During the 1984–1985 television season,
NBC had experienced a huge success with its
Bill Cosby comeback vehicle
The Cosby Show, following it up the next year with
The Golden Girls, which likewise revitalized the careers of
Bea Arthur and
Betty White. ABC, looking to stage a similar resurgence for an older sitcom star and to boost Saturday night ratings, approached 75-year-old, five-time Emmy award winner and cultural icon
Lucille Ball. Producer Aaron Spelling had been in talks with Ball and her second husband
Gary Morton since 1979 about possibly doing another series; the popular success of her dramatic turn in the television film
Stone Pillow had proved she was still popular with audiences. Ball was initially hesitant about returning to television, stating that she did not believe she could top the 25-year run of success she had had with
I Love Lucy,
The Lucy Show and ''
Here's Lucy''. Her longtime co-star
Vivian Vance had died in 1979, and
Gale Gordon was retired in Palm Springs. However, Ball eventually agreed, conceding she had missed having a regular project to work on daily. Ball's only conditions working on the series were that she be reunited with Gordon, and longtime writers
Bob Carroll Jr. and
Madelyn Pugh. Although ABC had offered Ball the writers from the critical and ratings hit
M*A*S*H, and she was open to other writers on the series, Ball was insistent that Carroll and Pugh supervise the writing. Both had worked for Ball since her 1948 radio show
My Favorite Husband, and had been writers on all of her television series, plus several of her specials; more recently, they had worked on
Alice. Gordon was coaxed out of retirement with the promise of a full season's pay for all 22 episodes, regardless of whether the show was picked up for such. According to cast and crew members, the then 80-year-old Gordon never once flubbed a line on the set during the 13-episode duration. Ball also called in crew members who had worked for her since the days of
I Love Lucy. The most notable was sound man Cam McCulloch, who joined the crew during
I Love Lucy’s third season in 1954. However, by 1986, McCulloch was 77 years old and quite hard of hearing, requiring the use of two hearing aids; he was still working actively in Hollywood at the time, mixing audio for
WKRP in Cincinnati,
Square Pegs and select episodes of
Newhart. Ball was reportedly paid $100,000 an episode. Ball’s husband
Gary Morton, carrying the title of executive producer, negotiated for $150,000 per episode. The series was initially developed by Carroll and Pugh to resemble
The Golden Girls, and Ball had offered to do something different from her previous projects. However, ABC wanted the series in the vein of Ball's previous series.
Cancellation Fourteen episodes were written, thirteen filmed, but only eight aired. "Mother of the Bride", the last to air, was the twelfth episode filmed and featured
Audrey Meadows as Lucy's sister. Meadows was offered to be cast as a regular to give the show a new direction and Ball's character a
comic foil and partner, like that of
Vivian Vance in Ball's previous series. (
Life With Lucy was the only sitcom of Ball's in which Vance, who had died in 1979, never appeared). Ball and Meadows did not get along on the set, though, and Meadows turned down the offer.
Ratings Life with Lucys premiere episode on September 20 made the Nielsen's Top 25 (#23 for the week) for its week; however, subsequent episodes dropped steadily in viewership;
Life with Lucy went against NBC's
The Facts of Life in the same Saturday night lead off timeslot and never gained ground against it. It ranked only 73rd out of 79 shows for the season (the seventh lowest rated show on TV for the season), with a 9.0/16 rating/share. ==Home media==