I think it was like when Laverne & Shirley
moved to California,it helped more than it hurt
the show as it allowed them to have expierences
they couldn't have had in the city.
Also like Laverne & Shirley's move to California
it allowed the show to introduce some new regular
or recurring characters in the mix that wouldn't
have been there if they had stayed in New York.
All in all the only way the show could have really
suffered would have been if Lucy some how had stopped being Lucy!
(Think how it would have been if Laverne had stopped being Laverne or Shirley stopped being
Shirley or Fonzie stopped being COOL,or Gilligan
stopped being well Gilligan and you'll see what
I mean)
In other words the show was always built around
Lucy being who she was and moving to the country
didn't change THAT!
I don't think the move to the country changed anything. It's not like they really used New York City as a key part of the stories.