by Brian E. Wilson
Here in Chicago a film critic named Mark Caro has been running an ongoing monthly film series called “Is It Still Funny?.” He screens a comedy movie from the past at the good ole Music Box Theatre and asks people via ballot if the humor still holds up. He has shown such movies as Harold and Maude, Airplane!, Being There, among others. Caro posts the results on the series’ Facebook page. So far audiences have agreed that most of the comic gems can still be still considered comic gems even if the humor seems a bit, oh, of its time. Proof that in the best of cases, humor is timeless after all.
I thought of Caro’s experiment as I approached writing this essay on I Love Lucy, a monumental task that I am sure to mess up, but hopefully in the endearing way Lucy messes up. This show will be turning 66 years old on October 15 (it premiered on CBS on a Monday night at 9pm EST in 1951). This comedy classic immediately became a huge success, drawing amazingly high Nielsen ratings for its entire six season run. The show has lived on in reruns ever since. People still cherish this delightful slapstick-packed series about Lucy Ricardo (played with sheer brilliance by Lucille Ball) who craves fame and the spotlight, to break out of her role as housewife and make it in show business. The “I” in the title belongs to her husband Ricky Ricardo (the invaluable Desi Arnaz), a Cuban-American bandleader perpetually rattled by his wife’s schemes, plans, quest for stardom, and habit of spending too much cash. Joining in the fun is another married couple from upstairs, grumpy Fred (a properly crusty William Frawley) and busybody Ethel Mertz (the flawless Vivian Vance), former vaudevillians now landlords who get caught up in and/or cause the Ricardos’ comical meltdowns.
I loved loved loved this show as a kid addicted to reruns in the 1970s. An unabashed comedy geek at an early age, I could not wait until I Love Lucy would pop up on the New York City-based TV station specializing in showing reruns of old favorites. Of all the classics on repeat for our enjoyment, I Love Lucy emerged as the show that made me laugh hardest. Watching Lucy getting drunk on Vitametavegamen, squashing grapes in Italy, hanging out with Superman on a ledge, or doing a mirror routine with Harpo Marx had me doubled over with laughter every time. Thanks to Lucille, Desi, Vivian, and William, the sharp writers (Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf), and witty directors (mostly William Asher, but also James V. Kern and Marc Daniels), the show has provided so many wonderful memories.
So is I Love Lucy still funny? Of course it is! And, if you dig deeper, you notice that it’s so much more. I revisited three of my favorite episodes (discussed below) and found myself constantly surprised by the show. Yes, it’s clearly a product of the 1950s, but many aspects of the series make it feel timeless and fresh. This show, which came to the air because CBS wanted to capitalize on the success Lucille Ball’s hit radio show My Favorite Husband (but Lucy reportedly had to fight to get real-life husband Desi as her co-star), still has a crackling energy. It moves, it cooks. And you can see how its influences on current shows airing today. I know that by focusing on only three episodes I might not mention great material found on the series’ 180 episodes, but I am hoping this approach will touch on what makes the show still feel relevant or at least enjoyable today. And I know that some might be surprised that I don’t focus on “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” (the Vitametavegamin one) but I feel that episode has been discussed quite a bit, although it certainly warrants the praise it has received over the decades.
“Job Switching” (Season 2, Episode 1, first aired: September 15, 1952). Yes, this is the one with the candy conveyor belt. Lucy and Ethel both end up working on an assembly line in a chocolate factory, and the goodies start popping out at an alarming rate. Lucy ends up shoving candies in her mouth, down her shirt, and so does Ethel. This scene deserves its legendary status as one of the funniest ever on a TV sitcom. Thanks to jawdroppingly effective timing, the sequence rivals some of the best slapstick moments found in big screen comedy gems. And yet, watching the episode again, I happily rediscovered that it’s only a small part of a consistently hilarious episode. Other set pieces are just as riotous.
The first thing I noticed about the episode is how good it looks. That’s because executive producer Arnaz worked with Academy Award winning cinematographer Karl Freund (he won his Oscar for 1937’s The Good Earth, and also shot such classics as The Last Laugh, Metropolis, and Key Largo) on creating an artful look for the series. Shot on 35mm with three cameras, and then edited together by an ace editing team, this episode (and other I Love Lucy episodes) looks fantastic, and beautifully preserved. Shooting it this way also made it easier to show reruns of the series. Freund would shoot a whopping 150 episodes of I Love Lucy according to IMDb.
Another thing I noticed about “Job Switching” is how enthusiastic the live studio audience is. You can hear the audience members SCREAMING with laughter at the pratfalls and gags. At one point an audience member can be heard uttering words of complete giddy surprise. It adds a real energy to the show. And who can blame these lucky folks who caught this filming? It’s hilarious from start to finish.
The premise for those who don’t know the episode: an annoyed Ricky discovers that Lucy has overspent her allowance again. He and Fred start arguing with Lucy and Ethel about who has it tougher: the husbands out struggling in the job market, or the housewives trying to keep a household running smoothly. In a pure sitcommy battle of the sexes moment, they agree to trade places for a week: the guys will do the housework while the women try to find jobs. Of course nothing goes smoothly. This episode truly shows how gifted this ensemble was, with the interplay between the stars a constant delight.
There are so many great scenes. An early bit with Ricky preparing breakfast for the job-seeking Lucy who does the maddening stereotypical husband thing by reading the newspaper, thus ignoring him, ends with a glorious sight gag of Ricky turning the toaster just so, and the toast popping out and over Lucy’s paper. Although I love the conveyor belt scene, I would argue that an even funnier sequence is when Lucy and Ethel apply for a job at the employment agency. As an exasperated temp agent (a hilarious Alvin Hurwitz) lists the openings available, the ladies, who have no real experience, consult wordlessly with each other, whisper in each other’s ears, and then shake their heads with endearing embarrassment. Watching the peerless Ball and Vance interact with each other, making animated confused faces, is pure comic heaven.
Then we are whisked off to the chocolate factory, and in another great sequence, Lucy tries to keep up with a sullen, wordless candy dipper (Amanda Milligan). Watching Lucy mess with the chocolate is amusing, but then the gags accelerate when she starts playfully imitating her super serious co-worker, slapping the chocolate, twirling her fingers in the gooey mess like a deranged finger painter. Then there is a sound effect of a fly buzzing around Lucy’s head, and well, even more chaos ensues. I must give a special shout out to Elvia Allman as the no nonsense Factory Foreman; she’s a hoot.
Meanwhile, the show cuts back and forth to the Ricardos’ residence where Ricky has made a mess of everything (ironing, cooking). As he and Fred give horrible advice to each other on how to handle mundane tasks, the kitchen disasters escalate. Soon food is exploding from pots, and Ricky keeps slipping on the floor. And the studio audience goes wild with each stumble and fall. Arnaz and Frawley are clearly having a ball. Although it may not be as frantic as some of the more rapid fire post-Simpsons TV comedies (Seinfeld, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt come to mind), I Love Lucy‘s pacing never lags. It’s much faster paced than many TV vintage ’50s, ’60s, even ’70s comedies where you have one storyline stretched to the near-breaking point for 23-26 minutes. And for this reason, I Love Lucy still has a modern feel to it even though it’s in black and white and is clearly nearly 66 years old.
The episode ends with the characters sharing their horror stories, and agreeing to return things back to the way they were before this madness (a sitcom convention: restore order, start from scratch in each episode, but I Love Lucy would start to play with multi-episode story arcs as we soon will see). Now one could easily argue that I Love Lucy reinforced gender stereotypes with this episode. When Ricky scolds Lucy at the show’s start, she keeps repeating “yes, sir, yes, sir.” However, the ladies still come out ahead because, let’s face it, Ricky and Fred would have failed trying to keep up with that godawful chocolate conveyor belt, too. We all would have. And although Ricky tries to keep Lucy in her place, viewers know she will rebelling in some way or another in the next episode. Also, behind the scenes at Desilu Studios (initially a creative partnership between Desi and Lucille), Lucille had a lot of power. Especially when I Love Lucy became such a huge ratings juggernaut, reaching great heights with one of the most popular story lines ever on TV: her character’s (and real life) pregnancy.
“Lucy Is Enceinte” (Season 2, Episode 10, Original air date: December 8, 1952). Usually most sitcoms have a formula of introducing a problem that throws off the show’s universe. Misunderstandings ensue with hurt feelings, exaggerated emotions, but phew, it’s all followed up with a reconciliation. Then all is forgiven, and the crisis is forgotten the next week. I Love Lucy adhered to this formula at first, but then in Season 2, the show’s creators decided to go ahead and not hide Lucille Ball’s real life pregnancy. They made Lucy pregnant, and by doing so, introduced a multi-episode story arc that would follow her through her pregnancy, serving up a hilarious episode where Ricky suffered from sympathy labor pains, and then climaxing with one of the most watched episodes of all time, the one where Little Ricky enters the world. In subsequent seasons, I Love Lucy would shake up the routine with more multi-episode arcs with the characters traveling cross country to Hollywood, going to Europe, and Lucy and Ricky moving from NYC to Connecticut. The pregnancy storyline would emerge as the most popular one.
And it all started with the great “Lucy Is Enceinte” which, despite some very funny bits, gives us a more subdued Lucy who wants to find the right time to tell Ricky that they are going to have a baby (censors wouldn’t let her say “pregnant”). This episode still packs an emotional punch. And it all starts with Vivian Vance’s great acting in the early scene when she figures out Lucy is with child…even before Lucy does. Ethel practically starts glowing with excitement as she breaks the “you’re going to have a baby” news to her pal. Lucille Ball somehow makes the improbable notion that Lucy wouldn’t know she’s pregnant work really well with her expert reactions. Then the heart of the episode starts beating as Lucy desperately tries to tell Ricky, wanting the moment to be special.
Words cannot describe how great Desi Arnaz is in this episode. He’s always good on the show, but in this episode, he’s remarkable. The fact that he was the only one of the show’s stars not to receive an Emmy nomination for his acting (Ball and Vance won, Frawley was nominated) is really kind of heartbreaking. Sure, when Lucy sits on his lap (a very funny image) and tries to catch his attention for a moment to break the news, Arnaz does what he usually does (and quite well): acting slightly annoyed and exasperated. But then the show takes us to his Club where he rehearses with his band, and we see how hard he works polishing his nightclub act. When Lucy goes to the club to again try and get his attention, Arnaz makes it believable that he cannot handle one more distraction. We get three Desi Arnaz musical numbers in this episode, and you might accuse the episode of padding. Yet I love watching him in action, singing in Spanish and in English (a reminder that TV sitcoms still need to be more diverse).
It’s when he’s performing that he finally realizes what his wife has been trying to tell him. And it’s probably the most beautiful moment on this series. While standing on stage in front of a crowd, Ricky is handed an anonymous request from a woman saying she is expecting and that her husband doesn’t know, and she would love for Ricky to break the news by singing “We’re Having a Baby, My Baby and Me.” Ricky goes from table to table, singing the requested number to various couples, and the people all shake their heads. Then he passes a table where Lucy sits alone, Ricky acknowledges her but he is still clueless, she smiles at him (a lovely shot), he walks past her, and then suddenly occurs to him: he’s the one who is going to be a father. The embrace that ends the episode is beautiful, just beautiful. Millions must have teared up when the episode aired.
“Hollywood at Last” (Season 4, episode 17, original air date: February 7, 1955). In the 1950s, Lucille Ball was on the hottest show on TV. She had a decent movie career in the ’30s and ’40s, but wow did I Love Lucy ever lift her to the stratosphere of popularity. Yet even though she became a huge star, she somehow made Lucy’s obsession with fame and movie stars completely believable. I have seen many movies and TV shows over the years about fandom, and no one has ever captured the giddy excitement of meeting a celebrity better than Ball as Lucy Ricardo. Viewers still accepted Lucy fawning over a big screen personality, even though the real Lucille Ball was, at the time, probably a bigger name than the star in question. Could it have been that the very nature of being on a TV show, even one as widely watched as regarded as I Love Lucy, didn’t seem as Important as being on the Big Screen? (And yet at the time film producers had to do Big Things to lure fleeing viewers back to movie theaters. We’re in a similar position today it seems.) Or maybe it could be that Ball was simply a fantastic actress.
In season 4 of I Love Lucy, the show’s creators decided to shake things up by having the Ricardos and Mertzs leave NYC and travel cross country to Hollywood where Ricky had a role in a movie. This story arc led to some very funny situations guest starring some of Tinsel Town’s biggest stars (Rock Hudson, Van Johnson, Harpo Marx, Cornel Wilde, and then in season 5 John Wayne). The very best of these comical brushes with greatness involved a very game William Holden.
The plot of this episode is simple, and yet the way the cast, writers, and director William Asher find ways to punch up the humor takes the premise to fun, unexpected places. After the gang arrives in Hollywood, Ricky has to head to the studio, causing Lucy and the Mertzs to wonder what they’re going to do with their time. They quickly decide to head to the Brown Derby where they hope to see some film gods and goddesses. The way the episode builds to William Holden’s entrance is effective. Lucy and Ethel see some (offscreen) male celebrities and practically faint. Fred scoffs at them but then jumps out of his seat when he hears that an (unseen) Ava Gardner is in the building. We haven’t seen any celebrities yet. Ethel asks the woman in the next booth a question and it turns out to be Eve Arden (the star of another Desilu show at the time, Our Miss Brooks). She says something in that glorious Eve Arden way and exits. And then Holden enters. The actor Lucy Ricardo has a major crush on now sits in the very next booth, and she cannot keep his eyes off him.
It is simply brilliant what the writers have Holden do. Tired of being hounded by fans, he turns the tables on Lucy and decides to start staring at her with a rather deadpan yet inquisitive expression. He leans over the edge of her booth, gazing at her as she attempts to eat one of the messiest foods imaginable: spaghetti. Many set pieces on I Love Lucy demonstrated what an absolutely inventive comedic actress Lucille Ball was. Her timing, her facial expressions, how she used her body–all pure comic poetry. Watching her wrestle with the pasta while feeling embarrassed by Holden’s stare might be my favorite of all her scenes on the show. It’s silly, goofy, and endearing. Although she has some fantastic stuff later in the episode (she puts on a putty nose to hide from Holden, and the said nose gets lighted by a cigarette lighter), she reaches comic perfection with this bit.
I Love Lucy ended in 1956 after six seasons and 180 episodes. The show went out on top, #1 in the ratings. Along the way Ricardos and Mertzs fought, tried to outwit or deceive each other, made up, enjoyed goofy adventures, traveled the world. After I Love Lucy left the air, Lucy and Desi continued with a bunch of specials from 1957 to 1960. And then they divorced, and then Lucille took over Desilu after Desi resigned as the company’s president (quick random fact: I think it’s wild that Desilu produced The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek). Lucille Ball would go on to do several other series (Vivian Vance had a supporting role on the ’60s The Lucy Show) that were enjoyable and successful but not as great as I Love Lucy (although Lucy was always fun and Gale Gordon added some fire to The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy). Arnaz would continue to produce, ended up doing a killer SNL episode in the ’70s, and would occasionally pop up in something.
I Love Lucy is one of those lightning in a bottle shows. Everything came together at the right time to create comical magic. The cast. The writing. The direction. An ace technical crew. The game guest stars. The creative team’s willingness to shake things up. A comedic actress at the height of her powers.
The show is and will always be one of the funniest ever to air on TV.
