americanicons032814pod.mp3

American Icons: I Love Lucy

<p><strong>This is where television invented itself</strong>.</p><div class="embedded-image"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media2.wnyc.org/i/944/566/c/80/photologue/photos/I_Love_Lucy_card_feature.jpg" alt="I Love Lucy feature card" width="100%/" /></div>
<p>It set the model for the hit family sitcom. Lucy was a bad girl trapped in the life of a '50s housewife; her slapstick quest for fame and fortune ended in abject failure weekly. Both the antics and the humiliation entered the DNA of TV comedy, from <em>Desperate Housewives</em> to <em>30 Rock ---</em> writers can't live without <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000TGJ8B2/wnyc-s360-20" target="_blank"><em>Lucy</em></a>. Rapper Mellow Man Ace celebrates the breaking of an ethnic taboo; a drag performer celebrates Lucy as a freak. With novelist Oscar Hijuelos, producer Chuck Lorre, <em>The Office</em>'s Mindy Kaling, and a marriage counselor who has some advice for the bickering couple.</p>
<p><em>I Love Lucy</em> was produced by <a href="http://www.studio360.org/people/jenny-lawton/" target="_blank">Jenny Lawton</a>, with production assistance from Chloe Plaunt and <a href="http://www.prx.org/user/andreasson" target="_blank">Claes Andreasson</a>.<a href="http://www.studio360.org/people/david-krasnow/" target="_blank">David Krasnow</a> edited the show.</p>
<p><em></em></p>
<p><strong>Bonus Track: Mindy Hearts Ricky</strong></p>
<div class="embedded-image alignleft"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media2.wnyc.org/i/100/100/c/80/photologue/images/e8/kaling_small.jpg" alt="Mindy Kaling" /></div>
<p id="mindy">Mindy Kaling (<em>The Mindy Project</em>, <em>The Office</em>) grew up thinking <em>I Love Lucy</em> was "one of the many black and white things that people keep telling you is so great ... and you're just sort of bored and annoyed by it." Then her <em>Office</em> boss Greg Daniels ordered her to watch it. She came away with a pretty serious crush on Ricky Ricardo. And she says she's not bothered by jokes about his accent.</p>
<p></p><div class="inline_audioplayer_wrapper inline_audioplayer_embedded_wrapper"><iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="54" width="100%" src="https://www.wnyc.org/widgets/ondemand_player/wnyc/#file=https://audio.wnyc.org/studio/LucyBlogMindyAccents.mp3&amp;share=1"></iframe></div> 
<p><strong>Bonus Track: Deconstructing Lucy</strong></p>
<div class="embedded-image alignleft"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media2.wnyc.org/i/100/100/c/80/photologue/images/c8/script_small.jpg" alt="Script for the episode 'Lucy is Enciente'" /></div>
<p>Although Lucy's on-screen antics may have looked improvised, every gesture, glance, and step was written into the script. Gregg Oppenheimer --- son of creator, producer, and head writer Jess Oppenheimer --- reads a bit of telling stage direction from "Lucy is Enceinte." Jess and Gregg Oppenheimer are the authors of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0815605846/wnyc-s360-20" target="_blank">Laughs, Luck ... and Lucy</a></em>.</p>
<p><strong><div class="inline_audioplayer_wrapper inline_audioplayer_embedded_wrapper"><iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="54" width="100%" src="https://www.wnyc.org/widgets/ondemand_player/wnyc/#file=https://audio.wnyc.org/&#9;/studio/LucyBlogGreggScript.mp3&amp;share=1"></iframe></div> </strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://media.wnyc.org/media/resources/2010/Oct/07/Lucy_is_Enceinte_script.pdf" target="_blank"> Read an excerpt from the "Lucy is Enciente" episode script</a></strong></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Bonus Track: Notes on a Scandal</strong></p>
<div class="embedded-image alignleft"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media2.wnyc.org/i/100/100/c/80/photologue/images/29/confidential_small.jpg" alt="A page from Confidential Magazine" /></div>
<p>In 1955 <em>Confidential Magazine</em>, a Hollywood scandal rag, reported on Desi Arnaz's supposed philandering. Dartmouth film and television professor Mary Desjardins explores the less desirable side effect of being a celebrity couple.</p>
<p></p><div class="inline_audioplayer_wrapper inline_audioplayer_embedded_wrapper"><iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="54" width="100%" src="https://www.wnyc.org/widgets/ondemand_player/wnyc/#file=https://audio.wnyc.org/studio/LucyBlogMaryConfidential.mp3&amp;share=1"></iframe></div> 
<p><strong><a href="http://media.wnyc.org/media/resources/2010/Oct/07/Confidential_Lucy__Desi.pdf" target="_blank"> Read about Lucy and Desi in <em>Confidential Magazine</em> (1955)</a></strong></p>
<div class="embedded-image"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media2.wnyc.org/i/620/255/l/80/1/2_ilovelucy_ticket_front_CREDIT_CourtesyofGreggOppenheimer_storyslide_image.PNG" alt="" />
<div class="image-metadata">
<div class="image-caption">The<em>I Love Lucy</em>show was the first comedy to be filmed in front of a live studio audience, a practice that is now standard in many of today's TV sitcoms. Lucille Ball's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, wrote that her mother's "clowning and comedy talent thrived on the sound of real people laughing uproariously at her antics."</div>
<div class="image-credit">(Courtesy of Gregg Oppenheimer)</div>
</div>
</div>
<p></p>
<div class="embedded-image"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media2.wnyc.org/i/525/350/l/80/1/8Stage_3_CREDITClaesAndreasson_storyslide_image.PNG" alt="" />
<div class="image-metadata">
<div class="image-caption">A view of the original<em>I Love Lucy</em>soundstage. Karl Freund, the Oscar-winning cinematographer, convinced Desi Arnaz that<em>I Love Lucy</em>needed to be filmed on a soundstage, not on a theater stage, as was the convention at that time. A soundstage allowed Freund to set up the necessary infrastructure --- including a hanging light grid and crab dollies --- to successfully accomplish the innovative technique of three cameras shooting simultaneously. The techniques "Papa" Freund invented for<em>I Love Lucy</em>are still used to make sitcoms today.</div>
<div class="image-credit">(Claes Andreasson)</div>
</div>
</div>
<p></p>
<div class="embedded-image"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media2.wnyc.org/i/525/350/l/80/1/10Stage_Photo_3_CREDITClaesAndreasson_storyslide_image.PNG" alt="" />
<div class="image-metadata">
<div class="image-caption">A seat to watch a live filming of<em>I Love Lucy</em>was one of the hottest tickets in town --- brought to you by Phillip Morris,<em>I Love Lucy</em>'s official sponsor.</div>
<div class="image-credit">(Claes Andreasson / Hollywood Center Studios)</div>
</div>
</div>
<p></p>
<div class="embedded-image"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media2.wnyc.org/i/525/350/l/80/1/12Stage_Photo_6_CREDITClaesAndreasson_storyslide_image.PNG" alt="" />
<div class="image-metadata">
<div class="image-caption">Filming<em>I Love Lucy</em>with three cameras was just one of the show's many monumental innovations. Television historian Thomas Schatz explains, "<em>I Love Lucy</em>shaped the style, the technique, the veritable 'grammar' of the sitcom. And beyond the series' impact on the genre, there was Desilu itself, which affected the institutional, economic, and even the technological practices of the TV industry."</div>
<div class="image-credit">(Claes Andreasson / Hollywood Center Studios)</div>
</div>
</div>

Studio 360

Arts, Culture & Media

Choose Your American Icon

Studio 360's I Love Lucy Quiz: The Answers

Everybody Loves Lucy

Dean Cain Has Some Splainin to Do

I Love Lucy: Mindy Hearts Ricky

Everything's Coming Up Lucy

Stewart, Colbert to Rally at Lincoln Memorial

American Icons

Ukraine

The long fight for arts and culture in Ukraine as war rages on

Ukrainian rock band Vopli Vidopliassova and fans rediscover an old hit 

Lifestyle & Belief

This Jerusalem tattoo studio is part of a centuries-old Christian tradition 

Bollywood actresses from left, Siddhi Idnani, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, Adah Sharma and producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah during a press conference for the movie "The Kerala Story" in Mumbai, India, May 17, 2023.

Media

Is the fictional film 'The Kerala Story' cautionary or propaganda?

Arrest of online influencer Andrew Tate puts Romania’s webcam industry in the spotlight

Ariya Tok poses with her fellow graduates after they received their certificates at a Cambodian cultural graduation ceremony at Cal State Long Beach.

The World's Global Classroom

Cambodian American graduates: More than victims of genocide

Ukrainians embrace tattoos as a form of patriotism

Soldiers line up before leaving to patrol the streets in Bogotá, Colombia, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019. 

Critical State

 Use the force: Part II

Brazilian Congress moves to limit Indigenous land claims 

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) shoots over Miami Heat guard Kyle Lowry (7) during the second half of Game 1 of basketball's NBA Finals, Thursday, June 1, 2023, in Denver. 

Sports

Nikola Jokić takes center stage at NBA Finals and Serbian fans are loving it

I Love Lucy

Subscribe

186121

Every morning, the editorial team at public radio’s international news show The World meets to plan what they'll cover that day.  Want to see what's on deck? 

Sign up for our daily newsletter TOP OF THE WORLD and get the big stories we’re tracking delivered to your inbox delivered every weekday morning.