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Desi Arnaz said there were no ''phony'' laughs on I Love Lucy
"We filmed our shows honestly, in front of an audience."
Though it’s difficult to imagine I Love Lucy as anything but a television classic, series star Lucille Ball seemed to have very limited hopes for the program in the beginning.
“TV was in its infancy,” said Ball, according to Lucy & Ricky & Fred & Ethel: The Story of ‘I Love Lucy’ by Bart Andrews. “I figured it would go for a year. We had like a two-three-year plan, but we figured if it went for a year…The parts all happened to come together. The people, the writers, the producers. The combination worked well. Hell, we’re still on the air today! I guess it did.”
Desi Arnaz, Ball’s partner in comedy, also seemed to believe that the series was nothing more than puzzle pieces fitting together. The actor also credited a dynamite cast and crew with keeping the show vibrant and entertaining.
“Let’s look at it objectively,” said Arnaz. “We were lucky. We got in first with a basically good idea, and we had one of the great comedians of all time - Lucille Ball. And, as far as I’m concerned, we had the best comedy writers in the business - Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Carroll Jr., and Madelyn Pugh. We had the best cameraman in Hollywood - ‘Papa’ Freund. We filmed our shows honestly, in front of an audience. There was no phony laughing. You saw exactly what the studio audience saw, and, hopefully, you reacted the way they did.”
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