The first primetime show featuring a divorced woman character was a hit—with Lucille Ball’s help
Network executives were skeptical at first
After Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz divorced, their production company was struggling. Three of their comedies had been cancelled, and something needed to be done.
When Arnaz suggested to CBS executives that Ball return to helm a sitcom, they were skeptical. Despite her proven comedic ability, they wondered whether the comedienne would be able to hold her own without her husband. It was a last-ditch effort, they figured, so the network signed off on The Lucy Show, a program that was “never intended to go beyond a single season.”
Ball agreed to the deal, on the condition that the show run on Monday nights at the same time I Love Lucy had previously aired, with former costar, Vivian Vance, who had played Lucy’s sidekick and neighbor Ethel Mertz.
Vance, who was tired of being addressed as Ethel on the street, had her own demands. Her character must be named Vivian and have access to a more stylish wardrobe. Everyone signed.
The first episode of The Lucy Show premiered on October 1, 1962 at 8:30 p.m. Lucy Carmichael, a widow with two children, shared a house with divorced mom Vivian Bagley. A divorced woman was a first for primetime television. The sitcom was actually based on a book featuring two divorcees, Irene Kampen’s Life Without George. But the network halved the risk and made Lucy a widow, assuming audiences would be displeased with a divorced Lucille Ball, despite her real-life split from Arnaz.
Expectations were low, but the pair’s chemistry generated ratings. The Lucy Show placed in Nielsen’s top ten most popularly rated shows for each of the six years it ran. And it simultaneously set a progressive bar for divorce on television — against the odds.
The three major networks of the 1950s were beholden to strict censorship legacies from the radio era. For instance, when Lucy got pregnant on I Love Lucy, the show was not permitted to refer to “pregnancy,” but rather “with child” or “expecting.” Even the bedrooms of married couples were required to show two beds, not one. Few programs escaped such rules. Though shows like Divorce Court (1957–69) and Perry Mason (1957–1966) featured storylines with divorced characters, it wasn’t until Vivian Bagley that a divorced woman had appeared on primetime television in a lead role.
In The Lucy Show, the two friends sweeten the situation comedy that made Ball famous. In Season 1, Lucy and Vivian attempt to install a shower, and end up locking themselves inside as the water rises. They frog and dive for several minutes before the drain kicks in. In other episodes they attempt to install a new TV antenna or drop a contact lens in a cake. In fact, divorce wasn’t the only first; the pair depicted the first long-term, emotionally intimate relationship between two middle-aged women ever seen on TV.
In 1965, however, Vance decided to quit the show. She had already reduced her airtime in order to spend more time on the East Coast with her new husband. So The Lucy Show pivoted storylines, moving Lucy to California for a new job at the bank, while Vivian’s character remarried offscreen. She would only make guest appearances in the final two seasons, between 1967 and 1968. The show finally went off the air when Ball decided it had enough volume for syndication.
Few attribute the first television divorcee correctly. Most often cited is the title character from Maude (1972), who goes through a divorce during the series. Another common nominee is character Ann Romano from One Day at a Time (1975); however, she was part of the “first divorced family.”
But it was Vivian Vance who made history in such a role—though she’ll probably always be Ethel in America’s heart.
