A Guide To I Love Lucy
By May of 1951, things were going fine. The Arnazes were preparing for the birth of their first baby, and they would begin their show in late September. They planned it to perform it live on the air, like most TV shows.
But then something happened. One morning, Desi got a call from Milton Blow. Blow asked him when the Arnazes would be moving to New York to begin the show. Desi was stunned. He had no intention of moving the family.
In 1951, television technology was still in its infancy, and live television wasn't broadcasting nationally. Due to 1950s technology, a live TV show could be shown live to only local areas within the station's broadcast range. If a live TV show was to be shown across the country, the station would film the show, shot from a TV set. This film was called a kinescope recording. Then the station would air the kinescope recording of the show to areas out of transmission range. Most live TV shows that were presented nationally used this idea. The only problem was that the quality of kinescope recordings was inferior to that of a live broadcast. Kinescope recordings made the show look "grainy", with a lot of static, as if someone had rubbed the film with sandpaper.
In the 1950s, most TV shows were televised live from the East Coast, with the West Coast getting the kinescope recordings. (In 1951, 85% of all the TV sets in America were east of the Mississippi River). CBS assumed that the Arnazes would do the same thing. But the Arnazes wanted to live in California and raise their children there. They always thought that they would do the show live from Los Angeles. The Ed Wynn Show and The Alan Young Show were doing that. Why couldn't I Love Lucy do the same?
Blow said that the sponsors, Phillip Morris Cigarettes, insisted that the show be done live from New York because more potential Phillip Morris smokers lived east of Chicago. It was essential that the East Coast get the superior TV pictures so that the sponsor could sell more cigarettes in those heavily populated areas. If the show was done live from the West Coast, then the West Coast people would get the superior TV pictures, and the East Coast people would have to settle for the inferior kinescope recordings. Phillip Morris Cigarettes didn't want that. It was essential that the East Coast people get the best quality show.
Desi had an idea: Instead of doing the show live, and having one half of the country settle for inferior kinescope recordings, they would film the show on 35mm film, like a motion picture. Then each station could present the film. That way, nobody would have to settle for anything inferior. Everybody would have a much better quality print than the grainy kinescope prints. Phillip Morris could attract potential customers all over the country. And the Arnazes could stay in California. (There were some TV shows that used this idea. In 1951, most TV shows were done live, but not all. Some shows were filmed, and shown without a kinescope. The Lone Ranger and The Gene Autry Show were examples.)
The idea sounded fine to Blow, Phillip Morris, and CBS. But producer Jess Oppenheimer said that there would still be a problem: Lucy's experience with "My Favorite Husband" had shown that she was at her comic best when she performed in front of a live audience. So they decided that the actors present the show in front of an audience, like a theatrical play, and the play would be filmed. The game shows Truth Or Consequences and You Bet You Life were being done this way. (That has become the standard way of filming a sitcom ever since. I Love Lucy was the show that developed the idea, and was the first to use it. Sources differ on who came up with this novel idea. Most sources say that it was CBS executive Harry Ackerman. Others say that it was Desi.)
The idea sounded fine. But there was still one more problem: this was going to be expensive. Filming a show cost twice as much as a live production. Right now, Phillip Morris and CBS were paying the Arnazes $5000 a week for the show, plus the Arnazes owning 50% of the rights to the show. And now it would cost more. CBS wasn't sure that all this would be worth the investment. But presenting the show like a play and then filming it seemed to be the best way, despite its high costs.
CBS and Phillip Morris agreed to the higher costs, if the Arnazes would take a pay cut. They would get $4000 a week instead of $5000. Desi said "Okay, but then Lucy and I own 100% of ownership to the show and its rights once it airs." He didn't think that CBS and Phillip Morris would say yes, but they did. CBS figured "Well, we can't use the show once it airs because everybody's seen it." (This was before the days of syndicated reruns.) So CBS agreed. Now Lucy and Desi owned all of the show. (That may have been one of the most expensive agreements CBS ever made. Years later, Desilu sold the show into syndication for many millions of dollars.)
The deal had been set. But now there were new plans to make. No one had ever attempted to film a sitcom in front of a live audience before. This was something new. (Of course, today it is the standard practice. But back then, it was a new thing.) How could it be done in such a way as to ensure good cinematography?
Desi tracked down Karl Freund, a German immigrant who was working as a movie cinematographer in Hollywood. Freund was known in the movie industry as a genius at cinematography. He had done the cinematography for many classic movies, including the science-fiction classic Metropolis (1927), Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi (the one and only), and Camille (1937) with Greta Garbo. He had won an Oscar for his work in The Good Earth (1937), and he had worked with Lucille Ball before on DuBarry Was A Lady (1943). Desi told him the plan: perform I Love Lucy like a stage play, and film it in front of a live audience, using four 35mm cameras simultaneously, each camera picking up a different angle.
Freund thought that this was impossible. Every angle required different lighting. Desi was planning to photograph three angles at the same time. You couldn't film it from three angles simultaneously without at least one of the angles giving out a bad print. But Freund decided to tackle the challenge. (Cecil B. DeMille had been filming his movies with multiple cameras for years. But the TV industry believed that it was impossible with TV comedy.)
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, July 17, 1951, Lucy gave birth to her and Desi's first child, a girl. They named her Lucie Desiree Arnaz. Later in August, Desi ended his radio show, "Your Tropical Trip".
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