<P> Lucille Ball would go on to perform Lucy Ricardo - inspired characters on her ensuing sitcoms: The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and the short - lived flop Life with Lucy . In each series, the character Ball portrayed (each one named Lucy) was a widow or divorceé . In the mid-1960s, she was involved in a lawsuit against Jess Oppenheimer, the co-creator of I Love Lucy, over the similarities among the separate Lucy characters . The dispute was later settled out of court . </P> <P> Arnaz only portrayed a similar Ricky Ricardo character once after The Lucy - Desi Comedy Hour ended its run: in a recurring role on The Mothers - in - Law, Arnaz portrayed matador Raphael Delgado, with the same accent and personality as Ricky (as a Desilu production, The Mothers - in - Law used many of the same writers and executive staff as the Lucy shows). </P> <P> Other television series, especially those created by Desilu (the production company Arnaz and Ball co-founded) sought to copy the Lucy Ricardo theme . Even Janis Paige, in her short - lived Desilu - produced CBS sitcom It's Always Jan, wore her hair like Lucy's, and Cara Williams followed the Lucy Ricardo format in Pete and Gladys, which lasted only two seasons on CBS . </P>

Ricky's signature song also what he renamed the nightclub that he bought in the 6th season