A Guide To I Love Lucy
But Blow suggested changing the show's format. He showed the pilot to his friend, Broadway lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (the one and only). Hammerstein said that the show might work better if they focused more on the story and made it more of a sitcom than a variety show. The show would be built around a lovable dizzy couple, rather than the musical acts.
Blow flew to California. He met with Lucy, Desi, Don Sharpe, and Jess Oppenheimer. He said that if they changed the format of the show, Phillip Morris would be wiling to sponsor the show. It would be a sitcom, with the vaudeville acts thrown in occasionally. "If you can create characters for yourselves with whom the average person can associate-everyday people, not Lucille Ball the movie star and Desi Arnaz the rich bandleader-I'll make you a commitment here and now."
Blow further advised that Desi's band should come in only when they important to the story. Desi really wanted to keep his band together. He asked "We pay the boys every week. If we use them only now and then, who's going to stand the cost?" Blow said "Include the band in the cost of the program."
Lucy liked this idea. The show would be a sitcom with then playing a dizzy couple who were everyday people. Desi would play a small-time bandleader in a nightclub, and the nightclub act would sometimes get into the show. Lucy would be playing a housewife. That suit her fine. Lucy later said "Of all the 30 or 40 films I had mad up to that time, I could find only three or four scenes that I cared anything about. When I put them all together, I discovered they were domestic scenes, where I was a housewife."
So it was settled. The format of the show would be changed to the new idea, and Phillip Morris Cigarettes agreed to sponsor the show.
Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Carroll Jr., and Madelyn Pugh got together, and created the premise and characters. They decided to take the basic character relationships from "My Favorite Husband" (a wacky wife, a frustrated husband, and an older couple who would be their best friends) and give them new names.
At first the names of the lead characters were Lucy and Larry Lopez. But Oppenheimer didn't like those names because they sounded too alliterate. (Say "Lucy and Larry Lopez" out loud. There are too many two-syllable words that begin with "L".) In addition, there was another reason: Desi would be playing a bandleader named Larry Lopez. The problem was that there was already a real-life Hispanic bandleader named Vincent Lopez, and the producers were afraid that the audience might get confused. So the lead character names became Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.
The premise of the show would be that the Ricardos were a middle-class married couple. They lived in a modest apartment in an apartment building located at 623 East 68th Street in Manhattan, New York City. Ricky was a small-time nightclub entertainer with his own band. He performed regularly at a nightclub called the Tropicana Club. His salary was $150 a week. Lucy was a typical housewife, with a twist that was important to the story: she longed for a career in show business. But Ricky wants her to stay a housewife.
Lucy later said "We liked the idea of Ricky being a nightclub orchestra leader. It gave the character reality, and also allowed us to use the musical numbers and variety acts in the continuity of a story. That helped us keep up the entertainment value."
(The writers made a mistake with the address where the Ricardos lived. There is a street in Manhattan called East 68th Street. But its house numbers don't go up to 623. In real life, 623 East 68th Street would be in the middle of the East River! But, of course, TV fans ignored that goof.)
Jess Oppenheimer felt that the series needed more than just Lucy and Ricky. They needed the couple to have some friends. So the three writers created the characters of Fred and Ethel Mertz. The name "Mertz" came from a family that Madelyn Pugh had known years ago. "Fred" was named after Lucy's brother Fred, and "Ethel" was named after the famous Broadway singer Ethel Merman, who was a friend of Lucy's. Originally, the Mertzes were planned to be just best friends of the Ricardos. But as story-planning continued, it was also decided to make them the Ricardos' landlords. The writers figured that if the Mertzes were the Ricardos' landlords in addition to being their best friends, it would lead to more story possibilities.
Finally, there would be a fifth character on the show: Jerry, Ricky's agent. He would be around in scenes that involved Ricky's job. (As the series progressed, there were never many scenes where Jerry could be used. The character ended up as just a recurring role.)
Now they needed to come up with a title for the show. In 1950-51, most TV programs were called The ___ Show, with the name of the show's star in the blank space. There were a lot of TV programs that used this idea for a title. (The 1950-51 season alone had The Alan Young Show, The George Burns And Gracie Allen Show, The Gene Autry Show, and more.) So CBS suggested calling the Arnazes' sitcom The Lucille Ball Show.
Lucy didn't like that title. She wanted Desi's name in it as well. So CBS suggested The Lucille Ball And Desi Arnaz Show. But Lucy still didn't like it. For reasons unknown, she wanted Desi's name to go first. And Desi himself insisted that he wanted top billing. Jess Oppenheimer has some arguments with him about this. Why would Desi's name come first? After all, Lucy was a movie star. Finally Oppenheimer suggested the title I Love Lucy. Lucy approved of it because the "I" would be referring to Desi.
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