Lucille Ball’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz, was so worried about being compared to her famous mother that she made a “deal” with her to be written off “Here’s Lucy” if she starting getting bad reviews.
Arnaz, along with her younger brother Desi Arnaz Jr., were cast in the TV sitcom to play the “I Love Lucy” star’s children when they were 17 and 15, respectively.
“I debated about whether or not I should actually do that,” Lucie — whose father Desi Arnaz famously played Ricky Ricardo on “I Love Lucy” — tells Pvnew. “Because people will say ‘Oh, she just got that job because she’s her daughter,’ and they would be right.”
Lucie, 71, reluctantly took the job after making a “deal” with Ball that if she stared to hear whispers like, “she’s not that good” or “they don’t have any talent,” her mom would fire her from the series.
“I said, ‘please, if that happens … you got to write me out of this show. You got to help me save face, and I’ll go to school and then I’ll start doing something. And she agreed. And we kept that bargain,” Lucie explains.
“Here’s Lucy” — which guest starred a series of A-listers at the time including Ginger Rogers, Carol Burnet and Dean Martin — ended up running for six years from 1968 – 1974.
Lucie stayed on the show all six years, calling the experience a “wonderful education,” adding, “Probably better than anything I could have ever learned at Northwestern, at least in the sense of actually doing.
“You know, you can learn a lot about the classics. But it was and it ended up being a magnificent opportunity for me.”
After the series ended, Lucie guest starred on some TV shows, but eventually found her calling in musical theater, which she says she got from her bandleader father Desi.
“I grew up listening to him sing and the band play these incredible charts that they had,” she explained. “And that’s always been a part of me…”
“It’s live on stage, performing songs, which are, to me, stories. And his music was special and happy. It had a twinkle to it always. And I loved it. It was a huge inspiration.”
Lucie went on to star in national tours of “Seesaw” and “Annie Get Your Gun,” and on Broadway in the Marvin Hamlisch musical “They’re Playing Our Song.”
She also found happiness in her personal life, marrying actor Laurence Luckinbill in 1980, with whom she shares three grown children and three grandchildren.
Later this month, she’s bringing back her critically acclaimed solo show, “I GOT THE JOB! Songs From My Musical Past” to 54 Below.
She was set to do the show in the spring 2020, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then it was supposed to happen last July, but was again canceled due to an injury.
“I was crawling around my living room with my grandson and the next morning I woke up and popped something in my right knee,” she tells us. “Eventually it ended up that I got a knee replacement and it took months to recover from.”
“So we postponed it to July of this year and so here we are, back by popular demand four years later,” she noted delightedly.
Arnaz will be at 54 Below in New York City from July 19-22.
