October 15 marks a special holiday for TV fans, celebrating one of the biggest shows in the medium’s history. I Love Lucy will turn 65 on Saturday, having started its six-season run on the same day in 1951. It’s a show whose name is ubiquitous, and certainly its influence has passed on to every sitcom on television today.
The show set records — a lot of them — including the all-time highest rated episode of a scripted program on American television, which was watched by more than 70 per cent of households. The sitcom’s premise will sound simple to today’s audiences: it focuses on a housewife (Lucille Ball), her husband (Desi Arnaz), and their neighbours as they land in a series of mostly unconnected, simple stories. Much like Seinfeld, it suffers from the unavoidable issue of its popularity growing so large that subsequent shows build off of it, leaving the original feeling bland. However, I Love Lucy is now far enough removed from current sitcoms that its humour almost feels fresh again, and it’s not hard to see why it was such a huge success in the 1950s.
Speaking about the significance of I Love Lucy, media and communications professor Darren Blakeborough said that “it was one of the most significant television sitcoms in history for a couple of different reasons … not the least of which is that it had a female as the star. [It’s] amazing when you consider that even in the context of today that’s still almost a big deal, not to mention in the 1950s.”
Not only was Ball one of the first women to lead a show, she was also the first woman to run a television production company. “More than anything it’s about a strong, powerful woman in a leading role, and as the star, and the name,” Blakeborough said. “It was huge for that. It really helped to build a network, because before her there was Milton Berle and all of these other shows focused on the male.”
In addition to pushing social boundaries (even showing the first pregnancy on television), I Love Lucy also played a part in pioneering comedy and scripted television. “I remember watching reruns of it when I was a kid,” Blakeborough explained, “and that show did something that I can’t think of another show having ever done. You know how when you’re watching Lucy and she’s doing the most insane, asinine thing in the world? She actually made me so uncomfortable that I was watching this, and I always remember that that was the show that could make me feel things that other shows weren’t able to.”
Since its finale on May 6, 1957, I Love Lucy has enjoyed a comfortable 60 years as a beloved classic that is still a regular sight on TV schedules. While our southern neighbours can stream it on Hulu, Canadians who want to celebrate the show’s longevity by (legally) binging will have to buy episodes on iTunes. Or, if tuition has taken that option off the table, the Fraser Valley Regional Library has the whole series on DVD.
The show may be in black and white, with a laugh track so pronounced it makes The Big Bang Theory seem dry and restrained, but the humour holds up far better than you’d expect from a show so early in television’s infancy. Even if you don’t think it’s up your alley, it’s worth looking up a few clips online to see, as Blakeborough describes it, Ball “step in there and rewrite how America watched television.”
Jeff was The Cascade's Editor in Chief for the latter half of 2022, having previously served as Digital Media Manager, Culture & Events Editor, and Opinion Editor. One time he held all three of those positions for a month, and he's not sure how he survived that. He started at The Cascade in 2016.
