Lucy Ricardo Carmichael Carter Barker

During the 1950s, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz ruled the airwaves as the stars of the landmark sitcom “I Love Lucy.” After divorcing Arnaz, Ball continued her reign as the first lady of American TV during the ‘60s and ‘70s with her own series, “The Lucy Show.”

Beginning Monday, Nick at Nite is adding the long-running CBS sitcom to its TV Land lineup. It will air weeknights at 11.

“The Lucy Show” premiered Oct. 1, 1962, and was an instant hit. And for good reason. Like “I Love Lucy,” the new series was a showcase for Ball’s amazing comedic talents. It was chock full of slapstick and inspired silliness. Vivian Vance, who played Ethel in “I Love Lucy,” co-starred on “The Lucy Show,” as did another familiar “I Love Lucy,” face--Gale Gordon, who had appeared as Ricky’s boss at the Tropicana.

“The Lucy Show” found Ball playing another daffy redhead, Lucy Carmichael, a widow with two children, Chris (Candy Moore) and Jerry (Jimmy Garrett). Lucy shared her suburban home in Danfield, Conn., with her recently divorced best friend Vivian Bagley (Vance) and her son Sherman (Ralph Hart).

Each week Lucy and Viv would get embroiled in some crazy scheme to either make money or meet the man of their dreams. During the second season, Lucy got a part-time job at the Danfield First National Bank and went to work for her boss, the long-suffering, blustery Mr. Mooney (Gordon).

In the fall of 1965, Lucy moved to San Francisco and, by coincidence, so did Mr Mooney. He became vice president of the Westland Bank and Lucy worked as his secretary. Roy Roberts joined the cast as Mooney’s boss Harrison Cheever. Lucy’s daughter was written out of the show and Vivian would occasionally fly out from the East to visit her friend. Lucy’s new cohort in comedy was friend Mary Jane Lewis (Mary Jane Croft).

Three years later, the series was retitled “Here’s Lucy.” Lucy’s last name was now Carter and she lived in Los Angeles with her two children, Kim and Craig (played by her own children, Lucie and Desi Jr.). A widow, she worked for the Unique Employment Agency, which was owned by her long-suffering, blustery brother-in-law Harrison Carter (Gordon).

That series continued until 1974. Ball won two Emmy Awards for her work on “The Lucy Show,” and the show ranked among the Top 15 until its final season.

Ball and Gordon returned to series TV in September, 1986, in the ABC series “Life with Lucy,” as Lucy Barker and Curtis McGibbon, but the uninspired scripts let the old pros down. The show was pulled after just two months.

Nick at Nite has acquired all 154 episodes of “The Lucy Show” (not including “Here’s Lucy”), including 30 in black and white.

“The Lucy Show” airs weeknights at 11 on Nickelodeon.

“I Love Lucy” airs 5-7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays on KTTV; weekdays at 3 a.m. on TBS, 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on KTTV, and 9 and 10 a.m. on XETV.