I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy
File:ILoveLucyTitleScreen.jpg I Love Lucy title card in syndication.
Created by	Jess Oppenheimer Madelyn Davis Bob Carroll, Jr.
Written by	Jess Oppenheimer Madelyn Davis Bob Carroll, Jr. Bob Schiller Bob Weiskopf
Starring	Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Vivian Vance William Frawley Keith Thibodeaux
Theme music composer	Eliot Daniel Harold Adamson
Composers	Eliot Daniel Wilbur Hatch
Country of origin	United States
Original language
No. of seasons	9
No. of episodes	194 (including the "lost" Christmas episode and original pilot) (list of episodes)
Production
Producers	Jess Oppenheimer Desi Arnaz
Production location	Desilu Studios in Hollywood, California
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	24–26 minutes unedited, including opening and closing credits
Production company	Desilu Productions
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	October 15, 1951 (1951-10-15) – May 6, 1957 (1957-05-06)

I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951 to May 6, 1957 on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). When the original series ended, the show continued for three more seasons with 13 one-hour specials, running from 1957 to 1960, known first as The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and later in reruns as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the Nielsen ratings (an accomplishment later matched by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld). I Love Lucy is still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world.

The show was the first to be shot on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience, won five Emmy Awards and received numerous nominations. In 2002, it ranked second on TV Guide's list of television's greatest shows, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners. In 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."

Premise

Originally set in New York City, I Love Lucy centers on Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), and her singer/bandleader husband Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), along with their best friends and landlords Fred Mertz (William Frawley) and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance). During the second season, Lucy and Ricky have a son named Little Ricky, whose birth was timed to coincide with Ball's real-life delivery by Caesarean section.

Lucy is naïve and ambitious, with an overactive imagination and a knack for getting herself into trouble. Known for her fiery red hair, Lucy appears as a scatter-brained homemaker with the matchless ability to turn an ordinary household chore into a complete and unprecedented disaster. Yet, underneath the cover of her wild behavior and crazy antics, she honestly yearns for stardom. She longs to join her husband in show-business, despite his refusal to cooperate. When things go wrong, she tends to say "eww". Fred and Ethel are former vaudevillians and this only strengthens her resolve to prove herself as a performer. Unfortunately, she has little discernible ability. She cannot carry a tune or play anything other than off-key renditions of songs such as "Glow Worm" or "Sweet Sue" on the saxophone, and many of her performances devolve into disaster. On occasion, she is shown to be a good dancer and a competent singer.

File:LucyEthel I Love Lucy.png

Lucy and Ethel in the episode "Job Switching"

The show provided Ball ample opportunity to display her considerable skill at clowning and physical comedy. Character development was not a major focus of early sitcoms, so little was offered about her life prior to the show. A few episodes mentioned that she was born in Jamestown, New York, (later corrected to West Jamestown), that she graduated from Jamestown High School, and that she met Ricky on a blind date. Her family was absent, other than occasional appearances by her mother (Kathryn Card), who can never get Ricky's name right, she has once called him Mickey Richardson. Lucy also exhibited many stereotypical female traits that were standard for comedy at the time, including being secretive about her age, and being careless with money. She is also depicted as a devoted housewife and attentive mother.

Lucy's husband, Ricky Ricardo, is an up-and-coming Cuban American singer and bandleader with an excitable personality. His patience is frequently tested by his wife's antics. When exasperated, he often reverts to speaking rapidly in Spanish. As with Lucy, not much is revealed about his past or family. Ricky's mother (played by actress Mary Emery) appears in two episodes; in another Lucy mentions that he has five brothers. Ricky also mentions that he'd been "practically raised" by his uncle Alberto (who was seen during a family visit to Cuba), and that he had attended the fictional Havana University.

An extended flashback segment in the 1957 episode “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana” of The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show filled in numerous details of how Lucy and Ricky met and how Ricky came to the United States. The story, at least insofar as related to newspaper columnist Hedda Hopper, is that the couple met in Havana when Lucy and the Mertzes vacationed there in 1940. Despite his being a university graduate and proficient in English, Ricky is portrayed as a driver of a horse-drawn cab who waits for fares at a pier where tourists arrive by ship. Ricky is hired to serve as one of Lucy’s tour guides and the two fall in love. Having coincidentally also met popular singer Rudy Vallée on the cruise ship, Lucy arranges an audition for Ricky who is hired to be in Vallée’s orchestra thus allowing him to immigrate to the United States on the very ship on which Lucy and the Mertzes were returning. Lucy later states Ricky played for Vallée only one night before being traded to Xavier Cugat’s orchestra.

Lucy is usually found with her sidekick and best friend Ethel Mertz. A former model from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ethel tries to relive her glory days in vaudeville. Ricky is less reluctant to include Ethel in performances at his nightclub, because, unlike Lucy, she can actually sing and dance.

Ethel's husband Fred served in World War I, and lived through the Great Depression. He is very stingy with money and an irascible no-nonsense type. However, he also shows that he can be a soft touch, especially when it comes to Little Ricky. Fred can also sing and dance and often performs duets with Ethel.

The Manhattan building they all lived in before their move to Westport, Connecticut was addressed at a fictional 623 East 68th Street, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which in reality would be located in the East River.

Cast

• Lucille Ball as Lucille Esmeralda "Lucy" McGillicuddy Ricardo
• Desi Arnaz as Enrique Alberto "Ricky" Ricardo
• Vivian Vance as Ethel Mae Potter Mertz
• William Frawley as Frederick "Fred" Mertz
• Keith Thibodeaux as Enrique Alberto Ricardo IV ("Little Ricky")
• Kathryn Card as Mrs. McGillicuddy — Lucy's mother
• Frank Nelson as Ralph Ramsey
• Mary Jane Croft as Betty Ramsey
• Jerry Hausner as himself
• Bob Jellison as Bobby
• Doris Singleton as Caroline Appleby
• Shirley Mitchell as Marion Strong
• Elizabeth Patterson as Mrs. Matilda Trumbull
• Richard and Ronald Lee Simmons as Ricky Ricardo, Jr. as an infant
• Charles Lane as various characters
• Dick Reeves as various characters
• Barbara Pepper as various characters
• Bob Smith as various characters
• Frank Nelson as various characters (before playing as Ralph Ramsey)

Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet, supporting cast members 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 three episodes, playing Ricky's boss, Mr. Littlefield, in two episodes, and later in an hour-long episode as a civil court judge. Gordon was a veteran from the classic radio days in which he perfected the role of the exasperated character, as in Fibber McGee and Molly and Our Miss Brooks. He would go on to co-star with Ball in all of her post–I Love Lucy series ("the Lucy show", "Here's Lucy" and "Life with Lucy"). Benaderet was a guest star in one episode as elderly Miss Lewis, a neighbor of the Ricardos.

Barbara Pepper (later featured as Doris Ziffel in the series Green Acres) was also considered to play Ethel, but Pepper had been drinking very heavily after the death of her husband, Craig W. Reynolds. Her friendship with Ball dated back to the film Roman Scandals, in which both appeared as Goldwyn Girls. She did, however, turn up regularly in bit parts.

Many of the characters names were after family members or close friends of Lucille Ball's such as - Marion Strong was one of her best friends and roommate for a time in New York. Lillian Appleby was a teacher of Lucy's when she was in an amateur production on the stage. Pauline Lopus was a childhood friend, Fred was also her brother and grandfather's name. Lucy and Desi had a business manager by the name of Mr. Andrew Hickox, and in the first episode of season 4, called the "The Business Manager" Lucy and Ricky hire a man named Mr. Hickox.

Primary production team

• Directors: Marc Daniels (33 episodes, 1951–53); William Asher (101 episodes, 1952–57); James V. Kern (39 episodes, 1955–57)
• Producers: Jess Oppenheimer (153 episodes, 1951–56); Desi Arnaz (exec. producer - 124 episodes, 1952–56; producer - 26 episodes, 1956–57)
• Writers: Madelyn Pugh Davis, Bob Carroll, Jr. (All Seasons including Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour), Jess Oppenheimer (Seasons 1–5), Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf (Seasons 5–6 and Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour)
• Original Music: Wilbur Hatch (33 episodes, 1951–54); Eliot Daniel (135 episodes, 1952–57); Marco Rizo (1951–1957)
• Cinematography: Karl Freund (149 episodes, 1951–56)
• Costume design: Elois Jenssen (57 episodes, 1953–55)
• Editors: Dann Cahn, Bud Molin

Background and development

Lucille Ball had come to Hollywood in 1933 when, after a successful stint as a New York model, she was chosen by Sam Goldwyn to be one of sixteen Goldwyn Girls to co-star in the picture Roman Scandals with film star Eddie Cantor. Enthusiastic and hard working Ball had been able to secure film work briefly at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio and Columbia Pictures and then eventually at RKO Radio Pictures. It was at RKO that Ball received steady film work, first as an extra and bit player, eventually working her way up to co-starring roles in feature films and starring roles in second rate B pictures, collectively earning the nickname "Queen of the B's". During her run at the RKO, Ball gained the reputation for doing physical comedy and stunts that most other actresses avoided, keeping her steadily employed. In 1940 Lucy met Desi Arnaz, a Cuban bandleader who had just come off a successful run in the 1939-40 Broadway show Too Many Girls. RKO, had brought the film rights to the show, and cast Ball as Arnaz's love interest in the picture. The duo began a whirlwind courtship leading to their elopement to Connecticut in November 1940. Despite being madly in love, however, their careers kept them separated, with Lucy's film work keeping her anchored in Hollywood, while Desi's nightclub engagements with his orchestra kept him on the road.

Despite steadily working in pictures, Lucy's movie career never advanced to the level of a headlining feature-film actress; nevertheless she remained popular with movie audiences. After receiving critical acclaim for her starring role in the 1942 Damon Runyon film The Big Street (with Henry Fonda), Ball came to the attention of MGM, which bought out her contract. It was at MGM that Ball, who had been a blonde, dyed her hair red to complement the technicolor features that MGM had planned to use her in. MGM used Ball in a variety of films, but it was her work with funny man Red Skelton in the 1942 film DuBarry Was a Lady that brought Ball's physical comedy into the forefront, earning her the reputation as "that crazy redhead". Nonetheless, Ball's striking beauty was in sharp contrast to physical antics she did in her films; thus, MGM tried to use her in an array of different film genres that did little to highlight her skills. Being difficult to cast, MGM chose not to renew her contract when it expired in 1946.

Ball began working as a free-lancer in films and began to explore other venues. Before and during World War II, Lucy had made several notable and successful guest appearances on several radio programs; among them Jack Haley's radio show, and bandleader Kay Kaiser's radio program. These appearances brought Lucy to the attention of CBS, which in 1948 enlisted Ball to star in one of two new half-hour situational comedies in development, Our Miss Brooks and My Favorite Husband. Choosing the latter, Lucy portrayed Liz Cugat (later anglicized to Cooper), the frustrated and scheming housewife of a Minneapolis banker, played originally by actor Lee Bowman in the series pilot, and later by actor Richard Denning. Based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. Cugat by Isabel Scott Rorick, My Favorite Husband was produced by Jess Oppenheimer, written by Oppenheimer, plus scribes Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr.. Premiering on July 23, 1948 and sponsored by General Foods, Husband became a hit for CBS. During the run of the radio program Lucy appeared in two feature films with Bob Hope, Sorrowful Jones in 1949, and Fancy Pants in 1950. Both films were box office and critical successes, further cementing Ball's reputation as a top notch first-rate comedienne. They also showed her continuing popularity with audiences, enticing CBS to further use her skills.

In 1950, CBS asked Ball to take My Favorite Husband to television with co-star Richard Denning. She, however, saw a television show as a great opportunity to work with Desi as it would keep them both in Hollywood, and perhaps save their shaky marriage. Lucy insisted that Desi play her husband, much to the dismay of CBS which was reluctant due to Arnaz being Cuban. Network executives believed that audiences would not believe the marriage between an all-American girl and a Latin man. To prove CBS wrong, the couple developed a vaudeville act, written by Caroll and Pugh, that they took on the road with Arnaz's orchestra. The act was a hit and convinced CBS executive Harry Ackerman that a Ball-Arnaz pairing would be a worthwhile venture. At the same time, rival networks NBC, ABC, and DuMont were showing interest in a Ball-Arnaz series, which Ackerman used to convince CBS to sign the duo. A pilot was ordered and kinescoped in Hollywood in March 1951, which coincided with Lucy's first pregnancy, and the ending of Husband, which aired its last radio show on March 31, 1951. Ball and Arnaz used the same radio team of Oppenheimer, Pugh, and Carroll to create the television series which was named I Love Lucy. After showing the pilot to several advertising agencies, at first with not much luck, CBS was able to sell the series to the Milton Biow agency which was able to convince one of their clients, cigarette giant Philip Morris, to sponsor the show.

Production

During the spring and summer of 1951 I Love Lucy moved into production. Oppenheimer, Pugh, and Davis began fine tuning the premise of the show and writing the series first scripts. The trio had the good graces of having a backlog storylines from My Favorite Husband to adapt for use on television. In addition the series ensemble cast and crew were assembled. Desi Arnaz retained his orchestra which which was used in the series musical numbers and to score the show's background and transitional music. Arnaz's childhood friend Marco Rizo arranged the music and played the piano for the show, while Wilbur Hatch was used to conduct the orchestra. Two problems arose, however, after Philip Morris signed on to sponsor the show that would ultimately change the fate of I Love Lucy.

Lucy and Desi had originally decided that the series would air on a biweekly basis much like The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. Philip Morris, however, was insistent that the show air weekly thus diminishing the possibility of Lucy continuing her film career alongside a television show. Another problem lay in the fact that Philip Morris wanted the series to originate from New York rather than Hollywood. At the time, most television shows were produced from New York with live broadcasts of the show airing for eastern and Midwest audiences. West coast viewers were only able to view live programs through low-quality kinescope's, which derived its images by utilizing a 35- or 16mm-film camera to record the show off a closed circuit television monitor. As videotape had not yet been developed, (and wouldn't be until the mid-fifties), kinescopes were the only practical, and affordable, means to allow a live show to reach television markets on the west coast. Complicating matters was that kinescopes were not available for immediate re-broadcast as in 1951 no coast-to-coast cable system was yet in service. Shows had to be sent to Hollywood which delayed their airings for west coast audiences by nearly a week. The process operated in the reverse for the few programs that originated live in Hollywood, such as Burns and Allen and The Ed Wynn Show, thus making blurry kinescopes of these shows the only available print for eastern audiences. Most sponsors, including Philip Morris, found this to be undesirable as most of the television audience lived east of the Mississippi at the time. Due to the impending birth of their first child, both Lucy and Desi insisted on staying in Hollywood and producing the show on film, something a few Hollywood-based series had begun doing. Both CBS and Philip Morris initially balked at the idea, due to higher cost that filming the show would incur, yet acquiesced only after the pair offered to take a one-thousand dollar a week pay cut in order cover the additional expense. In exchange, Lucy and Desi demanded, and were given, the majority ownership in the I Love Lucy films. Putting the show on film, however, would require that Lucy and Desi become responsible for producing the series themselves. Union agreements at the time stipulated that any production filmed in a studio use film studio employees. CBS staff were television and radio employees and thus fell under different union agreements. Thus Arnaz reorganized the company he created to manage his orchestra bookings and used it as the corporation that would produce the I Love Lucy shows. Named after their ranch in Chatsworth, California, the company was named Desilu.

At the time, filming television shows in Hollywood was at a minimum, basically due to the fact that filming a show required a studio as opposed to a live show which could be broadcast in a theater. Most major film studios wanted nothing to do with television, which they saw as unwanted competition, complicating the matter. Nevertheless there were a few television series at the time that were already being filmed in Hollywood. The CBS comedy series, Amos 'n' Andy, which debut in June 1951, was already being filmed at Hal Roach Studios, one of the few studio facilities that lent itself towards television production. Hal Roach Studios was also used for filming at least three other TV comedies as early as 1950, two airing on ABC, namely Stu Erwin's The Trouble with Father, the TV version of Beulah; and the original 1949/50 Jackie Gleason TV version of The Life of Riley on NBC. There were also some dramatic TV shows pre-dating I Love Lucy that were also being filmed. Once it was decided to put the series on film, Desi and Jess Oppenheimer, began to devise the format in which the show would be filmed. The two immediately realized that Lucy needed to work in front of an audience, otherwise her performance fell flat. The idea of a studio that could accommodate an audience was a new one for the time, as fire laws made it difficult to allow an audience in a studio. Arnaz and Oppenheimer were lucky enough to find the financially struggling General Service Studios located on Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood. Studio owner Jimmy Nasser was eager to accommodate the Desilu company and allowed them, with financial backing of CBS, to renovate two of his studios so that they could accommodate an audience and be in compliance with local fire laws. Another component to filming the show came when it was decided to use three 35 mm film cameras to simultaneously film the show. The idea had been pioneered by Ralph Edwards on the game show Truth or Consequences, and had subsequently been used on Amos "n" Andy as a way to save money. Edwards assistant Al Simon was hired by Desilu to help perfect the new technique for the series. The process lent itself to the Lucy production as it eliminated the problem or requiring an audience to view and react to a scene three or four times in order for all necessary shots to be filmed. Multiple cameras would also allow scenes to be performed in sequence, as a play would be, which was unusual at the time for filmed series. Retakes were rare and dialogue mistakes were often played off for the sake of continuity. Lucy and Desi enlisted the services of Karl Freund, an Academy Award–winning 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. Although at first Freund did not want anything to do with television it was the personal plea of both Lucy and Desi which convinced Freund to take the job. Freund was instrumental in developing a way to uniformly light the set so that each of the three cameras would pick up the same quality of image.

As mentioned audience reactions were live, thus creating a far more authentic laugh than the "canned laughter" used on most filmed sitcoms of the time, although the series did use some "sweetening" in instances when the audience did not react favorably to a scripted joke. The studio audience live laughter would be sold by Desilu to provide laugh tracks for sitcoms not filmed in front of audiences. The I Love Lucy laugh track can be distinguished by woman saying "uh-oh!" when a sticky situation was about to happen. Even Arnaz's distinctive laugh could be heard in the background during scenes in which he did not perform.

I Love Lucy's pionering use of three cameras, led to it becoming the standard technique for the production of most sitcoms, a technique that still in use today. The process resulted in a much sharper quality of show in contrast to blurry kinescopes. This lead to an unexpected benefit for Desilu during the series second season when it was discovered that Lucy was pregnant. Not being able to fulfill the shows 39 episode commitment both Desi and Jess Oppenheimer decided to rebroadcast popular episodes of the series first season to help give Lucy the necessary rest she needed after she gave birth, effectively allowing less episodes to be filmed that season. Unexpectedly the rebroadcasts proved to be ratings winners effectively giving birth to the rerun which would later lead to the profitable development of the rerun syndication market.

Desilu Productions, jointly owned by Ball and Arnaz, would gradually expand to produce and lease studio space for many other shows. For seasons 1 and 2 (1951–1953), Desilu rented space and filmed I Love Lucy at General Service Studios which eventually became known as Hollywood Center Studios). In 1953, it leased the Motion Picture Center at 846 Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood, and renamed it Desilu Studios to shoot seasons 3–6 (1953–1957) of I Love Lucy. After 1956, it became known as Desilu-Cahuenga Studios to avoid confusion with other acquired Desilu locations. In an effort to keep up with the studios growth, and need for additional sound stages, Desi and Lucy purchased RKO Radio Pictures from General Tire in 1957 for over six million dollars, effectively owning the studio were they had started as contract players. Desilu would acquire RKO's two studios located on Gower Street in Hollywood, and in Culver City, along with the Culver City back lot nicknamed "Forty Acres". The sale was achieved by the duo selling their ownership of the once thought worthless I Love Lucy films back to CBS for over four million dollars. In 1962, two years after their marraige dissolved, Lucy would buy out Desi's shares of Desilu, becoming the studios sole owner. She eventually would sell off Desilu in 1968 to Gulf and Western, owners of Paramount Studios. After the sale Desilu-Cahuenga became a private production company and is now known as Ren-Mar Studios. The RKO-Desilu Studio on Gower Street is now owned by Paramount while the Culver City studio has become the independently owned Culver Studios. The "Forty Acres" backlot would be sold off by Gulf and Western in 1976 and redeveloped in the 1980s into an industrial tract.

The Mertzes

As with My Favorite Husband, Lucy writers decided that the Ricardo's needed an older couple to play off of. While doing Husband, veteran character actors Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet had played Rudolph and Iris Atterbury, an older, more financially stable couple as Mr. Atterbury was George Cooper's (Lucy's radio husband's) boss. Initially, Ball had wanted both actors to reprise their roles on television, however, both were unavailable at the time the show went into production as Benaderet was already playing Blanche Morton on Burns and Allen, and Gordon was under contract by CBS to play Mr. Conklin on the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks.

Casting the Mertzes, as they were now called (the surname taken from a doctor Lucy scribe Madelyn Pugh knew as a child in Indianapolis), proved to be a challenge. Ball had initially wanted character actor James Gleason, with whom she appeared in Columbia Pictures 1949 movie Miss Grant Takes Richmond, to play Fred Mertz. However, Gleason wanted nearly $3,500 per episode to play the role, a price that was far too steep. Sixty-four year old Bill Frawley, a seasoned vaudevillian and movie character actor with nearly 100 film credits to his name, was a long shot to play Fred Mertz and only came in to consideration after he telephoned Ball personally to ask if there was a role for him on her new show. Ball, who had only briefly known Frawley from her days at RKO, suggested him to both Arnaz and CBS. CBS balked at the idea of Frawley, fearing that his excessive drinking — which was well known in Hollywood — would interfere with his doing a live show. Arnaz nonetheless liked Frawley and lobbied hard for him to have the role, even to the point of having Lucy scribes re-tailor the role of Fred Mertz to be a less financially successful and more curmudgeonly (in contrast to Gale Gordon's Mr. Atterbury) character to fit Frawley's persona. CBS relented only after Arnaz contractually bound Frawley to complete sobriety during the production of the show, and reportedly told the veteran actor that if he ever appeared on-set more than once in an intoxicated state he would be fired. Not once during Lucy's nine seasons did Frawley's drinking ever interfere with his performance, and over time Arnaz became one of Frawley's few close friends.

Casting Ethel Mertz was also some work. One choice was actress Barbara Pepper, who was a close friend of Lucy's. The two had a long history together, as Pepper had been of the Goldwyn Girls who came to Hollywood with Lucy with in 1933. Pepper was favored by Lucy herself, however, CBS refused on the grounds that Pepper suffered from a drinking problem that was far more severe than Frawley's. Nonetheless Pepper did appear in several bit parts during the run of the show. Vivian Vance became a consideration on the recommendation of Lucy director Marc Daniels. Daniels had worked with Vance in New York on Broadway in the early 1940s. Vance had already been a successful stage star performing on Broadway for nearly 20 years in variety of plays and in addition, after relocating to Hollywood in the late 1940s, had two film roles to her credit. Nonetheless by 1951 she was still a relatively unknown actress in Hollywood. Vance was performing in a revival of the play The Voice of the Turtle in La Jolla, California. Arnaz and Jess Oppenheimer went to see her in the play and hired her on the spot. Vance had many misgivings about giving up her film and stage work for a television show, yet was convinced by Daniels that it would be a big break in her career. Ball was initially wary of casting Vance, who was around the same age as she and far more attractive than the writers' concept of Ethel as an older, somewhat homely woman. Vance assured Ball that she could easily inhibit those traits with makeup and, after several rehearsals, Ball began to warm to her. Eventually the two would develop a lifelong professional and personal relationship.

Vance and Frawley's off-screen relationship was less successful. In spite of this, they were always professional and exhibited exceptional chemistry while performing on the show. In fact, their acrimonious personal relationship may have helped their onscreen marriage be that much funnier. Frawley derisively described Vance's appearance as "a sack of doorknobs." It was reported that Vance, who was 23 years Frawley's junior, was upset that she had to pretend to be married to a man old enough to be her father. Vance also complained Frawley's song-and-dance skills were not what they once were, due to his age. Hearing these comments, Frawley came to resent Vance, resulting in an adversarial relationship between the two throughout the entire run of the show.

In 1957, I Love Lucy was re-tailored into an hour long show originally titled The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show that was to be part of a anthology series called the Desilu Playhouse. The hour long Lucy-Desi show was to alternate on a monthly basis with other hour long Playhouse shows. The new series put a much heavier emphasis on big name guest stars as being part of the plot and although the Mertz characters continued into the new series, their roles became somewhat diminished. Although a lighter workload was welcomed by Frawley, Vance came to somewhat resent the change. In a effort to please Vance, whom he had much respect for, Arnaz proposed doing a spin-off from I Love Lucy called The Mertzes. The duo were reportedly offered major salaries. Frawley, seeing a lucrative opportunity, was enthused. Vance, however, declined for a number of reasons the biggest factor being that she could not stand to work with Frawley anymore, especially one on one rather than in an ensemble. Vance also felt that the Mertz characters would not be successful without the Ricardo's and in addition, despite being her biggest success, she was becoming tired of playing Ethel Mertz and was chafing to do more glamorous roles. In fact during the thirteen episode run of the Lucy-Desi hour shows, Vance was given a lot more latitude to look more attractive as Ethel Mertz, something she had been denied in earlier seasons. Frawley's resentment of Vance intensified after she refused to do the spin-off and the two rarely, if ever, talked to each other outside of performing after that.

Years later, when Vance was on The Lucy Show and Frawley was on My Three Sons, the latter would often bribe the eponymous sons to play practical jokes on Vance when she was rehearsing, as the two shows taped on neighboring soundstages. It was recalled that, in 1966, when she learned of Frawley's death, Vance shouted, "Champagne for everyone!" \

Pregnancy and Little Ricky

Just before filming the show, Lucy and Desi learned that Lucy was once again pregnant (after multiple miscarriages earlier in their marriage) with what would be their first child, Lucie Arnaz. They actually filmed the original pilot while Lucy was "showing," but did not include any references to the pregnancy in the episode.

Later, during the second season, Lucy was pregnant again with second child Desi Arnaz, Jr., and this time the pregnancy was incorporated into the series' storyline. Despite popular belief, Lucy's pregnancy was not television's first on-screen pregnancy. That distinction belongs to Mary Kay on the late 1940s sitcom, Mary Kay and Johnny.

CBS would not allow I Love Lucy to use the word "pregnant", so "expecting" was used instead. The episode "Lucy Is Enceinte" first aired on December 8, 1952 ("enceinte" being French for "expecting" or "pregnant", although the show never displayed episode titles on the air). The episode in which Lucy gives birth, "Lucy Goes to the Hospital", first aired on January 19, 1953. To increase the publicity of this episode, the original air date was chosen to coincide with Lucille Ball's real-life delivery of Desi, Jr. by Caesarean section. "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" was watched by more people than any other TV program up to that time, with 71.7% of all American television sets tuned in, topping the 67.7 rating for Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration coverage the following morning.

Unlike some programs which advance the age of a newborn over a short period of time, I Love Lucy allowed the Little Ricky character to grow up in real time. America saw Little Ricky as an infant in the 1952–53 season, a toddler from 1953 to 1956, and finally a young school-age boy from 1956 to 1960. However, five actors played the role, two sets of twins and later Keith Thibodeaux. (In the Superman episode, Little Ricky is mentioned as 5 years old but it had only been 4 years since the birth-of-Little-Ricky episode.)

Jess Oppenheimer stated in his autobiography that deciding the sex of the Ricardo child was initially problematic. Initially Lucy scribes wanted the Ricardos to have a boy, feeling that a boy would allow for more comical plot lines. Still unconvinced, Oppenheimer asked Desi what he wanted: Desi replied that he wanted a boy because this might be his only chance to have a son with Lucy. From then on, no matter what the sex of Lucille Ball's real baby was, Lucy Ricardo would have a boy.

Opening

The opening familiar to most viewers, featuring the credits superimposed over a "heart on satin" image, was created specifically for the 1959–67 CBS daytime network rebroadcasts, and subsequent syndication. As originally broadcast, the episodes opened with animated matchstick figures of Arnaz and Ball making reference to whomever the particular episode's sponsor was. 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.

The original sponsor was cigarette maker Philip Morris, so the program opened with a cartoon of Lucy and Ricky climbing down a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes. In the early episodes, Lucy and Ricky, as well as Ethel and Fred on occasion, were shown smoking Philip Morris cigarettes. Lucy even went so far as to parody Johnny Roventini's image as the Philip Morris "bellhop" in the May 5, 1952, episode, "Lucy Does a TV Commercial". Since the original sponsor references were no longer appropriate when the shows went into syndication, a new opening was needed, which resulted in the classic "heart on satin" opening. Other sponsors, whose products appeared during the original openings, were Procter & Gamble for Cheer and Lilt Home Permanent (1954–57), General Foods for Sanka (1955–57), Ford Motor Company (1957–58) and Westinghouse company (1958–60).

The original openings, with the sponsor names edited out, were revived on TV Land showings, with a TV Land logo superimposed to obscure the original sponsor's logo. Ironically, this has led some people to believe that the restored introduction was created specifically for TV Land as an example of kitsch.

The animated openings, along with the middle commercial introductory animations, are included, fully restored, in the DVDs.

Trivia

Many real-life facts about Arnaz and Ball made it into the series. Like Ball, Lucy Ricardo was born on August 6 in Jamestown, New York, and attended high school in Celoron, New York. Also, the Ricardos were married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, just as the Arnazes had been. Ricky Ricardo (like Arnaz in real life) was also a bandleader and a native of Cuba and had arroz con pollo as a favorite dish.

There was some thought about creating an I Love Lucy radio show to run in conjuncture with the television series as was being done at the time with the CBS hit show Our Miss Brooks. On February 27, 1952, a sample I Love Lucy radio show was produced, but it never aired. This was a pilot episode, created by editing the soundtrack of the television episode "Breaking the Lease", with added Arnaz narration. It included commercials for Philip Morris, which sponsored the TV series. While it never aired on radio at the time in the 1950s (Philip Morris eventually sponsored a radio edition of My Little Margie instead), copies of this radio pilot episode have been circulating among "old time radio" collectors for years, and this radio pilot episode has aired in more recent decades on numerous local radio stations which air some "old time radio" programming.

Episodes

Main article: List of I Love Lucy episodes

Most episodes take place in the Ricardos' modest brownstone apartment at 623 East 68th Street or at the downtown "Tropicana" nightclub where Ricky is employed, though other parts of the city are sometimes used. Later episodes take the Ricardos and the Mertzes to Hollywood for Ricky to shoot a movie, and to Europe, when Ricky and his band tour the continent. There is also a trip to Miami Beach for the two couples, with a side trip to Ricky's homeland of Cuba. Eventually, like millions of other Americans in the late 1950s, the friends move to the suburbs, in this case, to Westport, Connecticut.

Some especially memorable episodes:

• "Lucy Does a TV Commercial": Lucy is hired to act as the "Vitameatavegamin girl" in a TV commercial, to promote a health tonic that contains healthy amounts of vitamins, meat, vegetables, minerals — and a less-than-healthy dose of 23% alcohol. Lucy becomes progressively drunker throughout rehearsal, but gamely keeps on pitching the product, eventually leading to a completely flubbed live performance for "this stuff." In October 2005, fans voted this episode as their favorite, during a 60th anniversary I Love Lucy television special. TV Guide and Nick at Nite ranked it the second greatest television episode of all time, after the Mary Tyler Moore Show episode "Chuckles Bites the Dust".
• "Job Switching": Lucy and Ethel get jobs packaging candy that is delivered on a conveyor belt. The work seems easy enough when they are shown what to do by their supervisor, but then the pace picks up and the women soon fall further and further behind. In desperation, they resort to comical means to try to keep up. The skit, a variation of an old vaudeville routine, has been parodied numerous times.
• "Lucy and Superman": Lucy tries to get George Reeves, star of the 1950s' Adventures of Superman TV series, to appear at little Ricky's birthday party. When she fails, she dresses up as Superman herself, only to have Reeves turn up in costume at the last minute and rescue her after she traps herself on the ledge of her apartment. As Superman brings Lucy back to the window of her apartment, Ricky is furious, and at one point yells, "...In all of the 15 years we've been married..." Then Superman says, "You mean to tell me that you've been married to her for 15 years?" Ricky answers, "Yeah, 15 years." Superman replies, "And they call Me superman!" Lucy is not pleased.
• "L.A. At Last!": Lucy, Fred, and Ethel have lunch at The Brown Derby, a restaurant frequented by Hollywood film stars. A nervous Lucy accidentally causes a waiter to heave a pie in William Holden's face. Later at the hotel, Ricky has a surprise for her. He has brought one of her favorite actors to meet her — none other than William Holden. Fearing that the actor will recognize her, she puts on a disguise that includes a putty nose which catches on fire when she lights a cigarette. This episode was reportedly Lucille Ball's favorite episode.
• "Harpo Marx": While living in Hollywood, Lucy is visited by Carolyn Appleby, a friend who is under the impression that Lucy knows numerous celebrities. After Lucy and Ethel get Carolyn's glasses away from her, Lucy pretends to be various stars. Meanwhile, Ricky and Fred invite Harpo Marx to the Ricardos' apartment. When he shows up, Lucy is disguised as him; seeing the real Harpo, she hides in a kitchen doorway. Harpo is perplexed when he sees what he thinks is his reflection, forcing Lucy to mimic his every move to avoid detection. This was a tribute to Harpo and Groucho's famous mirror scene in the Marx Brothers comedy classic, Duck Soup.
• "Lucy's Italian Movie": In this episode, Lucy spontaneously decides to visit a local Italian winery. She is completely taken aback when she arrives at the winery, is mistaken for one of the workers—a wine stomper—and ends up in a gigantic grape vat where she has the fight of her life. She literally "gets some local color!"
• "Lucy Does the Tango": The Ricardos' and the Mertzes' chicken business isn't doing very well. Lucy and Ethel come up with a scheme to fool the boys into thinking the hens are laying lots of eggs by smuggling some, hidden underneath their clothes, into the henhouse. On one such trip, Ricky insists that he and Lucy rehearse their tango number for a local benefit. Unbeknown to Ricky, Lucy's blouse is filled with chicken eggs. The climax of this scene provoked the longest laugh from a studio audience in television history.

Feature films

Arnaz and Ball capitalized on the series' popularity by starring in Vincente Minnelli's 1954 film The Long, Long Trailer as Tacy and Nicky Collini, two characters very similar to Lucy and Ricky. Also during this time, Desilu produced a feature film version of the show in 1953, consisting 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. MGM, however, demanded the I Love Lucy movie be shelved because they felt it would diminish interest in The Long, Long Trailer. Although I Love Lucy was never theatrically released and had been forgotten, it has since been found and has been released on the bonus disc in the Complete Series collection.

In 1956 Lucy and Desi starred in the feature film Forever, Darling with James Mason.

After Lucy and legacy

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. Instead, they extended I Love Lucy to 60 minutes, with a guest star each episode. They renamed the show The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, also known as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. Thirteen hour-long episodes aired from 1957 to 1960. The main cast, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley and Keith Thibodeaux were all in the show. The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour is available on DVD, released as I Love Lucy: The Final Seasons 7, 8, & 9. On March 2, Desi's birthday, 1960, the day after the last hour-long episode was filmed, Lucille Ball filed for divorce from Desi Arnaz. It made that playful, yet passionate kiss at the end of the final episode which aired April 1, "Lucy Meets the Moustache", all the more poignant, as the world already knew that this storied Hollywood marriage was all but over, and also lent extra meaning to the use of the song "That's All" in that episode.

As mentioned Vance and Frawley were offered a chance to take their characters to their own spin-off series. Frawley was willing, but Vance refused to ever work with Frawley again since the two did not get along. Frawley did appear once more with Lucille Ball — in an episode of The Lucy Show in 1965 which did not include Vance (who by then had ceased to be a regular on that show). Sadly, this was his last screen appearance with his longtime friend. He died in Hollywood on March 3, 1966 of a heart attack at age 79.

In 1962, Ball began a six-year run with 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. In 1977, Vance and Ball were reunited one last time in the CBS special, Lucy Calls the President, which co-starred Gale Gordon.

In 1986, Ball tried another sitcom, Life with Lucy. The series aired on ABC for eight episodes before being canceled due to low ratings. Oddly enough, the show debuted to very high ratings, landing in Nielsen's Top 20 for that week.

I Love Lucy has remained perennially popular. 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 July 2007, it remains 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 on weekends and now KCOP on weekdays due to both stations being a duopoly, which KTTV had given up the CBS affiliation several months before I Love Lucy premiered. In the US, reruns have aired nationally on TBS (1980s-1990s), Nick at Nite (1994–2001) and TV Land (2001–2008) in addition to local channels. TV Land ended its run of the series by giving viewers the opportunity to vote on the show's top 25 greatest episodes of all-time on December 31, 2008 on the network's website. This is particularly notable because, unlike some shows to which a cable channel is given exclusive rights to maximize ratings, Lucy has been consistently—and successfully—broadcast on multiple channels simultaneously. Hallmark Channel is now the home for I Love Lucy in the United States, having moved to the network on January 2, 2009. The show is seen on Fox Classics in Australia.

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York is a museum memorializing Lucy and I Love Lucy, including replicas of the NYC apartment set (located in the Desilu Playhouse facility in the Rapaport Center.

Theme song

The title music, normally heard in an instrumental version, was sung by Desi Arnaz in the episode "Lucy's Last Birthday":

I love Lucy and she loves me,
We're as happy as two can be,
Sometimes we quarrel but then,
how we love making up again,
Lucy kisses like no one can,
She's my missus and I'm her man,
And life is heaven you see,
Cause I love Lucy, Yes I love Lucy and Lucy loves me!

Nielsen ratings

I Love Lucy ranked highly in the Nielsen ratings throughout its entire run.

• 1951–52: #3 (50.9 rating)
• 1952–53: #1 (67.3 rating)
• 1953–54: #1 (58.8 rating)
• 1954–55: #1 (49.3 rating)
• 1955–56: #2 (46.1 rating)
• 1956–57: #1 (43.7 rating)

The episode "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" first aired on Monday, January 19, 1953. It garnered a record 71.7 rating, meaning 71.7% of all television households at the time were tuned in to the program. To this day, that record is surpassed only by Elvis Presley's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 (82.6% rating).

Emmy Awards

Wins

• Best Situation Comedy, 1953, 1954
• Best Comedienne, Lucille Ball, 1953
• Best Series Supporting Actress, Vivian Vance, 1954
• Best Actress – Continuing Performance, Lucille Ball, 1956

Nominations

I Love Lucy

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

Lucille Ball

• Best Comedian or Comedienne, 1952
• Most Outstanding Personality, 1953
• Best Female Star of Regular Series, 1954
• Best Actress Starring in a Regular Series, 1955
• Best Comedienne, 1956
• Best Continuing Performance by a Comedienne in a Series, 1957
• 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, 1958

Vivian Vance

• Best Supporting Actress in a Regular Series, 1955
• Best Supporting Performance by an Actress, 1957
• Best Continuing Supporting Performance by an Actress in a television series , 1958

William Frawley

• Best Series Supporting Actor, 1954
• Best Supporting Actor in a Regular Series, 1955
• Best Actor in a Supporting Role, 1956

Honors

• In 1999, Entertainment Weekly ranked the birth of Little Ricky as the fifth greatest moment in TV history.
• In 2002, TV Guide ranked I Love Lucy #2 on its list of the 50 greatest shows, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners (According to TV Guide columnist Matt Roush, there was a "passionate" internal debate about whether I Love Lucy should have been first instead of Seinfeld. He stated that this was the main source of controversy in putting together the list.)
• In 2007, Time magazine placed the show on its unranked list of the 100 best TV shows.

Parodies

• In the movie Natural Born Killers (1994), Oliver Stone uses a parody of I Love Lucy, as a plot device to convey a 'day in the life at home' of Mallory Knox. The satire of this scene is underscored by her dire and inescapable conditions, which are the antithesis of the idealized life shown in I Love Lucy. It also includes an intro with music, a similar heart logo, and the title of the parody being "I Love Mallory".
• In the movie Rat Race (2001), there is an I Love Lucy convention, with loads of Lucys.
• In the episode "Power Mad" of The Fairly Odd Parents make a parody but the title screen is I love Wanda. Wanda is Lucy and Cosmo is Ricky.
• In an episode of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Clark and Lois both have nightmares about their upcoming marriage, Clark's resembles the show in many respects, with Clark as Ricky and Lois as Lucy, and Clark's parents as Fred and Ethel, with Lois wishing to join him as a superheroine rather than a performer, also, at two points in the episode, once in the dream and once awake, Clark says "Lois, you got some splaining to do", a variation on Ricky's catchphrase.
• In the episode "Soup to Nuts" of the Disney TV show That's So Raven, Raven has a hallucination of a TV Show called "Oh That Raven". She is the parody of Lucy, Eddie is the parody of Ricky, Chelsea is Ethel, and Cory is Fred. It also uses the same plot from the episode "Ricky's Movie Offer."
• In the episode "I Love Sushi" of Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh, Drake and Josh work at fish company packaging sushi which mimic Lucy and Ethel working at a candy factory wrapping chocolates in episode "Job Switching." The company Drake and Josh worked for was called "Ball and Vance Fish Corp." in reference to Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance. Parodies of the classic "Job Switching" episode have been seen in other popular series, among them, the fifth season episode of Bewitched, entitled "Samantha's Power Failure," and the season 2 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch episode "Oh What a Tangled Spell She Weaves" (1997).
• The episode "Barter" of Tales from the Dark Side, features a couple remarkably similar to Lucy and Ricky named Lucy and Nicky. The similarities go right down to Lucy's wardrobe, hairstyle and style of speech, to the design of their kitchen, Nicky's accent and their son little Nicky's annoying playing of the drums.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic wrote a parody song based on "Mickey", called "Ricky". The song outlined the show's plot as well as mocking the program's style and characters, and ended with a segment of the program's theme song.
• In Living Color featured a recurring parody sketch, "I Love Laquita", with Kim Wayans as an African-American Lucy.
• Numerous other TV shows including:
  • Saturday Night Live with Gilda Radner as Lucy
  • That '70s Show, episode 3.21 Fez Dates Donna. In a fantasy sequence, Fez (Wilmer Valderrama) is Ricky, Donna (Laura Prepon) is Lucy, Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp) is Ethel and Red (Kurtwood Smith) is Fred.
  • Kate & Allie – episode Reruns. Allie (Jane Curtin) falls asleep in front of late night TV and dreams herself and Kate into Lucy & Ethel in an old episode of I Love Lucy.
• On a 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Desi Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., the younger Arnaz played Ricky and Gilda Radner played Lucy in spoofs of supposed ill-fated pilots for the show.
• On an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Will greets his cousins by referring to them as Lucy characters (Ashley is Lucy, Hillary is Ethel and Carlton is Little Ricky).
• On an episode of Married... with Children, Al expresses his dislike of the series by saying Fred should've been the star and the other characters should've been killed off. Fred was seen on the series as a person not crazy about marriage to the point that both Fred and Al thought that their biggest mistake was saying "I do."
• In the Disney movie Hercules, during Hades's takeover, Hades says, "Zeus-y, I'm home!", parodying the infamous line from the sitcom.
• At the end of the movie, The Cable Guy, Steve asks the cable guy's (Jim Carrey) real name, and the cable guy jokingly said "Ricardo, Ricky Ricardo," then sang Desi Arnaz's famous number "Babbaloo"; the scene ended with a slightly different I Love Lucy theme song.
• The title card for the November 27, 1988 Garfield comic strip (which also includes a logo resembling the I Love Lucy title card) features Arlene and Garfield as Lucy and Ricky, respectively.
• On an episode of MadTV, the cast, in black and white, spoofs I Love Lucy. "Lucy" and "Ethel" need money so they discover that sailors enjoy seeing them fight sexually, so they do. Then, to make even more money, they sleep with the sailors.
• In the Princess Diaries 2:Royal Engagement, Mia states that she watches re-runs of I Love Lucy and sometimes dreams in black and white
• On an episode of the Vampire Diaries Stefan says to Elena I love Lucy is his favourite show on TV.
• On an episode of Scrubs, J.D. goes to the police station to bail out Carla and Elliot who were mistakenly picked up for prostitution. He addresses them as "Ethel" and "Lucy" and asks how they got into this mess.
• On the episode "You Gotta Have Hope" of The Golden Girls in which the girls are looking for talent for a hospital charity show, Sophia replies to Dorothy, "You can't be in the show, you can't be in the show, who are you? Ricky Ricardo?" after Dorothy refused to give her a spot in the talent show. In another episode, "Son-In-Law Dearest", Sophia mentions she was never a fan of I Love Lucy and wonders why Lucy could never be in the show because she "was hilarious at home" and Ricky's "show at the club stank".
• On the episode "Say It With Bullets" of A-Team, H. M. Murdock pretends to be a 50s TV star in a episode of "I Love Murdock".
• Hustler Video released the porn parody Everybody loves Lucy in 2007, starring Audrey Hollander as Lucy, her real-life husband Otto Bauer as Ricky etc., also including some new characters like show girls or band members.
• On several episodes of Will & Grace, Karen refers to the pair as Lucy and Ethel.
• On several Episodes of Gilmore girls, Lorelai refers Lucy and Ricky. In Episode 14 of the 1st Season she has to find a chicken and asks Luke if she has to pull a Lucy Ricardo and walk like a chicken so it thinks she´s it´s mother´. That refers to the I Love Lucy Episode "Lucy Raises Chickens". One Episode later, she refers Fred Mertz as one of those guys her father has hit in college, which leds to a longer Lucy-Dialoge with Christopher. In Episode 16 she says "Lucy, I'm home !", just like Ricky sometimes does. Also she refers Lucy in the 18th Episode of that season while asking Rory: "Lucy, how many times have I told you not to butt into other people’s business?" In the 10th Episode of the second Season, Lorelai and Kirk argue over which I Love Lucy episodes are the best. In Episode 11 in the same Season she names Luke Ethel and tells him to leave the pot.
• In the Family Guy episode, "The Road To Germany", the famous Harpo Marx/Lucy mirror bit is reenacted by Stewie (dressed as Adolph Hitler) AND the real Hitler...with both mimicking facial and body contortions, just as in the original I Love Lucy episode.
• In Pretty Woman, Vivian watches an I Love Lucy Episode, in which Lucy squishes grapes

DVD releases

Beginning in the Summer of 2001, Columbia House Television began releasing I Love Lucy on DVD in Chronological order. They began that summer with the pilot and the first three episodes on a single DVD. Every six weeks, another volume of four episodes would be released on DVD in chronological order. During the summer of 2002, each DVD would contain between five and seven episodes on a single DVD. They continued to release the series very slowly and would not even begin to release any season 2 episodes until the middle of 2002. By the spring of 2003, the third season on DVD began to be released with about six episodes released every six weeks to mail order subscribers. All these DVDs have the same identical features as the DVDs eventually released in the season Box sets in retail.

By the fall of 2003, season four episodes began to be offered by mail. By the spring of 2004 season five DVDs with about six episodes each began to be released gradually. Columbia House ended the distribution of these mail order DVDs in the Winter of 2005. They began releasing complete season sets in the Summer of 2004 every few months. They stated that Columbia House Subscribers would get these episodes through mail before releasing any box sets with the same episodes. They finally ended gradual subscriptions in 2005, several months before season 5 became available in retail. Columbia House then began to make season box sets available instead of these single volumes.

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released all six seasons of I Love Lucy on DVD in Region 1, as well as all 13 episodes of The Lucy and Desi Comedy Hour (as I Love Lucy: The Final Seasons – 7, 8, & 9). Bonus features include rare on-set color footage and the "Desilu/Westinghouse" promotional film, as well as deleted scenes, original openings and interstitials (before they were altered or replaced for syndication) and on-air flubs. These DVDs offered identical features and identical content to the mail order single sets formerly available until 2005.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
The Complete 1st Season	35	September 23, 2003 (re-released 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
The Complete Series	194	October 23, 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 box set, released September 23, 2003)
• "I Love Lucy – 50th Anniversary Special" (1 disc, released October 1, 2002)
• "I Love Lucy: The Movie and Other Great Rarities" (1 disc, released April 27, 2010)

The DVD releases feature the syndicated heart opening, and offer the original broadcast openings as bonus features. Season 6 allows viewers to choose whether to watch the episodes with the original opening or the syndicated opening. The TV Land openings are not on these DVDs.

Initially, the first season was offered in volumes, with four episodes per disc. After the success of releasing seasons 2, 3, and 4 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 shelf space.

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

In Australia, The first three season were finally released in Region 4 on August 3, 2010 by CBS, distributed by Paramount. Season 1 includes 'The Pilot and all 35 Season 1' episodes in a 7 disc set. Season 2 includes 'all 31 Season 2' episodes in a 5 disc set. Season 3 includes 'All 31 Season 3' episodes in a 5 disc set. Season 2 and 3 are in a slimline pack. All three seasons have been 'Magnificently Restores and Digitally Remastered'. All episodes appear in order of their original air dates and it states that some episodes may be edited from their original network versions.

See also

Character actors favored by Lucille Ball who often played different supporting roles on I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and/or Here's Lucy: Template:MultiCol

• Elvia Allman
• Hans Conried
• Ellen Corby

| class="col-break " |

• Mary Jane Croft
• Verna Felton
• Gale Gordon

| class="col-break " |

• Charles Lane
• Frank Nelson
• Burt Mustin

| class="col-break " |

• Barbara Pepper
• Richard J. Reeves
• Doris Singleton

| class="col-break " |

• Mary Wickes

References

• Garner, Joe (2002). Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments (Andrews McMeel Publishing) ISBN 0-7407-2693-5
• Andrews, Bart (1976). The 'I Love Lucy' Book (Doubleday & Company, Inc.)
• Sanders, Coyne Steven; Gilbert, Tom (1993). Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (William Morrow & Company, Inc.)
• McClay, Michael (1995). I Love Lucy: The Complete Picture History of the Most Popular TV Show Ever (Kensington Publishing Corp.)
• Oppenheimer, Jess; with Oppenheimer, Gregg (1996). Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time (Syracuse Univ. Press) ISBN 978-0-8156-0584-3

External links

• I Love Lucy at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• I Love Lucy's 50th Anniversary Special at IMDb
• Encyclopedia of Television
• Archive of American Television Video Interview with I Love Lucy writers Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr.
• Discussion of colorizing "Lucy Goes to Scotland" episode at tvshowsondvd.com, 9 Dec. 2007
• [http://www.tvland.com/shows/lucy/ I Love Lucy at TVLand.com