Desi ArnazFilmography

Lucy's Lost Episodes

Synopsis: In addition to highlighting some of Lucille Ball's funniest TV moments, Lucy's Lost Episodes includes various commercial endorsements and appearances, as well as providing information on her contribution to charities. The actress herself was very much involved with making a difference in the lives Read More

Judy Garland's Hollywood

Synopsis: Though many fans will always fondly recall Judy Garland's wonderful portrayal of young Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Garland herself was apparently most proud of the role she played in A Star Is Born. In this film, which opened in 1954, Garland portrayed an actress who sees her career blossom as Read More

Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie

Crew: Musical Performer

Synopsis: Lucy Arnaz, daughter of comedy duo Desi and Lucie Arnaz, hosts this intimate retrospective of her legendary parents' lives. Featuring never-before-seen color family movies, as well as a variety of interviews with family, friends, and business associates, this documentary sheds a sometimes painful Read More

Babalu Music! I Love Lucy's Greatest Hits

Synopsis: Here's a slew of songs taken from the popular I Love Lucy series. Included here are: "Babalu Rap" (Produced by "Weird" Al Yankovic), and Lucy's theme song, the "Friendship" duet, "Cuban Pete," "Straw Hat Song," "Cheek to Cheek," "Babalu," "California Here I Come," "We're Having a Baby." ~ All Read More

Routes of Rhythm with Harry Belafonte

Synopsis: Afro-Cuban music throughout the world is profiled in this video tracing its path from African and Spain into the Caribbean, the United States and onto the rest of the world. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Lucy, Queen of Comedy

Synopsis: Lucille Ball is honored in this program which features many of her television and film appearances. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Smoke That Cigarette

Synopsis: This program includes a parade of jingles and authentic advertisements for cigarettes - all from the carefree days when smoking still seemed to be fun and glamorous (before sobering medical information made abstaining from smoking both a prudent lifestyle choice and an inflammatory social cause). Read More

The Escape Artist

Actors: Griffin O'Neal, Raul Julia, Teri Garr, Joan Hackett, Gabriel Dell

Synopsis: The Escape Artist represents the laudable directorial debut of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel. Griffin O'Neal, the real-life son of Ryan O'Neal, plays Danny Masters, the offspring of a famed magician. Determined to match his dad's accomplishment, Danny runs into nothing but trouble. His biggest Read More

Alice: The Cuban Connection

Synopsis: Desi Arnaz and Janis Paige respectively guest-star as a philandering Cuban photographer and his long-suffering wife. When the photographer makes a play for Alice (Linda Lavin), his wife jumps to the erroneous conclusion that our heroine is the latest "other woman." It falls to Alice to act as Read More

Saturday Night Live: Desi Arnaz

Actors: Desi Arnaz, Desi Arnaz, Jr.

Synopsis: This 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Desi Arnaz, who also serves as musical guest with his son, Desi Arnaz Jr. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide Read More

Candid Hollywood

The Untouchables: Season 04

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: In hopes of breathing life into the series' dormant ratings, ABC moved The Untouchables from the Thursday to Tuesday evening, removing the threat of NBC ratings-grabbing Sing Along with Mitch and counterprogramming the now four-year-old crime drama opposite the presumably "soft" competion of The Read More

The Untouchables: Season 03

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Earning its highest-ever ratings during its second season, The Untouchables rapidly spiralled downhill during Season Three, ending up only 41st out of the 50 top shows. No, treasury agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) and his team had not finally been gunned down by the minions of gang boss Frank Read More

The Untouchables: Season 02

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Perhaps inevitably, the more popular the ABC crime drama The Untouchables became, the louder the series' detractors complained. Reaching its ratings peak as America's eighth-most-watched program during its second season, the series, which elaborated in the most violent fashion imaginable on the Read More

The Untouchables: Season 01

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Introduced as a highly successful two-party dramatization on the CBS anthology Desilu Playhouse, The Untouchables officially began its four-season ABC run in the fall of 1959, with Robert Stack returning as grim-visaged 1930s treasury agent Elliot Ness and Neville Brand making token appearances as Read More

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley

I Love Lucy: Season 06

Actors: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Richard Keith

Synopsis: Several changes occurred in the I Love Lucy format during the series' sixth and final season on the air. For one thing, little Richard Keith, a talented six-year-old drummer, was cast in the role of Little Ricky, the son of Cuban bandleader Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) and his wacky wife Lucy (Lucille Ball Read More

Forever Darling

Crew: Producer

Actors: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, James Mason, Louis Calhern, John Emery

Synopsis: When Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz beat the odds against TV stars succeeding on the big screen in The Long, Long Trailer (1954), MGM contracted America's favorite couple for a second theatrical feature. Forever Darling casts Desi as Lorenzo Xavier Vega, a brilliant scientist and Lucy as Susan, his Read More

I Love Lucy: Season 05

Actors: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley

Synopsis: I Love Lucy boasted a new sponsor (General Foods, taking over from Philip Morris Cigarettes), a new director, and new addition to its writing staff for its fifth season on the air. Otherwise, it's the same old zany redhead Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) making life hilariously chaotic for her Cuban Read More

I Love Lucy: Season 04

Actors: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley

Synopsis: Even though I Love Lucy was still America's top-rated series as it entered its fourth season, the producers -- including Desi Arnaz, who also starred as Cuban bandleader Ricky Ricardo -- decided it was time to freshen up the format a bit with a change of scenery. Thus, Ricky, his zany wife Lucy (Lucille Ball Read More

The Long, Long Trailer

Actors: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Marjorie Main, Keenan Wynn, Gladys Hurlbut

Synopsis: At the height of their TV fame, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were contracted by MGM to make two theatrical films. The first of these, The Long, Long Trailer, stars Lucy and Desi as an upwardly mobile couple who decide to buy a trailer so they can live together while his job takes him around the Read More

I Love Lucy: Season 03

Actors: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley

Synopsis: Though it was hard to top the "pregnancy" throughline that permeated the second season of I Love Lucy, the series maintained its ranking as America's favorite TV program throughout its third year on the air. Back for more fun and laughter were Lucille Ball as wacky housewife Lucy Ricardo, Desi Arnaz Read More

I Love Lucy: Season 02

Actors: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley

Synopsis: America's third most popular TV show during its first season, I Love Lucy skyrocketed to number one during Season Two -- no small thanks to the fact that the real-life pregnancy of Lucille Ball was brilliantly written into the script (though such was TV censorship at the time that the would Read More

I Love Lucy [TV Series]

Synopsis: Arguably the most popular TV situation comedy in the known world (and possibly a few worlds beyond that!), I Love Lucy has never stopped playing in rerun form since it originally aired over CBS from October 15, 1951, through June 24, 1957. It can be said without much fear of contradiction that Read More

I Love Lucy: Season 01

Actors: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley

Synopsis: By the time the first 35 episodes of I Love Lucy had been shown on CBS' Monday night lineup, virtually everybody in America loved zany redhead Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), her Cuban bandleader husband Ricky (Desi Arnaz) and their landlords and best friends, Fred and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance, William Frawley Read More

Holiday in Havana

Actors: Desi Arnaz, Mary Hatcher, Ann Doran, Steven Geray, Minerva Urecal

Synopsis: Desi Arnaz's bandleader career was in decline when he starred in Columbia's Holiday in Havana. Arnaz essays the difficult role of a Cuban bandleader, named not Ricky Ricardo but Carlos Estrada. His romantic vis-a-vis isn't Lucille McGillicudy but a peppery dancer named Lolita Valdez (Mary Read More

Cuban Pete

Actors: Desi Arnaz, Beverly Simmons, Don Porter, Jacqueline De Wit

Synopsis: This Universal B-musical casts Desi Arnaz as himself: a Cuban bandleader making it big in the United States. Shawnee (Joan Fulton) schemes to draw Arnaz from his homeland and transform the Havana musician into a star in New York City by having him perform on a successful radio show. Adding urgency Read More

Bataan

Actors: Robert Taylor, George Murphy, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Nolan, Lee Bowman, Robert Walker

Synopsis: In 1942, Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer and the United States Office of War Information collaborated on Bataan with the official goal to increase public understanding of World War II. The first war film to take place entirely on the battlefield -- with no scenes of the soldiers on leave, depictions of the Read More

The Navy Comes Through

Actors: Pat O'Brien, George Murphy, Jane Wyatt, Jackie Cooper, Carl Esmond, Desi Arnaz

Synopsis: A combat picture was virtually a license to print money in 1942, and RKO Radio's The Navy Comes Through was no exception (net profit: $542,000). Most of the film takes place on the ramshackle old merchant-marine freighter, skippered by Captain McCall (Ray Collins). The captain and his stalwart Read More

Four Jacks and a Jill

Actors: Ray Bolger, Anne Shirley, June Havoc, Desi Arnaz, Jack Durant

Synopsis: This quickie RKO musical is the second retread of Street Girl (1929); the 1937 musical That Girl from Paris was the first remake. This time around, the four jacks are musicians Nifty (Ray Bolger), Happy (Eddie Foy Jr.), Nat (Jack Briggs), and Eddie (William Blees). Their singer Opal (June Havoc) Read More

Father Takes a Wife

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Swanson, John Howard, Desi Arnaz, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: Silent screen queen Gloria Swanson returned to films after a seven-year absence in RKO Radio's Father Takes a Wife. Adolphe Menjou costars as a middle-aged widowed shipping magnate known as Senior, who falls in love with celebrated actress Leslie Collier (Gloria Swanson) and marries her after a Read More

Too Many Girls

Actors: Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Eddie Bracken, Frances Langford, Desi Arnaz

Synopsis: Now immortalized as the film on which Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz met, Too Many Girls is a faithful adaptation of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart-George Abbott Broadway musical hit. The light-as-a-feather plotline finds four football players hired to escort dizzy heiress Connie Casey (Lucille Read More

The Lucy Show: Season 03

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon, Candy Moore, Jimmy Garrett

Synopsis: Season three of The Lucy Show is something of a watershed for the series. To be sure, most of the episodes adhere to the formula established during the first two seasons, with wacky widow Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) and her divorced best friend and housemate Vivian Bagley (Vivian Vance) getting Read More

The Lucy Show: Season 02

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, Candy Moore, Jimmy Garrett, Ralph Hart

Synopsis: The second season of The Lucy Show finds zany redheaded widow Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) and her more levelheaded divorced housemate Vivian Bagley (Vivian Vance) still enmeshing themselves in comic situations cheerfully reminiscent of the actresses' glory days on I Love Lucy -- and still in Read More

The Lucy Show: Season 01

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, Candy Moore, Jimmy Garrett, Ralph Hart

Synopsis: Lucille Ball proves that her two-year absence from network television has not in any way blunted her comic expertise as The Lucy Show launches its first season. The episodes herein are pleasantly schizophrenic, with widowed mother Lucy Carmichael (Ball, of course) harvesting new comedy Read More