“I Love Lucy” debuted on CBS Television, October 15th 1951, making television history. The show about a Cuban bandleader and his wacky redheaded wife was groundbreaking entertainment which would go on to achieve legendary status.
The first achievement was the casting of Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball’s real life husband as her TV husband, Ricky Ricardo. Network executives originally nixed the idea of an Hispanic leading man. In the mostly anglo-white saxon realm of television, interracial marriage was a topic that made sponsors uncomfortable, but Lucille Ball insisted that Desi be cast as her co-star.
The second achievement was the use of 3 motion picture cameras to record their play in front of a live studio audience. This 3 film camera technique, pioneered by Director of Photography Karl Fruend, was developed to improve the quality of the finished program over the Kinescope recordings that were the method most used at that time in this era before the videotape recorder was developed. As a result, the rerun was invented, a program that would maintain its original picture quality and be run again for years to come.
Network executives would not pay the additional cost to shoot the episodes on film so Desilu Productions was formed by Desi and Lucy. The company went on to become a powerhouse television production company for 15 years.
