I Love Lucy - Behind the Scenes Plus Desilu Studios

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Lucille Ball 1911-1989 and Desi Arnez 1917-1986.

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 10-13-2025

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I Love Lucy is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with 180 half-hour episodes across six seasons. The series starred Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley, and follows the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a young, middle-class housewife living in New York City, who often concocts plans with her best friends and landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vance and Frawley), to appear alongside her bandleader husband, Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz), in his nightclub. Lucy is depicted trying numerous schemes to mingle with and be a part of show business. 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.

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.

The show – which was the first scripted television program to be filmed on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience, by cinematographer Karl Freund – won five Emmy Awards and received many nominations and honors. It was the first show to feature an ensemble cast. As such, it is often regarded as one of the most influential television programs in history. In 2012, it was voted the 'Best TV Show of All Time' in a survey conducted by ABC News and People magazine. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked it #12 on their list of the 101 Best Written TV Series.

Premise ~

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., who usually goes by "Little Ricky" and is portrayed by multiple actors throughout the seasons. His birth was timed to coincide with the real-life birth of Ball's son, Desi Arnaz Jr.

Lucy is naïve and ambitious, with a hunger for stardom and a knack for getting both herself and her husband into trouble whenever she yearns to make it big in show business. The Ricardos' best friends, Fred and Ethel, are former vaudevillians. The Mertzes' history in entertainment only strengthens Lucy's resolve to prove herself as a performer, though she often feels excluded, as her industry involvement is limited relative to that of Ricky, Fred, and Ethel. Though charismatic, throughout the series, she is depicted as having few marketable performance skills, and she is often portrayed as being tone deaf, struggling to perform anything other than off-key renditions of songs such as "Glow Worm" on the saxophone, and many of her performances end in disaster. However, to say she is completely without talent would be untrue, as on occasion, she is shown to be a good dancer and a competent singer. She is also at least twice offered contracts by television or film companies – first in the season 1 episode "The Audition", when she replaces an injured clown in Ricky's act at the Tropicana nightclub, and later in the season 5 episode "Lucy and the Dummy", when she dances in Hollywood for a studio party using a rubber Ricky dummy as her dancing partner.

Little information was offered about Lucy's past. A few episodes mentioned that she was born in Jamestown, New York (Ball's real-life home town), later specified to be West Jamestown, that she graduated from Jamestown High School, that her maiden name was "McGillicuddy" (indicating a Scottish or Irish ethnicity, at least on her father's side, though she once mentioned her grandmother was Swedish), and that she met Ricky on a cruise with her friend from an agency she once worked for. Her family was absent, other than occasional appearances by her scatter-brained mother Mrs. McGillicuddy (Kathryn Card), who could never get Ricky's name right. Lucy was also secretive about her age and true hair color, and tended to be careless with money, in addition to being somewhat materialistic, insisting on buying new dresses and hats for every occasion and telling old friends that she and Ricky were wealthy. She was also depicted as a devoted housewife, adept cook, and attentive mother. As part of Lucy's role was to care for her husband, she stayed at home and took care of the household chores, while her husband Ricky went to work. During the post-war era, Lucy took jobs outside of the home, but in these jobs the show portrayed her as being inept outside of her usual domestic duties.

Lucy's husband, Ricky Ricardo, is an up-and-coming Cuban American singer and bandleader with an excitable personality. His patience is frequently tested by his wife's antics trying to get into showbiz, along with her exorbitant spending on clothes and furniture. When exasperated, he often reverts to speaking rapidly in Spanish. As with Lucy, not much is revealed about his past or family. Ricky's mother (played by actress Mary Emery) appears in two episodes; in another, Lucy mentions that he has five brothers. Ricky also mentions that he had been "practically raised" by his Uncle Alberto (who was seen during a family visit to Cuba), and that he had attended the University of Havana. A catchphrase strongly associated with Ricky is "Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do" (sometimes "Lucy, you got a lotta splainin to do"), whenever something Lucy had kept a secret from Ricky that turned into a complicated, problematic situation and was finally revealed to him. The line is still often mentioned in articles about I Love Lucy and printed on official merchandise, despite the fact that Ricky never says this phrase in any episode.

An extended flashback segment in the 1957 episode "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" of The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show filled in numerous details of how Lucy and Ricky met and how Ricky came to the United States. The story, at least insofar as related to newspaper columnist Hedda Hopper, is that the couple met in Havana when Lucy and the Mertzes vacationed there in 1940. Despite his being a university graduate and proficient in English, Ricky is portrayed as a driver of a horse-drawn cab who waits for fares at a pier where tourists arrive by ship. Ricky is hired to serve as one of Lucy's tour guides, and the two fall in love. Having coincidentally also met popular singer Rudy Vallée on the cruise ship, Lucy arranges an audition for Ricky, who is hired to be in Vallée's orchestra, thus allowing him to emigrate to the United States on the very ship on which Lucy and the Mertzes were returning. Lucy later states that Ricky played for Vallée only one night before being traded to Xavier Cugat's orchestra.

The extended flashback segment "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" and the story of how Lucy and Ricky met is inconsistent with the season 4 episode "Don Juan and the Starlets". At one point in that episode, Lucy, after finding out that she was not invited to join Ricky at a movie premiere, bemoans that she made a mistake fifteen years before when her friend Marion Strong asked her if she would like to go on a blind date with a Cuban drummer, to which she said "yes."

Throughout the series, Lucy is usually found with her best friend, Ethel. A former singer and actress in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ethel tries to relive her glory days in vaudeville. Ricky is more inclined to include Ethel in performances at his nightclub because, unlike Lucy, she can sing and dance rather well.

The show mentions that Ethel's husband, Fred, served in World War I, and lived through the Great Depression. As such, in the series, Fred is depicted as being very stingy with money and as being an irascible, no-nonsense type. However, he also reveals that he can be a soft touch, especially when it comes to Little Ricky, to whom Fred is both godfather and honorary "uncle." Fred can also sing and dance, and he often performs duets with Ethel.

The Manhattan building they all lived in before their move to Westport, Connecticut during the sixth season was addressed at a fictional 623 East 68th Street, at first in apartment 4A, then moving to the larger apartment 3B (subsequently re-designated 3D; the Mertzes' apartment is then numbered 3B), on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In actuality, however, the addresses go up only to the 500s before the street terminates at the East River.

Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet, supporting cast members on My Favorite Husband, were originally approached for the roles of Fred and Ethel, but neither could accept, owing to previous commitments. Gordon did appear as a guest star, playing Ricky's boss, Mr. Littlefield, in two episodes of I Love Lucy, and later a civil court judge in an episode of The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show. Gordon was a veteran from the classic radio days in which he perfected the role of the exasperated character, as in Fibber McGee and Molly and Our Miss Brooks. He would go on to co-star with Ball in all of her post–I Love Lucy series (The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life with Lucy). Benaderet was a guest star in one episode as elderly Miss Lewis, a neighbor of the Ricardos.

Barbara Pepper (later featured as Doris Ziffel in the series Green Acres) was also considered to play Ethel, but Pepper had been drinking very heavily after the death of her husband, Craig W. Reynolds. Her friendship with Ball dated back to the film Roman Scandals (1933), in which both appeared as Goldwyn Girls. She did, however, turn up in at least nine episodes of I Love Lucy in bit parts.

Many of the characters in the series were named after Ball's family members or close friends. For example, Marion Strong was one of her best friends and a roommate for a time in New York, and she also set Ball and Arnaz up on their first date. Lillian Appleby was a teacher of Ball's when she was in an amateur production on the stage. Additionally, Pauline Lopus was a childhood friend, while Fred was the name of both Ball's brother and her grandfather. Ball and Arnaz had a business manager by the name of Mr. Andrew Hickox, and in the first episode of season 4, called "The Business Manager", Ricky hires a man named Mr. Hickox.

Background and development

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.

Lucille Ball.

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. 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 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. 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.

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."

Desi acting as emcee in front of the studio audience before each show.

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Actress Lucille Ball, President of Desilu Productions Inc., autographs annual report for Hershel Schustaff, 9, of Tucson, Arizona.

Desi Arnez during his time in the military.

An early photo of the couple.

Lucy and Desi doing a promotion.

Desi Arnez, Lucille Ball at home with their children, Desi Jr., and Lucie.

The Ball-Arnez living room.

Before their divorce in 1960, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz loved making home movies of their children.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz looked admiringly at their stacks and stacks of prolific trophies at the height of their fame in the 1950s.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were big animal lovers throughout their life, and especially loved these two Cocker Spaniels.

1955.

Desi and Lucy with their son, Desi Arnez Jr.

Daughter Lucie’s baptism was a big event for them. Everyone was all smiles, including both of their moms.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz with their young children, newborn son Desi Arnaz, Jr., and their small daughter, Lucie Arnaz in 1953.

After her split with Desi, Lucy married Gary Morton. He was 13 years younger than Ball.

Lucy and Gary with Lucy's two children, Desi Jr. and Lucie.

After his divorce from Lucy, Desi Arnez married Edith Eyre “Edie” McSkimming.

After the divorce, Lucy had a good relationship with her kids.

Both Lucie and Desi Jr., appeared on Lucy's shows, Life with Lucy and The Lucy Show.

Ball in her last public appearance, at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989, four weeks before her death. Her husband, Gary Morton, is at left.

Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball frequently went to one of their haunts, the Stork Club, as seen in this snapshot from 1947.

Lucille Ball was signing autographs, with Army Staff Sergeant Desi Arnaz sitting next to her, after he returned from his duties.

In New York City.

I Love Lucy cinematographer Karl Freund (1932).

Lucy with Superman star, George Reeve on an episode of I Love Lucy.

Rock Hudson visits the set with Lucy and Desi.

Lucille Ball, John Wayne and Vivian Vance.

John Wayne did appearances several times on Lucy's shows.

Desi in makeup for a scene.

''Lucy Goes to Scotland'' (1956), the first episode to be digitally colorized

Cast members from left, standing; William Frawley, Desi Arnaz, seated; Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball.

William Frawley as Fred Mertz.

Vivian Vance as Ethel Mertz.

In real life, Frawley and Vance hated each other.

Mike (left) and Joe Mayer played Little Ricky as a toddler.

Lucy on break with others.

Bedroom set.

Lucy in makeup.

Vivian Vance, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez going over a scene.

People arriving at the studio for a filming of I Love Lucy.

The audience watches the cast and crew set up for an episode.

Studio audience.

Desi Arnez addresses the audience at the start of each episode.

Desi talks to the sound engineers in the sound booth.

Ann Sothern and Ball during 1957.

Overhead view of the I Love Lucy set at Desilu Studios.

The set used for an episode when Lucy and Ricky go to California.

Lucy and Ricky in California.

Celebrating an I Love Lucy anniversary.

Filming a bedroom scene.

In later seasons of the show, Lucy and Ricky moved to the country.

Computer generated layout of the Ricardo's apartment.

On the episode where Lucy and Ricky travel to Hollywood with Fred and Ethel, the Ricardos bought a 1955 Pontiac Star Chief convertible.

The car sets in front of the set of the Ricardo's apartment house on the sound stage at Desilu Studios.

The windshield glass was removed to cut the glare of the studio lighting. This was done on many 1950s TV shows when they were filmed indoors on a sound stage.

During their drive to California.

In reality, the backdrop was projected onto a screen behind them.

And yes! I'm happy to report, the car has survived. The colors were changed however. It sold at the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction back in 2015 in Arizona for a whopping $220,000.

But, in case you don't have $220,000 laying around right now, a 1:18th die cast scale model was produced. Check eBay. Maybe you can find one.

Desilu Studios had been the old RKO lot.

Among many TV shows and movies, this is where the Andy Griffith Show was filmed and also the Untouchables.

Aerial shot of the newly dubbed Desilu Studios. 9336 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, circa 1958.

Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball Signing Contract With RKO Official Daniel F. O'Shea. (Undated).

A list of shows made by Desilu Productions in 1964.

Lucille Ball (1911 - 1989) attends a Desilu picnic with employees of the studio, circa 1955. (Photo by Jack Albin-Archive Photos-Getty Images).

Lucy and Desi with the Desilu Studios production staff, 1962.

Lucy and Desi leaving the studio offices in the late 1950s.

Lucy and Desi In and Around Desilu Studios ~

Lucille Ball (1911 - 1989) cuts a ribbon of 70mm film stock to represent the acquisition of her Hollywood production company Desilu by American conglomerate Gulf+Western, 1967. With her is Gulf+Western chairman Charles Bluhdorn (1926 - 1983). Gulf+Western then merged Desilu with its film studio, Paramount Pictures, to create Paramount Television. (Photo by Paramount Pictures/Getty Images).