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Q: I've been watching reruns of "The Lucy Show," but I can't find the episode where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton guest-starred. Why has it disappeared?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

It's an easy mistake to make: Hollywood power couple Elizabeth Taylor ("Cleopatra," 1963) and Richard Burton ("1984," 1984) appeared on "Here's Lucy," not "The Lucy Show."

"Here's Lucy" was the third prime-time sitcom featuring comedy great Lucille Ball -- "The Lucy Show" was the second -- but they both sort of blend together as the work she did after "I Love Lucy."

The episode you're looking for is "Lucy Meets the Burtons," the first installment of "Here's Lucy's" third season. In it, Lucy finds Taylor's famous diamond ring (featuring the 68-carat Taylor-Burton Diamond) and it, of course, gets stuck on her finger. Trademark Lucille Ball-style hijinks ensue.

In real life, Taylor and Burton had bought the diamond in 1969, just a year before the episode aired, and so it was a ripped-from-the-headlines story that isn't often seen from a sitcom.

But by that point in her storied career, Ball had made a huge number of celebrity friends, many of whom were more than happy to do a turn on her latest project. Other notable guests included Vincent Price ("House on Haunted Hill," 1959), Milton Berle ("It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," 1963), Carol Burnett ("The Carol Burnett Show"), Johnny Carson ("The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson"), Dean Martin ("Rio Bravo," 1959) and Jackie Gleason (reprising his role as Ralph from "The Honeymooners").

 

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