It was an ordinary day. Watching "I Love Lucy" with my Mom, Dad and brother on our color TV in the living room of our home at 929 N. Queen Street at the edge of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The year was 1955 and color TV sets had just been on the market for about a year. My Aunt and Uncle had purchased a new color TV the year before, but my parents didn't have enough money until the following year to buy one for the family. My brother and I thought we must be rich to be able to have a color TV. And we loved watching shows that were broadcast in color. One such show was the weekly "I Love Lucy" show. My only complaint was that the show wasn't on long after it was first shown in color. The show had first aired in October of 1951 on CBS in black and white. The show topped the Nielsen ratings for 4 out of the 6 years it was on TV. One thing I never knew for many years was that Lucy and Desi, the stars of the show, were actually married in real life during the years they were on the show. They eventually got divorced in 1960, after 20 years of marriage. They still remained best of friends, but didn't enjoy being married anymore. I recently learned a few things about the two of them and the show that they had on TV for a few years.
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| Lucy, Ethel, Desi and Fred |
Seems that CBS at first didn't think that Americans would buy the idea that Lucy was married to a "foreign" man. At the time Lucille Ball had a radio show called "My Favorite Husband." She agreed to place it on TV only if her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz would play the role of her husband. CBS wasn't sure that American viewers would watch a show that had her married to a "foreign" man with an accent. I suppose that many didn't realize that they had already been married in real life for over a decade. Lucy also said that she would be the only one who could make fun of her husband's fractured English. The show at first had a hard time finding sponsors, since Lucy wanted smoking allowed on the show. Luckily Philip Morris signed on as a sponsor. Only problem they had was that Lucy smoked Chesterfields so one of the stagehands had to stuff her Chesterfield cigarettes into Philip Morris wrappers. Another problem was that Lucy was just about the same height as her husband and when she wore heels she stood higher than Desi. He in turn had to wear "lifts" in his shoes. One of my favorite episodes was called "The Candy Factory Episode" where Lucy and Ethel stuff their faces and clothing with chocolates while trying to keep up with a speedy conveyor belt. At the time I was a young teenager who thought that was hilarious. Not sure what I would think today. One thing that most people who watched the show never knew was that Luci and Dezi's friends, "The Mertzes," couldn't stand each other. Vivian Vance, who played Ethel, was actually 22 years younger than her TV husband Fred. She didn't care for him in real life, calling him and "odd poop." He in turn called her a "sack of doorknobs." They were smart enough not to let that get in the way of their acting. Most of the writers and directors never knew about it until the show was no longer on TV. Well, "I Love Lucy" was just one of my favorite early color TV shows that I loved.
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| Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Lorne Green and Dan Blocker |
Another was Bonanza with Father Ben, Adam, Little Joe and Hoss. Watched that every Sunday evening. But, that's another story for another day. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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