Why We Love Lucy: The History of a Cultural Phenomena
TLDR; How I Love Lucy defied cultural norms and embraced technical innovation to produce a show still beloved around the world.
“How ‘I Love Lucy’ was born? We decided that instead of divorce lawyers profiting from our mistakes, we’d profit from them.” — Lucille Ball
Dear Reader,
Today, October 15th, marks the 68th anniversary of famed sitcom, I Love Lucy. Launched in 1951, the show starred Lucille Ball as Lucy, a housewife on a mission to find fame. But no matter how hard Lucy tried, she always seemed to run into pushback, mostly in the form her husband Ricky Ricardo (played by Desi Arnaz, also her husband in real life.)
I Love Lucy is a classic show whose humor and storytelling has survived decades of cultural, political, and technological change. Its popularity is unrivaled and it’s a cultural phenomenon that took not just the U.S., but the whole world by storm.
So how did this show break down cultural barriers, expand the realm of “social acceptance,” and ultimately become one of the most popular TV shows in history? 🤔
But First, A Little Bit of History
The Times
The ’40s and ’50s were, comparable to today, a very conservative and traditional time. Despite many women having joined the workforce during WWII, women were still very much viewed as the homemakers. While I Love Lucy does fall within this cultural confine, the show also pushed the boundaries. It presented a strong, funny female character determined to pursue bigger dreams despite the box she was assigned.
Also during this time, America was facing the aftermath of WWII. War was over and the economy was booming, but the Cold War loomed overhead and reassimilation for returning troops is never easy. Shows like I Love Lucy offered safe havens of humor.
The Tech
Before TV became commonplace, radio shows were the popular medium of entertainment. In fact, it was the notable success of Lucille’s radio sitcom, My Favorite Husband, that led to the creation of I Love Lucy.
In the early 1950s, home TV sets were starting to become more popular. From 1950 to 1951 alone, the percentage of American households with a TV jumped from just 9% to over 20%. A year later, one-third of American households had a TV, and by the mid-1950s, that number had doubled again. It was right in that sweet spot — after many Americans had purchased sets but before the novelty of TV had worn off — that I Love Lucy launched.
What Lucy Did Differently
I Love Lucy wasn’t the first TV sitcom ever, but it was the first very popular one. The director of the show, William Asher, has even been credited as “the man who invented the sitcom.”
Technically
From a technical perspective, this was a time of innovation in television — how TV sets work and how shows were shot.
One example of how I.L.L. did it differently was their camera setup.
“‘I Love Lucy’ was shot using a multi-camera setup, meaning that one camera is used to capture a wider shot of the entire scene while two other cameras are used to focus on the most active characters in the scene. I Love Lucy was not the first TV show to use a multi-camera setup, but it was the one that popularized the practice, meaning that all sitcoms since that time use this setup.” — How I Love Lucy Changed Television Forever
Another thing that made the set of I Love Lucy unique was that the show engineers pioneered something called “flat lighting,” which gets rid of shadows, making it easier to cut to different scenes. They also had an actual live audience, a practice that was not uncommon but which helped define the show.
Socially
Socially, the show crossed unspoken boundaries. It was the first show to feature an intercultural couple (Lucille was American and Desi was Cuban.) The directors of I Love Lucy also didn’t hide Lucille’s pregnancy when she and Desi were expecting. The writers worked it into the storyline, something that had never before been done.
“Of course, they had to have a priest, a rabbi and a Protestant minister on the set to make sure that nothing seemed improper or immoral in the shooting of Lucy Ricardo’s pregnancy. Oh, and they weren’t allowed to use the word ‘pregnant’ either. The name of the episode where Lucy tells Ricky she’s pregnant was ‘Lucy Is Enceinte’ — enceinte being the French word for pregnant.” — Why We Still Love Lucy
And It Worked…
The risks Lucille, the writers, and the production crew took left us with a piece of cultural history.
Four of the six seasons, I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in the U.S. and was the first to end at the top of the Neilsen ratings. The episode where Lucy gives birth to her baby was watched by 44 million Americans. The next night, Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated as President and only 29 million people tuned in.
The show has been syndicated in dozens of languages around the world and still has a viewership of 40 million per year in the U.S. In 2012, over 5 decades after the last episode aired, I Love Lucy was voted the best TV show in America.
I Love Lucy set the tone for sitcoms and for the era of TV entertainment. It challenged cultural norms, and even today, 68 years after its launch, millions around the world still love Lucy. 💕
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