Still lots of love for Lucy in TV Land

NOT long after Lucille Ball died in 1989, CBS aired a made-for-TV biopic about the comedian’s romantic woes with her husband and costar, Desi Arnaz. Critics weren’t kind to “Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter,” but they were hardly as outraged as Ball’s daughter, who found the film a “tabloid-esque” treatment of the duo behind the seminal sitcom “I Love Lucy,” which ran on CBS during 1951-57.

“It was done by the very network she had put on the map!” Lucie Arnaz said recently, still livid at the memory. “It was sad. But they’re all different people there now, so I don’t hold it against the people who are in charge at the moment.”

In fact, Arnaz, 55, a Broadway singer-actress, has lately become a fan of CBS’ corporate cousin, the Viacom-owned cable outlet TV Land, which helps keep “I Love Lucy” and other classic shows alive for viewers far too young to remember their original airings.

Last week, Arnaz and her brother, actor Desi Arnaz Jr., 54, accepted the Legacy of Laughter award on behalf of their mother at the fifth annual TV Land Awards in Santa Monica; the ceremony will be shown on the network Sunday night.

This year’s award show attracted marquee presenters and guests such as Forest Whitaker, Morgan Freeman, Danny DeVito and even “Dancing With the Stars’ ” Heather Mills. Besides Ball, TV Land honored “The Brady Bunch,” “Taxi,” “Hee Haw” and ABC’s landmark miniseries “Roots.”

The host was Kelly Ripa, co-host of “Live With Regis and Kelly,” who opened the show with a comic montage spoofing classic opening-credit sequences.

“TV Land,” Arnaz said, “has been wonderful in preserving not only ‘I Love Lucy,’ but all these other shows that are favorites.”

Both Arnaz children followed their parents into show business -- they were regular costars on their mother’s sitcom “Here’s Lucy” in the early 1970s -- but seem to have avoided intentionally the chaotic career paths that wreaked havoc on their parents’ personal lives. (Ball and Arnaz divorced in 1960.)

The pair have remained intensely protective of their parents’ legacy, however.

They work together on a center and museum in Jamestown, N.Y., that commemorates their parents’ work, including the sponsorship of Legacy of Laughter (or LOL) comedy workshops nationwide.

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Collins writes the Channel Island column that runs every Monday in Calendar. Contact him at scott.collins@latimes.com