The idea for Lucy Calls the President was, more or less, a Lucy Show reunion, as the special featured most of the regulars from that series.  The special also marked an I Love Lucy reunion behind the scenes, with Marc Daniels directing, and Madelyn Davis & Bob Carroll Jr. sharing both writing and producing duties.  Lucy Calls the President marked Lucy's final television appearence with the ailing Vivian Vance.  Viv had suffered a stroke a few months prior to the start of filming, which had left her face partially immoblized.  At the same time, she was trying to combat advancing cancer with chemotherapy treatments.  All was not well in Lucy's life either.  She had lost her beloved mother, DeDe, in July 1977, and was extremely mean throughout filming, yelling and insulting the entire cast.  As Madelyn Davis remembered, "Lucy's mother had always been in the audience from the very first I Love Lucy days.  When Lucy would go onstage to greet the audience, she'd call out 'Hi, Mother,' and then say, 'I want you to meet my beautiful mother, DeDe.'  It was a lovely moment. ... When Lucy walked onstage [during taping of the special] as usual to greet the audience, I could see for a moment that she felt utterly lost.  It only lasted a moment, but the pain was there."  The production introduced a new Lucy character, Lucy Whittaker, who prepared to have President Jimmy Carter for dinner throughout the show.  Many of the trademark Lucy elements were utilized including Kitchen Chaos and Mistaken Identities.  The special was designed to be the final major CBS-Lucy production, and was well-recieved ratings-wise.