The Forgotten Desi and Lucy TV Projects

While Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball are most closely associated with the classic situation comedy, I Love Lucy, the production company they founded in the 1950s, Desilu, made several other television series – some memorable like The Lucy Show, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek, and many almost forgotten such as Willy and Grand Jury.

     This book focuses on another aspect of Desilu – the all but forgotten TV pilots and unproduced specials contemplated by Desi and Lucy. Chronicled in this work are projects like Desilu’s version of Dallas – not a soap opera but a Western, an anthology series hosted by the artist Salvador Dali, Gene Roddenberry’s cop dramas, Code 100 and Police Story, parodies of The Untouchables and The Flintstones, Desi’s unproduced sitcom comeback titled Chairman of the Board, and a 1961 unproduced TV special that would have starred Lucy along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley and perhaps Desi Arnaz in a cameo role. These and many other such projects are chronicled for the first time in The Forgotten Desi and Lucy TV Projects: The Desilu Series and Specials that Might Have Been.

     Richard Irvin is the author of several books about television history including Four Star Television Productions: A History of the Business, Series, and Pilots of the Iconic Television Production Company, The Early Shows: A Reference Guide to Network and Syndicated Prime-Time Television Series from 1944 to 1949, and Spinning Laughter: Profiles of 111 Proposed Comedy Spin-offs and Sequels that Never Became a Series – all from BearManor Media.