I Love Lucy is a seminal American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show was conceived of and starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley. Groundbreaking, and one of the most successful, popular and influential shows of all time. I Love Lucy and Lucille Ball became a prominent part of the U.S. consciousness, and their influence either in front of or behind the scenes was clear on the shows that followed, with Lucy, Ricky (and Desi's song Babalu!) becoming another of Mork's favourite references.
About I Love Lucy[]
Originally set in an apartment building in New York City, I Love Lucy centers on Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) and her singer/bandleader husband, Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), along with their best friends and landlords, Fred Mertz (William Frawley) and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance). During the second season, Lucy and Ricky have a son named Ricky Ricardo Jr. ("Little Ricky"), whose birth was timed to coincide with Ball's real-life birth of her son, Desi Arnaz Jr.[1]
Lucy is depicted trying numerous schemes to mingle with and be a part of show business often concocting plans with her best friends, Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vance and Frawley), to appear alongside her bandleader husband, The show is notable for some of the best known physical comedy set ups in Television history, and all the more groundbreaking for putting a female comedian in Lucy at their heart. It also had, over the course of it's run, a virtual parade of top line Hollywood celebrities making appearance. Meanwhile Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz), in his nightclub, was given many opportunities to perform on the show with his band, introducing various songs, including his hits Cuban Pete and Babalu.
After the series ended in 1957, a modified version of the show continued for three more seasons, with 13 one-hour specials, which ran from 1957 to 1960. It was first known as The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show, and later, in reruns, as The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.[1]
Development[]
Throughout her movie career, MGM tried to utilize Lucille Ball in multiple different film genres, where she most often played a glamour star or vamp, that did very little to highlight her physical and comic 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. Before and during World War II, Ball made several notable and successful guest appearances on several radio programs, including both Jack Haley's radio show and bandleader Kay Kyser's radio program. 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 actor 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, plus scribes 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.[1]
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. To prove CBS wrong, the couple developed a vaudeville act, written by Carroll and Pugh, that they performed at Newburgh NY's historic Ritz Theater with Arnaz's orchestra. 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.[1]
In order to facilitate their desire to remain on the West Coast, to accommodate their impending family Lucy and Desi formed the DesiLu company from the combination of both their first names "Desi" and "Lucille", to produce the show themselves, using film studio employees, to film the show so it would be of high enough quality to be shown in recorded format on the East Coast.
Shooting Sitcoms and Reruns[]
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.
I Love Lucy pioneered the 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. 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 played off for the sake of continuity.[1]
The three camera format remained the standard until Mork & Mindy, when Robin William's exuberant energy resulted in the need of a fourth camera, which in turn became the norm for all sitcoms shot in front of an audience.
An unexpected benefit for Desilu occurred 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.[1]
Success[]
I Love Lucy became the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons and it was the first to end its run at the top of the Nielsen ratings. As of 2011, episodes of the show have been syndicated in dozens of languages across the world and remain popular with an American audience of 40 million each year. A colorized version of its Christmas episode attracted more than eight million viewers when CBS aired it in prime time in 2013, 62 years after the show premiered. CBS has aired two to three colorized episodes each year since then, once at Christmas and again in the spring.[1]
The show – which was the first scripted television program to be shot on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience, by cinematographer Karl Freund – won five Emmy Awards, including for Vivian Vance, and multiple awards for Lucille Ball and the show itself among many nominations and honors. It was the first show to feature an ensemble cast. As such, it is often regarded as both one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms in history. In 2012, it was voted the 'Best TV Show of All Time' in a survey conducted by ABC News and People magazine.[1]
Mork's Multiple References[]
- The Mork & Mindy Special - During his attempt at finding a normal voice, Mork impersonates both Ricky and Lucy eferencing the Lucy's cry of Ricky/and his song Babalú
- Mork In Love - Mork greets Mindy with a quickly sung "Babalú,"
- Mork in Wonderland, Part 1 - In his panic about the energy crisis, Mork tells Mindy there's a world beyond 'I Love Lucy'
- Mindy and Mork - When Mindy tells Mork that his excuse that men on TV don't work in the home, doesn't hold water as that isn't real life, a stricken Mork asks her if that means that Ricky didn't really Love Lucy, making a plaintive cry of Babalú.