REMEMBERING I LOVE LUCY

1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries Podcast

Jon Hagadorn

Society & Culture, History

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

TV history was made in 1951 when the first episode of I Love Lucy aired on CBS starring a fiery red head Irish actress named Lucille Ball and her real life husband, Cuban American band leader Desi Arnaz as New York City apartment dwellers Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. The show would air 6 years, making #1 in ratings 4 of those years, and breaking single episode viewer ratings twice- once when Lucy announced she was pregnant, and again when she went to the hospital to have their baby. Today we remember the show, the cast, the techniques and inventions that DesiLu Productions gave to the television industry., and most of all the millions of laughs the Lucille Ball and company gave and still give to viewers.

Our website: www.bestof1001stories.com

Resources: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a38507213/lucille-ball-husband-desi-arnaz-marriage-secret/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2022/11/29/i-love-lucy-lucille-ball-and-desi-arnazs-relationship-through-the-years/ https://lucydesi.com/i-love-lucy-history/fast-facts/#:~:text=%2313,viewed%20broadcasts%20in%20TV%20history. https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/lucille-ball-and-desi-arnaz-how-the-i-love-lucy-stars/197550#:~:text=To%20prove%20that%20they%20could,providing%20their%20product%20to%20CBS https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8qc0910/#:~:text=He%20wrote%20the%20pilot%20and,years%20of%20its%20six%20seasons. https://www.tumblr.com/papermoonloveslucy/174017237498/bob-hopes-love-affair-with-lucy https://people.com/all-about-lucille-ball-desi-arnaz-children-grandchildren-8629699 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucy%E2%80%93Desi_Comedy_Hour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucy_Show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here%27s_Lucy#Proposed_spin-off https://ldvb112.tripod.com/id210.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Frawley#:~:text=In%201957%2C%20at%20the%20end,a%20lucrative%20opportunity%20and%20accepted. https://people.com/tv/the-day-lucille-ball-said-goodbye-to-costar-vivian-vance/ https://www.metv.com/stories/what-happened-to-desi-arnaz-in-the-aftermath-of-his-divorce-from-lucy https://people.com/movies/how-lucille-ball-said-goodbye-to-desi-arnaz-two-days-before-he-died/ https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/5-ways-i-love-lucy-transformed-television-history/19407/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_the_Ricardos https://www.reddit.com/r/ILoveLucy/comments/1b0l98k/desi_arnazs_wrote_a_tribute_to_his_exwife_lucille/?rdt=51685

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The Welcome back, everyone to one thousand one heroes, legends, histories, and mysteries
0:36.3	podcast. This is your host, and Mysteries Podcast.
0:39.4	This is your host, John Haggardorn.
0:42.2	And it's time for some history this week.
0:43.6	TV history.
0:49.6	Today's show, I Love Lucy, is about a TV show that changed American TV forever and brought more people together in laughter than any television show in history.
0:55.3	It was an unlikely match for television of the 50s.
0:58.9	A husband and wife starring together in a TV situation comedy, sitcom,
1:03.8	she, a flaming red-haired Irish girl named Lucille Ball,
1:07.5	and he, Desi Arnaz, a Cuban-American bandleader, a combination which left many at CBS
1:14.2	studios with little hope for its success. But in 1951, I Love Lucy, the story of a mismatched
1:22.3	interracial couple living in an apartment building across the hall from their landlords.
1:27.4	A cranky old man and his pretty middle-aged wife went on the air.
1:32.2	And if you thought the TV execs were scratching their heads,
1:35.1	with their eyes turned to their ratings, then.
1:38.1	Lucy actually got pregnant by the end of season one.
1:41.7	This was during a time when the word pregnant was taboo on TV. And from a mixed
1:47.3	marriage, but the viewing public didn't care one bit. They loved Lucy too. On October 19,
1:56.6	1951, the first on-and-off-screen true American love story aired on television.
2:02.2	Their first episode, The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub.
2:06.3	Who were the girls? Lucy and Ethel.
2:09.7	I Love Lucy would run for six seasons, ending May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 12 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jon Hagadorn, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jon Hagadorn and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.