Following her divorce from Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball carried on as Queen of the sitcom with her new series, The Lucy Show. In it, she played Lucy Carmichael, a widow working as a secretary and struggling to bring up her two children – Chris and Jerry – in suburban Danfield, Connecticut.
Appearing with Lucy in her new series was her I Love Lucyco-star Vivian Vance, who continued to play straight woman to Lucy’s comic character.
Both Lucy and Vivian took part-time jobs at the Danfield First National Bank, where their boss was the short-tempered and continually-exasperated Theodore J Mooney (played by Gale Gordon).
In 1965, Vance left the series as a regular performer and Lucy Carmichael moved to San Francisco, where she got a job at the Westland Bank. Quite by coincidence, Mr Moody had also moved to San Francisco and had become the vice president at the Westland Bank. The president of the bank was Harrison Cheever, played by Roy Roberts.
Lucy’s new regular friend and constant companion was a character named Mary Jane Lewis (played by Mary Jane Croft).
Lucy moved once again, this time to Los Angeles, and her name was changed to Lucy Carter. In L.A. she worked at the Unique Employment Agency, and her children were now played by Lucy’s real-life kids, Lucie and Desi Jr.
Gale Gordon – this time as Harrison Otis “Uncle Harry” Carter – continued to be Lucy’s blustering adversary.
The show ended in 1968 as a result of the sale of Lucille Ball’s production company Desilu to Gulf and Western Industries. Because Ball no longer owned Desilu, she no longer owned the show, so she started a new production company and started a new sitcom, Here’s Lucywith the same premise and characters
Lucy Carmichael/Carter Lucille Ball
Theodore J Mooney/Harrison Otis Carter
Gale Gordon Vivian Bagley Vivian Vance
Mary Jane Lewis
Mary Jane Croft Mr Barnsdahl Charles Lane
Harry Conners
Dick Martin
Chris Carmichael
Candy Moore
Jerry Carmichael
Jimmy Garrett
Sherman Bagley
Ralph Hart Harrison Cheever
Roy Roberts
