Background Lucille Ball came to Hollywood after a successful stint as a New York model. She was chosen by
Samuel Goldwyn to be one of 16
Goldwyn Girls to co-star in the picture
Roman Scandals (1933), 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 and eventually working her way up to co-starring roles in feature films and starring roles in second-rate
B pictures, collectively earning her the nickname "Queen of the B's". During her run at RKO, Ball gained the reputation for doing physical comedy and stunts that most other actresses avoided, keeping her steadily employed. In 1940, Ball met Desi Arnaz, a Cuban bandleader who had just come off a successful run in the 1939–40 Broadway show
Too Many Girls. RKO, after purchasing film rights to the show, cast Ball as Arnaz's love interest in the picture. The duo began a whirlwind courtship, leading to their elopement in Connecticut in November 1940. Despite their marriage, however, their careers kept them separated, with Ball's film work keeping her anchored in Hollywood, while Arnaz's nightclub engagements with his orchestra kept him on the road. Despite steadily working in pictures, Ball's movie career never advanced to the level of a headlining feature-film actress. Nevertheless, she remained popular with film audiences. Ball came to the attention of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after receiving critical acclaim for her starring role in the 1942
Damon Runyon film
The Big Street, which bought out her contract. It was under contract with MGM, however, that Ball, who had previously been a blonde,
dyed her hair red to complement the Technicolor features that MGM planned to use her in. MGM cast Ball in a variety of films, but it was her work with fellow comedian
Red Skelton in the 1943 film
DuBarry Was a Lady that brought Ball's physical comedy to the forefront, earning her the reputation as "that crazy redhead", which Ricky would later call her on the show. Nonetheless, Ball's striking beauty was in sharp contrast to the physical antics she performed in her films. Throughout her career, MGM tried to utilize her in multiple different film genres that did little to highlight her skills. Given their difficulties in casting her, MGM chose not to renew her contract when it expired in 1946. Ball began working as a freelance artist in films and also began to explore other venues. These appearances brought Ball to the attention of CBS, which, in 1948, enlisted her to star in one of two new half-hour situation comedies in development,
Our Miss Brooks and
My Favorite Husband. Choosing the latter, Ball 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
Richard Denning. Based on the novel
Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, by
Isabel Scott Rorick,
My Favorite Husband was produced by
Jess Oppenheimer and written by Oppenheimer,
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, Ball also 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 comedian. They also highlighted her growing 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. Ball saw a television show as a great opportunity to work with Arnaz, however, and she insisted that he play her husband, much to the dismay of CBS, which was reluctant to cast Arnaz in that role, as he was Cuban. CBS executives did not think audiences would buy into a marriage between an all-American girl and a Latin man. 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 Ball'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 that was named
I Love Lucy. The couple's agent, Don Sharpe, brought the pilot to several advertising agencies with little luck, but finally succeeded with
Milton H. Biow's agency, The Biow Company, which convinced its client, cigarette giant
Philip Morris, to sponsor the show. Every episode of
I Love Lucy would be filmed in front of a studio audience consisting of 300 members, with Desi Arnaz acting as emcee before every episode filming. One notable filming, which occurred when Ball was being investigated for potential Communist sympathies in 1953, involved Arnaz telling the audience "Now I want you to meet my favorite wife, my favorite redhead. In fact, that's the only thing red about her. And even that's not legitimate, Lucile Ball."
Production During the spring and summer of 1951,
I Love Lucy moved into production. Oppenheimer, Pugh, and Carroll began fine-tuning the premise of the show and writing the series' first scripts. The trio chose to adapt many storylines for television using the backlog of episodes of
My Favorite Husband. In addition, the series' ensemble cast and crew were assembled. Arnaz retained his orchestra, 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 conducted the orchestra. on the set of the 1955 episode "Lucy and John Wayne" After Philip Morris signed on to sponsor the show, two problems that would ultimately change the fate of
I Love Lucy arose. Ball and Arnaz had originally decided that the series would air biweekly, like
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. Philip Morris, however, was insistent that the show air weekly, thus diminishing the possibility of Ball 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 and broadcast live for eastern and Midwest audiences. West Coast viewers were able to view live programs only through low-quality
kinescopes, which derived their images by using a 35 mm or
16 mm film camera to record the show from a television monitor. Although the pilot film shown to Philip Morris had been a kinescope, the sponsor did not want the lucrative East Coast market, accustomed to quality broadcasts, to see a low-quality kinescope film. Both CBS and Philip Morris initially balked at the idea, because of the higher cost that filming the show would incur, and acquiesced only after the couple offered to take a $1,000-a-week pay cut in order to cover the additional expense. In exchange, Ball and Arnaz demanded, and were given, 80% ownership in the
I Love Lucy films (the other 20% went to Oppenheimer, who then gave 5% to Pugh and 5% to Carroll). Shooting the show on film, however, would require that Ball and Arnaz 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. The company was named
Desilu, from the combination of both of their first names,
Desi and
Lucille. Though some television series were already being filmed in Hollywood, most used the
single-camera format familiar from movies, with a laugh track added to comedies to simulate audience response. Ball wanted to work in front of a live audience to create the kind of comic energy she had displayed on radio. The idea of a film studio that could accommodate an audience was a new one for the time, as
fire safety regulations made it difficult to allow an audience in a studio. Arnaz and Oppenheimer found 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 the 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. (1932) 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
Jerry Fairbanks, and it had been used on the live anthology series
The Silver Theater and the game show
Truth or Consequences. Ralph Edwards's 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 of 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 left in the episodes. Ball and Arnaz enlisted the services of
Karl Freund, a
cinematographer who had worked on such films as
Metropolis (1927),
Dracula (1931),
The Good Earth (1937), and
DuBarry Was a Lady (1943) (which also starred Ball), as well as directed
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 the couple that convinced him to take the job. Freund also pioneered
flat lighting, in which everything is brightly lit to eliminate shadows and the need for endless relighting. This mindfulness of contrasts led to sets and props being prepared in monochrome shades: "This knowledge of the contrast secret is revealed in the decor of the sets. They are painted in various shades of grey. Props likewise follow the ethical demands of correct contrast, as do the wardrobes of the players. Even newspapers, when they are to appear in a scene, are tinted grey." Audience reactions were live, which created a more authentic laugh than the
canned laughter used on most filmed sitcoms of the time. Regular audience members were sometimes heard from episode to episode, and Arnaz's distinctive laugh could be heard in the background during scenes in which he did not perform, as well as Ball's mother, DeDe, whose distinctive "uh oh" could be heard in many of the episodes. In later years, CBS would devise a laugh track from several
I Love Lucy audiences and use them for canned laughter on shows done without a live audience.
I Love Lucy's pioneering use of
three cameras led to it becoming the standard technique for the production of most sitcoms filmed in front of an audience. Single-camera setups remained the technique of choice for sitcoms that did not use audiences. This led to an unexpected benefit for Desilu during the series' second season when it was discovered that Ball was pregnant. Not being able to fulfill the show's 39-episode commitment, both Desi and Oppenheimer decided to rebroadcast popular episodes of the series' first season to help give Ball the necessary rest she needed after she gave birth, effectively allowing fewer 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. The show's original opening and commercial bumpers were animated caricatures of Ball and Arnaz. They were designed and animated by MGM character designer, and future "Flintstones" cartoonist, Gene Hazelton (1917–2005) and were produced under a contract that producer William Hanna had secured privately. The program sponsor, Philip Morris cigarettes, was incorporated into many of these sequences, so when
I Love Lucy went into repeats, the sponsor material was replaced by the now-familiar heart logo. However, Hazelton's original animation survives and can be seen in the DVD boxed set as originally presented.
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, renaming 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 studio's growth, and need for additional sound stages, Arnaz and Ball purchased RKO Radio Pictures from
General Tire in 1957 for over $6 million, effectively owning the studio where they had started as contract players. Desilu acquired RKO's two studio complexes, located on Gower Street in Hollywood and in
Culver City (now part of the
Paramount lot and
Culver Studios respectively), 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 marriage dissolved, Ball bought out Arnaz's shares of Desilu, becoming the studio's sole owner. She eventually sold off Desilu in 1967 to
Gulf+Western, owners of
Paramount Pictures. After the sale, Desilu-Cahuenga became a private production company and was known as
Ren-Mar Studios until 2010, when it was acquired by the
Red Digital Cinema Camera Company and renamed Red Studios Hollywood.
The Mertzes As with
My Favorite Husband,
I Love Lucy writers decided that the Ricardos needed an older couple to play off. While performing in
Husband, veteran character actors
Gale Gordon and
Bea Benaderet had played Rudolph and Iris Atterbury, an older, more financially stable couple as Mr. Atterbury had been George Cooper's boss. Ball had initially 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
The Burns and Allen Show, and Gordon was under contract by CBS to play Mr. Conklin on both the radio and television versions of
Our Miss Brooks. in 1951 Casting the Mertzes, as they were now called (the surname taken from a doctor that
I Love Lucy scriptwriter 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 the
Columbia Pictures film
Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), to play Fred Mertz. However, Gleason wanted nearly $3,500 per episode to play the role, a price that was far too high to sustain. Sixty-four-year-old
William 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 into 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. The network objected to the idea of casting Frawley, fearing that his excessive drinkingwhich was well known in Hollywood
Vivian Vance became a consideration on the recommendation of
I Love 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 a 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 was reluctant to give 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, however, had many misgivings about hiring Vance, who was younger and far more attractive than the concept of Ethel as an older, somewhat homely woman (Vance was two years older than Ball). Ball was also a believer in the Hollywood adage at the time that there should be only one pretty woman on the set and Ball, being the star of the show, would be it. Arnaz, however, was impressed by Vance's work and hired her. The decision was then made to dress Vance in frumpier clothing to tone down her attractiveness. Eventually realizing that Vance was no threat and was professional, Ball began to warm to her. In 1954, Vance became the first actress to win an
Emmy Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actress. Vance and Ball developed a close, lifelong friendship with Ball frequently listening to Vance's input during episode productions. In 1962, after the end of
I Love Lucy, Ball would ask Vance to co-star in her new series
The Lucy Show. Vance and Frawley disliked each other. However, they were always professional while performing on the show. Frawley derisively described Vance's appearance as "a sack of doorknobs". It was reported that Vance, who was 22 years younger than Frawley, was not really keen on the idea that her character Ethel was married to a man that was old enough to be her father. Vance also complained that Frawley's song-and-dance skills were not what they once were. Frawley and Vance had an adversarial relationship during the entire run of the show. ,
Lucille Ball,
Vivian Vance, and
William Frawley, from the 1955 episode "Face to Face" 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 an anthology series called the
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. The hour-long
Lucy–Desi show was to alternate monthly with other hour-long
Playhouse shows. The new series put a much heavier emphasis on big-name guest stars 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. Arnaz, in an effort to please Vance, for whom he had much respect, proposed doing a spin-off from
I Love Lucy called
The Mertzes. Seeing a lucrative opportunity and the chance to star in his own show, Frawley was enthused. Vance, however, declined for a number of reasons, the biggest factor being that she felt she and Frawley could barely work together on the ensemble show they were doing at the time, so it would be much less likely the two could work together on their own series. Vance also felt that the Mertz characters would not be as successful without the Ricardos to play off, and despite being her biggest success, she was becoming interested in playing more glamorous roles rather than Ethel. During the thirteen-episode run of the
Lucy–Desi hour-long shows, Vance was given a lot more latitude to look more attractive as Ethel, something she was denied during the run of the
I Love Lucy episodes. Frawley's resentment of Vance intensified after she declined to do the spin-off show and the two rarely talked to each other outside of their characters' dialogue with one another.
Pregnancy and Little Ricky Just before filming the show, Ball and Arnaz learned that she was once again pregnant (after multiple miscarriages earlier in their marriage) with their first child,
Lucie Arnaz. They filmed the original pilot while Lucy was "showing" but did not include any references to the pregnancy in the episode. This was because
CBS thought that talk of pregnancy might be in bad taste and because an ad agency told Arnaz not to show a pregnant woman. Later, during the second season, Ball was pregnant again with second child
Desi Arnaz Jr., and this time the pregnancy was incorporated into the series' storyline. (Contrary to popular belief, Ball's pregnancy was not television's first on-screen pregnancy, a distinction belonging to
Mary Kay Stearns on the late 1940s sitcom
Mary Kay and Johnny.) " (1957) CBS would not allow
I Love Lucy to use the word
pregnant, so
expecting was used instead. In addition, sponsor Philip Morris made the request that Ball not be seen smoking during the pregnancy episodes. The episode "Lucy Is Enceinte" first aired on December 8, 1952 ( being French for
expecting or
pregnant). One week later, on December 15, 1952, the episode titled "Pregnant Women Are Unpredictable" was aired (although the show never displayed episode titles on the air). The episode in which Lucy Ricardo gives birth, "
Lucy Goes to the Hospital", first aired on January 19, 1953, which was the day before the inauguration of
Dwight Eisenhower as President of the United States. To increase the publicity of this episode, the original air date was chosen to coincide with Ball's real-life delivery of Desi Jr. by
Caesarean section. "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" was watched by more people than any other television program up to that time, with 71.7% of all American television sets tuned in, topping the 67.7 rating for the inauguration coverage the following morning. Unlike some programs that
advance the age of a newborn over a short period,
I Love Lucy at first allowed the Ricardos' son Little Ricky to grow up in real time. America saw Little Ricky as an infant in the 1952–53 season and a toddler from 1953 to 1956. However, for the 1956–57 season, Little Ricky suddenly aged by two years, becoming a young school-age boy from 1956 to 1960. Five actors played the role, two sets of twins and later Keith Thibodeaux, whose stage name when playing
Ricky Ricardo Jr. was
Richard Keith. (In "
Lucy and Superman", Little Ricky is mentioned as being five years old but it had been less than four years since the airing of "Lucy Goes to the Hospital".)
Jess Oppenheimer stated in his memoir,
Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time, that the initial plan was to match the sex of the Ricardo's baby with Ball's real baby, inserting one of two alternative endings into the broadcast print at the last minute. When logistical difficulties convinced Oppenheimer to abandon this plan, he advised Desi Arnaz that as head writer, he would have Lucy Ricardo give birth to a boy. Desi Arnaz agreed, telling Oppenheimer that Ball had already given him one girl, and might give him anotherthis might be his only chance to get a son. When the baby boy was born, Desi Arnaz immediately called Oppenheimer and told him, "Lucy followed your script. Ain't she something?", to which Oppenheimer replied "Terrific! That makes me the greatest writer in the world!".
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 whoever the particular episode's sponsor was. These sequences were created by the animation team of
William Hanna and
Joseph 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. According to a 2003 interview conducted by the Television Academy Foundation with optical effects specialist Howard Anderson Jr., Anderson's studio handled the post-production of the "heart on satin" title cards used in syndicated rebroadcasts of I Love Lucy. The original design of the heart motif and its typography was created by Verdun Philip Cook, a typographer and animator who collaborated with Desilu Productions during the show's original run. 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), and
Ford Motor Company (1956–57). The later
Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show was sponsored by
Ford Motor Company (1957–58) and
Westinghouse Electric Corporation (1958–60), as part of the
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. 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. However, 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. However, the openings are listed as special features within the disks with the "heart on satin" image opening the actual episodes. The complete original broadcast versions of Seasons 1 and 2, as seen in 1951–1953 with intros, closings, and all commercials, are included on their respective Ultimate Season Blu-ray editions.
Theme song The
I Love Lucy theme song was written by two-time
Oscar-nominee
Eliot Daniel. Lyrics were later written by five-time
Oscar-nominee
Harold Adamson, for
Desi Arnaz to sing in the 1953 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!'' "I Love Lucy", sung by Desi Arnaz with
Paul Weston and the
Norman Luboff Choir, was released as the B-side of "There's a Brand New Baby (At Our House)" by
Columbia Records (catalog number 39937) in 1953. The song was covered by
Michael Franks on the album
Dragonfly Summer (1993). In 1977, the
Wilton Place Street Band had a
Top 40 hit with a disco version of the theme, "Disco Lucy". ==Episodes==