The Genius of I Love Lucy and the Timeless Curiosity About the Intense True Story Behind It - E! Online (2024)

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Disclaimer: I'm a bit of anI Love Lucyfanatic.

Not in the form of memorabilia all over the house or anything (my ephemera is limited to a DVD box set andonecollector'splate commemorating the iconic "It's so tasty too!" scene from "Lucy Does a Television Commercial," a.k.a. the Vitameatavegamin episode), but in the way that hardly a day goes by in which a line from the show doesn't pop into my head as an appropriate response to a real-life scenario.

I mostly confine the constant references to chats with my mom, the one who introduced me toI Love Lucyat some point in my early childhood, but more than a few friends have heard me say "that reminds me of thisLucy episode" over the years.I can go months without watching, but its relevance to my life never wanes.

Not thatsuper-fandom is niche in any way when it comes to the groundbreaking CBS sitcom that premieredon Oct. 15, 1951, ran for six seasons and continues to live forever in repeats. It's one of thebest-ever situation comedies, having originated so many of the situations that other comedieswent on to milk laughs from in its wake. And my love is probably pretty muted compared to those whodocollectLucyparaphernalia and go to conventions or join Facebook groups (such as the one devoted to releasingmore episodes of the black and white series in color, as CBS has taken to doing two at a time around the holidays).

But Iwillcelebrate the show's genius at every opportunity.And that, for me, only begins with theincomparabletitular redhead.

Ball had previously worked with the same writing trioon the radio comedyMy Favorite Husband—which CBS wanted to make into a television show, and Ball refused to do it without Arnaz as her leading man. The risk-averse network feared viewers weren't readyfor a mixed-ethnicity couple in prime time, so the couple took their chemistry on tour to prove they'd be a hit, Arnaz singing and Ball joining him for comedic sketches, many of which made it into the series.

Within six months of the show's premiere, more than 11 million households were tuning in each week, back when only about 15 million owned TV sets.

I Love Lucyhas neverbeen offthe dialsince. But though her talent and overall fearlessness made the whole thing possible, the show didn't getit* staying power from Ball alone.

Rather, it's the sum of so many parts: Lucy Ricardo's antics, yes, but also the invariablypitch-perfect performances by her supporting cast, the delightfully perfect timing of every aside, one-liner andlook thrown back at herfromArnaz as Ricky andWilliam Frawleyand Vivian Vance as the Ricardos' landlords and best friends, Fred and Ethel Mertz. (Vance won an Emmy for supporting actress in 1954, Frawley was nominated twice and the writers were also nominated twice, inexplicably losing both times to scribes from shows you've never heard of.)

This is the part where I could just start listing moments, but one I always come back to is Ricky's reaction to Lucy accidentally lighting her fake nose on fire in front of William Holden.That's the gag, one of the whole series' most memorable scenes, but Ricky's wide-eyed disbelief at what he's witnessing is also one of the all-time great facial expressions. (Despite being snubbed for acting, as the show's executive producer Arnaz did share two Best Comedy Series Emmy wins with Oppenheimer.)

It was also Arnaz's idea to have an unheard-of three cameras capturing the action, using cinematic 35 mm film to avoid the grainy quality of most television at the time. CBS didn't want to foot that high bill, so Arnaz and Ball's Desliu Productions agreed to cover the cost—and in exchange, the show lucratively belonged tothem, not the network.

And unlike how it so often sounds onthe shows that still tape in front of people today, the laughter emanating from Lucy's live studio audience never sounded forced, the reactions ranging from a muffled "uh-oh" when Lucy gets one of her ideas to howls of delights.

Even as the show wound down in 1957 with the Ricardos having left 623 East 68th St. in NYC for the Connecticut suburbs, they never stopped producingstand-out hilarious moments.Theirlongest-ever audience laugh came all the way in episode 173when Lucy, having stuffed a few dozen eggs down her blouse to secretly transport themoutto the henhouse (she has her reasons),can't come up with a good excuse after Ricky insiststhat they practice their tango for an upcoming benefit performance.Inevitably, he spins her away from him, andthen spins her back toward him, and...smack.

Sixty-five uninterruptedseconds of laughter ensued.

Suffice it to say, I Love Lucyis hardly a blueprint for modern marriage.There have been times in my life when I've beenless patient with the archaic domestic dynamic, andbummed out by Lucy's thwarted dreams (it's hard to image anyone actually being entertained by Ricky's nightclub shows without his wifecrashing them) and Fred's abject cheapness (why does Ricky have to pay for everything the Ricardos and Mertzes do together?). Ricky puts Lucy over his knee and spanks her a couple of times, and she's often telling Ethel she's worried about what he might do when he finds out about [insert her latest scheme], thoughwe all know her "hot-blooded Cuban" husbandis all bilingual talk.

There's alsoaseason two episode in which Fred and Ethelare convinced that Ricky gave Lucy a black eye (he tossed a book her way that she wasn't ready to catch). But the only help on offer is forLucy to go downstairs and stay with the Mertzes for the night (she doesn't, and Ethel at first gets madthat her friend won't confide in her)and Fred advises Ricky that he should sendhis wife some nice apology flowers the next day."You don't think I would actually hit Lucy, do you?" Ricky asks, and Fred's response indicates that whether his pal did or didn't punch his wife is by then besidethe point.

But it's no surprise that certain plot devices aged poorly. In the spirit of not needing to go down the never-ending rabbit hole of old stuff we treasure that wouldn't become the basis for new content today, here's a reminder that this is a70-year-oldsitcom. What aged flawlessly, however, is thatLucy remains the driver of all the action, the shining star of the show.

Which brings us back to Lucy and Ricky, known for being one of the few golden-age TV couples to actually appear reallyintoeach other (they even got to have their twin beds pushedtogether for a few seasons, before Lucy won new furniture and the bedroom set separated them), and there is many a moment where Ricky's reaction face is one of bemused but loving acknowledgment of his wife's wacky ways, followed by a big kiss.

"I Love Lucy was never just a title," Arnaz confirmed in his 1976 memoir,A Book.

But while it's heartwarming to think of the real-life marriage (and Ball's second pregnancy, written in to usher in the arrival of Little Ricky) behind the scenes, it can get a bit heartbreaking if you think too much.

Because by the timeI Love Lucypremiered in 1951, Arnaz and Ball had been married for almost 11 years, havingeloped not long after falling in love on the set of 1940'sToo Many Girls, and most of those years had been rocky. The couple spentmonthsapart at a time while Arnaz toured with his bandand Ball was working in Hollywood and,fueled by Arnaz'sheavy drinking and toxic jealousy on both sides, she first filed for divorce in 1944.

ButArnazwas a chronic cheater—a 1955 cover of the tabloidConfidential wondered "Does Desi Really Love Lucy?"—and their marriageended in1960 due to all sorts of irreconcilable differences.

"I realized we never really liked each other,"Ball wrote in Love, Lucy. "We had a great attraction going for each other in the beginning but we didn't approve of each other."

The 13th and final episode ofThe Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, hour-long plotsthatstill featured Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel, plus a different celebrity guest star every week, ended with one of those they're-still-hot-for-each-other moments, despite Arnaz and Ball's divorce being in the works.

"When the scene arrived and the cameras closed in for that final embrace, we just looked at each other," Ball remembered in her book, "and then Desi kissed me and we both cried. It marked the end of so many things."

Arnaz wrote inA Book, "The irony of it all is how our undreamed-of success, fame, and fortune turned it all to hell."

But more than half a century later, what they created together endures, boosted by fans old and new who can crank upI Love Lucywhenever they wanton Paramount+ or Hulu. And while the easily accessible laughs would be enough, the intense behind-the-scenes story is getting fresh eyes as well.

Lucie Arnazvisited the set and, while she admitted toPalm Springs Lifethat there are scenes she wishes were not in the film because they simply "weren't accurate," overall, she said, "I think [Sorkin] treated my mother and my father really well. I think they are accurate composites of these people. And what I've seen of it... I haven't seen any of the rushes, but I was on the set for just two days. What I saw was extraordinarily classy and first rate. The people that he has cast are just really great performers." Kidman, she added, "did a spectacular job."

But just addSorkin to the list of those stilltrying to get a handle on thereal-life dynamic between Ball and Arnaz. With Ron Howardproducing, Amy Poehleris also directing a documentary about the couple, for which Lucie gave them unprecedented access to the family archives. "I think it's going to be amazing," the keeper of the Lucy legacysaid. "From what I've heard so far, and what I've seen them do, they're really pulling out every stop. They are digging deeper than anybody I've ever known."

Asked what she thought her parents might think about people getting so much joy fromI Love Lucy70 years after its debut,Lucie replied, "Wouldn't they just be so proud? I'm sure they are. I mean, I know they know. And I'm sure that they've helped all of these other things come to fruition. I'm sure of that. The energy still exists, and they're a part of it. I know it. And when things don't happen right, I know they're a part of that too."