By Lynn Elber
AP Television Writer
Tuesday, June 30, 1998

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- There's a nice touch of irony in the Turner Classics Movies' month-long tribute to Lucille Ball's film career.

Television, which made the most of her comic gifts, is highlighting how the movie industry squandered them.

From the early 1930s until the 1950s, Miss Ball often was relegated to supporting roles in generally mediocre films. Then it was TV to the rescue, allowing Miss Ball and husband Desi Arnaz to package her genius properly on ''I Love Lucy.''

''Lucy'' reruns, of course, are as much a part of the atmosphere as oxygen. Films like ''Panama Lady,'' ''The Affairs of Annabel'' and ''Twelve Crowded Hours'' are forgotten.

But for true fans, the cable channel's July festival of 29 movies featuring Miss Ball is a chance to see their heroine as a dewy-eyed youngster in early bit parts and in a few rare dramatic roles.

There's also the opportunity to play the entertaining ''Hollywood-must-be-run-by-idiots'' game in which viewers discern her star quality that should have hit studio executives like a cream pie in the kisser.

Maybe Miss Ball, who died in 1989 at age 77, was just too much of a challenge for them, suggests comedienne Carol Burnett.

''Nobody knew what to do with her. It could be possible that her beauty might have thrown them,'' Miss Burnett said. ''In that era, the only really glamorous comedic actress was Carol Lombard.''

As part of TCM's tribute, Miss Burnett narrates a short film on her friend's career that plays throughout the month. Each Thursday, a half-dozen or so of Miss Ball's films will be shown beginning at 5 p.m.

Among the best bets, all times EDT: the Marx Brothers' ''Room Service'' (1938), 8 p.m. Thursday; ''Easy to Wed,'' a musical remake of ''Libeled Lady'' (1946) 10 p.m. July 16; ''The Big Street'' (1942) in which Miss Ball played a crippled showgirl cared for by Henry Fonda, 1:30 a.m. July 30, and ''Dubarry Was a Lady,'' (1943) co-starring Red Skelton and Gene Kelly, 10 p.m. July 30.

Also showing is ''The Long Long Trailer'' (1954), 8 p.m. July 23, which paired Miss Ball and Arnaz and was released during the first run of ''I Love Lucy.''

As Miss Burnett remembers it, Miss Ball never lamented her movie misuse -- understandably, perhaps, in light of the fortune and popularity television brought. But she was low-key about her TV success as well.

''She was very grateful for any accolades she got. She was very gracious and pleased that the show was the success it was. But she never talked that much about it,'' said Miss Burnett.

On the TV screen, Miss Ball was center stage with her inspired pratfalls, childlike charm and a lovely, Silly Putty face that stretched improbably into expressions of alarm and delight. Off-screen, among pals, she surrendered the spotlight.

''She was never 'on.' She was the best audience in the world,'' said Miss Burnett. ''Sometimes she'd hold her stomach, she was laughing so hard at somebody's jokes.''

''She was so different from the Lucy persona. There wasn't an idle thought in her head. ... She was one of the most down-to-earth people I've ever met. She came up the hard way, wasn't just 'to the manor born.' She worked.''

Miss Ball became a mentor to Miss Burnett, 21 years her junior, after they met in 1959.

''She came to see me on the second night of 'Once Upon a Mattress' off-Broadway, which was the show that got me my big break,'' Miss Burnett said. ''I remember I made the mistake of peeking through the hole in the curtain and seeing this redhead sitting out there.

''I don't remember how I got through the show. We were all atwitter because Lucy was in the audience.''

Afterward, Miss Ball spent a half-hour backstage with her. ''If you ever need anything, kid, just let me know,'' she told the young actress.

A few years later, Miss Burnett was offered a special on CBS if she could enlist a big name to appear. She put in a nervous phone call.

''Say no more. When do you want me?'' was Miss Ball's instant and generous reply.

The two worked together again. Miss Burnett appeared several times on ''The Lucy Show,'' the 1962-74 successor to ''I Love Lucy'' that Miss Ball did solo after she and Arnaz divorced.

Miss Ball, in turn, visited ''The Carol Burnett Show,'' which ran for a dozen years beginning in 1967.

''She's a clown and so am I,'' said Miss Burnett, explaining their mutual attraction. They also shared a crisp production style.

''Lucy would do a 25-minute show in less than an hour. The studio audience was hot and we would play to them, because the chances are if they laughed, the folks at home would laugh,'' Miss Burnett said.

The hour-long ''The Carol Burnett Show,'' with its elaborate musical numbers and costume changes, would be completed in two hours, she said. By contrast, half-hour TV comedies now routinely take three hours or longer to film.

Miss Burnett explained how she can watch actors in a sitcom and tell ''by the eyes'' how long it took to tape a scene. ''There's nothing behind them. It's like rote,'' she said. ''They hurt the spontaneity; there's no danger.''

Even if some of Miss Ball's lessons in how to make superior TV comedy have been forgotten, her shows themselves haven't been. Neither has the woman.

She was ''the comedienne of comediennes,'' said Miss Burnett. ''I don't think a day goes by that she doesn't dip into my brain.''