This special aired on a Saturday evening at 10pm. Its lead in was the season five premiere of the phenomenally successful "The Golden Girls" (also featuring Betty White) which led the evening with a 23.5 share. "Bob Hope's Love Affair With Lucy" came in second, with a respectable 19.3. It was up against College Football on ABC. Because the special was 90 minutes and started on the half hour, its competition on CBS was the last half hour of "Tour of Duty" (season three premiere) and the series premiere of "Saturday Night With Connie Chung."
Because this special aired on NBC, no scenes from any of Lucille Ball's CBS sitcoms (or "Life with Lucy" on ABC) were included. Kirk Cameron was an ABC star, but worked on several of Hope's NBC specials. Although Betty White never acted with Lucille Ball, the pair enjoyed an off-stage friendship as did their mothers. White also was a perfect tie in to woo "Golden Girls" fans to stay tuned after the sitcom's season opener. Although Burns and Thomas both worked on screen with Lucy, no clips of their collaborations were used.
The special opens with a montage of clips of Lucille Ball's entrances on Bob Hope's specials, underscored by the "I Love Lucy Theme."
In a sketch from "The Bob Hope Show" (September 24, 1962) Lucy plays a district attorney trying to arrest Bugsy Hope. Edited out of the sketch is a bit that was frighteningly prescient. A spray of gunfire comes through the window and Lucy remarks "Just what I wanted, a Jackie Kennedy hairdo." Another change involves music royalties. In the original, Lucy makes her entrance into Bugsy's flat to the tune of David Rose's "The Stripper" (released in 1962) but in 1989 it is replace by a similar sounding piece of music.
Kirk Cameron says that the first time he met Lucille Ball on a May 1987 Bob Hope show at an Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. On a subsequent Hope special, Lucy needed a stand-in to take a pie in the face and chose Cameron.