[2] The series starred Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley, and follows the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a young, middle-class housewife living in New York City, who often concocts plans with her best friends and landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vance and Frawley), to appear alongside her bandleader husband, Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz), in his nightclub.

The Mertzes' history in entertainment only strengthens Lucy's resolve to prove herself as a performer, though she often feels excluded, as her industry involvement is limited relative to that of Ricky, Fred, and Ethel.

Lucy was also secretive about her age and true hair color, and tended to be careless with money, in addition to being somewhat materialistic, insisting on buying new dresses and hats for every occasion and telling old friends that she and Ricky were wealthy.

At one point in that episode, Lucy, after finding out that she was not invited to join Ricky at a movie premiere, bemoans that she made a mistake fifteen years before when her friend Marion Strong asked her if she would like to go on a blind date with a Cuban drummer, to which she said "yes."

Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet, supporting cast members on My Favorite Husband, were originally approached for the roles of Fred and Ethel, but neither could accept, owing to previous commitments.

[26][27] These appearances brought Ball to the attention of CBS, which, in 1948, enlisted her to star in one of two new half-hour situation comedies in development, Our Miss Brooks and My Favorite Husband.

Choosing the latter, Ball 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 Richard Denning.

[32] To prove CBS wrong, the couple developed a vaudeville act, written by Carroll and Pugh, that they performed at Newburgh, NY's historic Ritz Theater with Arnaz's orchestra.

[39] Owing to the impending birth of their first child, both Ball and Arnaz insisted on staying in Hollywood and producing the show on film, something a few Hollywood-based series had begun to do.

[40] Both CBS and Philip Morris initially balked at the idea, because of the higher cost that filming the show would incur, and acquiesced only after the couple offered to take a $1,000-a-week pay cut in order to cover the additional expense.

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.

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.

Ball had initially wanted character actor James Gleason, with whom she appeared in the Columbia Pictures film Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), to play Fred Mertz.

[54] Sixty-four-year-old William Frawley, a seasoned vaudevillian and movie character actor with nearly 100 film credits to his name, was a long shot to play Fred Mertz and only came into consideration after he telephoned Ball personally to ask if there was a role for him on her new show.

CBS relented only after Arnaz contractually bound Frawley to complete sobriety during the production of the show, and reportedly told the veteran actor that if he ever appeared on-set more than once in an intoxicated state he would be fired.

Since Lucy's Husband co-star Bea Benaderet was not available, Mary Wickes, a longtime friend, was offered the role but declined because she did not want to strain her friendship with Ball.

Vance had already been a successful stage star performing on Broadway for nearly 20 years in a variety of plays, and in addition, after relocating to Hollywood in the late 1940s, had two film roles to her credit.

Unlike some programs that advance the age of a newborn over a short period, I Love Lucy at first allowed the Ricardos' son Little Ricky to grow up in real time.

When logistical difficulties convinced Oppenheimer to abandon this plan, he advised Desi Arnaz that as head writer, he would have Lucy Ricardo give birth to a boy.

[62] The opening familiar to most viewers, featuring the credits superimposed over a "heart on satin" image, was created specifically for the 1959–67 CBS daytime network rebroadcasts and subsequent syndication.

These sequences were created by the animation team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who declined screen credit because they were technically under exclusive contract to MGM at the time.

Other sponsors, whose products appeared during the original openings, were Procter & Gamble for Cheer and Lilt Home Permanent (1954–57), General Foods for Sanka (1955–57), and Ford Motor Company (1956–57).

"I Love Lucy", sung by Desi Arnaz with Paul Weston and the Norman Luboff Choir, was released as the B-side of "There's a Brand New Baby (At Our House)" by Columbia Records (catalog number 39937) in 1953.

The episode "Lucy Goes to the Hospital", which first aired on Monday, January 19, 1953, garnered a then-record rating of 71.7, meaning that 71.7% of all households with television sets were tuned to the program, the equivalent of some 44 million viewers.

TV Land ended its run of the series by giving viewers the opportunity to vote on the show's top 25 greatest episodes on December 31, 2008, through the network's website.

Recorded before a live audience at the James Bridges Theater, UCLA, the production, directed by Michael Hackett, aired on public radio and was released on audio CD and as a downloadable file in September of that year.

[102] A serialized version, titled LUCY LOVES DESI: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom, was produced in August 2020 by Jarvis & Ayres Productions and aired in the UK on BBC Radio 4, starring Anne Heche as Ball, Wilmer Valderamma as Desi Arnaz, Jared Harris as Oppenheimer, Stacy Keach as William Frawley, and Alfred Molina as CBS Executive Harry Ackerman.

Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star as Ball and Desi Arnaz, while J. K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg are featured in supporting roles.

[114] Nearly a year later, on December 7, 2014, the Christmas special was again aired on CBS, but this time paired with the popular episode "Job Switching", which was newly colorized for that broadcast.

Bonus features include rare on-set color footage and the "Desilu/Westinghouse" promotional film, as well as deleted scenes, original openings and interstitials (before they were altered or replaced for syndication), and on-air flubs.