I Love Lucy is the most influential sitcom in television history. No show can come close to I Love Lucy. Lucy and Desi shaped the future of television. She had one the most legendary and popular situation comedies of all time. She will always be a television icon.
"When the creators of such hits as "Friends," "Seinfeld" and "ER" cash their checks, they should take a moment to pay homage to Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Two of the savviest and most innovative entrepreneurs ever to grace the star studded streets. In addition to laying the groundwork for the multi billion dollar television industry, they introduced many of the production techniques that would become standard television practice and almost single handedly made Hollywood the television capital of the world."
Every fan of the original Star Trek knows that the show was made by Desilu. The big production logo is a familiar part of the end credits of the show, displayed over the head of the alien (puppet) Balok. I remember when I used to watch a bit of Star Trek with my father when I was a kid. When I saw the Desilu logo I was like, "OMGOSH I LOVE LUCY!"
What few fans know is that Lucille Ball herself, half of the Desilu team, pulled the trigger on making Star Trek happen. Desilu is a mash up of the names of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, the husband and wife comedy team. It was only when I was older that I learned of their production company and how it came to be. It started mainly because Lucille did not want to move to New York to film the I Love Lucy show. She wanted to stay in Hollywood.
Desi, her husband came up with film tricks that would work and not cost the production team a lot. They took pay cuts and took ownership of the production company. When RKO Pictures went bankrupt in 1957, Desilu bought its studios and location facilities. They produced a number of shows, including The Andy Griffith Show, and also lent their facilities for various other projects, such as My Favorite Martian, I, Spy, My Three Sons, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Untouchables.
Desi, her husband came up with film tricks that would work and not cost the production team a lot. They took pay cuts and took ownership of the production company. When RKO Pictures went bankrupt in 1957, Desilu bought its studios and location facilities. They produced a number of shows, including The Andy Griffith Show, and also lent their facilities for various other projects, such as My Favorite Martian, I, Spy, My Three Sons, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Untouchables.
They formed the production company when they were trying to sell their radio show, My Favorite Husband to TV. It eventually became I Love Lucy, one of the all-time greatest shows in the history of the medium, and the source of the money that would later allow Desilu to make Star Trek. Lucy was also behind mission impossible. "I Love Lucy" debuted in October 1951 and quickly became one of the top-rated shows on television. The show made production in Hollywood so acceptable that by 1961 virtually every major prime-time television show was filmed on the West Coast.
Arnaz and Ball were firmly enshrined in the Television Hall of Fame, not merely for their talent as comedians, but for their groundbreaking contributions to the art and business of television production.Fantastic Firsts. In 1962, Ball bought out Arnaz and became the first woman ever to run a major Hollywood studio. I Love Lucy is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms in history. In 2012, it was voted the 'Best TV Show of All Time' in a survey conducted by ABC News and People Magazine.
Fun Facts:
Desilu Productions purchased the equipment used to film "I Love Lucy" with money from CBS but structured the deal so Desilu owned the equipment and "rented" it back to the studio for each episode. This ingenious arrangement, first introduced by Desi Arnaz, would later become a standard practice in the television industry.
Arnaz was the first television producer to film with three cameras instead of one, so he could shoot angles and close-ups simultaneously. In front of a live audience. Sitcoms are still shot this way to this day.
The show broke social and racial barriers. Love Lucy was the first television series to show an interracial couple (Ball and husband Desi Arnaz). It also was the first to feature a pregnant woman playing a pregnant woman, but could not use the word "pregnant" on telecasts, according to the Lucy Desi Center.
The show broke social and racial barriers. Love Lucy was the first television series to show an interracial couple (Ball and husband Desi Arnaz). It also was the first to feature a pregnant woman playing a pregnant woman, but could not use the word "pregnant" on telecasts, according to the Lucy Desi Center.
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