Vivian Vance (Actor)

One of Vance's final TV appearances was as a guest star in an episode of "Rhoda" playing an older woman in the apartment building whom Rhoda befriends despite the difference in their ages and that her mother, Ida Morgenstern, is jealous of the relationship.

The character of Vivian Bagley, played by Vance on "The Lucy Show," was a TV milestone in that she was a divorced single mother. That widowed Lucy and Viv were living together with their children was a harbringer of another TV series, "Kate & Allie," from the 1980s in which stars Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin actually impersonated Lucy and Ethel during a fantasy sequence on one episode.

Vance's Ethel Mertz character was supposed to have been born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Vance had lived as a child. Ethel Mertz's maiden name was Ethel Mae Potter during the trip to Hollywood episodes, but earlier in the series she was referred to as Ethel Roberta. Vance and William Frawley, who portrayed Fred Mertz, were not fond of each other off-stage.