Lucille BallShe is a true icon. Her signature red curls and inimitable comedic timing cemented her place in America’s pop culture. Her starring role in the movie “Star Trek” is only part of her career. I Love Lucy.
The sitcom has a lot of accolades but its star was the true trailblazer. Ball managed to check off a long list of “firsts” on and off camera throughout her career.
Lucille Ball broke the glass ceiling by being the first female studio director and paving the way to future women comedians.
1. First Interracial Couple On Television
When CBS approached Lucille Ball to create an adaptation of her successful radio series, “My Favorite Husband,” Lucille used her upper hand. Ball demanded that CBS cast Desi Arnaz, her husband of real life, instead of casting her radio costar.
The country was in the midst of a huge Civil Rights movement. CBS was reluctant to cast Arnaz because of his Hispanic heritage. But after seeing Ball and Arnaz’s dynamic, and their touring vaudeville act, the studio acquiesced.
Lucy and Ricky Ricardo were the first interracial couples on television. Their real-life chemistry made the show a success and laid the foundation for their television and film empires.
2. First Woman to Create Half-Hour Comedy
Ball would eventually leave CBS to start a new relationship at NBC. In a 1980 interview with PeopleBall stated that she didn’t feel disloyal for making this switch. Ball felt that CBS was hindering progress, just like their hesitancy casting Arnaz.
“CBS didn’t want my expertise to develop new half-hour comedy material like NBC did,” Ball said. “How to do half-hour comedy innovatively is something I pride myself on. It was invented with. I Love Lucy.”
Ball’s fearless comedy style started in the 1930s. In the same interview, Ball reflected, “a lot of the really beautiful girls didn’t want to do some of the things I did—put on mud packs and scream and run around and fall into pools. I didn’t mind getting messed up.”
3. First woman to run major Hollywood studio
Desilu Productions was founded by Ball and Arnaz in 1950 to produce I Love Lucy. As the show’s popularity grew, the studio’s success did, too. They eventually outgrew the small soundstage and moved to a studio in Hollywood (now Red Studios Hollywood).
Desilu Studios, at its peak, was the largest and most prolific television production company in the world. After the couple split in 1960, Ball bought out Arnaz’s half of the company. Ball became the first woman to manage a major Hollywood studio.
Desilu Studios created the original Mission: Impossible Star TrekSeries with Ball at the helm. In 1967, she agreed to a Gulf + Western buyout.
4. First Woman To Be Pregnant On A Major Network Tv Show
Part of what made I Love Lucy so special was Ball and Arnaz’s real-life marriage. So, it’s only fitting that the show also featured a real-life pregnancy. While Ball wasn’t the first woman to appear pregnant on-screen, she was the first to do so on a major network show.
The 1950s were a time of strict puritan TV. For audiences, the suggestion that Ricky and Lucy had left their separate twin bedrooms to have a child was too scandalous. It was, however, loved by viewers just as their mixed-race marriage.
They loved it! So much that the sitcom beat out a presidential inauguration’s viewership.
5. First Birth To Beat A Presidential Inauguration’s Viewership
After watching Ball’s pregnancy on-screen for several months, viewers were emotionally invested in the story. Little Ricky was born to Lucy. episode garnered 44 million viewers. That’s 72% of homes that tuned in on January 19, 1953, when the episode aired.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States, took the oath to office the next day. It attracted only 29,000,000 viewers. 27 million people would watch Queen Elizabeth II’s live coronation five months later. “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” beat out both events.
I Love Lucy kept its remarkable record until 1983, when the final episode of M*A*S*H* drew in an average of 50 million viewers. Considering how much more accessible TVs were in 1983 than in 1953, Ball’s record still stands on its own.
In the same vein, All of Lucille Ball’s career holds its weight. Ball was a feminist before it was fashionable to be one, and a true revolutionary. She loved what was required of her, and it showed in the quality work she produced.
And that’sHow she managed to make a whole country fall in love with Lucy.
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