I Love Lucy - Background and Development

Background and Development

Lucille Ball had come to Hollywood in 1933, when, after a successful stint as a New York model, she was chosen by Sam Goldwyn to be one of sixteen Goldwyn Girls to co-star in the picture Roman Scandals with film star Eddie Cantor. Enthusiastic and hard-working Ball had been able to secure film work briefly at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio and Columbia Pictures and then eventually at RKO Radio Pictures. It was at RKO that Ball received steady film work, first as an extra and bit player, eventually working her way up to co-starring roles in feature films and starring roles in second rate B pictures, collectively earning the nickname "Queen of the B's". During her run at RKO, Ball gained the reputation for doing physical comedy and stunts that most other actresses avoided, keeping her steadily employed. In 1940, Lucy met Desi Arnaz, a Cuban bandleader who had just come off a successful run in the 1939–40 Broadway show Too Many Girls. RKO had bought the film rights to the show and cast Ball as Arnaz's love interest in the picture. The duo began a whirlwind courtship leading to their elopement to Connecticut in November 1940. Despite being madly in love, however, their careers kept them separated, with Lucy's film work keeping her anchored in Hollywood, while Desi's nightclub engagements with his orchestra kept him on the road.

Despite steadily working in pictures, Lucy's movie career never advanced to the level of a headlining feature-film actress; nevertheless she remained popular with movie audiences. After receiving critical acclaim for her starring role in the 1942 Damon Runyon film The Big Street (with Henry Fonda), Ball came to the attention of MGM, which bought out her contract. It was at MGM that Ball, who had been a blonde, dyed her hair red to complement the Technicolor features that MGM had planned to use her in. MGM used Ball in a variety of films, but it was her work with funny man Red Skelton in the 1942 film DuBarry Was a Lady that brought Ball's physical comedy into the forefront, earning her the reputation as "that crazy redhead". Nonetheless, Ball's striking beauty was in sharp contrast to physical antics she did in her films; thus, MGM tried to use her in an array of different film genres that did little to highlight her skills. Being difficult to cast, MGM chose not to renew her contract when it expired in 1946.

Ball began working as a free-lancer in films and began to explore other venues. Before and during World War II, Lucy had made several notable and successful guest appearances on several radio programs; among them Jack Haley's radio show and bandleader Kay Kaiser's radio program. These appearances brought Lucy to the attention of CBS, which in 1948 enlisted Ball to star in one of two new half-hour situational comedies in development, Our Miss Brooks and My Favorite Husband. Choosing the latter, Lucy portrayed Liz Cugat (later anglicized to Cooper), the frustrated and scheming housewife of a Minneapolis banker, played originally by actor Lee Bowman in the series pilot, and later by actor Richard Denning. Based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. Cugat by Isabel Scott Rorick, My Favorite Husband was produced by Jess Oppenheimer, written by Oppenheimer, plus scribes Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr.. Premiering on July 23, 1948 and sponsored by General Foods, Husband became a hit for CBS. During the run of the radio program Lucy appeared in two feature films with Bob Hope, Sorrowful Jones in 1949, and Fancy Pants in 1950. Both films were box office and critical successes, further cementing Ball's reputation as a top notch first-rate comedienne. They also showed her continuing popularity with audiences, enticing CBS to further use her skills.

In 1950, CBS asked Ball to take My Favorite Husband to television with co-star Richard Denning. She, however, saw a television show as a great opportunity to work with Desi as it would keep them both in Hollywood, and perhaps save their shaky marriage. Lucy insisted that Desi play her husband, much to the dismay of CBS, which was reluctant because Arnaz was Cuban. Network executives believed that audiences would not believe the marriage between an all-American girl and a Latin man. To prove CBS wrong, the couple developed a vaudeville act, written by Carroll and Pugh, that they took on the road with Arnaz's orchestra. The act was a hit and convinced CBS executive Harry Ackerman that a Ball-Arnaz pairing would be a worthwhile venture. At the same time, rival networks NBC, ABC, and DuMont were showing interest in a Ball-Arnaz series, which Ackerman used to convince CBS to sign the duo. A pilot was ordered and kinescoped in Hollywood in March 1951, which coincided with Lucy's first pregnancy, and the ending of Husband, which aired its last radio show on March 31, 1951. Ball and Arnaz used the same radio team of Oppenheimer, Pugh, and Carroll to create the television series that was named I Love Lucy. After showing the pilot to several advertising agencies, at first with not much luck, CBS was able to sell the series to the Milton Biow agency, which was able to convince one of their clients, cigarette giant Philip Morris, to sponsor the show.

Production

During the spring and summer of 1951, I Love Lucy moved into production. Oppenheimer, Pugh, and Carroll began fine-tuning the premise of the show and writing the series' first scripts. The trio had the good graces of having a backlog of storylines from My Favorite Husband to adapt for use on television. In addition, the series' ensemble cast and crew were assembled. Desi Arnaz retained his orchestra, which was used in the series musical numbers and to score the show's background and transitional music. Arnaz's childhood friend Marco Rizo arranged the music and played the piano for the show, while Wilbur Hatch was used to conduct the orchestra. Two problems arose, however, after Philip Morris signed on to sponsor the show, that would ultimately change the fate of I Love Lucy.

Lucy and Desi had originally decided that the series would air on a biweekly basis much like The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. Philip Morris, however, was insistent that the show air weekly, thus diminishing the possibility of Lucy continuing her film career alongside a television show. Another problem lay in the fact that Philip Morris wanted the series to originate from New York rather than Hollywood. At the time, most television shows were produced from New York with live broadcasts of the show airing for eastern and Midwest audiences. West coast viewers were able to view live programs only through low-quality kinescopes, which derived their images by using a 35 mm or 16 mm film camera to record the show off a closed-circuit television monitor. As videotape had not yet been developed, (and would not be until the mid-fifties), kinescopes were the only practical, and affordable, means to allow a live show to reach television markets on the west coast. Complicating matters was that kinescopes were not available for immediate re-broadcast as in 1951 no coast-to-coast cable system was yet in service. Shows had to be sent to Hollywood, which delayed their airings for west coast audiences by nearly a week. The process operated in the reverse for the few programs that originated live in Hollywood, such as Burns and Allen and The Ed Wynn Show, thus making blurry kinescopes of these shows the only available print for eastern audiences. Most sponsors, including Philip Morris, found this to be undesirable as most of the television audience lived east of the Mississippi at the time. Owing to the impending birth of their first child, both Lucy and Desi insisted on staying in Hollywood and producing the show on film, something a few Hollywood-based series had begun doing. Both CBS and Philip Morris initially balked at the idea, because of the higher cost that filming the show would incur, yet acquiesced only after the pair offered to take a one-thousand-dollar a week pay cut in order to cover the additional expense. In exchange, Lucy and Desi demanded, and were given, the majority ownership in the I Love Lucy films. Putting the show on film, however, would require that Lucy and Desi become responsible for producing the series themselves. Union agreements at the time stipulated that any production filmed in a studio use film studio employees. CBS staff were television and radio employees and thus fell under different union agreements. Thus, Arnaz reorganized the company he created to manage his orchestra bookings and used it as the corporation that would produce the I Love Lucy shows. Named after their ranch in Chatsworth, California, the company was named Desilu.

Though some television series were already being filmed in Hollywood, most used the single-camera format familiar from movies, with a laugh track added to comedies to simulate audience response. Arnaz and Jess Oppenheimer decided, however, that Lucy needed to work in front of an audience to create the kind of comic energy she had displayed on radio. The idea of a film studio that could accommodate an audience was a new one for the time, as fire laws made it difficult to allow an audience in a studio. Arnaz and Oppenheimer were lucky enough to find the financially struggling General Service Studios located on Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood. Studio owner Jimmy Nasser was eager to accommodate the Desilu company and allowed them, with financial backing of CBS, to renovate two of his studios so that they could accommodate an audience and be in compliance with local fire laws.

Another component to filming the show came when it was decided to use three 35 mm film cameras to simultaneously film the show. The idea had been pioneered by Ralph Edwards on the game show Truth or Consequences, and had subsequently been used on Amos 'n' Andy as a way to save money, though Amos n' Andy did not use an audience. Edwards's assistant Al Simon was hired by Desilu to help perfect the new technique for the series. The process lent itself to the Lucy production as it eliminated the problem of requiring an audience to view and react to a scene three or four times in order for all necessary shots to be filmed. Multiple cameras would also allow scenes to be performed in sequence, as a play would be, which was unusual at the time for filmed series. Retakes were rare and dialogue mistakes were often played off for the sake of continuity. Lucy and Desi enlisted the services of Karl Freund, an Academy Award-winning cinematographer of such films as Metropolis (1927), Dracula (1931), and The Good Earth (1937), as well as director of The Mummy (1932), to be the series cinematographer. Although at first Freund did not want anything to do with television, it was the personal plea of both Lucy and Desi that convinced Freund to take the job. Freund was instrumental in developing a way to uniformly light the set so that each of the three cameras would pick up the same quality of image.

As mentioned, audience reactions were live, thus creating a far more authentic laugh than the "canned laughter" used on most filmed sitcoms of the time. Regular audience members were sometimes heard from episode to episode, and Arnaz's distinctive laugh could be heard in the background during scenes in which he did not perform.

I Love Lucy's pioneering use of three cameras led to it becoming the standard technique for the production of most sitcoms filmed in front of an audience, though single-camera remained the technique of choice for sitcoms that did not use audiences. The process resulted in a much sharper quality of show in contrast to blurry kinescopes. This led to an unexpected benefit for Desilu during the series's second season when it was discovered that Lucy was pregnant. Not being able to fulfill the show's 39-episode commitment, both Desi and Jess Oppenheimer decided to rebroadcast popular episodes of the series's first season to help give Lucy the necessary rest she needed after she gave birth, effectively allowing fewer episodes to be filmed that season. Unexpectedly the rebroadcasts proved to be ratings winners, effectively giving birth to the rerun, which would later lead to the profitable development of the rerun syndication market.

Desilu Productions, jointly owned by Ball and Arnaz, would gradually expand to produce and lease studio space for many other shows. For seasons 1 and 2 (1951–1953), Desilu rented space and filmed I Love Lucy at General Service Studios, which eventually became known as Hollywood Center Studios. In 1953, it leased the Motion Picture Center at 846 Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood, and renamed it Desilu Studios to shoot seasons 3–6 (1953–1957) of I Love Lucy. After 1956, it became known as Desilu-Cahuenga Studios to avoid confusion with other acquired Desilu locations. In an effort to keep up with the studio's growth, and need for additional sound stages, Desi and Lucy purchased RKO Radio Pictures from General Tire in 1957 for over six million dollars, effectively owning the studio where they had started as contract players. Desilu acquired RKO's two studios located on Gower Street in Hollywood, and in Culver City, along with the Culver City back lot nicknamed "Forty Acres". The sale was achieved by the duo selling their ownership of the once thought worthless I Love Lucy films back to CBS for over four million dollars. In 1962, two years after their marriage dissolved, Lucy bought out Desi's shares of Desilu, becoming the studio's sole owner. She eventually sold off Desilu in 1967 to Gulf+Western, owners of Paramount Pictures. After the sale, Desilu-Cahuenga became a private production company and is now known as Ren-Mar Studios. The RKO-Desilu Studio on Gower Street is now owned by Paramount while the Culver City studio has become the independently owned Culver Studios. The "Forty Acres" backlot was sold off by Gulf+Western in 1976 and redeveloped in the 1980s into an industrial tract.