Life with Lucy

The show was developed amid an industry trend of comeback vehicles for older stars, following the success of The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls, prompting ABC and producer Aaron Spelling to lure 75-year-old Lucille Ball out of retirement.

Ball had been hesitant to return to television, feeling she could not top the 25-year success of I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, and only agreed because she missed having a daily project to work on.

Ball's only conditions for doing the series were reuniting with co-star Gale Gordon and longtime writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh, even though ABC had offered her the writers from M*A*S*H.

Gale Gordon, then 80 years old, was coaxed out of retirement in Palm Springs with a guarantee of full pay for all 22 episodes regardless of pickup, and reportedly never flubbed a line during the show's 13-episode run.

Sound man Cam McCulloch, who had worked with Ball since I Love Lucy's third season in 1954, rejoined the crew at age 77 despite being quite hard of hearing and requiring two hearing aids.

Lucy's character surname, Barker, continued Ball's tradition of using surnames containing the letters 'ar' (as in Ricardo, Carmichael, and Carter) as a tribute to her ex-husband Desi Arnaz.

Audrey Meadows was offered a recurring role as Lucy's sister to give the show a new direction and comic foil similar to Vivian Vance's role in Ball's earlier series, but she and Ball did not get along on set and Meadows turned down the offer.

The show's theme song was performed by Eydie Gormé, while an alternative theme written by Ball's daughter Lucie Arnaz with Cy Coleman was ultimately not used.

ABC cancelled the series after only 8 of the 13 filmed episodes had aired, informing producers Aaron Spelling and Gary Morton on the very day the final episode was being taped; Morton chose not to tell Ball until after filming ended.

In July 2002, TV Guide named Life with Lucy the 26th worst TV series of all time, calling it 'without a doubt, the saddest entry' on its list of bad TV shows.