Before Roseanne's wisecracking "domestic goddess" or Mary Tyler Moore's hard-working single gal, there was Lucy. Constantly scheming, off-key-singing, celebrity-hounding, Desi-imitating, Ethel-befriending Lucy.
Audiences loved Lucille Ball. "I Love Lucy" (1951-57) was the first sitcom to be a hit, the first show to be No. 1 in ratings three years in a row and the first to reach an audience of 10 million. It was also the only show in history to leave the air while still No. 1.And although 46 years have passed since the first episode aired, fans still love the pratfalling redhead - so much so that a convention of Lucy fans in California this weekend is expected to draw no less than 1,500 people, some traveling to Burbank from as far away as Switzerland and Australia.
"The comedy is still as funny today as it ever was," says Thomas J. Watson of Sherman Oaks, Calif., organizer of "Loving Lucy '97." Watson was Ball's publicist from 1985 to 1989.
"There's a whole Lucy revival going on," he says. "A lot of young parents have rediscovered it. They want something their kids can watch that isn't smutty and violent, and `Lucy' fits the bill."
The convention kicks off Friday at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood with a screening of Lucy "bloopers" and the presentation of a 1964 TV special Ball hosted with Bob Hope. Subsequent activities will include panel discussions with actresses Mary Jane Croft (Betty Ramsey on "I Love Lucy") and Doris Singleton (Lucy's nemesis Caroline Appleby), actor Keith Thibodeaux (Little Ricky) and writers Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll Jr.
An auction of Lucy memorabilia also is planned. The convention wraps up Sunday with a one-woman tribute by Lucy impersonator Suzanne LaRusch.
Watson credits the new wave of Lucy interest, in part, to Nick at Nite. The cable network plays "I Love Lucy" reruns from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and at 10 p.m. on Saturdays.
The reruns are among Nick at Nite's highest-rated shows, says Rich Cronin, president of Nick at Nite's TV Land.
"I have four kids, and they have all become Lucy fans," he says. "I've asked them why and they say `because she's so funny.' Lucy is a universal character. Her physical comedy and her incredible talent appeal to people of all ages and all walks of life."