Since

[Rezny@gmail.com]

Singing was a fairly big part of the show when Desi Arnaz,Jr.was on the show from 1968-1971,when he left,was there any singing at all?

[McGillicuddy]

Sure, when there were musical guest-stars. It seems Lucy, Lucie and a guest star would often do some sort of sing and dance routine.

[LittleRickyII]

Originally Posted by rrezny@usnetizen

Singing was a fairly big part of the show when Desi Arnaz,Jr.was on the show from 1968-1971,when he left,was there any singing at all?

Not in the same way it had been during the first three seasons, where you had a fair number of episodes that were largely full-blown musical productions. There was still some singing during the last three seasons, but it was more limited. For example, there might be a song sung during the course of an episode, but it was within the context of the storyline and not one of these deals where the Carters go and put on a show. For example, in the fourth season I can only think of four or five episodes where there was any singing at all. In "Lucy and Her All-Nun Band," at the very end of the episode they do "When the Saints Come Marching In." In "Someone's on the Ski Lift With Dinah," Dinah Shore sings one or two songs to Lucy. In "Ginger Rogers Comes to Tea," Lucy, Kim and Ginger spontaneously dance The Charleston. Kim and her boyfriend sing a song in "Kim Moves Out." There may have also been a song sung in "Lucy and Candid Camera," but there was nothing else that season involving music. The other 19 episodes had no music at all.

The fifth season were a bit more musical than the fourth, but still less than the third. There was one episode that was a big musical production -- "My Fair Buzzi" -- but that was it. "Lucy And Donny Osmond," "Lucy And Jim Bailey" and "The Case of the Reckless Wheelchair Driver" had Lucie Arnaz performing a production number at the end of the show with the guest star (and the Donny Osmond episode opened with him singing). But those episodes were still mostly story, not so much music. And then there were a handful of episodes with maybe one song sung within the context of the story: "Lucy and Petula Clark," "Lucy, the Other Woman," "Lucy and the Professor" (Kim singing a duet with her boyfriend) and "Lucy Is Really In A Pickle" (Lucy and Kim performing a commercial jingle). The other 16 episodes had no music at all.

The sixth season had relatively little music. "Lucy, the Peacemaker" (with Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme singing), "Lucy Gives Eddie Albert the Old Song And Dance" (with a Lucy/Eddie Albert duet), "Lucy and Phil Harris Strike up the Band" (Lucy and Phil Harris duet) and "The Carters Meet Frankie Avalon" (with a Kim/Frankie Avalon duet) each had just a single song sung at the end of the episode. And there was a song sung within the storyline of "Lucy and Andy Griffith" ("I'll Fly Away") and "Lucy Carter Meets Lucille Ball" (a commercial jingle). None of the other 18 episodes had any music.

I'm not sure if the lesser amount of music in the final three seasons was intentional, but one can speculate on a couple reasons it might have been. In 1970 and 1971, CBS was purging its lineup of rural sitcoms and shows that it felt were too old fashioned. Lucy had been worried that her show would be a victim, but Fred Silverman assured her she was safe. But tossing aside the episodes that were basically musicals could have been an attempt to seem less old fashioned. After all, the new sitcoms CBS started putting on its lineup beginning in 1970 after the purging started (e.g., The Mary Tyler Moore Show and All in the Family) had substance and storyline, whereas these musical episodes that they had been doing on Lucy always seemed rather contrived and lacking in story and motivation. Another possibility might have been the additional cost of doing those productions. Lucy was not one to go out of her way to spend money. So if they could simply sprinkle a few songs here and there without doing a all-out musical, that might have satisfied Lucy's desire to have some music on the show without turning it into a full-blown musical extravaganza.