A

"I LOVE LUCY"

Significance

"I Love Lucy" was one of the most successful television shows in the history of American broadcasting. First broadcast on Monday night, 15 October 1951, on the CBS television network, the show captured the loyalty of millions of viewers with its comic depiction of marital life. The story of its development and its long prime-time run illustrates many of the forces and trends that shaped television in the 1950s.

Ball's Career

In the mid 1940s actress and comedienne Lucille Ball was the star of a CBS radio program called "My Favorite Husband." When television began to search for programming, CBS executives approached Ball about switching from radio to television. Ball and her husband, Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, responded to the approach in 1950 by buying the RKO film studio properties and ambitiously forming their own production company, Desilu, to develop and produce television shows. William S. Paley, CBS president, rejected Ball's ideas for an adaptation of "My Favorite Husband"; in response Ball and Arnaz developed an entirely new project. Desilu planned a filmed program rather than a live show.

Pilot Show

Desilu produced the pilot program for "I Love Lucy" for five thousand dollars; CBS had no financial interest in the show as yet. Desilu's advertising agency arranged sponsorship for the show before it had acquired a network time slot on which to be shown. Faced with the prospect of losing one of its stars to a rival network, CBS bargained hard to keep Ball on the network.

The Cast

"I Love Lucy" starred Ball as Lucy Ricardo, a New York housewife, and Arnaz as her husband, Ricky, a Cuban bandleader. Paley, other CBS executives, and the show's sponsor, the Philip Morris Company, were vehemently opposed to Arnaz being cast as Lucy's husband. Ball was adamant that he remain. When confronted with the network's belief that her television marriage to a Cuban bandleader would be unbelievable, Ball replied, 'What do you mean nobody'll believe it? We are married."

Also featured were the Ricardos' landlords and best friends, Fred and Ethel Mertz (played by William Frawley and Vivian Vance). The premise of the series, which had Lucy and Ethel continually frustrating their husbands with crazy schemes, was a familiar one to domestic situation comedies; but the comic talents of the four stars, particularly Ball, lifted the series above the average.

The Public's Reaction

The reaction of the public to the show was overwhelmingly positive. Within four months the show was number one in the ratings in New York. The Chicago department store Marshall Field began to close on Monday nights so as not to compete with "I Love Lucy." By early 1952 over 10 million households were regularly watching the show. In October 1952 it was the highest-rated show in television. The 19 January 1953 episode, on which Lucy gave birth to the Ricardos' child, was watched by an estimated 44 million people, twice the number of viewers of the Dwight D. Eisenhower inauguration.

The End of Production

In September 1956, while the series was still one of the highest rated on the air, the two stars ended regular production. Until 1961 the CBS network continued to show reruns of earlier episodes in prime time with occasional new hour-long episodes.

Film vs. Live

The success of "I Love Lucy" reinforced trends already evident in the trade. One trend was the growing prevalence of taped programs. Network executives, such as Paley and David Sarnoff of NBC, preferred live television to film. The executives feared that producers of filmed programs, in many cases Hollywood movie companies, would sell their programs directly to the affiliates, the local television stations that broadcast the programs. The affiliates could then sell advertising time themselves and bypass the networks entirely. This fear proved overblown; affiliates remained under tight control by the networks and continued to rely on their advertising contracts.

Critical Dislike of Film

Critics opposed filmed programs. Jack Gould, television critic of the New York Times, wrote against the use of film, especially Hollywood-produced film, in television:

On every count—technically and qualitatively—the films cannot compare with "live" shows and they are hurting video.… There is simply no substitute for the intangible excitement and sense of anticipation that is inherent in the performance that takes place at the moment one is watching.

A Classic Form

Regardless of the views of the critics, audiences appeared to prefer filmed shows. Film lent itself to series in which characters, settings, and basic plot forms—set up in the initial episode—did not vary from week to week. "I Love Lucy" was a classic in this sense, and its success hastened the demise of live television.