I Love Lucy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I Love Lucy
The familiar I Love Lucy logo was created for syndication.
The I Love Lucy logo.
Genre Sitcom
Creator(s) Desi Arnaz
Starring Lucille Ball
Desi Arnaz
Vivian Vance
William Frawley
Richard Keith
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
No. of episodes 193 (including the "lost" Christmas episode)
Production
Running time 30 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run October 15, 1951 – May 6, 1957
Links
IMDb profile

I Love Lucy, a CBS television sitcom that aired in the 1950s, was the most popular American sitcom of its generation and an unprecedented phenomenon -- in its second season, for example, its average ratings were a never-surpassed record of nearly seventy percent, compared to about 30 percent for the top-rated show of today -- and is still considered by viewers and experts alike to be one of the greatest television series of all time. The series starred movie actress and radio comedienne Lucille Ball, her actor/orchestra leader husband Desi Arnaz, stage actress Vivian Vance and movie character actor William Frawley. The series ran from October 15, 1951 to April, 1960 on CBS (180 episodes, including the "lost" Christmas episode). This show was ranked #2 on TV Guide's top 50 greatest shows of all time in 2002, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners. Episodes of "I Love Lucy" are still syndicated on television in dozens of languages across the world. The show was heavily based on a radio show from a few years before, My Favorite Husband about Liz and George Cooper (George is a banker) and many of the scripts were rewritten for I Love Lucy using the same writers (Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr.). On this radio show, Lucy had played "Liz" and actor Richard Denning had played "George".

The program was originally sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, and Lucy and Ricky (as well as Ethel) dutifully puffed away in the early episodes. The program originally opened with animated match-stick figures of Lucy and Ricky climbing down a packet of Philip Morris cigarettes. It was only when the series went into reruns that the familiar "heart on satin" with "I Love Lucy" on it appeared.

The program was filmed at Desilu, a production studio jointly owned by Ball and Arnaz. Studio heads were worried that American audiences would not find such a "mixed marriage" to be believable, and were concerned about Arnaz's heavy Cuban accent.[1] But Ball was adamant, and they were eager to have her in the part. To help sway their decision, Ball and Arnaz put together a vaudeville act featuring his music and her comedy, which was well received when taken on tour in several cities. In the end, CBS agreed, but refused to let Desi Arnaz's role be part of the show's title (as in "Lucy and Ricky"). After lengthy negotiations, Arnaz relented and agreed to I Love Lucy, reasoning that the "I" would be his part.

Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet, co-stars on My Favorite Husband, were originally approached for the roles of Fred and Ethel, but neither could accept due to previous commitments. Gordon did appear as a guest star in 2 episodes, playing Ricky's boss, Mr. Littlefield. Gordon was a veteran from the classic radio days in which he perfected the role of the exasperated character, such as in Fibber McGee and Molly. He would go on to co-star with Ball in most of her post-I Love Lucy series. Benaderet once guest starred playing the Ricardos' neighbor, the elderly Miss Lewis. Ms. Ball was reluctant to accept Vivian Vance for the role because she considered her too attractive for the role, so Vance was required to wear clothes that were too small for her in order to make her appear overweight. In addition, Vance was given a series husband, William Frawley, who was 20 years her senior. Frawley, a baseball fan, only agreed on the series provided they let him go to any main game he wanted to. Despite her scatty appearance on the show, Ball was a perfectionist and would spend an hour practicising a simple stunt. Later when big stars started appearing on the show, she even complained to some of them about their delivery, and that if they had done it such and such a way, they would have got 30% more laughs.[citation needed]

Arnaz persuaded Karl Freund, cinematographer of such films as Metropolis (1927), Dracula (1931), and The Good Earth (1937) as well as director of The Mummy (1932), to be the series' cinematographer, which many critics believe accounts for the show's lustrous black and white cinematography.

I Love Lucy is the first of only three shows to end its run as the #1 TV show in America (the other two being The Andy Griffith Show in 1968 and Seinfeld in 1998), and it has since had a significant impact on popular culture. Most of the cast have since died. Ball was the last main cast member to die, on April 26, 1989. The only living member of the non-guest cast is Keith Thibodeaux (credited as "Richard Keith") who played Lucy and Ricky's young son "Little Ricky" in the last season and on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour until 1960.

Contents

[edit] The show

"Oh Ricky, you're wonderful!"
"Oh Ricky, you're wonderful!"

Set in New York City, I Love Lucy is centered around Lucy Ricardo née McGillicuddy (Lucille Ball), a housewife, her husband Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), a singer and bandleader, and their friends and landlords Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance). Most episodes take place in the Ricardos' modest brownstone apartment at 623 East 68th Street — which in reality would be in the middle of the East River — or at the downtown "Tropicana" nightclub where Ricky is employed, and sometimes elsewhere in the city. The Mertzes' kitchen was only shown, for instance, in the episode, "Never Do Business With Friends". Later episodes took the Ricardos and the Mertzes to Hollywood for Ricky to shoot a movie, and then they all accompanied Ricky while he and his band toured Europe. There was also a trip to Florida for the two couples with a quick trip to Ricky's homeland of Cuba. Eventually the Ricardos and the Mertzes moved to a house in the rural town of Westport, Connecticut. Other blocks of episodes were set in Los Angeles and Miami.

Lucy Ricardo is a loving if somewhat naïve housewife with an ambitious character who has an overactive imagination and a knack for getting herself into trouble. In particular, she is obsessed with joining her husband in show business. Fred and Ethel are themselves former vaudevillians, which strengthens Lucy's resolve to prove herself as a performer. Unfortunately, Lucy Ricardo cannot carry a tune or play anything other than an off-key rendition of "Glow Worm" (or "Sweet Sue") on the saxophone and evidently has no other artistic or managerial talent. Yet Lucy is determined to show everyone around her that she is much more than an ordinary housewife. A typical I Love Lucy episode involves one of Lucy's ambitious but hare-brained schemes, whether it be sneaking into Ricky's nightclub act, finding a way to hobnob with celebrities, trying to find a real job, showing up her fellow women's club members, or simply trying to improve the quality of her life. Usually she ends up in some comedic mess, often dragging in Ethel as her (usually) reluctant companion.

[edit] Innovative techniques

"It's so tasty, too!"
"It's so tasty, too!"

At the time, most television shows were broadcast live from New York City, and a low-quality 35mm or 16mm kinescope print was made of the show to broadcast it in other time zones. But Ball was pregnant at the time, and she and Arnaz therefore insisted on filming the show in Hollywood. The duo, along with co-creator Jess Oppenheimer, then decided to shoot the show on 35 mm film in front of a live studio audience, with three cameras, a technique now standard among present-day sitcoms. The result was a much sharper image than other shows of the time, and the audience reactions were far more authentic than the "canned laughter" used on most filmed sitcoms of the time. The technique was not completely new — another CBS comedy series, Amos 'n' Andy, which debuted four months earlier, was already being filmed at Hal Roach Studios with three 35mm cameras to save time and money. But I Love Lucy was the first show to use this technique with a studio audience.

Scenes were often performed in sequence, as a play would be, which was unusual for comedies at that time. Retakes were rare and dialogue mistakes were often played off for the sake of continuity. For example, in her last run-through of the famous Vitameatavegamin commercial, Lucy skips to the end of the speech, veering from the script, realizes her mistake, and returns to the midpoint without missing her comic timing. Another example is in an episode in which Ricky is translating between Spanish and English for Lucy and some old friends from Cuba. Arnaz repeated in English what had just been said in English, rather than translating it into Spanish. This reportedly was not part of the script, but Arnaz expertly played it as a joke. This technique allowed the show to remain fresh for years and retain its originality and liveliness.

Just before the show was to be filmed, Lucy became pregnant with her and Desi's first child- Lucie Arnaz. They actually filmed the original pilot while Lucy was "showing", but did not include this real-life fact into that episode. Later during the second season, Lucy was pregnant again with second child, Desi Arnaz, Jr. This time, they included her pregnancy into the storyline. Despite popular belief, Lucy's pregnancy was not TV's first on-screen pregnancy. It was actually Mary Kay's pregnancy on the late 1940s sitcom Mary Kay and Johnny.

During those times on television, saying the words: "pregnant" or "pregnancy" was not allowed. When the character Lucy finds out she is pregnant, she announces to Ethel: "I am going to have a baby!" The episode Lucy Is Enceinte aired on December 8, 1952. The word "enceinte" being French for "expecting" or "pregnant". The episode where Lucy Goes To The Hospital first aired on January 19, 1953, the same day Lucille Ball gave birth to Desi, Jr., and was watched by more people than any other TV program at that time. Throughout the series' run, it was still forbidden for any cast member to say "pregnant" on air, and so they always described Lucy as "with child."

Lucille Ball liked naming supporting characters after real-life people. For instance, Carolyn Appleby was one of her teachers, and Marion Strong was a friend in Jamestown, New York. Many character actors were featured numerous times on the show. Actress Barbara Pepper (later featured as Doris Ziffel on the series Green Acres), frequently had one or two lines in a crowd scene. Her friendship with Ball dated back to the film Roman Scandals, in which both appeared as Goldwyn Girls. Many facts about Ball and Arnaz made it into the series. Like Ball, Lucy Ricardo was born on August 6th, attended high school in Celoron, New York, hailed from Jamestown, NY, and the Ricardos were married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, just as the Arnazes had been.

On January 19, 1953 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy when the time arrived for her to give birth. The next month on February 18 Ball and Arnaz signed an $8,000,000 contract to continue I Love Lucy through 1955. After the end of the weekly series, the actors reunited for monthly one-hour specials under the title The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

Later that year, Desilu produced a feature film version of the show. The film consisted of three first-season episodes edited together: "The Benefit", "Breaking the Lease" and "The Ballet". New scenes featuring the cast were filmed and put between the episodes to tie them into one cohesive story. A successful test screening was held in Bakersfield, California; however, MGM demanded the I Love Lucy movie be shelved because they felt it would diminish interest in the The Long, Long Trailer. Although I Love Lucy was never theatrically released and ultimately forgotten, in 2001, it was found and clips of it were featured in I Love Lucy's 50th Anniversary Special. A screening was held in 2002 at a Lucy fan convention.

[edit] Post-Lucy

After the conclusion of the sixth season of I Love Lucy, Lucy and Desi decided to cut down on the number of episodes that were filmed. So, instead of the usual 30 minutes, they extended I Love Lucy to 60 minutes, with a guest star each episode. This did not run every week, it ran every month or so. The main cast, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnez, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley were all in the show which was renamed, "The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnez Show", and later changed for syndication to "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour." Thirteen Lucy-Desi comedy hours aired from [1957]-[1960], but Ball and Arnaz's eventual off-screen personal problems (Arnaz was a chronic womanizer/drinker) had a serious effect, contributing to the show's end. Their pending divorce afflicted the series' final episodes, which they were contractually obligated to film. This is why in the last episodes of the series, one can see Ball looking as if she had just been crying, even in supposed-to-be funny skits, and the day after the last Lucy-Desi comedy hour was filmed, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez filed for divorce. It is now well-known that Vance and Frawley did not get along, which seemingly added some humorous edge to their on-screen interaction. In fact, their on-screen chemistry was so great, many consider that to be one of the main assets to the show. When the series ended, Vance and Frawley were said to have been offered a chance to take their Fred and Ethel characters to their own spin-off series. Frawley was willing to do so, but Vance refused to ever work with Frawley again. But Frawley did appear once more with Lucille Ball -- in an episode of The Lucy Show that was filmed only after Vance had already retired from that series (Vance had co-starred on The Lucy Show during the first three seasons, 1962-1965, and Frawley made his single guest appearance during the fourth season). In that episode, Frawley appeared in a brief cameo as a horse stable attendant who encounters Lucy. As soon as Frawley's character exited the scene, Lucy turns to her friend (played by Ann Sothern ) and comments, "you know, he reminds me of someone I used to know," to audience laughter. Ironically, this 1965 cameo turned out to be William Frawley's final television appearance; he died just a little over four months after it aired.

In 1962, Ball began a six-year run on her own show, The Lucy Show, followed immediately in 1968 by six more years on yet another sitcom, Here's Lucy, finally ending her long run as a CBS sitcom star in 1974. Both The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy are notable for having Vance as recurring characters named Viv (Vivian Bagley Bunson on The Lucy Show and Vivian Jones on Here's Lucy), so named because she was tired of being recognized on the street and addressed as Ethel. Vance was a regular during the first three seasons of The Lucy Show but continued to make guest appearances through the years on "The Lucy Show," and on Here's Lucy.

Ball and Arnaz also capitalized on the series' popularity by starring in Vincente Minnelli's 1953 film The Long, Long Trailer as Tracy and Nicky Collini, two characters very similar to Lucy and Ricky.

The familiar opening featuring the credits superimposed over a "heart" image, known to most of the show's younger fans and still used when it is shown in syndication, was created specifically when I Love Lucy went into syndication. When originally broadcast on CBS, the episodes featured an opening with animated drawings of Ball and Arnaz, making reference to whomever the particular episode's sponsor was (usually Phillip Morris). These sequences were created by the animation team of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, who declined screen credit because they were technically under exclusive contract to MGM at the time. Since the original sponsor references were no longer applicable when the shows went into syndication (or, in the case of cigarette advertising, banned by the U.S. government since 1971), the new opening was created. The original openings with the sponsor names edited out are now used on TV Land showings, with a TV Land logo pasted on top of the sponsor's logo. Ironically, this has led many to believe the restored introduction was created specifically for TV Land as an example of kitsch.

I Love Lucy remained successful even after it ended. For instance, it was one of the first programs made in the USA seen on British television which became more open to commerce with the launch of ITV, a commercial network that aired the series, in September 1955. As of April 2006, it remained the longest-running program to air continually in the Los Angeles area, almost 50 years after production ended. Ironically, the series is currently aired on KTTV, which had given up the CBS affiliation several months before I Love Lucy premiered.[citation needed] This is particularly notable because, unlike some shows to which a cable channel (e.g. TV Land) is given exclusive rights in order to maximize ratings, Lucy has been consistently—and successfully—broadcast on multiple channels simultaneously.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of I Love Lucy episodes

[edit] Themes and Highlights

In the course of the show, numerous comic ideas were introduced, and often reappeared in subsequent episodes. Several bits remain famous and beloved, often listed amongst television's best. The following list reviews some of the high points.

The clown

Considered by professional clowns to be one of their own, Lucille Ball's 'clown character' was "Lucy Ricardo." (nee "Lucille McGillicuddy" — an instantly recognizable clown moniker). Lucy Ricardo was a friendly, ambitious and somewhat naïve housewife, constantly getting into trouble of one kind or another.

The setup of the show provided ample opportunities for Ball to display her skills at clowning and physical comedy. She is regarded as one of the best in the history of film and television at physical 'schtick'.

In the course of the television series, Lucy shared the screen with numerous famous clowns. Prominent among these were Red Skelton and Harpo Marx.

Lucy's imagination gets the best of her - One of the most famous parts of the show has Lucy letting her imagination run wild, to which Ricky and Ethel often have to calm her down. In the classic fourth episode (first one to be shot) "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Murder Her," Lucy has finished the chilling Mockingbird Mystery novel when she overhears Ricky talking to his agent about having to "get rid" of a singer. Truly one of the world's most suggestive women, Lucy completly misinterprets the conversation and comes to the conclusion Ricky wants to kill her. At one point, she even straps a skillet to her chest to protect her from bullets. Desi Arnaz wrote in his autobiography that in that particular scene, he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing out loud.

Lucy tries to get into the act — a recurring and almost omnipresent theme on the show, was that "talentless" plain old Lucy the Housewife dearly desired a chance to perform, as anything: a dancer, clown, singing cowboy — or in any role. The real joke here is that Lucille Ball, aside from being regarded as beautiful, was also quite talented in a variety of performance arts, as well as being a ground-breaking television producer. Perhaps the best example of this gag is when Lucy shows up unannounced at Ricky's club, toting a clown-modified cello and pretending to be a musician, asking to speak with "Risky Riskerdoo" (Ricky Ricardo). This classic includes Lucy winding the cello's tuning peg as if it were a watch (to the accompaniment of ratcheting sounds) and shooting the cello's bow at Ricky's backside.

Job Switching— ("Speeeeeeed it up a little!!") Lucy and Ethel attempt to get jobs, for which they are demonstrably unprepared. The classic candy-gobbling scene in this episode was a variation on an old vaudeville routine and has become an American cultural icon. Saturday Night Live once performed a skit that was a direct parody of this scene (with Dan Aykroyd as the foreman, Gilda Radner as Lucy, and a noticable lack of an Ethel parallel, leaving Radner to carry most of the scene on her own energy) in which Lucy is working on a conveyor belt of atomic bombs, given the hilarious duty of putting whipped cream and a cherry on top of each bomb, and placing each bomb on the shelf. It was also imitated in an episode of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. Jackie Gleason also did a variation, involving decorating and boxing cakes as they came off an assembly line. An obvious parody is in the television family show Drake and Josh where they box sushi in order to get money to buy new furniture to replace the one at their house that was stolen. They even continue the gags such as "Speed it up a little... well, look's like someone's asleep at the control room" and the sushi moving too fast across the conveyor belt for them to pack, so they end up panicking by eating them and stuffing them in their hats.

Lucy and Harpo Marx — now a classic improvisational acting exercise (with Harpo Marx), in which Lucy, dressed as Harpo Marx encounters the real Harpo while hiding in the kitchen doorway. Harpo is perplexed at what he sees when he confronts his reflection, and Lucy is forced to mimic his every move. This bit was a tribute to Harpo and Groucho's famous mirror scene in the Marx Brothers comedy classic, Duck Soup.

The Ballet (aka Slowly I Turned) in which a veteran clown introduces Lucy Ricardo to some basics of the clown art, and is schooled in this classic (and at that time quite familiar) vaudevillian routine, complete with 'seltzer bottles' (a familiar clown prop) and slapstick. The Three Stooges are among many others who performed variations on this classic.

Vita-meata-vega-min — One of the most memorable episodes was titled "Lucy Does a TV Commercial", filmed during the first season (episode 30 of 35) on March 28, 1952, and first aired on May 5 of that year. In this episode, Lucy manages to get a role as the "Vitameatavegamin girl" and is tasked with trying to sell the public a tonic that has healthy amounts of vitamins, meat, vegetables, minerals — and the less than healthy dose of 23% alcohol. "And it's so tasty too - [grimacing] - just like candy!" During rehearsal, Lucy becomes progressively more inebriated, with the inevitable hilarious result, too sloshed to stand up straight, but keeps on pitching the product. She made this funnier by the alliterative, tongue twisting product name and pitch. "Do you pop out at parties? Are you unpoopular? Well, the answer to all your troubles is in this bittle lottle!" In November of 2001, fans voted this episode as their all-time favorite during a 50th anniversary I Love Lucy television special.

Lucy Tries to Meet the Famous Star — another main recurring theme of the show was that many stars eager to appear on the show; hilarity ensued in myriad situations in which Lucy tried to meet the rich and famous, usually successfully but not under the desired circumstances she might have hoped for.

Cousin Ernie Visits story arc. Lucy receives a letter informing her that her "Mother's Best Friend's Roommate's Cousin's Middle Boy" — of whom she has never heard — is coming to visit from "Bent Fork, Tennessee". 'Cousin Ernie' (immaculately played by "Tennessee" Ernie Ford) is a stereotypical Country Boy in the Big City, in awe of the sophistication (as he perceives it) of his new hosts. Cousin Ernie and the citizens of Bent Fork and its environs are encountered several times during the course of the show's life.

The Singing Jailbreak — This episode is part of the Hollywood story arc. Ricky, Lucy, Fred, and Ethel participate in a square dance called by Cousin Ernie to escape a Bent Fork, Tennessee jail in the course of which the sheriff and his two rotund daughters are tied up with a handy piece of rope. Then Ricky, Lucy, Fred and Ethel make their escape to continue their cross country venture.

Lucy Meets Superman - Among the many guest stars was George Reeves, star of the 1950's Superman TV series. They never mention his real name on the show, always referring to him as Superman. In the story, Lucy tries to get him to appear at Little Ricky's birthday party and fails, so she dresses up as Superwoman herself, only to have Superman/Reeves turn up at the last minute. After many misadventures, Superman talks to Ricky who in turn tells him that they've been married for 15 years to which Reeves replies; "And they call ME Superman!"

Lucy sets her nose on fire - In the episode "LA At Last", Lucy, Fred, and Ethel have lunch at The Brown Derby, where Lucy accidentally causes a waiter to heave a pie in William Holden's face. Later at the hotel, Ricky says he has a surprise for her. He has brought one of her favorite actors to meet her — the same William Holden. Fearing he would recognize her, she puts on a disguise that includes a putty nose. When she lights a cigarette, she sets her nose on fire.

Lucy does the Tango - When the Ricardo's and the Mertzes have moved to Connecticut to the country and their chicken business is not going very well, so Lucy and Ethel come up with a plot to fool the boys into thinking the hens are laying by smuggling eggs in the henhouse, hidden underneath their clothes. However, Ricky insists that he and Lucy rehearse their tango number for a local benefit. Unbeknownst to Ricky, Lucy's blouse is filled with chicken eggs. When Lucy slams into Ricky in the final dance step, the eggs break, saturating Lucy's shirt with broken eggs. Even after the eggs break and are running down her body, Lucy tries to act nonchalant. The skit resulted in the longest audience laughter in the show's history, 65 seconds.[citation needed]

[edit] Memorable lines

  • Ricky: "Lucy, I'm Home" Said by Ricky whenever he gets home from work.
  • Lucy: "Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular?" Part of Lucy's Vitameatavegamin script from "Lucy Does a TV Commercial". Later rephrased as "Do you pop out at parties? Are you unpoopular?"
  • Ethel: "Oh honestly, Lucy...". Spoken whenever Ethel expressed reluctance to go along with one of Lucy's schemes
  • Ethel: "Hey Lucy, the chickens are talking about Fred..they're saying 'cheep, cheep, cheep'..." From "Lucy Raises Chickens".
  • Lucy: "Eeeewwwww." Lucy's signature line whenever she realizes that she has ended up in a bad predicament. Carried over from My Favorite Husband
  • Ricky: "Mira que cosas tiene la mujer esta..." Which can be translated into, "Look what things this woman has done" Said by Ricky in Spanish whenever he is upset.
  • Lucy: "Can I be in the show?" Asked by Lucy whenever she finds out Ricky is staging a new show.
  • Ricky: "No!" Ricky's inevitable response upon Lucy's asking to be in the show.
  • Ricky: "Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!" Said by Ricky whenever he finds out Lucy has been up to something.
  • Lucy: "No offense Ethel, but anybody can see that you look more like a witch than I do."
  • Ethel: "You wouldn't dare." Lucy: "Oh, wouldn't I." Said on numerous occasions when Lucy tells Ethel about one of her schemes.
  • Ricky: "Ai-yai-ai-yai-yai" One of Ricky's signatures when Lucy creates a mess.
  • Lucy {Sometimes Ethel): Well... Said by Ethel or Lucy when refusing to explain something but soon deciding to explain hesitantly.

[edit] Main Cast

  • Lucille Ball .... Lucille 'Lucy' Esmeralda McGillicuddy Ricardo
  • Desi Arnaz .... Enrique 'Ricky' Alberto Ricardo y de Acha III(in "Lucy Raises Tulips") Ricardo Alberto Fernando Ricardo de Acha (in "Hollywood Anniversary")
  • Vivian Vance .... Ethel Mae Roberta Louise Potter Mertz
  • William Frawley .... Frederick 'Fred' Hobart E.D. Mertz I
  • Keith Thibodeaux (billed as Richard Keith) .... Ricky Ricardo, Jr. "Little Ricky" (1956-1960)

[edit] Supporting Cast

  • Elvia Allman .... various roles
  • Kathryn Card .... Mrs. McGillicuddy, "Lucy's" mother (1955-1960) (earlier appearance as "Minnie Finch" in 1954)
  • Mary Jane Croft .... Betty Ramsey (1957) (earlier appearances in various roles)
  • Ross Elliot .... various roles
  • Jerry Hausner .... Jerry, Ricky's agent (1951-1954)(was also the show's announcer in early seasons)
  • Bob Jellison .... Bobby, the Hollywood bellboy (1955) (earlier appearances in various roles)
  • Lou Krugman .... various roles
  • Joseph A. & Michael Mayer .... Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (baby) (1953-1954)
  • Shirley Mitchell .... Marion Strong (1953-1954)
  • Frank Nelson .... Ralph Ramsey (1957) (many earlier appearances in various roles, including that of "Freddie Filmore", a game show host.)
  • Louis A. Nicoletti .... various roles
  • Elizabeth Patterson .... Mrs. Matilda Trumbull (1953-1956)(earlier appearance as "Mrs. Willoughby" in 1952)
  • Amy McDaniel .... various roles
  • Barbara Pepper .... various roles
  • Hazel Pierce .... various roles
  • Richard & Ronald Lee Simmons .... Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (baby) (1954-1955)
  • Doris Singleton .... Caroline Appleby (1953-1956)

[edit] Emmy Awards

[edit] I Love Lucy (The Show)

  • 1952: Nominated - Best Comedy Show
  • 1953: Won - Best Situation Comedy
  • 1954: Won - Best Situation Comedy
  • 1955: Nominated - Best Written Comedy Material: Madelyn Pugh Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Robert G. Carroll
  • 1955: Nominated - Best Situation Comedy
  • 1956: Nominated - Best Comedy Writing: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf for episode: "L.A. At Last"

[edit] Lucille Ball

  • 1952: Nominated - Best Comedian or Comedienne
  • 1953: Nominated - Most Outstanding Personality
  • 1953: Won - Best Comedienne
  • 1954: Nominated - Best Female Star of Regular Series
  • 1955: Nominated - Best Actress Starring in a Regular Series
  • 1956: Nominated - Best Comedienne
  • 1956: Won - Best Actress - Continuing Performance
  • 1957: Nominated - Best Continuing Performance by a Comedienne in a Series
  • 1958: Nominated - Best Continuing Performance (Female) in a Series by a Comedienne, Singer, Hostess, Dancer, M.C., Announcer, Narrator, Panelist, or any Person who Essentially Plays Herself

[edit] Desi Arnaz

  • Never nominated.

[edit] Vivian Vance

  • 1954: Won - Best Series Supporting Actress
  • 1955: Nominated - Best Supporting Actress in a Regular Series
  • 1957: Nominated - Best Supporting Performance by an Actress
  • 1958: Nominated - Best Continuing Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Dramatic or Comedy Series

[edit] William Frawley

  • 1954: Nominated - Best Series Supporting Actor
  • 1955: Nominated - Best Supporting Actor in a Regular Series
  • 1956: Nominated - Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Preceded by
The Red Skelton Show		 Emmy Award Winner - Outstanding Comedy Series
1953, 1954		 Succeeded by
Make Room for Daddy

[edit] DVD Releases

Paramount Home Video has released all 6 Seasons of I Love Lucy on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. They have also released all 13 episodes of The Lucy and Desi Comedy Hour but under the banner- "I Love Lucy: The Final Seasons - 7, 8, & 9". Bonus features include rare on-set color footage, the "Desilu/Westinghouse" promotional film, as well as deleted scenes and on-air flubs.

Cover Art DVD Name Ep # Release Date
The Complete 1st Season 36 June 7, 2005
The Complete 2nd Season 31 August 31, 2004
The Complete 3rd Season 31 February 1, 2005
The Complete 4th Season 30 May 3, 2005
The Complete 5th Season 26 August 16, 2005
The Complete 6th Season 27 May 2, 2006
The Final Seasons 7, 8 & 9 13 March 13, 2007

Other Releases

  • "I Love Lucy- Season 1" (9 Separate discs labeled "Volumes", first volume released July 2, 2002, final volume released September 23, 2003)
  • "I Love Lucy- Season 1" (9 Volumes in boxset, released September 23, 2003)
  • "I Love Lucy- 50th Anniversary Special" (1 disc, released October 1, 2002)
  • "I Love Lucy- Seasons 1-6" (30 discs, released July 11, 2006)

The DVD releases feature the syndicated heart opening, and offer the original broadcast openings as bonus features. The TV Land openings are not on these DVDs, likely they are exclusive to TV Land.

Initially the first season was offered in volumes (similar to Paramount's Star Trek: The Original Series), with four episodes per disc (Star Trek had two episodes per disc due to its length). After the success of releasing seasons two, three, and four in slimpacks, the first season was re-released as a seven disc set, requiring new discs to be mastered and printed to include more episodes per disc so there would be fewer discs in the set. The individual volume discs for the first season are still in print, but are rare due to lack of shelve space

Episodes feature English closed-captioning, but only Spanish subtitles.

[edit] Popular culture

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • On an episode M*A*S*H, Dr. Freedman remarks to a wounded GI that people think I Love Lucy is real; although I Love Lucy was on TV during the Korean War it did not become popular until after the Korean conflict.
  • In The Golden Girls episode "Son In Law Dearest" in Season 2, Blanche and Rose are watching a 12 hour I Love Lucy marathon. Rose asks Dorothy if she wants to join them and watch "I Like Lucy," which Blanche corrects, saying "I Love Lucy." Rose replies, "Well, I haven't seen it yet, so I don't know how I feel about it." Later in the episode, Dorothy and her daughter Kate are having a fight in the living room, so Blanche suggests that she and Rose go to the kitchen to finish the marathon on the portable TV. As Blanche drags Rose into the kitchen, Rose complains, "but that set's in black and white!"
  • In another episode of The Golden Girls from Season 3 entitled "Three On A Couch," Blanche makes a statement about her hair being its natural color, and Dorothy replies by saying, "Yes Blanche, yours and Lucy's."
  • I Love Lucy is one of the few television shows, particularly for its time, to inspire fan conventions and innumerable merchandising attempts.
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the TV show, as well as Toni Basil's song "Mickey," in the song Ricky on his 1983 debut album, working in many of the show's classic schticks and closing with a segment of the I Love Lucy theme. Yankovic also produced an album of the show's greatest musical moments entitled Babalu Music.
  • On an episode of Match Game, the question read "A TV listing from 1953. Monday night: CBS. I Love Lucy. A typical day at the Ricardo household when Ricky brings home a stuffed moose and Lucy trues to ____________ it." The contestant and all six panelists said cook.
  • In a 1985 episode of the television series Amazing Stories titled "Fine Tuning," a group of teens accidentally tune into an extrastellar broadcast in which aliens have remade I Love Lucy (as well as other classic television series) with alien actors and dialogue.
  • When Dolly Parton appeared as host of Saturday Night Live in 1989, there was a scene where she and the show's cast appeared "as themselves," and she told them about her country childhood, saying that her family had no television set; but describing how her mother would regale the children with made-up tales of a "crazy redhead and her Cuban husband," so that it was obvious to the SNL cast that her mother had secret access to a TV somewhere.
  • The show is referenced to in several Seinfeld episodes. In one Jerry says, "Who am I, Fred Mertz?" In another episode, however, he says "I have never seen a single I Love Lucy episode." A third episode involves Elaine reading TV Guide on a subway, when a man takes and informs that on one day she could have "watched three hours of Lucy!"
  • In 1976, the Wilton Place Street Band made a disco version of the I Love Lucy theme entitled "Disco Lucy."
  • On Babylon 5, Ambassador Sinclair refers to himself and Captain Sheridan as "Lucy and Ethel." Sheridan responds, "Lucy and Ethel?"
  • A parody of the show is seen in an episode of The Fairly Oddparents. In the episode, a power outage leads characters Cosmo and Wanda to jump into the television, and act out shows so that no one will suspect that the TV isn't even plugged in. One of the shows is "I Love Wanda." The 15-second parody references Babalu, "You've got some 'splainin' to do!," the "heart on satin" background, the fact that Lucy has a baby, and Lucy's annoying manner of crying.
  • In a That's So Raven episode, Raven Baxter watches a parody of I Love Lucy (featuring Raven Symone and the rest of the main cast of the show) while hallucinating from the effects of hot soup.
  • That '70s Show did a parody in the third season in the episode "Fez Dates Donna." Fez and Donna were Ricky and Lucy, Kitty and Red were Ethel and Fred.
  • On the cartoon The Simpsons, Krusty the Clown's production studio is called Krustylu Studios in reference to Desilu Studios.
  • In the movie Rat Race, one of the characters pretends to be a coach driver and drives a group of women (although at least one is a man in drag), dressed up as Lucy to the "Third Annual I Love Lucy Convention." In a deleted scene, after the women find out he wasn't their bus driver, they chase him down the road, only to run into a bus full of Desi/Ricky lookalikes.
  • In Living Color featured a sketch titled "I Love Laquita," in which Jim Carrey impersonated Desi Arnaz and Kim Wayans impersonated Lucille Ball.
  • In the Star Trek Enterprise episode, "Carbon Creek," T'Mir and her crew watch I Love Lucy; although, it is implied that this is when it is still a weekly TV series, despite the fact that in the time frame of this episode, October 1957, that was no longer true.
  • In the movie 1998 version of The Parent Trap, Lindsay Lohan's character asks two arguing friends "Who are you, Lucy and Ethel?"
  • MADtv made a parody of I Love Lucy in a few skits of its first five seasons. The skits were typically called I Love Lucy + (year when filmed). The goal was to present the same style and format of the original, but to have it involve risque subjects such as murder or cocaine-dealing for shock value.
  • During a scene in the movie Pretty Woman, the famous grape smashing scene can be seen playing on the television in the background.
  • The show's theme song was prominently featured in a recent Mastercard commercial, only to be removed by copyright infringement laws.
  • In the Futurama Christmas episode, "A Tale of Two Santas," the Elves turn the conveyor belt from "High" to "Lucy," referencing the famous scene in which Lucy and Ethel have to keep up with an insanely fast conveyor belt.
  • In an episode of Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Sabrina jumps up onto a chair when she needs to speak to everyone at her work, prompting her boyfriend to quote Desi Arnaz: "Aw Lucy not another plan!"
  • In the song "The Night Hank Williams Came to Town," Johnny Cash says he missed the premier of I Love Lucy to see Hank perform.
  • Three XM Satelite radio channels are named Lucy, Ethel and Fred. (No Ricky)
  • In an episode of 'Moesha' (entitled I Love Moesha), Moe (actress / singer Brandy) imagines her friends are in an episode of I love Lucy. Moesha plays the role of (talent-less) Lucy and is eagerly attempting to get a part in 'Ricky's' show.
  • In an episode of the Nickelodeon show Drake and Josh, Drake and Josh get jobs at a sushi factory packaging sushi. The scene runs identical to the "Lucy" episode where Lucy and Ethel get jobs wrapping chocolate. A few lines are actually taken from this episode.

[edit] References

  • Joe Garner, Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments (Andrews McMeel Publishing; 2002) ISBN 0-7407-2693-5
  • Bart Andrews, The 'I Love Lucy' Book (Doubleday & Company, Inc.; 1976)
  • Coyne Steven Sanders & Tom Gilbert, Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (William Morrow & Company, Inc.; 1993)
  1. ^ Ricky and Lucy Ricardo were the first interracial couple seen on American television, although that distinction is often erroneously given to Tom and Helen Willis of The Jeffersons, possibly because Arnaz (sans accent) could more easily be considered "White". (Needs sourcing)

[edit] Trivia on Cast Members

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../i/_/l/I_Love_Lucy_f6db.html"