![\"Lucille](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screen-Shot-2020-10-09-at-6.40.41-PM-e1602689450195.png\")
<\/a>Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.<\/p><\/div>\n
Actually, even though I\u2019ve been compared to the crazy redhead since high school, (and even moreso from the start of my former TV show right up until today,) I didn\u2019t fully appreciate Lucy until I played her on a TV sitcom! Sort-of.<\/p>\n
So, in honor of National\u00a0I Love Lucy<\/em>\u00a0Day, here\u2019s that story:<\/p>\n I had already done one episode of Fox\u2019s\u00a0Open House<\/em>, (as the wife of series semi-regular, Ray Buktenica.) The producers were considering having my character recur, but the one I was on was filmed as what was supposed to be the end of one season of the show from which this<\/em> sitcom was spun-off, and then it became Episode 1 of the new<\/em> one, (don\u2019t ask,) so they sort-of changed a lot of the plot-lines from the original series. They asked Ray to stay, but didn\u2019t need a fam for his character anymore.<\/p>\n But, happily for me, the powers-that-be over there were pleased with my work, so they asked me to do a second episode as a different<\/em> character, (which was kosher in the TV biz because it was supposed to be another season; SAG doesn\u2019t allow performers to play multiple characters in one season.) But I was already committed to doing a guest spot on a different series that week, so I had to decline\u00a0Open House<\/em>\u2019s offer. (Ah\u2014those were the days, when I was actually an in-demand entertainer occasionally.) So that freed me up to do one more episode of the show later on in the run.<\/p>\n The Open House cast list on IMDB. Who would have ever thought that my name would be listed as playing “Lucille Ball!”<\/p><\/div>\n And then I got the call, literally\u00a0begging<\/em>\u00a0me to appear on the very last episode of that season, (which turned-out to be the last one of the entire\u00a0series<\/em>,) as\u2026a Lucy impersonator!!! I asked one of the producers why they thought I could play that, to which she answered that they\u00a0knew<\/em>\u00a0I could! So, using their confidence in me as inspiration, I agreed, and off I went to do the table read which began the work week.<\/p>\n But as soon as we started reading the script out loud, I realized that all<\/em> of the other guest stars that week were\u2026actual celebrity impersonators! There was a Robin Leach, a Joan Rivers, a Jack Nicholson, a Jerry Lewis, and the wonderful late impressionist-extraordinaire, Danny Gans, playing my Desi. (He was a series regular, and the storyline was that his character was having a party with his fellow impressionists as guests.)<\/p>\n When I saw that the sitcom had hired\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0impressionists for the rest of the cast, I asked those others why the show hadn\u2019t just hired a real\u00a0Lucy<\/em>\u00a0one, as well. And, to a person, they all let out a little gasp, and declared, \u201cNo one<\/em>\u00a0would\u00a0ever<\/em>\u00a0touch Lucy!!! Then the producers admitted that that\u2019s why they needed an\u00a0actress<\/em>\u00a0instead.\u00a0\u00a0And they said that I was the first one they had all thought of! That was flattering, but put sooo much more pressure on me<\/em> than on the other guest stars, who had been plying their comedy trade for years at that point.<\/p>\n There don’t appear to be any pix from that Open House episode, but this is how red Karen Salkin’s hair was back then. Photo by Karen Coe.<\/p><\/div>\n Shockingly, the show went really well!\u00a0\u00a0I had only one issue with the whole shoot. The hair people had wanted to dye my auburn hair \u201cLucy red,\u201d which I was not happy about, but agreed to. Then they forgot to order the color in time! Oysh. I told them I had a good red mousse at home, from when I used to put it in my formerly-punky hair a year or so before. So I brought it in for the taping, and while I was sitting in the chair going over my script one final time, I didn\u2019t realize that the hair woman had, instead of just taking a handful of the mousse and running it through my hair for a second, sprayed the contents of the entire can<\/em> out into a bowl and was brushing it on,\u00a0thick<\/em>, like hair color that you wash out! By the time she was done, my tresses weighed about a thousand pounds and looked dirty and grimy!!! I was mortified. But there was no time before the taping in front of a live audience to wash it out and do it over correctly. That would have taken at least another hour, (especially because they had already done my make-up,) which we did not have.<\/p>\n So, on the show, my hair looked dreadful, the uber-conservative outfit they made me wear was hideous, and, for the first, and\u00a0only<\/em> time, in my entire acting career, my nose looked ten times bigger than it even is!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>