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50's -60's Fun Facts

Lucy Trivia Facts

Desi Arnaz was the son of a Cuban senator and a beautiful model. He was born to great wealth, but he was forced to leave his homeland at the age of 16 during the Batista revolution.

Lucille Ball dropped out of high school when she was 15 to pursue a career as an actress.

The only reason that Lucy became pregnant on the show was that she was pregnant in real life.

The network insisted the word expecting be used instead of the word pregnant.

After I Love Lucy came to an end, Desi Arnaz produced the show The Untouchables. Mobsters responded by putting a contract on his life. Boy talk about taking a tv show too seriously.

During the life of the show, the only other show that ever had higher ratings was " The $64,000 Question."

The network initially rejected Lucy's request for her real husband to play her TV husband. She threatened to move to another network so they gave in.

Dwight D. Eisenhower made the mistake of televising his inauguration during the same time spot as I Love Lucy. Almost twice as many viewers tuned in to watch her show than to watch him.

The "valentine" opening credits seen in syndication were *not* the original opening credits.

When the series originally aired on CBS, the credits featured animated stick figures of Lucy and Desi along with the sponsor's product--Phillip Morris cigarettes, for instance. The "valentine" credits were added when CBS began rerunning the series in 1958.

Bea Benederet and Gale Gordon were Lucy and Desi's first choice to play the Mertzes.

During the course of living in their New York apartment the Ricardos had three different telephone numbers, Murray Hill 5-9975, Circle 7-2099, and Murray Hill 5-9099. The change in numbers was due in part to the New York Telephone Company's activation of them for private use. New York Telephone would give the producers new un-circulated numbers to use. Murray Hill and Circle were, and still are, exchange names for telephone numbers in Manhattan.

Despite sleeping in separate beds throughout the entire series, Lucy and Ricky slept in two beds pushed together in the same box spring during the first two seasons of the show. Once Little Ricky was born, however, CBS suggested the beds be pushed apart as to diminish any hint of a sexual relationship between the Ricardos. Despite this, however, from time to time, especially after moving in to the bigger apartment in the Mertz building, the beds would occasionally be seen pushed together again.

Ethel Mertz had three middle names throughout the course of the series; Louise, Roberta, and Mae.

The Ricardos would go through four different sets of furniture during the series. Most of the furniture changes resulted in changes in the set such as when the Ricardos move into the bigger apartment in the Mertz building and eventually their home in Connecticut.

In episode 140 Bon Voyage , the Ricardos and Mertz's take off for Europe on the American Export Liner the SS Constitution. Desilu had specially contracted with the American Export Line to advertise the ship in return for the company to put up money for set construction on the European based episodes. The I Love Lucy crew had to achieve the effect of making it look like Lucy was being lowered down to ship from a helicopter. To achieve this Lucy was suspended forty feet above the soundstage and lowered down on a rope and harness (all this being done live before the studio audience). Though Lucy did the stunt she reportedly was terrified in doing it for a harnass had once broken on her causing a fall from a great height while she doing a stunt for an RKO picture of hers.

In episode 165 Lucy and the Loving Cup, Ricky Ricardo is given the honor of presenting jockey Johnny Longden with a loving cup celebrating the fact that he was, at the time, the jockey with the most wins. In real life Desilu opted to make a full length motion picture about the life of Longden, however, it never materialized.

For the first five seasons of the show the name of Ricky's club was the Tropicana, which he initially was made manager of. In season six Ricky becomes an owner of the club renaming it the Club Babalu.

Doris Singleton who played Lucy's sometimes friend, but mostly nemesis, Carolyn Appleby was originally named Lillian and was initially supposed to be just a one time guest spot as one of Lucy's girlfriends from the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League. Impressed with Singleton she was brought back for more episodes and was renamed Carolyn, after a real life friend of Lucy's in Jamestown, New York.

A running joke on the show was the reluctance of both Lucy and Ethel to reveal their ages, however, two episodes do eventually reveal them. In episode 138 The Passports which aired in 1955, it is revealed that Lucy Ricardo was born August 6, 1921 {August 6, 1911 was Lucy's real birthday}, making her 34 at the time of the episode. In episode 106 Ethel's Birthday, a specific age is not mentioned for Ethel, but Fred alludes that she is somewhere between 40 and 50 which were the ages of a delicatessen and cleaners, celebrating their birthdays also, in the Ricardo/Mertz neighborhood.

Both Bill Frawley and Fred Mertz were ardent fans of the New York Yankees ball club. So adamant a fan was Frawley that he had stipulated in his contract that if the Yankees reached the World Series he would be given the time off to go to New York to attend the games. This happened seven times during Lucy's nine year run causing major production headaches.

In 2001 a Polish remake of series was made, called Kocham Klarę.

Cast
Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo
Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo
Vivian Vance as Ethel Mertz
William Frawley as Fred Mertz
Richard Keith as Little Ricky Ricardo (1956-1957)
Jerry Hausner as Jerry , the agent
Elizabeth Patterson as Mrs. Mathilda Trumball
Doris Singleton as Caroline Appleby
Kathryn Card as Mrs. MacGillicuddy
Mary Jane Croft as Betty Ramsey (1957)
Frank Nelson as Ralph Ramsey (1957)
Series Run
First Telecast: October 15, 1951
Last Telecast: September 24, 1961
Broadcast History
October 1951- June 1957, CBS, Monday 9:00-9:30pm
April 1955- October 1955, CBS, Sunday 6:00-6:30pm
October 1955- April 1956, CBS, Saturday 6:30-7:00pm
September 1957- May 1958, CBS, Wednesday 7:30-8:00pm
July 1958- September 1958, CBS, Monday 9:00-9:30pm
October 1958- May 1959, CBS, Thursday 7:30-8:00pm
July 1959- September 1959, CBS, Friday 8:30-9:00pm
September 1961, CBS, Sunday 6:30-7:00pm
Theme Song
"I Love Lucy" by Harold Adamson and Eliot Daniel

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 consistently ranked very high in the Nielsen Ratings throughout its run.

* 1951-52: #3
* 1952-53: #1
* 1953-54: #1
* 1954-55: #1
* 1955-56: #2
* 1956-57: #1

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: Madelyn Pugh Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Robert G. Carroll, 1955
* Best Situation Comedy, 1955
* Best Comedy Writing: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, 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 , 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[1] (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.

DVD releases

CBS Home Entertainment (via Paramount Home Entertainment) 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.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date
The Complete 1st Season 36 June 7, 2004
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)

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.

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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 The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and later changed for syndication to 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.

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. Ironically, 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 cancelled due to low ratings. Oddly enough, the show debuted to very high ratings, landing in Nielson'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, which had given up the CBS affiliation several months before I Love Lucy premiered. "I Love Lucy" is also airing four times a day, Monday through Friday, on KTTV's sister station KCOP Channel 13, also in Los Angeles. KTTV still airs "I Love Lucy" on weekends. In the US, reruns have aired nationally on Nick at Nite and TV Land in addition to local channels. As of January 2, 2009, I Love Lucy moved over to the Hallmark Channel and is airing the series at least twice daily with several more airings on weekends. TV Land ended its run of the series by giving viewers the opportunity to vote on the shows 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.

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.

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 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, available now.

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

Pregnancy and Little Ricky

Just before filming the show, Lucy became pregnant with her and Desi's 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.[7] The episode "Lucy Is Enceinte" first aired on December 8, 1952 ("enceinte" being French for "expecting" or "pregnant"). 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 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.

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 get a son out of Lucy. From then on no matter what the sex of Lucille Ball's real baby was, Lucy Ricardo would have a boy.