I Love Lucy

All shows around this time were shot live in New York City, instead of filming them & airing them later, which meant that the viewers on the Eastern side of the US saw the shows clearly, but those everywhere else got a lower quality picture.
Lucy and Desi wanted to film the episodes of I Love Lucy to ensure the highest quality picture, but that also meant production costs were doubled to an amount that the sponsor wasn’t willing to pay, so Lucy and Desi were willing to take a salary cut in order to pay for the filming.
The show aired on CBS and had its first episode on October 15, 1951
Since the show was preserved on film, I Love Lucy has never gone off the air and it is said that every minute of everyday it’s playing somewhere in the world.

The storyline of the show was similar to other sitcoms at this time- a crazy wife making life difficult for a loving, but irritated husband.
Because of the people involved, I Love Lucy was different than other shows. Lucy was always doing her best to prove to her husband that she could make it in show business while he was always trying to keep her off the stage.
Some of her most famous episodes are the Vitametavegamin commercial when she gets drunk from having to sample the health tonic over and over and also when she ends up in a vat of grapes and gets in a fight with a professional grape stomper.
I Love Lucy was an immediate smash hit and during its six years of filming, never ranked lower than third in popularity among all TV shows.

Because Desi Arnaz taped the episodes of I Love Lucy, the show was the first one ever to have reruns. The first rerun was shown in 1952 as a "flashback" episode.
I Love Lucy became the first show to have a pregnant woman, which was a major issue because in this period of TV history, married people still slept in separate beds.
Lucy proved that women could be the leads and carry a show. She was also the first female head of a studio.

There were 180 episodes of the show and the last one aired on June 24, 1957. Reruns continued to be shown and are still shown today.
After the show was over, Lucy and Desi continued to star in other shows called the "Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" and also "Lucy in Connecticut."
Lucy and Desi got divorced in 1960, but Lucy went on by herself and starred in her own shows called "The Lucille Ball Show," "Here’s Lucy," and "Life With Lucy."
I Love Lucy was probably the most popular television show of all time and if it wasn’t for that show, TV probably wouldn’t be where it is today.