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Lucille Ball perfected I Love Lucy on the road before it ever aired its first episode
Ball was an expert in her craft.
Despite the fact that I Love Lucy premiered in the 1950s, the show still manages to entertain and captivate audiences everywhere. Not only is it the gold standard for television everywhere, but a series like I Love Lucy has the sort of class and quality, to the point where it can still hold its own against modern television.
Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball built the series from the ground up, and while they worked hard to ensure that they were creating a comedic series, they had no idea just how long audiences would be laughing at I Love Lucy.
In an interview with The Oregonian, Arnaz maintained that the production of each episode was developed around some sort of feeling.
"We took some basic human emotion - fear, jealousy - and from that solid foundation, we could take off in seventy-two directions," Arnaz said. "Lucy, a great clown, could go to extremes as long as the basis was there."
Apparently, "clown" is a more than appropriate description. Arnaz revealed that some of Lucy's bits originated from one of his old fishing pals, Pepito the Spanish Clown. "I said she might be able to use some of his old clown routines," said Arnaz. There are multiple moments throughout the pilot that utilize Pepito's musical bits.
Ball and Arnaz also had further assistance from radio writers who had previously worked on Ball's show, My Favorite Husband.
But like any great recipe, the best thing that went into the preparation of I Love Lucy was time. Lucy joined Desi during live performances, and used her time on stage to workshop possible bits for I Love Lucy, testing what the audience responded best to.
"She went on the road with me and the band," he said. "And the material she used was 85 percent of the future I Love Lucy show."
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3 Comments
Madelyn Pugh (who was one of the writers for radio’s “My Favorite Husband) once said that they decided what the punchline of the situation Lucy would end up in would be, and then worked backwards. If you listen to episodes of “My Favorite Husband,” some of them were almost exactly what would later be seen on TV in “I Love Lucy.” In addition to Pugh, the writers on the radio show were Bob Carroll Jr and Jess Oppenheimer (also producer). All three would do the exact same jobs on “I Love Lucy.”
I’m not trying to diminish Desi Arnaz’s contributions to the success of the program. However, I do wonder if he didn’t try to enhance his contributions, when he was doing later interviews.
