I Love Lucy

This page is dedicated to Lucille Ball (1911 - 1989), Desi Arnaz (1917 - 1986), Vivian Vance (1909 - 1979) and William Frawley (1887 - 1966)

I Love Lucy is a popular 1950s American television sitcom that originally ran on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning 6 seasons (including the 'lost' original pilot and Christmas episode). The show starred Lucille Ball, her real-life husband Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. It followed the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a middle-class housewife in New York City, who either concocted plans with her best friends (Vance & Frawley) to appear alongside her handleader Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz) in his nightclub, or tried numerous schemes to mingle with, or be a part of show business. It was the first series to end its run at the top of the Nielsen ratings which was later duplicated by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld. In 2002, TV Guide named I Love Lucy the second greatest TV show of all time behind Seinfeld.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) One of the best comedy sitcoms ever made.
 * 2) Super great acting from the cast, especially from Ball & Arnaz.
 * 3) Unforgettable scenes like Lucy doing the commercial of Vitameatavegamin, picking chocolates in the chocolate factory, kneading grapes with her feet and many more.
 * 4) The episode "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" was the most-watched episode by 44 million people.
 * 5) Little Ricky is one of the best characters of the series, who is a mixed heritage Cuban and American of Scottish descent, was portrayed by many child actors, but one of them was very famous in the role of Little Ricky, two words: Richard Keith.
 * 6) Memorable quotes such as "You've got some splainin' to do!"
 * 7) The crossover with Superman was awesome.
 * 8) Great songs sung by Desi Arnaz like: the theme song of the series was played in the episode "Lucy's Last Birthday", "We're Having a Baby", "There's a Brand New Baby at Our House" and more.
 * 9) Lucy and Ricky's neighbours, Fred and Ethel are funny.
 * 10) The colourised episodes (including the lost Christmas episode) are wonderful.
 * 11) Lucy's stunts made people laugh.
 * 12) Was filmed with three 35 mm film cameras and flat lighting, made by the cinematographic Karl Freund, which made the live audience laugh generously at the scenes and jokes of the series.
 * 13) It helped introduce syndication for television.
 * 14) If you excluding her spinoff series Life with Lucy, her career as an actress is very sucessful.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Its failed 80's revival, mh:terribletvshows:Life with Lucy was terrible, which killed Lucille Ball's career.
 * 2) Didn't use the word "Pregnant" when Lucille Ball was pregnant at the time of the second season, due to the word "Pregnant" was prohibited in television at the time, instead was used the word "Enceinte". Later shows such as Seinfeld, The Lucy Show, Cheers and its spinoff Frasier had no problem at all with using the word “Pregnant”.

Trivia

 * Originally Ricky Ricardo would be called Larry Ricardo, but producers changed to Ricky, because they thought Larry and Lucy was a bad alliteration.