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''The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour'' is a collection of thirteen black-and-white one-hour specials airing occasionally from 1957 to 1960 (as opposed to a thirty-minute regular series). The first five were shown as specials during the 1957-58 television season. The remaining eight were originally shown as part of ''Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse''. Its original network title was ''The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show'' for the first season, and ''The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Presents The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show'' for the following seasons. The successor to the classic comedy, ''I Love Lucy'', the programs featured the same cast members: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley and Little Ricky (billed as Richard Keith in his post-''Lucy-Desi'' acting assignments). The production schedule avoided the grind of a regular weekly series. Desilu produced the show, which was mostly filmed at their Los Angeles studios with occasional on-location shoots at Lake Arrowhead, Las Vegas and Sun Valley, Idaho. CBS reran these thirteen specials under the "Lucy-Desi" title as five prime time summer replacements, from 1962 to 1965, with a final run in 1967. 1966–67 was the first TV season in which all first-run prime time network shows were in color. These "Lucy-Desi " repeats were the only black and white series aired that year, after which it, and "I Love Lucy", went into syndication. ==Premise== Desi Arnaz was often questioned why he changed the format of ''I Love Lucy'', a weekly, 30-minute program produced at 25 new episodes a season very successfully to the ''Comedy Hour'' format of one-hour specials shown weeks or months apart. "You've got to change in this business. You can't stand still. I'd rather make a big change while we are still ahead. It would be ridiculous for us to wait until people got sick and tired of the regular half-hour every Monday night. We have been the luckiest show on the air, but we've worked for it. I have never worked so hard in my life. And while I suppose it's not really for me to say, I think I can honestly say that we have never done a really bad show in six years" he noted at the time. He also noted the high stakes involved for the cost per episode ($350,000) "they not only have to be good, they have to be great. We're going to be in an awful spot with these shows; they've got to be good".〔'The "I Love Lucy" Book, Bart Andrews, 1985〕 Arnaz's determination to change scheduling formats went back several years, as far back as 1954. "When I first suggested it, CBS wouldn't listen. Last year (1956) again, they talked me into continuing with the weekly half-hour. But this time (1957) I made up my mind."〔'The "I Love Lucy" Book, Bart Andrews, 1985〕 Keeping the main plot line of the ''I Love Lucy'' program allowed ''Comedy Hour'' to retain the main cast. It also allowed Arnaz to drop any hint of continuity by releasing all of the I Love Lucy characters and substituting them with celebrity guest stars. That concept, which proved so successful during the program's Hollywood episodes in seasons 4 & 5, was what Arnaz had in mind when he commented 'you can't stand still'. Except for the main cast (Ball, Arnaz, Vance and Frawley) only one character from ''I Love Lucy'' appeared on ''Comedy Hour''; Lucy's mother, as Little Ricky's babysitter, in 'The Ricardos Go To Japan'. Arnaz believed the use of celebrity stars would allow him to demand higher fees, take some pressure off of himself portraying Ricky Ricardo and keep the 'Lucy' concept 'fresh' encouraging continued ratings success. Although done during the last season of I Love Lucy, the move to Connecticut allowed the writers to expand possible script ideas as they had "used up every conceivable story line that could be set in the tiny New York apartment'.〔'The "I Love Lucy" Book, Bart Andrews, 1985〕 Not noted publicly at the time, Arnaz was suffering serious health problems, and had been ordered by doctors to cut back on his work and acting schedule. When he entered into negotiations with CBS, for a seventh season of I Love Lucy, Arnaz insisted Desilu be allowed to change to the hour format and a monthly production schedule. CBS President William Paley would have sued Desilu had Arnaz's health not been an issue but instead agreed to the change. Arnaz quickly found a new sponsor for the 1957-1958 season: Ford Motor Company.〔'Desilu' Sanders/Gilbert, 1993〕 Originally ''Comedy Hour'' was slated to produce 10 original episodes per season. However, due to high production costs Arnaz cut that to 8, then 5 episodes. Five were produced in season one (1957-1958) and season two (1958-1959) then cut back to three in season three (1959-1960).〔'The "I Love Lucy" Book, Bart Andrews, 1985〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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