Seventy-five years ago today, on October 15, 1951, I Love Lucy premiered on CBS. Lucille Ball, her real-life husband Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley went on to make one of the most loved sitcoms ever made, and it still runs in reruns around the world. For this week’s Throwback Thursday, StarShot is raising a glass of Vitameatavegamin to Lucy.
The show that started it all
Ball played Lucy Ricardo, a New York housewife who wanted badly to get into show business. Arnaz played her husband Ricky, a Cuban bandleader. Vance and Frawley played Ethel and Fred Mertz, their best friends and landlords. The series ran from 1951 to May 6, 1957, with about 180 episodes over six seasons, and it was the No. 1 show in America for four of those six seasons.
It almost didn’t happen the way we remember it. CBS executives worried viewers wouldn’t accept Arnaz, but Ball pushed back. Their own company, Desilu (Desi plus Lucille), produced the show, and they won the fight to film it in Hollywood instead of broadcasting it live from New York.
How Lucy changed TV
I Love Lucy was shot on film with several cameras in front of a live studio audience. Sitcoms still use that setup today. Because every episode was saved on film, the show could be rerun again and again, which helped build the syndication business that TV still runs on. Over the years it has been dubbed into many languages and shown all over the world.
Three episodes you have to see
- “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” (May 5, 1952): Lucy lands a commercial for Vitameatavegamin, a “health tonic” that turns out to be 23% alcohol. The more takes she does, the worse (and funnier) it gets.
- “Job Switching” (Sept. 15, 1952): Lucy and Ethel get jobs at a candy factory, and the chocolate conveyor belt wins. Chocolates end up in their mouths, their hats and their blouses.
- “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (Jan. 19, 1953): Lucy Ricardo has Little Ricky. That same day, Lucille Ball gave birth to Desi Arnaz Jr. in real life. About 44 million people watched, more than tuned in to President Eisenhower’s inauguration the next day.
Bonus pick: “Lucy’s Italian Movie,” better known as the grape-stomping episode, is on just about every fan’s list of favorites.
Lucy’s legacy
The show won five Emmy Awards, according to the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum in Ball’s hometown of Jamestown, New York, where you can still see re-creations of the Ricardos’ apartment set. Seventy-five years later, almost every sitcom with a live audience owes something to Lucy.
What’s your favorite I Love Lucy moment? Come back every Thursday for another Throwback Thursday on StarShot.
Featured photo: I Love Lucy cast (William Frawley, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball), CBS Television publicity photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: HISTORY, Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, Wikipedia, Television Academy Interviews, Television Academy (1950s episodes), Britannica, TVmaze episode guide.
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