Nobody’s Laughing About ‘Lucy’ : Television: CBS’ film, which aired Sunday, delved into delicate matters in Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s lives. Not everyone was pleased but the movie got 26% of the audience in big cities.

TV or not TV. . . .

LEGACY: It’s 40 years since Lucille Ball debuted in “I Love Lucy,” and it’s as if she’s never been away. She hasn’t, of course, because of reruns.

And interest in her life and astonishing career continues, as shown by the controversy over Sunday’s two-hour CBS exploitation film, “Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter.”

The film, with Frances Fisher and Maurice Benard as Lucy and husband Desi Arnaz, dealt with delicate matters in their personal lives--including his roving eye--in the years leading up to their classic sitcom.

And viewer fascination with the Lucy legend was indicated again by big-city overnight ratings, which showed that the movie, averaging a 26% audience share, outpointed “Big,” ABC’s motion picture, and “The Chase,” NBC’s telefilm about the pursuit of an escaped convict.

The Lucy film was a major hit in Los Angeles with a 30% tune-in at the start, rising to 39% in the last half-hour. National ratings are scheduled for release today.

Despite its initial ratings success, the CBS film did not sit well with the famous couple’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz, who thinks much more highly of a new exhibit that Universal studios is planning to add to its attractions March 15, “Lucy: A Tribute.” It’s a free-flow facility in which, Universal says, fans will be able to “walk through” Ball’s career, as represented by memorabilia from both her personal and professional life.

Johnny Carson was also disturbed by CBS’ decision to put on the Sunday film about Ball and Arnaz. In a rare display of anger on “The Tonight Show” Friday, he lashed out at CBS, noting that Ball helped build that network for several decades.

Carson told his audience that CBS was airing the special because it was the competitive February ratings sweeps period. He cracked that he hoped NBC wouldn’t put on a show prying into his life when he’s gone. It could, he said, be a miniseries.

Harry Ackerman, who recently died and who was one of TV’s great gentlemen and most creative executives, recalled Ball a while back in an article for the journal of the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors.

Ackerman, who had a hand in countless TV hits including “I Love Lucy” and “Bewitched,” noted that Ball “could not tell a joke any more than Jack Benny could tell a joke, so I guess she doesn’t strictly rate as a comic. However, her total and enthusiastic support from audiences certainly puts her up there as the greatest female clown in history.

“A writer-admirer once wrote: ‘The Lucy character is really an ingenue. The character she plays in the “Lucy” show has nothing to do with Lucille Ball. In most cases, television is an X-ray, and you can’t exist very long unless you’re playing yourself. . . . She’s done it. She’s playing somebody else.’ ”

CBS, meanwhile, continues its nostalgia kick during the next week, with retrospectives on “All in the Family” Saturday, “The Ed Sullivan Show” Sunday and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” on Monday.

PATTERNS: Viewers’ network preferences, day by day, are pretty clear.

CBS usually draws well on Sundays (“60 Minutes,” “Murder, She Wrote”) and Mondays (“Murphy Brown”). It also has a sleeper on Tuesdays with “Rescue 911,” but invariably collapses later in the week.

NBC makes up ground on Thursdays (“Cheers”) and Saturdays (“Empty Nest”). It’s also a contender Tuesdays (“In the Heat of the Night”) and has its own sleeper on Wednesdays (“Unsolved Mysteries”).

ABC is tough on Tuesdays (“Roseanne”), Wednesdays (“The Wonder Years”) and Fridays (“Full House”). It also has a shot at Sundays (“America’s Funniest Home Videos”).

Verdict: NBC’s old shows--remarkably constant--may have just enough left to pull off another season’s victory, but one new smash series could turn the trick for any network.

PACKAGE: How’s this for a double dose of NBC’s February sweeps gamesmanship?

On Feb. 20, Robert Stack, who played crime-buster Eliot Ness in “The Untouchables,” profiles one of Ness’ nemeses as host of “Unsolved Mysteries.”

That will be followed by Charlton Heston hosting another “reality” show, “Nostradamus: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow.” NBC says that Nostradamus, hundreds of years ago, “seems to have presaged the current Middle East crisis.”

Well, inquiring minds want to know.

UPDATE: In case you’ve lost track of “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,” it returned to Lifetime cable Jan. 19 for its final 13 original episodes, and the four shows thus far have been something special.

As you’ll recall, Molly (Blair Brown) is pregnant. And the father turns out to be Nathaniel (Richard Lawson), her charming police detective boyfriend, who is black. They make plans to get married.

But Nathaniel dies in a freak accident, and Molly isn’t sure she wants to have the baby.

Sounds soap-opera-ish, right? Well, it’s not. On the contrary, writer-producers Richard Dresser and Elaine Arata have done a stunning job of weaving drama and comedy together in a series of episodes that beautifully connect the assorted offbeat characters and happenings that make up Molly’s world.

The final nine episodes of “Molly” air Saturdays at 10:30 p.m.

MODERN TIMES: The fact that very few viewers complained to NBC about the almost-chaste lesbian kiss between two attorneys on last week’s “L.A. Law” is more significant than the scene itself.

CHANGE OF PACE: Several readers phoned to say that Bill Moyers, generally seen in PBS specials, seemed newly energized by being back in the midst of daily journalism as part of CNN’s Gulf War coverage. Good point, and true.

STEADY HAND: It hardly seems a coincidence that “In the Heat of the Night,” under the guidance of its determined star and producer Carroll O’Connor, has quietly emerged as one of the few network series where blacks have a genuine dramatic presence.

CHECKOUT: Nifty “Roseanne” episode last week as Roseanne Barr toured a supermarket with a group of young girls, giving them her version of home economics.

BEING THERE: “I’m the beer-and-pretzel type.”--Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) in “I Love Lucy.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .