Editing Vivian Vance (section)

===Television===
'''1951–1958: ''I Love Lucy'' and success'''[[File:I Love Lucy Cast.JPG|thumb|Cast of ''[[I Love Lucy]]'': [[William Frawley]], [[Desi Arnaz]]; Vivian Vance, [[Lucille Ball]] ]]
When [[Desi Arnaz]] and [[Lucille Ball]] were casting their new television sitcom ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' in 1951, [[television director|director]] [[Marc Daniels]], who had previously worked with Vance in a theater production, suggested her for the role of [[landlady]] [[Ethel Mertz]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-79169463.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610060655/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-79169463.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=June 10, 2014| title=Still Loving Lucy TV Classic Debuted 50 Years Ago Today| agency=[[Associated Press]]| date=October 15, 2001| access-date=July 15, 2013| author=Thomas, Bob| newspaper=[[The Cincinnati Post]]| via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}</ref> Lucille Ball had wanted either [[Bea Benaderet]] or [[Barbara Pepper]], both close friends, to play the role. [[CBS]] refused Pepper on the grounds she had a serious drinking problem,<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KoABABSnX7oC&q=barbara+pepper+drinking+problem&pg=PA56|title=Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia| last=Karol| first=Michael| date=2004-01-04| publisher=iUniverse| isbn=978-0-5957-5213-3| page=56| language=en}}</ref> and Benaderet was already playing Blanche Morton on ''[[The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show]]''.<ref>{{cite web| first=Ken| last=Severson| title=Biography for Bea Benaderet| url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0070153/bio| website=[[IMDb]]| access-date=2008-04-04}}</ref>

Ultimately, the 42-year-old Vance won the role on the new [[television program]], which debuted October 15, 1951, on CBS. Vance's Ethel Mertz character was the landlady of a New York City apartment that she and her husband Fred owned on East 68th Street. The role of Fred Mertz was played by [[William Frawley]], who was actually 22 years her senior. Despite their exceptional chemistry, comedic timing, and musical prowess together onscreen, Vance and Frawley did not get along offscreen. According to some reports, things first went sour when Frawley overheard Vance complaining about his age, stating that he should be playing her father instead of her husband. She used to skim through the script before she memorized her lines to see how many scenes she had with "that stubborn-headed little Irishman."<ref>{{cite web| first=Michael| last=Karol| title=I Love Lucy| url=http://www.sitcomboy.com/series.html| website=Lucy A to Z| year=2006| access-date=2008-04-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Mikkelson, Barbara and David |title= Was 'I Love Lucy' Co-star Vivian Vance Contractually Obligated to Remain Overweight?|url=http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/vance.htm |website=Snopes |date=September 22, 2022|access-date=2024-09-10}}</ref>

[[File:Vance, Arnaz, Ball (1954 emmys).jpg|thumb|left|Vance with Arnaz and Ball at the [[6th Primetime Emmy Awards]] after winning the first Emmy for Supporting Actress]]
Honored for her work in 1953, Vance became the first actress to win an [[Emmy Award]] for [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series|Outstanding Supporting Actress]]; she accepted her award at the Emmy ceremony in February 1954. She was nominated an additional three times (for 1954, 1956, and 1957) before the series ended.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vivian Vance |url=https://www.emmys.com/bios/vivian-vance |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=Television Academy |language=en}}</ref>

In 1957, after the highly successful half-hour ''I Love Lucy'' [[I Love Lucy episodes|episodes]] ended, Vance continued playing Ethel Mertz on a series of hour-long [[Television special|specials]] titled ''[[The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour|The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show]]'' (later retitled ''The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour''). When ''I Love Lucy'' was reformatted into the hour-long ''Lucy-Desi'' shows in 1957, Desi Arnaz offered Vance and Frawley the opportunity to star in their own "Fred and Ethel" [[List of television spin-offs|spin-off show]]. Although Frawley was very interested, Vance declined, mainly because she did not want to work on a one-on-one basis with Frawley, as they already had an acrimonious relationship. Also, she felt the Mertz characters would be unsuccessful in a show without the Ricardos. Vance's choice to decline the would-be show intensified the animosity between her and Frawley.<ref>{{cite web |first=Libby |last=Pelham |title=I Really Love Lucy |website=Families.com |date=25 March 2006 |url=https://www.families.com/i-really-love-lucy |access-date=2022-07-22}}</ref> Instead, Vance was interested in doing a series based on the life of Babs Hooten, a New York socialite who moves to New Mexico to run a hotel and ranch. Desi Arnaz financed a pilot starring Vance as Hooten titled ''[[Guestward, Ho!]]'', which was shot in 1958 by [[Desilu Productions|Desilu]]; however, the show was rejected by CBS and Vance continued playing Ethel Mertz. Arnaz later retooled the show with model and actress [[Joanne Dru]] taking the lead role, selling the series to [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], where it was subsequently cancelled after one season.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-14 |title=Mark Miller, 'Please Don't Eat the Daisies' Star and 'Walk in the Clouds' Screenwriter, Dies at 97 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/mark-miller-dead-please-dont-eat-daisies-1235220657/ |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=The Hollywood Reporter}}</ref>

'''1962–1977: ''The Lucy Show'' and later works'''[[File:Lucille Ball Vivian Vance The Lucy Show 1962.JPG|thumb|209x209px|Season-one cast of ''[[The Lucy Show]]'': Candy Moore (in back); front, L-R: Jimmy Garrett, [[Lucille Ball]], Vance, and Ralph Hart (1962)|left]]

In 1962, Lucille Ball was planning to return to television in a new series, ''[[The Lucy Show]]''. The series starred Ball as Lucy Carmichael, a widow with two children living in [[Danfield, New York]]. Vance reluctantly agreed to be her co-star on the condition she be allowed to appear in more glamorous clothes and have her character be named "Vivian". By this time in her life, Vance had grown tired of the public addressing her as "Ethel".

[[File:Vivian_Vance_Allen_Case_The_Deputy_1959.JPG|thumb|Vance with [[Allen Case]] on TV's ''[[The Deputy (TV series)|The Deputy]]'' (1959)]]
After her departure from ''The Lucy Show'', Vance appeared occasionally alongside Ball on reunion shows and made several guest appearances on Ball's third sitcom, ''[[Here's Lucy]]'' (1968–1974). In 1973, she was diagnosed with [[breast cancer]]. During this period, Vance's agent got her an endorsement deal with [[Maxwell House]] coffee. Over the next several years, she appeared in numerous commercials for Maxwell House. Vance made a number of TV guest appearances in the 1970s, including a 1975 episode of ''[[Rhoda]],'' as well as appearing in a number of made-for-TV movies, including ''The Front Page'' (1970), ''Getting Away From it All'' (1972), and ''[[The Great Houdini (film)|The Great Houdini]]'' (1976). Ball and Vance appeared together one last time in the 1977 CBS special ''Lucy Calls the President.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vivian Vance and William Frawley: Hall of Fame Tribute |url=https://www.emmys.com/news/hall-fame/vivian-vance-and-william-frawley-hall-fame-tribute |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=Television Academy |language=en}}</ref>