Three days later, March 18, 1974, "Here's Lucy" airs the last episode of its sixth and final season, ending Lucille Ball's nearly 23-years on television.
This interview took place in the last months of "The Phil Donahue Show" while in Dayton, Ohio. By fall 1974, they had moved the show to Chicago. True to his original mission, the audience is made up of women, and there is only one male caller.
When Donahue asks her if negative reviews bother her, she quickly says "Yes, I'm vulnerable. But so far the good ones have outweighed the bad ones." Lucy says the film has gotten off to a great start and Donahue mentions that Radio City broke a box office record.
Before coming to Dayton for this interview, Lucy spent a week in New York, a week in Chicago, where they had a speakeasy party and she met Mayor and Mrs. Daly. After this interview, she will go on to Atlanta for a fox hunt brunch at a plantation. She tells Phil that on several of her stops, she wore various wigs (just as Mame does in the film) and played charades.
Lucy says that she needs to fatten Jackie Gleason up to play Diamond Jim Brady in a script she's had written. This is a project that never happened.