Keith Thibodeaux will always be remembered for having played "Little Ricky" on the incomparable 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy. During his run on the show, he'd undoubtedly become one of the most recognizable child stars of the era. From his effortless drumming to his overall appeal, Keith was a vital part of the legendary comedy. I Love Lucy still resonates in the hearts of many people to this day. No one will ever forget the Ricardos or the Mertzes, and few TV living rooms can boast the importance of 623 East 68th Street. Keith has fond memories of his childhood experiences and recently agreed to speak with us about the show, his life and career outside of Hollywood. You can click play on the player below to hear the audio stream from the interview, as well as read the transcription. Please make sure that your browser is equipped to play flash in order to hear the audio stream. Ladies and Gentleman, Mr. Keith Thibodeaux!

MP: Today I’m speaking with Keith Thibodeaux, who everyone is certainly familiar with as Little Ricky on I Love Lucy. Keith, I really appreciate your time today, thanks so much.

Keith: I appreciate you calling me Gary, thank you.

MP: You started out on I Love Lucy in 1956 I believe, which would’ve made you 5, going on 6 years old. Explain, if you could, how you landed the role of Little Ricky.

Keith: Well it was an audition process like most of those things come about. Before the I Love Lucy show, I was a professional drummer doing one night stands with Horace Heidt and his band in the 1950s. That show wrapped up in Los Angeles where Mr. Heidt was from. He had a home in Sherman Oaks, a ranch I should say, during that time he had a lot of property there. We stayed on his ranch. Basically we were in Hollywood and my dad got a job somewhere, I believe it was at a tire company or something like that - to sort of make means for the family until we figured out what we were going to do after that. So, being in show business at an early age, a friend of his found out about this interview they were having for the I Love Lucy show. They were looking to expand a little on "Little Ricky", which had been previously played by a couple of sets of twins - the Mayer twins and the Simmons twins. They were ready to write more plots, they were kind of getting out of plots for Lucy and they wanted to write more angles. So, they thought Lucy ought to have a baby, then they began to have the "Little Ricky" character. So they were going to bring out a little bit more of the character. So, I was interviewed with about two hundred little boys in New York and Hollywood and when I got on the set, I was interviewed by Lucy and Desi. Desi came over, at one point they had a set of drums on the stage and I began playing the drums. Once I started playing the drums he began to jam with me. He kind of laughed, stood up and said "I think we found Little Ricky". So the fact that I looked like Desi at the time and the fact that I could play the drums at 4 or 5 years old, that made it really impressive for them - that they could find someone like me that had those kinds of abilities so they could write more musically minded shows. They were always doing some kind of musical variety shtick on the show and Lucy was always trying to get in to the act, so that played into it very well.

MP: I would assume that you would have to find some way, being that young, to handle your education in addition to shooting. Did they have any special arrangements for you for school?

Keith: At that time, you'd have to have somebody from the Board of Education in California there with you at all times, even if you're not in school. So, they had a teacher that would sit with me, play games and different things like that until I reached the age to go into first grade. At that point I began regular school studies on the set, three hours of school was required out of a six hour day. So, three hours of shooting and three hours of school. You had to kind of go in and out with that. In fact my teacher, Catherine Barton, a very nice lady, I'll always remember her, she was also Ron Howard's (Opie on "The Andy Griffith show) teacher as well. So when I went on that show later on after the Lucy show was over, she'd told Ron about me and Ron had been very mindful of who I was, so it was kind of cool. We became friends as well. But that's kind of how it ended up, you'd have three hours of school and I did that until I was 9 years old. Then when the show was on hiatus, I would go to a regular school. So that was different because I'd have a little bit of regular school and then Hollywood school.

MP: In addition to just being a cast member, you had a personal relationship with Lucy and Desi. How different were they from the ‘Lucy and Ricky’ that we know?

Keith: Well they were not anything like their characters, other than the fact that Desi was a talented musician and that he was from Cuba. They had very tumultuous lives together as everyone is quite well aware of. Through the last several decades that's been pretty well gone over about their personal lives. But they were very different people, unique people and very talented people, very creative people. They loved show business, especially Lucy. Desi liked more behind-the-scenes type stuff, he was more the entrepreneur, the idea guy. He was a very bright, brilliant man that never really got a lot of credit for what he did. But Lucy more loved the stage aspect of it.

MP: It’s also pretty well known that William Frawley, who played Fred, and Vivian Vance who played Ethel, didn’t like each other much in real life. Do you have any recollection of how they reacted with one another off-camera?

Keith: Well you know, I heard that. I think that being a child of course, you're not privy to a lot of things. But there were little snipe remarks as we were waiting, getting ready to come on to the scene for our part. If I would be back there with Vivian and/or William Frawley, you could kind of tell a little something. But when I was on the show, I really wasn't aware of a lot of that kind of stuff. So a lot of that animosity happened before I got on the show.

MP: Were you aware of the show’s magnitude while you were a part of it, or did you realize it once you got a bit older?

Keith: Probably when I got a little bit older. It was a sort of very well known show even back then of course. But I just didn't really perceive that it would be going on in 2007, still being seen across the world. It was a very special show. There was a lot of energy in that show and a lot of passion. Of course Lucy was very much the part of it that really made it tick. But I think that combination of cast members, Lucy, Desi, William Frawley and Vivian Vance, and to a lesser extent, me, I think that was like the golden days of Lucy's career. I think she had some later, moderate success stories as far as the things she did, but I think that will always be her hallmark - the I Love Lucy show.

MP: Now I know you’ve probably been asked this a million times, but are there any episodes of the show that stand out for you as a personal favorite?

Keith: Well, they all kind of do. But the George Reeves Superman episode was one that stands out to me as a child because I was a very big fan of George Reeves. He was a very kind man, very kind gentleman, nice guy. When I shook hands with him the first time on the set, I looked up, and as a kid I knew he was an actor, but in my mind as a child it was like "Gosh this guy's really super!" It was just a neat experience. The 'Maurice Chevalier' show, later on in the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, that was a fun show. Anytime I got to actually play the drums on the show, which was more my forte, that was what I really kind of enjoyed and felt more at home with.

MP: And you didn't have any professional training with drumming?

Keith: None whatsoever. I began playing on the trash cans in the back of my home in Bunke, Louisiana, a little bitty town in the middle of Louisiana. Then I graduated to playing snare drums and then parade type things like that, listening to parades and listening to the radio, the 50s music, the big band era. So I really started out playing more on the Jazz, because that's what was happening back then. It wasn't until the 60s, of course, that I got into playing in a more professional way later on, late 60s, early 70s and then 80s professionally as a musician.

MP: After I Love Lucy ended, you did eventually go on to other television work. Did you have any trouble with typecasting or find it difficult to play a different character?

Keith: I did a couple of things. I did The Joey Bishop Show, The Bill Dana Show, Shirley Temple Playhouse, Route 66. I did several other things after the I Love Lucy show ended, because they were divorced. My heart was not really in show business as far as acting, it never really was in it. I was sort of thrust into it without really having a say-so about it. I almost got a part, by the way, in "The Sound of Music" with Julie Andrews and that whole wonderful show, and "The Music Man". I was one of the last choices and finally they decided against me. I don't know whether the typecasting or that whole thing would've been a factor in that. Maybe not, maybe so, I don't know. They don't tell you those kinds of things in the interviews. (Laughs).

MP: You wrote your autobiography in a book titled Life After Lucy. When did you decide, and why did you decide to put all of your experiences from the show into book form?

Keith: Well I was sort of urged on by a good friend of mine from Virginia, a lady by the name of Audrey Hingley, who is a writer. I'd met her when I was playing with the Christian rock band "David and the Giants" back in the 1980s. She began to hear my stories and just really kept urging me "You need to write a book" and I said "Yeah, yeah". It was a big undertaking. Whenever you write a book and you begin to compile all that information and rehash your past and begin to go back and say "Well, what happened really back then?", it's a big deal, it takes a lot of energy out of you. It's an emotional type of experience as well because sometimes you would live these things and you'd try to get back at the heart of things. In that way it was sort of a task. But I think that I'm glad that I did it because at least I don't have to write another one.

MP: With the release of the DVDs in the last couple of years, how is it for you now to watch yourself on a timeless sitcom?

Keith: It's kind of surreal in a lot of ways sometimes. Other times, I can almost separate myself from me on the show. Then other times I can play around with it, I can remember almost what I was thinking at that point. So in a lot of ways it's like preserved home movies from your childhood. It's kind of on a different scheme, it's show business, it's a whole different thing. But it's kind of neat.

MP: We live in a current age of remakes and films based on older television shows. I always thought it would be interesting to see who they would cast if I Love Lucy was made into a movie for present day. I realize it’s basically impossible to replicate the original stars, but can you think of any actors or actresses who could pull that off?

Keith: I'm sure that they will attempt to do that in the future as they've done in the past. Who knows? There's a lot of talented actresses and actors out there, they could pick from any one of them. If they get a good writer, that was the key to the I Love Lucy show, the writing. If they get all those combinations together, they might be able to capture something. But I think it's already been done, it would be, I think, a difficult thing. I'm trying to say two different things but I think they ought to leave well enough alone. I'm sure it'll be attempted, they'll do it, try to bring it up again as they've done in the past.

MP: Does the fact that you played Little Ricky still have a significant impact on your daily life or do you look at it as something that is done and behind you?

Keith: Well I personally look at it as it's done and behind me but I'm never far away from the memory of it. Whether it's a photo in my daughter's bedroom or somebody meeting me for the first time and saying "I heard you used to be Little Ricky". So I mean it's never that far away from me. But I've buried, pretty much, all that stuff. I became a Christian in 1974 and I began a life that, if it were not for God in my life, I probably would've went the path of the childhood stereotype stars that have gone on and committed suicide, gotten into some sort of trouble with the law, engaged in some sort of criminal activity or something like that. I was headed there, I was all there. In fact, in my book I talk about my years having clinical depression back in the late 60s, early 70s. It's one of those things that, if it weren't for God in my life, I really would not be here. If it weren't for Jesus, I would not be living today and I wouldn't be able to put it in its proper perspective. Things like that need to be in a proper perspective. That's how child stars mess up, when they begin to dwell on those things and they really can't escape it - that stereotyped role that they either enjoyed or didn't enjoy at the time. It's kind of a complicated thing with child stars. We all have a kind of camaraderie because we all know what it's like to be in that particular life and world. Being a child and being an actor, being in a grown up world and getting paid for it, it's sort of a lot of responsibility on somebody at that early of an age. It's kind of a funny club, you know?

MP: Now that you’re away from Hollywood, as you're telling me now, your life has taken a different direction. You founded Ballet Magnificat in 1986. Can you explain what that’s all about and what inspired you to start it?

Keith: Yes, Ballet Magnificat was really inspired by the Lord. My wife was a silver medalist in an international ballet competition, the second USA International Ballet Competition, held here in Jackson, Mississippi every four years. Mikhail Baryshnikov won the gold medal in one of the competitions and Kathy, my wife, won the silver. She did a contemporary piece called "We Shall Behold Him", which is a song that was written by Reba Rambo. At the time, it was a very different thing to do, to dance your faith out in a song, with the communist judges, these judges from communist China and Russia. They really advised her not to do that. But, she had previously gone to Tokyo and competed over there and really did not like the experience, did not want to do it again. They sort of pushed her into it. She said "I'll do it, but one of my pieces on the contemporary round, I want to do this particular song". So she did it and she won a silver medal anyway. So that was the birthing, so to speak, of Ballet Magnificat, in that you could use dance for God and use music to be a witness [to] what his heart was for this time and this hour. In the Bible, in the scriptures it says to "praise his name with the dance" in Psalm 149, and in other places in the Bible. So this is more like a restoration of something that had been sort of buried. In 1986, she quit her secular ballet company and started Ballet Magnificat with just her and maybe one other dancer. The president of Belhaven College here in Jackson, which is a small Christian college, called her and said "Kathy, if you need studio space or computers or anything like that, we'd love to let you have all that you need". So that was a very kind thing for him to do. He helped begin it in that way, he gave us some help on that. Then the dancers began to come and we grew, began to tour across the nation. Now we have two companies, the Alpha and the Omega company. We tour nationally and internationally and we have a summer workshop that attracts 400 students a year from all over the U.S. and abroad. We have a school of the arts as well that goes year round. We have a training program and it's just amazing how the Lord has really just blessed it. We've grown so much since 1986. A lot of churches now have dance companies. In fact, Belhaven College, the college that we started at, we actually began a dance minor there and from that they've grown into a dance major. That's one of the only colleges that has a Christian dance major. So it's kind of neat to see how things have transpired since those humble beginnings I guess.

MP: Well you're over 20 years now...

Keith: Yes we celebrated our 20th anniversary last year.

MP: Do you have any projects on the horizon that you’d like to mention?

Keith: Well we premiered "Christmas Dream", which is based on the music of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker". We've turned the story around and made it into a Christian-themed story based in the old south, sort of a "Gone With the Wind" type thing. It was really quite amazing because we had three nights at our city auditorium here in Jackson and we had to turn people away on the last day. It was just wonderful. So, that's something we want to explore and expand and take out regionally, maybe do auditions in different cities for that with local dancers there to be a part of. Then, again, our international trips are on the horizon. We're headed to the Czech Republic, Greece and Germany in September. Our other company is headed to Central America and we're scheduled to go to Singapore next year and possibly South Africa. So, there's always something going on which is a good thing.

MP: That's fantastic! I’ve been talking with Keith Thibodeaux who played Little Ricky on the I Love Lucy television show, which has become much more than a classic piece of entertainment history, it’s become legendary. You can visit Keith's official homepage for Ballet Magnificat at www.balletmagnificat.com. Keith, again, thank you for you time, it was a real pleasure.

Keith: Thank you Gary.

*** I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Keith Thibodeaux for taking time out to speak with me. Please remember to visit Ballet Magnificat's official website at www.balletmagnificat.com to keep up with their current events and projects! ***