Was ‘I Love Lucy’ the first TV show to do these things or not?

The iconic sitcom broke barriers in front of and behind the camera.

 

Lucille Ball cemented her namesake sitcom's place in television history with her hilarious and endlessly rewatchable performances alone. But I Love Lucy also broke barriers, becoming the first TV show to achieve many things both in front of and behind the camera.

Here are ten television firsts. Can you guess which ones were accomplished by I Love Lucy… and which ones weren’t?

  1. The first TV show starring a real-life married couple.
  2. The first TV show featuring an interracial couple.
  3. The first TV show to feature a real pregnant woman onscreen.
  4. The first TV show to feature the birth of a child.
  5. The first TV show to have an actress (and her real-life baby) on the cover of 'TV Guide.'
  6. The first TV show to feature a toilet onscreen.
  7. The first TV show that made its actors millionaires.
  8. The first TV show from a studio and production company owned by a woman.
  9. The first TV show to feature the death of a main character.
  10. The first TV show to use lights hung directly above the set to allow for easier filming with three cameras and a live audience.

Was ‘I Love Lucy’ the first TV show to do these things or not?

Your Result...

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75 Comments

KevinHartford 24 months ago
I had no idea that "Leave It to Beaver" was the first to "partially" show a toilet on tv!! How scandalous!!! LOL
Coolrain 28 months ago
8/10 - And I second the request to bring I Love Lucy back to MeTV!
Lillyrose 39 months ago
9 out of 10. I Love Lucy is my favorite show ever! Please air it again on MeTV!
AgingDisgracefully 40 months ago
The first show where a regular character repeatedly went, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
BanaBabe1 40 months ago
You got 7 out of 10
Cheers to you! Great job!
Dario 40 months ago
7 out of 10; the answers to the first three questions were new to me! 🙂
Stoney 40 months ago
7 out of 10. Not bad considering that I missed the first 3.
JHP 40 months ago
9-10

NOW where's my cookie? :)

now who the heck is Mary Kay and johnny?
RedSamRackham 40 months ago
* 1st filmed TV sitcom was The Trouble With Father (aka Stu Erwin Show) which had no studio audience and no laugh track. We the viewers had to know when to laugh! ☺
Toot1956 40 months ago
8/10 I never heard of that Mary Kay and Johnny????
superdonwu 40 months ago
Got them all. I personally found this to be pretty easy
AllisonWunderland 40 months ago
9/10...Dang it, I missed #3 😜 Hopefully I can ace one of these before Christmas 😳😂
LucyImHome1951 40 months ago
Perfect score. It's amazing to see all of the things that the show was the first to do. Maybe that's why the show was so funny, it did things that no one had ever done before. Not only did they do it first, they did it best. I'm also glad that someone remembers Mary Kay and Johnny. That show is my holy grail of all the shows I've never seen. It was the first sitcom ever to air on network TV. Over 300 15-minute shows aired live DuMont Television Network before moving to CBS and then NBC. Sadly only one full episode is known to survive, from June 13, 1949 and is owned by the Paley Center for Media. Much of the show's film was destroyed in by the mid-70s. Some (or most) of The Mary Kay and Johnny episodes were dumped into Upper New York Bay during the 1970s because they were deemed insignificant (along with almost every from the Dumont Network). It quite sad, maybe one day I'll see the episode of the show at the Paley Center or someone will find some more episodes but until then this show will be lost for the ages.
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