taste.

The new, 1960s dynamic between Lucy and Vivian was a little different than the 1950s dynamic between Lucy and Ethel.

And it reflected Lucille Ball's real life. On I Love Lucy she wanted the show done her way but deferred to Desi's sound judgment, he was a genius as a producer. Desi did produce the first 10-12 episodes or so of the first season of The Lucy Show, but from then on, Lucy got the show she thought she wanted. She ended up firing her original series writers, and the show became semi-experimental, evolving from a family-based single parent sitcom to something open-ended that put Lucy in all matter of wacky situations and had her cross paths with guest stars like John Wayne and Ethel Merman. Legend has it she even tried to get the Beatles, and was even willing to pay "Beatle Money" to get them. But the Fab Four turned it down because their own schedule couldn't coincide with the shooting schedule of The Lucy Show.

But after season three, Vivian Vance called it quits. As the show reset itself from Danfield, Connecticut to Los Angeles, Vance went the opposite direction. She actually lived in Connecticut, and decided to leave the show to avoid the hellish commute and her lack of time with her husband. But she did come back for guest appearances, not only on The Lucy Show but also on the successor series, Here's Lucy. From their, the fortunes of the two women went in--not opposite, but different directions. Lucille Ball not only starred in The Lucy Show but ran Desilu, which she got completely in the divorce from Desi Arnaz. As studio head, she even got to greenlight the pilots to Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. She eventually sold Desilu to Paramount and started Lucille Ball Productions to produce Here's Lucy.

Vivian Vance, on the other hand, didn't just seek fame and fortune and power. She lived the life of a journeyman actor, apparently acting because it's what she wanted to do. Her later roles were mostly on stage. But she also made guest appearances on Love, American Style and in the TV movie Houdini, and in one of the greatest pieces of stunt casting of all time, found herself face to face with the second banana of another TV legend, Mary Tyler Moore, when she guest starred opposite Valerie Harper on an episode of Rhoda.

Vivian Vance contracted breast cancer and fought it bravely, but the disease spread to her bones and she died in 1979. Before her death, she had appeared two last times in TV specials with Lucille Ball, including one that had a guest appearance by Lillian Carter, mother of then-President Jimmy Carter.

For the most part, the legacy of Vivian Vance is in timeless reruns of I Love Lucy--and a groundbreaking role on The Lucy Show that may not get as much due as it deserves. I, myself, was watching those 1950s-1960s reruns when I was trying to escape the reality of my own life as the oldest son of a divorced mother of four, strapped for cash and juggling schedules as she worked her way through nursing school. It wasn't a life I saw on television very much, but when I did see it, it was in Vivian Vance and the character she played on The Lucy Show. We really didn't see families like ours on TV that much until I was a little older and One Day at a Time and Alice both premiered. But when I did see Vivian and her son Sherman, as little as it was, I sat up and took notice and appreciated it. I hope I wasn't the only one.

Availability: the entire series is on DVD.
Next time on this channel: McHale's Navy.

This blog is a member of the Classic TV Blog Association.