Classic television shows are one of my passions. For me, the best shows are the ones where the characters actually feel like old, familiar friends. When this is the case, they will continue to touch your life and make you laugh no matter how often you visit them. I have been a huge TV buff ever since my earliest childhood, and although I have many favorite shows, I would like to focus on just one for this article.
I think the best sitcom of all time would have to be the one that started it all. I am referring, of course, to "I Love Lucy." I don't think there are many out there who would argue that this show is deserving of that honor. Since its original run, which began in October of 1951, the show has never once been off the air. To this day, it continues to delight an audience of millions the world over, having made them laugh for the better part of almost seven decades!
On October 15, 1951, America was introduced to the Ricardos and the Mertzes, who resided in a little apartment building located at 623 East 68th Street In New York City. Ricky (played by Desi Arnaz) was a Cuban band leader, whose orchestra was the house band at a nearby night club called the Tropicana. Ricky was married to a zany but lovable redhead named Lucy (brilliantly brought to life by the comic genius of Lucille Ball). Lucy has aspirations to be in show business which border on the obsessive, and is constantly trying to worm her way into Ricky's night club act. Ricky's patience is put to the test in every conceivable way, as he tries, often unsuccessfully to quell Lucy's ambitions.
The Ricardo's best friends, who also happen to be their neighbors and landlords, are Fred and Ethel Mertz (played by William Frawley and Vivian Vance, respectively). The Ricardos and Mertzes have been friends ever since Lucy and Ricky rented the apartment in the Mertzes building, with Ethel often becoming Lucy's partner in crime and helping with every hare-brained scheme that she cooks up!
The original "I Love Lucy" series aired on CBS from October 1951 through May 1957. It produced 180 half-hour episodes. After which, Lucy and Desi decided to lighten their work load a bit, by cutting down of the number of episodes filmed per year. They expanded the show to an hour-long format under the title of "The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show.” That title would later become "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" when the show went into syndication. Upon switching formats, they began featuring a well-known guest star in each episode. There were only 13 episodes filmed in the new format. The last of these 13 episodes aired on April Fool's Day of 1960, and featured Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams as guests. With that, we all said goodbye to the Ricardos and The Mertzes for good.
The show had many memorable moments, however. For example, there is the now classic "Job Switching" episode, in which the girls become candy makers in a chocolate factory after agreeing to switch places for a week, and have their husbands take over their household duties while they go out and earn a living. And of course, who could forget Lucy's intoxicated performance of the Vitameatavegimin commercial! I mean, lets be honest here; this was an absolute laugh riot; it was simply fall-down funny!
Then there was the episode entitled "Lucy Does The Tango," in which Lucy decides that she wants to go into the egg selling business. Against Ricky's wishes, she buys a flock of chickens. When the chickens refuse to lay, Lucy decides to buy several dozen eggs, and place them into the hen's nests to give them the idea. Unaware of what Lucy is up to, Ricky comes home in the middle of the whole thing and decides that he wants Lucy to rehearse the tango with him for a show that they are putting on. So, not wanting to arouse Ricky's suspicions, Lucy hides the incriminating eggs in her blouse. Then, as she and Ricky dance, the eggs are broken, and Lucy is found out! That episode still holds the record for the longest recorded laugh in all of television history.
The show was also groundbreaking, in that it was the first to film with multiple cameras. Desi pioneered the four camera filming technique that is standard practice in TV today. And Lucy brought TV to another milestone herself by being the first actress to ever have her pregnancy shown on the air. Moments like these speak for themselves. When you stop to consider that this show has truly stood the test of time, and remains every bit as funny today as it was in its own time, one cannot dispute its significance to the history of television; my case for its greatness is made!
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