173 Fun Facts About I Love Lucy

What is Lucy Ricardo forever scheming to break into, against her husband's wishes?

Show business: Ricky believes a woman's place is in the home, so Lucy has to scheme her way into his act, with a reluctant Ethel Mertz roped in to help.

Which trait of Fred Mertz is a running joke throughout I Love Lucy?

Stinginess: Fred pinches every penny and grumbles at any expense, yet he turns out to be a soft touch underneath, above all with Little Ricky.

Who played Ethel Mertz?

Vivian Vance won the part at 42 on the recommendation of director Marc Daniels, after Arnaz saw her in a 1951 La Jolla Playhouse production of The Voice of the Turtle.

Fred and Ethel Mertz are the Ricardos' best friends and also their what?

Landlords: the Mertzes own the Ricardos' apartment building, and the writers gave the young couple this older pair as foils and accomplices.

What was Lucy Ricardo's maiden name?

Her mother, Mrs. McGillicuddy, was played by Kathryn Card and never managed to get Ricky's name right.

Which sitcom was next after I Love Lucy to end its run at number one in the ratings?

The Andy Griffith Show went out on top in 1968, as I Love Lucy had in 1957, when Ball and Arnaz chose to give up the weekly half-hours while still the most-watched show on air.

Which cigarette brand was I Love Lucy's original sponsor?

Philip Morris had Lucy and Ricky smoke its cigarettes on screen and pitch them in the breaks; the plugs were cut once the episodes went into repeats.

In the I Love Lucy episode 'Job Switching', where do Lucy and Ethel take jobs after swapping roles with their husbands?

A chocolate factory, in 'Job Switching': the wrapping belt speeds up until Lucy and Ethel are cramming chocolates into their mouths and blouses to keep pace.

On the flight home from Europe, what does Lucy disguise as a baby to avoid paying extra?

A huge Italian cheese: the gang must fly back so Ricky's band can open at the Roxy, and Lucy swaddles her 25-pound souvenir like an infant to sneak it aboard.

In the famous commercial episode, what does Lucy call her tonic of meat, vegetables and vitamins?

Vitameatavegamin is 23 percent alcohol, so Lucy grows tipsier with every take of the commercial she is rehearsing in 'Lucy Does a TV Commercial'.

What was actually in the bottle Lucy drank from during the tonic commercial scene?

Apple pectin filled the real bottle; in the script the tonic is 23 percent alcohol, which is why Lucy's pitch slurs further with every spoonful.

Which comedian's 'Guzzler's Gin' routine did Ball borrow for her drunken TV-commercial scene?

Red Skelton had done his tipsy-pitchman bit on stage for years, and in the 1946 film Ziegfeld Follies, before lending it to Ball for the scene.

In I Love Lucy's 'Lucy's Italian Movie', how does Lucy research her film role?

Stomps grapes in a vineyard: Lucy takes the film's title, Bitter Grapes, literally, then brawls with a fellow stomper and loses the part, stained blue from the vat.

Which actor turned up as Superman at Little Ricky's birthday party in a 1957 episode?

George Reeves, TV's Superman, first sends word that he can't make the party, which is why Lucy tries to play the hero herself before he turns up after all.

In 'Lucy and Superman', where does Lucy get stranded in her home-made Superman costume?

On the ledge outside the window: she means to climb in and surprise Little Ricky's party, gets shut out there instead, and has to be rescued by the real Superman.

Which movie star gets a pie in the face because of Lucy at Hollywood's Brown Derby restaurant?

William Holden catches Lucy staring at him over lunch and ends up wearing a waiter's pie; when Ricky brings him home, her putty-nose disguise catches fire as he lights her cigarette.

Whose footprint slab from Grauman's Chinese Theatre do Lucy and Ethel try to steal as a souvenir?

John Wayne's slab: in 'Lucy Visits Grauman's' (1955) they pry it up and break it, and in 'Lucy and John Wayne' he good-naturedly presses fresh prints to replace it.

Which Marx brother catches Lucy dressed up as him in the famous mirror routine?

Harpo arrives just as Lucy, who has been posing as film stars to fool a near-sighted friend, is dressed as him, and the two replay the mirror routine from Duck Soup.

In 'The Freezer', how much beef do Lucy and Ethel accidentally order from Ethel's butcher uncle?

700 pounds: two sides of beef at 69 cents a pound came to $483, and the pair try to unload it on customers at a butcher shop.

Where do the Ricardos and Mertzes move in the sixth season?

Westport, Connecticut: in 'Lucy Wants to Move to the Country' (1957) the Ricardos buy a house there, and the Mertzes soon follow them into the guest house.

The Ricardos' Manhattan address, 623 East 68th Street, would really put their building where?

In the East River: house numbers on East 68th Street stop in the 500s, where the street runs out at the water's edge, so number 623 exists only on television.

What word did CBS bar from the scripts while Lucy Ricardo was carrying Little Ricky?

'Pregnant' was off limits, so the scripts said 'expecting', and a priest, a minister and a rabbi vetted each episode of the storyline.

'Lucy Is Enceinte', the episode in which Lucy tells Ricky a baby is coming, takes its title word from which language?

French: 'enceinte' is the French for with child, though viewers never saw the word, because the show did not display episode titles on screen.

In 'Lucy Goes to the Hospital', what is Ricky wearing when he startles the maternity-ward staff?

Voodoo stage makeup: with the birth dragging on he goes to open his new show, then races back from the club in full face paint when the hospital calls.

What real-life event coincided with the broadcast of the episode in which Lucy gives birth?

Ball's caesarean delivery of Desi Jr. was booked in advance and the episode timed to air the same day; the writers had already made the TV baby a boy, and the real one matched.

Which Hollywood cinematographer devised the flat, even lighting that let several cameras film I Love Lucy at once?

Karl Freund, who had shot Metropolis and Dracula, had to be talked into the job by Desi Arnaz; the multi-camera method his lighting made possible became the sitcom standard.

Shooting I Love Lucy on film, not live, helped create which TV staple?

Reruns: live shows survived only as blurry copies filmed off a monitor, but Lucy's crisp prints could be broadcast again for decades, which is why nearly every episode still exists.

What did Ball and Arnaz gain by taking a pay cut to film I Love Lucy?

Episode ownership: the couple gave up $1,000 a week for the films, then sold them back to CBS for millions, enough to help buy a Hollywood studio.

In 'Pioneer Women', what comes out of Lucy's oven many times bigger than she planned?

A loaf of bread: the wives have bet their husbands they can live without modern conveniences, so Lucy bakes from scratch and her loaf comes out many feet long.

I Love Lucy's original openings featured what kind of imagery, later replaced for syndication?

Animated matchstick figures of the stars opened each episode, with the sponsor's cigarettes worked into many of the sequences, which is why the syndicated prints open on the heart on satin instead.

Which star does a magic act at Ricky's club while his assistant Lucy insists on reciting Shakespeare?

Orson Welles wants only a magician's assistant, but Lucy is out to impress a drama teacher and her class in the audience, so she spouts Shakespeare right through his trick.

What was the title of the 1977 Top 40 dance version of the I Love Lucy theme?

'Disco Lucy' was the Wilton Place Street Band's reworking, with former Supreme Lynda Laurence; the theme does have words, which Ricky sings to Lucy at a surprise birthday party in a 1953 episode.

Which radio sitcom starring Ball was the direct forerunner of I Love Lucy?

My Favorite Husband ran on CBS radio from 1948 to 1951; CBS wanted to move it to television with her radio co-star, but Ball insisted her real husband play the part.

How did Ball and Arnaz convince CBS that audiences would accept them as a couple?

A touring vaudeville act: in summer 1950 the couple took a stage act written by Carroll and Pugh on the road with Arnaz's orchestra, and the warm audience response changed CBS's mind.

Which two radio co-stars of Ball's were first asked to play the Mertzes?

Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet, both tied to other series, had to pass; Gordon went on to play Ball's blustering foil in every sitcom she made afterwards.

How did William Frawley come to be considered for Fred Mertz?

He phoned Ball and asked: CBS feared the 64-year-old's drinking, so Arnaz hired him on the understanding that turning up drunk would get him fired.

What clause did Frawley have written into his contract as a baseball fan?

Yankees World Series leave: he did not have to work while his team was playing in it, and the clause wrote Frawley out of two episodes.

How did Frawley reportedly describe the appearance of the actress who played Ethel?

"A sack of doorknobs" was Frawley's reported jibe at Vance, who was 22 years his junior and disliked playing wife to a man old enough to be her father.

Which sitcom did Frawley join in 1960, playing live-in grandfather 'Bub' O'Casey?

My Three Sons kept him as Bub O'Casey until 1965, when failing health forced him out and William Demarest took over as the boys' Uncle Charley.

After I Love Lucy, which proposed project did Frawley welcome and Vance refuse?

Their own spin-off series, built around Fred and Ethel: Frawley saw the money in it, but Vance refused to work with him again, and the idea went no further.

In which Kansas town was the actress who played Ethel born?

Cherryvale, Kansas, on July 26, 1909; the family soon moved to Independence, Kansas, where Vance grew up and first acted in school productions.

Which city is Ethel Mertz's home town, where she is feted as a star on the drive to Hollywood?

Albuquerque, New Mexico, was borrowed from life: Vance began her career there, appearing in the Albuquerque Little Theatre's first production in 1930.

What milestone did Vance reach at the 1954 Emmy Awards?

The first supporting-actress Emmy went to Vance in 1954 for playing Ethel, while William Frawley was nominated year after year as Fred and never won.

In November 1940, Ball and Arnaz slipped out of New York City to elope in which town?

Greenwich, Connecticut: Arnaz skipped his first show at New York's Roxy, the pair married that afternoon at the Byram River Beagle Club, and he was back on stage by evening.

Which musical brought Ball and Arnaz together in 1940?

Too Many Girls: Arnaz repeated his Broadway role in the 1940 film, met Ball on the set, and married her within months.

What surprising fact about Ball's 1936 voter registration became an issue in 1953?

She registered as a Communist in 1936 to please her socialist grandfather; when the House committee looked into it in 1953, Arnaz told the studio audience the only thing red about Lucy was her hair.

What does Lucy jokingly put on her head in a 1957 episode, only to find it won't come off?

A loving cup: Ricky is due to present the trophy to jockey Johnny Longden, and Lucy tries it on as a joke after he mocks her new hat.

In which Cuban city was Desi Arnaz born?

His father was Santiago's youngest mayor and served in the Cuban House of Representatives.

What dance craze is Arnaz credited with introducing to the United States?

The conga line became a nightclub craze after Arnaz and his band began leading it in the late 1930s, and the fame soon took him to Broadway.

Which Cole Porter song do Lucy and Ethel perform on TV wearing identical dresses neither would return?

Friendship: both promise to take the dress back, both secretly keep it, and the best pals' duet turns sour in front of the cameras.

What new name did Ricky give the Tropicana after he bought it?

Club Babalu takes its name from Ricky's signature song, as it was Arnaz's own, a number he had been performing with his band since the 1940s.

What was Ball's role at Desilu Productions after buying out Arnaz in 1962?

Head of the studio: Ball became Desilu's president, the first woman to run a major television studio, and under her it made both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible.

After Ball sold Desilu in 1967, its shows passed to which Hollywood studio?

Paramount: Gulf+Western, which had just bought the film studio next door to Desilu's lot, merged the two, and Ball's company became Paramount Television.

What is true of Ricky's best-known catchphrase, 'Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do'?

Ricky never says it in those exact words on the show, yet the line is quoted in articles about the series and even printed on its official merchandise.

On the train home from Hollywood, what does Lucy do so often that the conductor comes to dread her?

Pulls the emergency brake: Lucy, mixed up with a jewel thief on the trip back to New York, keeps halting the train, to the despair of the conductor played by Frank Nelson.

Which country singer played Lucy's visiting country cousin?

Tennessee Ernie Ford played Cousin Ernie, who overstays his welcome in two 1954 episodes and turns up again when Lucy lands in a small-town jail in 'Tennessee Bound' (1955).

Which instrument does Little Ricky take up in I Love Lucy's final season, played for real by child actor Keith Thibodeaux?

Drums: in 'Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums' his nonstop practising nearly sets the Ricardos and the Mertzes at war, and Thibodeaux did his own playing.

What set I Love Lucy apart from earlier Television Hall of Fame inductees?

It was a show, not a person: until then the Television Academy had inducted only people, and it broke the rule in the same class that honoured Desi Arnaz.

Where did TV Guide rank I Love Lucy on its 2002 list of the 50 greatest shows?

No. 2, behind only Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners, after what columnist Matt Roush called a passionate internal debate.

Which publication named I Love Lucy the greatest TV show of all time in 2023?

Variety put I Love Lucy at No. 1 on its 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list in December 2023; a 2012 ABC News and People survey had also voted it Best TV Show of All Time.

Who played Lucille Ball in the 2021 film Being the Ricardos?

Nicole Kidman was a late replacement: Cate Blanchett had been attached to play Ball since 2015 before leaving the project, and Kidman signed on in early 2021.

Who directed the 2022 documentary Lucy and Desi?

Amy Poehler made Lucy and Desi as her first documentary; it won Emmys for its writing and its score, though her own directing nomination did not convert.

In the dream episode 'Lucy Goes to Scotland', what do Fred and Ethel play?

A two-headed dragon: in Lucy's musical dream her ancestral Scottish village must sacrifice one of her clan to the beast, and she has just turned up as the last of the line.

In 'Lucy Does the Tango', what does Lucy hide in her blouse before dancing with Ricky?

Eggs: Lucy stuffs shop-bought eggs into her blouse to sneak them into the hen house, and when Ricky pulls her close in the tango they smash, drawing the longest studio laugh in the show's history.

What lifelong phobia did Ball trace to the day her father died?

Fear of birds: she was a small child when her father died of typhoid, and she remembered a bird flying into the house that day; she linked birds with his death ever after.

What Broadway musical did Ball star in during 1960-61?

Wildcat, with the hit song 'Hey, Look Me Over', opened in December 1960; Ball's exhaustion and illness forced the show to close the following June.

Which short-lived 1986 ABC sitcom was Ball's final series?

Life with Lucy reunited Ball with Gale Gordon, but viewers stayed away and ABC cancelled it after eight episodes; she never attempted another series.

In which New York town was Lucille Ball born?

Jamestown was home only briefly: her father's work took the family to Montana and then Michigan, and after he died her mother moved back to live with her own parents near the town.

The first I Love Lucy episode to air, in October 1951, was titled 'The Girls Want to Go to a' what?

Nightclub: Lucy and Ethel want the Mertzes' anniversary at the Copacabana, the husbands want the fights, and the wives end up posing as the men's blind dates dressed as hillbillies.

I Love Lucy was the first scripted TV show shot before a live audience on which gauge of film?

35 mm film gave every station a sharp, edited print when live shows reached distant viewers only as blurry kinescopes shot off a TV screen, and it helped pull television production from New York to Hollywood.

Opposite the Ricardos' 'A Little Bit of Cuba', what do the Mertzes name their half of the diner?

A Big Hunk of America: the two couples had bought the diner together, quarrelled over who was doing the work and split it down the middle; before long they sold the place back to its old owner.

Doris Singleton played which friend of Lucy and Ethel who usually tried to one-up them?

Caroline Appleby was called Lillian in her first appearance before being renamed; her husband Charlie runs a local TV station, which is why Lucy feels she has to stay on her good side.

Which neighbour, played by Elizabeth Patterson, occasionally babysat Little Ricky?

Mrs. Trumbull arrives as a grouch threatening trouble over the baby in a building that bans children, then holds Little Ricky, melts, and becomes his regular sitter.

Jerry Hausner played Jerry, who held what job for Ricky?

His agent: Jerry was written as Ricky's best friend in the unaired pilot, but when the script was reworked for the series his lines went to Fred Mertz and he shrank to an occasional caller.

In 'Lucy Is Envious', Lucy and Ethel pose as women from Mars atop which building?

The Empire State Building: after pledging $500 each to a rich schoolmate's charity by mistake, Lucy and Ethel take a film-publicity job scaring visitors at the top dressed as Martians.

Which late-1940s sitcom is credited with TV's first on-screen pregnancy, years before Lucy's?

Mary Kay and Johnny is credited with writing Mary Kay Stearns's real 1948 pregnancy into its live scripts after the producers failed to hide it, and her newborn son then joined the cast.

'Lucy Goes to the Hospital' aired the day before which event?

Eisenhower's inauguration on 20 January 1953 drew a smaller television audience than Lucy's trip to the hospital the night before, at that point the most-watched broadcast American TV had seen.

In 'Lucy Is Enceinte', how does Ricky finally learn he is going to be a father?

From a song request: after failing all day to get him alone, Lucy anonymously asks Ricky to sing 'We're Having a Baby' in his show at the club, and he discovers in front of the audience that the request is hers.

Which I Love Lucy show, left out of syndication for decades, did CBS air colorized in 2013?

The Christmas episode: made as a one-off 1956 special, it was kept out of the package sold to local stations and went unrepeated for decades, until CBS brought it back in December 1989.

In season one's 'The Audition', Lucy replaces an injured what in Ricky's act?

A clown: Buffo is hurt when his bicycle's brakes lock at rehearsal, so Lucy goes on in his place, wins the television contract Ricky was auditioning for, and turns it down.

In 'Lucy and the Dummy', what does Lucy use as her dance partner at a studio party?

A rubber replica of Ricky: with Ricky away, Lucy builds a life-size dummy with his face and dances with it at the studio party; the dummy falls apart on stage, yet she is offered a contract.

In 'Ricky's Movie Offer', a Hollywood talent scout wants Ricky to audition for which title role?

Don Juan: Lucy first knocks the scout cold, taking him for a burglar, and the offer starts the long storyline that sends the Ricardos and Mertzes to Hollywood.

Why did Ball dye her previously blonde hair red at MGM?

For Technicolor features: MGM urged the change so she would stand out in colour in 1943's Du Barry Was a Lady; the screen's most famous redhead was a brunette who had already gone blonde.

Which future Hawaii Five-O governor played Ball's husband in her late-1940s radio sitcom?

Richard Denning played husband George opposite Ball on CBS radio from 1948 to 1951; Lee Bowman had the part in the audition show but was unavailable when the series was ordered.

In 'The Passports', Lucy practises being a stowaway and gets locked inside what?

A steamer trunk: with no birth certificate on file and so no passport, Lucy tests the Mertzes' old vaudeville trunk as a way to sneak along to Europe and cannot get back out.

Which actress reprised her Private Secretary role as Lucy's friend Susie McNamara?

Ann Sothern brought Susie along as Lucy's cruise companion in the first Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, a flashback to 1940 in which the pair's Havana tour guide turns out to be Ricky.

In 'Ethel's Home Town', how do the others teach Ethel a lesson during her hometown concert?

Play the fool behind her: Ethel had let the whole town believe that she, not Ricky, was off to star in a Hollywood film, so her husband and friends cut her down to size while she sings.

In 'Mertz and Kurtz', what does Lucy pose as so the Mertzes can impress Fred's old vaudeville partner?

Their maid: Fred plays the rich man for his old partner until he owns up, and then the partner admits that his own tales of success were a bluff as well.

In 'The Ballet', Lucy rushes on stage for Ricky's ballet number dressed for what instead?

A burlesque comedy sketch: Lucy had trained for both spots in Ricky's show, misread Ethel's call for help, and brought seltzer and slapstick to the ballet dancers.

Which clown appeared in the unaired 1951 pilot, whose widow later surfaced a lost copy?

Pepito Pérez, 'the Spanish clown', performed his act in the pilot kinescoped on March 2, 1951; the long-lost recording turned up in his widow's possession and aired in 1990.

Lucille Ball's father, Henry 'Had' Ball, worked as what?

A telephone lineman: Had Ball strung lines for the Bell company until typhoid killed him while Lucille was still a small child, before her brother Fred was even born.

Under what stage name did Ball begin her Broadway career?

Diane Belmont won her places in Earl Carroll's Vanities and a Ziegfeld touring company, lost both almost at once, and went back to modelling under the same name.

Which 1937 film cast Ball alongside Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers?

Stage Door gave Ball a larger part at last, as one of the would-be actresses sharing a New York boarding house, after walk-ons in the Astaire-Rogers musicals Roberta, Top Hat and Follow the Fleet.

In 'Paris at Last', why is Lucy arrested by the French police?

Passing counterfeit francs: in 'Paris at Last' (1956) Lucy changes money with a street dealer, unknowingly receives counterfeit bills, and lands in a police station where Ricky must translate through a chain of interpreters.

Ball posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from which president?

George H. W. Bush presented the medal ten weeks after her death in April 1989; in 1986 she had accepted a Kennedy Center Honor five days after Desi Arnaz died.

What nickname did locals give the mocked 2009 statue of Ball in Celoron, New York?

'Scary Lucy' drew so much mockery that a new statue by Carolyn Palmer replaced it in 2016, yet the original had become such an attraction that it was kept on show a short walk away.

Which 1974 musical was Lucille Ball's last theatrical film?

Mame gave Ball the part Angela Lansbury had won a Tony for on Broadway, while Bea Arthur repeated her stage role as Vera; Ball never made another film for cinemas.

Which Latin music star hired the young Desi Arnaz for his touring orchestra?

Xavier Cugat, then America's king of Latin music, hired Arnaz after catching his act in Miami; the newcomer became a star attraction and soon left to start a band of his own.

Which upheaval cost the teenage Desi Arnaz's family everything and drove them to Miami?

The Cuban Revolution of 1933 toppled President Machado; a mob wrecked the Arnaz homes, Desi's father, a newly elected congressman, was jailed, and the family reached Miami with nothing.

Whose son was a high-school classmate of Desi Arnaz in Miami?

Al Capone's only child, Albert 'Sonny' Capone, shared a Miami classroom with Arnaz, whose once-wealthy family had arrived from Cuba with no money at all.

Arnaz led the orchestra on whose NBC radio show in the 1946–47 season?

Bob Hope's Pepsodent Show took on Arnaz's new post-Army orchestra as its band for a season; ten years later Hope turned up at Yankee Stadium as a guest star on I Love Lucy.

In semi-retirement, Arnaz lived in Del Mar, California and pursued what hobby?

Thoroughbred horse racing: Arnaz bred racehorses on his ranch at Corona and raced them, and Del Mar's track later named the Desi Arnaz Stakes after him.

Vance agreed to co-star in The Lucy Show in 1962 only if her character was given what?

Her own first name: people kept calling her Ethel in public, so on The Lucy Show she played Vivian Bagley, a divorced mother who shares a home with the widowed Lucy.

Which coffee brand did Vivian Vance endorse in numerous commercials?

Maxwell House: Vance was the coffee brand's television spokeswoman in a long-running series of 1970s commercials, after her Lucy Show years.

With whom did William Frawley perform his 1914 vaudeville double act?

His wife, Edna Broedt: billed as 'Frawley and Louise', the couple toured the vaudeville circuits from 1914 until their divorce in 1927.

On I've Got a Secret in 1965, Frawley revealed he was the first to sing which song?

'My Melancholy Baby': Frawley claimed to have introduced the Ernie Burnett song in Denver in 1912, a secret he revealed on I've Got a Secret in 1965.

Frawley played a political adviser to Judge Harper in which 1947 Christmas classic?

Miracle on 34th Street: as Charlie Halloran, Frawley warns Judge Harper of the political fallout of ruling that there is no Santa Claus.

Where was William Frawley walking when he suffered his fatal heart attack in March 1966?

Hollywood Boulevard: Frawley collapsed there on March 3, 1966, months after his last screen role, a cameo as a horse trainer on The Lucy Show that had Ball remark he reminded her of someone.

In 1957 Desilu bought the Hollywood production lots of which film studio?

RKO Pictures had employed Ball as a contract player from 1935 to 1942; fifteen years later she and Arnaz bought its Hollywood and Culver City lots outright.

Which 1956 film cast James Mason as a guardian angel sent to save Ball and Arnaz's screen marriage?

Forever, Darling had been written for William Powell and Myrna Loy; Ball and Arnaz took it over between seasons and toured the country by train to promote it.

Who directed Ball and Arnaz's 1954 MGM comedy The Long, Long Trailer?

Vincente Minnelli had also made Father of the Bride, the comedy hit that Arnaz is said to have bet MGM $25,000 his trailer picture would out-earn; by that account he won.

Which company's Desilu Playhouse carried the last eight Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour specials?

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse took over the hour-long specials in 1958 after Ford had sponsored the first five; the last one aired in April 1960, the year Ball and Arnaz divorced.

Who wrote and directed the 2021 film Being the Ricardos?

Aaron Sorkin signed on in 2015 only to write the script, with Cate Blanchett announced as its star; by the time Amazon made the film he was directing it too, with a different lead.

Who played Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos?

Javier Bardem's Arnaz brought him a Best Actor Oscar nomination, one of three acting nominations for the film; the award went to Will Smith for King Richard.

Which Being the Ricardos actor earned an Oscar nomination for playing William Frawley?

J.K. Simmons was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as Frawley, one of the film's three acting nominations; all three lost on the night, his to Troy Kotsur of CODA.

Which future novelist worked with writer Madelyn Pugh on their Indianapolis high-school newspaper?

Kurt Vonnegut co-edited the Shortridge High School paper with Pugh, and later held the school up as proof of what public education could do: it produced him and the head writer of I Love Lucy.

In 'Lucy Gets a Paris Gown', what are the husbands' fake designer gowns made from?

Burlap potato sacks: to pay Lucy back for a faked hunger strike, the husbands pass off sack dresses, with a horse's feed bag as Lucy's hat, as Jacques Marcel originals, and the designer then copies the look.

Which Lucille Ball series cast her real children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as her character's kids?

Here's Lucy followed Ball's sale of Desilu: she ended the still-popular Lucy Show and started afresh in 1968 with Lucie and Desi Jr. as teenagers Kim and Craig Carter.

On which night of the week did I Love Lucy air on CBS for its entire original run?

Monday: the show held CBS's 9 p.m. slot for all six seasons, and when Ball came back in 1962 with The Lucy Show she was on CBS on Monday nights again.

Which publisher put out the I Love Lucy comic book from 1954 to 1962?

Dell tried Lucy out in two issues of its Four Color series, then gave her a title of her own that outlasted the weekly show by five years.

Which NBC sitcom paid tribute to I Love Lucy with a spring 2020 episode titled 'We Love Lucy'?

Will & Grace rebuilt the Ricardo apartment and other famous sets for the episode, and Lucie Arnaz appeared as the stern boss first played by Elvia Allman in 'Job Switching'.

Which nickname did Lucille Ball pick up during her years as a film actress?

'Queen of the B's' marked her as a star of B movies, the cheap half of a double bill; after nearly two decades in film it took radio and then television to make her famous, at forty.

Which new British commercial network aired I Love Lucy from 1955?

ITV ended the BBC's monopoly when it went on air in September 1955, bringing adverts to British television, and Lucy was among the first American shows it screened.

To give Lucille Ball time off after childbirth, I Love Lucy accidentally invented which standard television practice?

The rerun was born when first-season episodes were rebroadcast to cover Ball's absence and unexpectedly proved ratings winners, paving the way for the syndication market.

I Love Lucy was the first series to end at the top of the ratings; which 1990s sitcom later did the same?

Seinfeld signed off in 1998 as America's top-rated show, a feat only I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show had managed before it.

Which science-fiction series came from Desilu, the studio Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz built around I Love Lucy?

Star Trek began as a Desilu production in the 1960s, as did Mission: Impossible, before the studio was sold and renamed Paramount Television.

Which television show did Desi Arnaz guest-host in 1976 to promote his autobiography, spoofing I Love Lucy on air?

Saturday Night Live had Arnaz as host in February 1976, plugging a memoir he had plainly titled A Book and reciting 'Jabberwocky' in his Cuban accent.

In the first hour-long Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour special, Lucy Ricardo recalls meeting Ricky on a cruise to which city?

Havana is where the flashback has Lucy first meet Ricky; the opener ran 75 minutes, so Desi Arnaz needed permission to cut into the next show's slot.

Which instrument does Little Ricky play non-stop in a season-six I Love Lucy episode, testing the Mertzes' patience?

The drums were no act: the boy cast as Little Ricky had toured with the Horace Heidt Orchestra at the age of three and jammed with Desi Arnaz at his audition.

Which instrument from her school-band days does Lucy Ricardo dust off to audition for Ricky's tour on I Love Lucy?

The saxophone turns up in an old trunk, and the only tune she can manage on it is 'The Glow-Worm', which leaves Ricky's band more amused than impressed.

What takes the Ricardos and Mertzes across the Atlantic in the fifth season of I Love Lucy?

Ricky's band is booked for a European tour with Fred as band manager, but Lucy and Ethel must pay their own way, so they run a raffle for a phony charity and nearly get arrested.

Which silent-film comedian mentored Lucille Ball in prop comedy years before I Love Lucy made her a television star?

Buster Keaton befriended Ball when both worked at the same studio in the 1940s and, with director Edward Sedgwick, schooled her in practical comedy and prop work.

What offer did William Frawley's on-screen wife reject after I Love Lucy, refusing to work one-on-one with him?

A Mertzes spin-off, built around Fred and Ethel, was Desi Arnaz's idea, and Frawley was keen, but his co-star declined: the two already had an acrimonious relationship.

Which honor did Lucille Ball receive in December 1986, five days after her I Love Lucy co-star Desi Arnaz died?

The Kennedy Center Honors ceremony came on December 7, 1986; Arnaz had been due to introduce her, and Robert Stack instead read out a tribute Arnaz had written.

What wrong name does Lucy's scatterbrained mother keep calling her son-in-law Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy?

Mickey is her usual mangling of his name; Kathryn Card played the role a year after first appearing on the show as a slovenly woman named Minnie Finch.

Which three advisers approved the scenes about Lucy's pregnancy on I Love Lucy, by Desi Arnaz's account?

A rabbi, priest and minister signed off on those sequences, Arnaz said; the birth episode was such an event that Newsweek ran a cover story before it had aired.

Which future screen legend was a fellow student at the New York drama school where teenage Lucille Ball was written off?

Bette Davis studied at the John Murray Anderson School at the same time; Ball's instructors felt she would never succeed, and she later said it only taught her how to be frightened.

What public office did Desi Arnaz's father hold in the family's Cuban home city before the Arnazes fled to Miami?

Mayor, and the youngest the city had known: Arnaz's father went on to win a seat in the Cuban House of Representatives.

Which neighbor, played by Mary Jane Croft, befriends Lucy after the Ricardos swap Manhattan for the country?

Betty Ramsey turns out to be a childhood friend of Ethel's; Croft had already played a one-off part on the show before landing the recurring role.

Which producer and head writer did Lucille Ball insist on bringing from her radio sitcom to head up I Love Lucy?

Jess Oppenheimer was also an inventor with 18 patents, among them the in-the-lens teleprompter, first used on television by Ball and Arnaz in a 1953 commercial.

What did Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz demand in exchange for a pay cut to shoot I Love Lucy in Hollywood?

Ownership of the films seemed worthless then; the couple later sold the episodes back to the network for over four million dollars.

Whose distinctive 'uh oh' can be heard from the studio audience in many episodes of I Love Lucy?

Lucille Ball's mother, DeDe, sat in the audience at filmings, and Desi Arnaz's own laugh can be heard too during scenes he was not in.

Which comedian is the title guest of 'Lucy Meets the Moustache', the last hour-long outing of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo?

Ernie Kovacs guest-starred with his wife, Edie Adams, in the last of the hour-long specials, which reached the air in April 1960.

Which fruit does Lucy Ricardo pick from Richard Widmark's backyard on a bus tour of movie stars' homes?

A grapefruit from the actor's tree left her trapped in his backyard, on the very day Ricky had barred her from his lunch with Widmark at Romanoff's.

In the I Love Lucy episode 'The Freezer', where is Lucy trying to hide the surplus meat when she gets locked in?

The furnace was off for repairs, so it looked like a safe hiding place; then Fred fired it up to thaw the half-frozen Lucy and cooked the lot.

Which appliance do Lucy and Ethel request in I Love Lucy's 'Pioneer Women', sparking a bet about modern conveniences?

A dishwasher each was the request, but their husbands called them spoiled and bet they could not live without modern conveniences, which is how Lucy came to bake her own bread.

Which old-fashioned chore gets the better of Ethel while Lucy bakes bread in the I Love Lucy episode 'Pioneer Women'?

Churning butter proves too much for her alone, so she calls on Lucy for help; both were hoping to get into the elite Society Matrons' League.

Which Hollywood star does Lucy impersonate in 'Be a Pal', hoping to remind Ricky Ricardo of his Cuban childhood?

Carmen Miranda was the finale of a plan lifted from a marriage-advice book, which also had Lucy fill the apartment with a donkey and other reminders of Cuba.

What do Lucy and Ethel sell on television in I Love Lucy's 'The Million Dollar Idea', pricing it far too low?

Salad dressing made to an aunt's recipe sold so well at a loss that the pair went back on air to make it look awful, which only brought in more orders.

What does Lucy Ricardo keep pulling on the journey home from Hollywood in I Love Lucy's 'The Great Train Robbery'?

The emergency brake gets pulled so often that she earns a reputation for it, all while she is tangled up with a jewel thief on board.

How does Lucy Ricardo finally get aboard the ocean liner she misses in the I Love Lucy episode 'Bon Voyage'?

By helicopter, hired to drop her on the deck of the SS Constitution after she slipped ashore for one more goodbye kiss and the liner sailed without her.

How does Ricky Ricardo know every answer to a radio quiz heard at home in 'Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio'?

A delayed broadcast: Ricky had been in the studio when the questions were asked, which he admits only to Fred, so an impressed Lucy signs the pair up as contestants.

At which London theatre must Lucy Ricardo perform in Ricky's show in order to be presented to the Queen?

The Palladium show was her one route to a royal introduction after a first day in the city spent hunting for Elizabeth II, when Ethel caught a glimpse and Lucy missed out.

What ailment makes modelling a tweed outfit agony for Lucy Ricardo in the Hollywood episode 'The Fashion Show'?

A sunburn, and a bad one, met the scratchiest fabric going after Lucy set her heart on a Don Loper gown and landed a spot in a show for Hollywood wives.

What part does Ricky arrange for Lucy in a Hollywood film in the I Love Lucy episode 'Lucy Gets Into Pictures'?

A murdered showgirl sounded simple, but the role and its costume defeat her: the big scene is cut, and she reaches the screen only as a body under a sheet.

Lucy Ricardo hopes to perform Shakespeare with Orson Welles at Ricky's club, but what is he really there to do?

A magic act is all Welles has in mind, with Lucy wangling the job of his assistant; she turns up ready for the Bard anyway.

Which Broadway show, part-owned by Desilu, do the Ricardos and Mertzes hold tickets for in 'Lucy's Night in Town'?

The Most Happy Fella was a plug as much as a plot: Desilu owned a large share of the musical, and the comedy starts when Lucy's tickets turn out to be for the matinee.

In I Love Lucy, what overruns the Ricardos' country house on the day a House & Garden photographer is due?

Baby chicks arrive in a flock after the Ricardos turn poultry farmers to make ends meet, hiring Fred and Ethel as help and installing them in the guest house.

Where does Lucy Ricardo end up working after a Venetian gondolier turns up in New York in 'Visitor from Italy'?

A pizza parlor is where a series of mishaps lands her; guest Jay Novello was making his last appearance on the show, each one as a different character.

Which perilous stage routine does Lucy land in after a day of total honesty in I Love Lucy's 'Lucy Tells the Truth'?

A knife-throwing act with Professor Falcony is where an audition leaves her, after she bet $100 that she could last 24 hours without telling a fib.

Lucy Ricardo poses as the 'Maharincess' of which invented land in a first-season stunt to get Ricky into the papers?

Franistan's swooning royal fooled the press until Ricky caught on and paid her back, bursting in as an assassin called The Tiger.

What kind of business do Lucy and Ethel secretly buy in I Love Lucy's 'The Girls Go Into Business', then sell on?

A dress shop bought from Mrs. Hansen earned them $500 when they sold it; the buyer then resold the site to skyscraper builders for $50,000.

Which radio program does Ethel talk a cash-strapped Lucy into attending in the I Love Lucy episode 'The Quiz Show'?

Females Are Fabulous dangles a cash first prize, which is all a broke Lucy needs to hear; she ends up on stage as a contestant instead of in the audience.

To win the top prize in 'The Quiz Show', Lucy Ricardo must pass a stranger off to Ricky as whom?

Her long-lost first husband was the story she had to sell, with the host promising to send a man round that evening while Ricky knew nothing of the game.

Whom does Lucy Ricardo mistake for the radio show's planted stranger when he knocks at her door in 'The Quiz Show'?

A tramp named Harold happily plays along with her story until Ethel recognizes him: he had already called at her own door that day.

Frank Nelson, the emcee in I Love Lucy's 'The Quiz Show', found fame as the put-upon foil of which comedian?

Jack Benny kept running into Nelson's rude sales clerks on radio and then on television; with Lucy, Nelson went on to make eleven appearances.

Philip Ober, the stranger in I Love Lucy's 'The Quiz Show', later played a UN ambassador in which Hitchcock film?

North by Northwest reached cinemas in 1959, the year his marriage to the actress who played Ethel ended; Ober later quit acting for the US diplomatic service.

Who directed 'The Quiz Show' and the rest of I Love Lucy's first season before leaving for a better-paid job?

Marc Daniels also recommended the actress who became Ethel, then left for higher pay elsewhere, a move he later admitted might have been a stupid one.

What does Ricky Ricardo cut off at the start of I Love Lucy's 'The Quiz Show', sending Lucy after prize money?

Her allowance and her charge accounts both go when Ricky, sure that he earns a good living, cannot work out where the money is going.

What becomes of the prize money Lucy Ricardo finally wins in the I Love Lucy episode 'The Quiz Show'?

It pays off her debts and nothing more: the winnings were just enough to cover what she owed, so all that scheming left her back where she began.

What happens to Lucy Ricardo in her first stunt as a contestant in the I Love Lucy episode 'The Quiz Show'?

Sprayed with water, and that was only the warm-up stunt; William Frawley missed the fun, as Fred does not appear in the episode.

Which fish do both couples secretly buy to win a bet in the Miami-set I Love Lucy episode 'Deep-Sea Fishing'?

A tuna apiece, bought to pass off as the day's catch, leaves the husbands and the wives each trying to hide an enormous fish from the other side.

Which leading man do Lucy and Ethel meet on a weekend away from their husbands in I Love Lucy's 'In Palm Springs'?

Rock Hudson is their consolation after a quarrel over annoying habits sends the wives off to the desert with Little Ricky in tow.