Remembering "The Lucy Show" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Desilu

Desilu, Lucy and Desi's company, also produced "I Love Lucy". After "The Lucy Show" was developed and began shooting, Lucy bought Desi out and remained sole head of the studio until it was sold to Paramount in 1968. The series ended at that time, but Lucy came back the next season with a very similar show under her own production company entitled "Here's Lucy".

Answer: Lucy was widowed, Vivian was divorced.

Lucy's married name was Carmichael, but her maiden name was the same as it had been on "I Love Lucy", MacGillicuddy. Vivian's character's last name was Bagley. This was quite possibly the first sitcom to feature a divorced main character (not "One Day at a Time", as widely believed). Vivian's ex-husband's name was Ralph, but he was never seen and seldom referenced on the show.

After making a few sporadic television appearances in the 1970s, Vivian Vance died of cancer in 1979.

Answer: Gale Gordon

The second season also was newly filmed in color, the first having been shot in black-and-white. Lucy had wanted Gale Gordon to play Fred Mertz on "I Love Lucy", but he was already committed to playing Mr. Conklin on "Our Miss Brooks". (He had played a similar role with Lucy on her "My Favorite Husband" radio show.) By the time "The Lucy Show" came about, he was available. Gale Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89, within a month of his wife of 58 years, Virginia.

Answer: Theodore

Lucy always addressed him as Mr. Mooney. Occasionally, he would ask a client to call him Ted, but such a familiar nickname didn't suit him at all.

Answer: Chris and Jerry

Chris was a perky blond teenage girl, played by Candy Moore. Jerry was her typical younger brother, played by Jimmy Garrett. Neither of them was on the show the last two seasons. Moore had a bit part in the 1980 film "Raging Bull" (at age 33), but Garrett never acted as an adult. Vivian's one son on the show was named Sherman, played by Ralph Hart--currently a hydro-geologist living in California.

Answer: Danfield, NY

Danfield was a sleepy town, loosely based on Ridgefield, a small colonial town in the foothills of the Berkshire mountains. The setting was moved to Los Angeles in the fourth season after Vivian Vance left.

Answer: Mary Jane Croft

She also played Lucy's friend in her next series, "Here's Lucy", but her character did not live with Lucy. Almost all the recurring female characters on the show kept their real first names, just like Lucy and Vivian did. So when she became a regular on the show, Mary Jane Croft went by her own first name as well. Prior to that, she had played Betty Ramsey, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo's neighbor in Connecticut on "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour". Mary Jane Croft died in 1999 at age 83.

The other actors listed had all appeared on "I Love Lucy". Doris Singleton played Lucy's stuck-up "friend" Carolyn Appleby, Shirley Mitchell was the shrill-voiced Marian Strong, and Elvia Allman played the strict candy factory supervisor who yelled "Speed it up a little!" in the famous "Job Switching" episode. Singleton and Allman also made guest appearances on Lucy's new show. Singleton and Mitchell are the last surviving recurring "I Love Lucy" actors (besides Keith Thibideaux, who played Little Ricky).

Answer: Irma

Like Charlie on "Charlie's Angels" and Maris on "Frasier", Irma was a character who was never seen, but whom viewers knew well from Mr. Mooney's colorful description of her, which usually included a big mouth. (The term "battle-ax" springs to mind.) Other than his boss, Irma was the only person Mr. Mooney feared!

Answer: Ann Sothern

Sothern had appeared in films since the 1930's, including a popular series of movies (ten movies, to be exact) in which she played a meddling chorus girl named "Maisie". On "The Lucy Show", Lucy revealed she had a friend named Rosie Harrigan who had become a countess and was returning to her hometown. She joined Lucy in her schemes after Vivian left and before Mary Jane joined the show.

The other actors listed were Sothern's co-stars in her most well-known film, 1949's "A Letter to Three Wives". She may have only been in a handful of episodes, but Ann Sothern outlived all the Lucy Show regulars (except the kids). She passed away from heart failure in 2001 at age 92.

Answer: Life Without George

The book is now out of print, but can still be found at some libraries. Irene Kampen wrote the book based on her own experiences as a divorcee with a teenage daughter, and she did live with another divorced mother. (Her real ex-husband's name was Owen.) Since divorce was still controversial in 1962, the "Lucy" producers decided only one of the characters would be divorced. A son was also added for Lucy. (The 1980s series "Kate and Allie" was similar in premise.)

Irene Kampen died of breast cancer in 1998 at age 75. She had written ten more books (most with witty titles) before she died, and wrote about her experience attempting to meet Lucy in her book, "Nobody Calls at This Hour Just to Say Hello". Her daughter (Christine, just like on the show) became a cancer research professor. Thanks for playing!