Let’s Be Behind-the-Scenes at “I Love Lucy”

I’m Desi popping up wherever the starlet guest stars happen to be.

I'm Phil Ober, keeping an eye on Viv.

I'm Elois Jenssen designing those harlequin patterned hostess pants with the crushy belt, 4 sizes too big to humiliate Viv but keep Lucy happy.

I'm Mary Wickes, lusting after Lucille.

I’m the first apartment without the window, not the second apartment with the window.

Lucy was a cunt-the end

I’m the exhausted PA pushing that long, long loaf of fake bread through a hole in the kitchen wall and out of the fake oven. Lucy made me do it 25 times.

I am Betty Furness, tired of dealing with that Cuban and his nympho wife. Goddam Westinghouse !!!

I’m Lucy’s Borderline or Bipolar Disorder.

I'm the twin beds in the Ricardo's bedroom.

I am the conveyor belt with pounds and pounds of chocolates from See’s.

I'm the hair style that aged Lucy 30 years between IIL and The Lucy-Desi comedy hour.

I'm Bill Frawley's DTs.

R7 That was actually real bread, which afterwards was sliced up and given to the audience to take home.

I’m blue jeans.

You do NOT wear me on the subway.

I'm sufficient.

I'm Vivian's on-set psychiatrist.

I'm the henna rinse.

I'm Senator Joe McCarthy lurking in Little Ricky's room trying to gather enough evidence to prove Lucy is a Communist

I’m the woman whose “uh-oh ha ha ha” laugh was on the laugh track for virtually every episode.

I’m Lucy slipping Chesterfields into a Philip Morris pack.

[quote] I’m the woman whose “uh-oh ha ha ha” laugh was on the laugh track for virtually every episode.

You’re Lucille’s mother then.

I'm the sweaty boozy night club costumes that the wardrobe person has to clean and freshen whenever Desi has a number in the club. *wink*

I’m the pancake on the ceiling.

I’m Bill Frawley filling up the two headed dragon costume with fart gas.

Poor Viv.

I’m the toaster that shoots the toast in the air.

I’m Joan Davis, America’s Queen of Comedy!

Oh… wrong show.

I’m “Shortenin’ Bread.”

I'm Mrs. Trumble. I'd diddle Little Ricky with a maraca when I'd babysit the little faggot.

I’m Viv’s too small undergarments to make her look stocky.

You mean you're Viv's too small undergarments to make her body look like a bag of doorknobs, r30.

I’m Bill’s cute male assistant, tending to his “needs”. His needs consist of booze, corned beef sandwiches, switching the radio to the baseball game, and getting handsy with my supple ass.

I'm the show's smashing success! I beat the other early sitcoms to the punch.

I dont think it aged her. Her hairstyle was very mid 50's. The new one was actually more modern. It LOOKS old fashioned because it's what older women of our time wore, but back then it was more modern.

Sorry that was meant for R12

I'm the poor stagehand being made to clean up the buckets of nasty slimy overcooked rice all over the goddamned chicken.

*kitchen

R8 Refrigerators are the one thing that have diminished in quality and convenience from back then. And those things lasted for 50 years. Built yo last.

It may have been modern but she looked a good 20 years in that iteration of the show.

Too many of these examples are things ON the scene, not behind the scenes.

Also, it's seems too soon for another ILL thread; the last one was terrific and this one is tired.

r40 has STATED HER BOUNDARIES.

"I’m Joan Davis, America’s Queen of Comedy!"

You're also America's Queen of Cuntery. You've somehow managed to out-cunt a cunt like Lucille Ball.

Stage Manager? PA??

That was me!!

I’m all the Vitametavegamin bottles eventually migrating to the Our Miss Brooks set.

I’m 3D.

I’m Vivian Vance telling Lucy “I’d tell you to go fvck yourself if Desi hadn’t already taken care of it” when Lucy snapped because Viv almost missed a cue.

... and I'm the makeup scissoring they did later, r46.

I’m Lucy letting the ladies use the can in her dressing room, initially the only women’s toilet within the required distance for the health department.

I'm Lucy's 27th unfiltered Chesterfield of the day. 20 more to go!

I'm Vivian's increasingly large potamus.

I'm the writers. We're trying to figure out how to get the "Little Ricky's Circumcision" past the censors.

I'm Cesar Romero, servicing Desi's uncut Cuban pinga in his dressing room.

I'm the piano no one ever played.

They played the piano when it was in the front down stage, but they never played it when it was against the window in the new apartment.

They also played it in the Connecticut house.

I'm Desi's shoe lifts.

[quote] They played the piano when it was in the front down stage, but they never played it when it was against the window in the new apartment.

They did once. When Lucy was stuck in the trunk, Ricky brought home his pianist from the club and he played the song on the piano at the window while Ricky practiced his drumming on the trunk.

We're Teensy and Weensy. We have our own thread around here somewhere. Just stopping by to remind everybody we don't need no ricochet romance!

Random ILL thought but a couple of days ago I was watching an episode and they cracked a joke about Kinsey....you know from the infamous Kinsey sex studies? I thought that was probably the most risque joke they ever told on the show.

r59 wasn't that the episode where Ricky wanted Lucy to do anal but she refused?

R60 no it was the one where they all gave each other gonorrhea

That was a good one r61. I loved Ethel's line: "Fred got it from some whore over on 11th Avenue, then he gave it to me, and now the whole damn apartment building's got it!"

I’m Aunt Martha.

[quote] wasn't that the episode where Ricky wanted Lucy to do anal but Gary talked her out of it?

I'm Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh, taking the old scripts and replacing the cover page with one that says "Alice" for 25 years in the future.

I'm Linda Lavin, insisting that Bob and Madelyn work a singing and dancing number into those scripts. OR ELSE.

I'm Bob Carroll's eyebrows.

I’m Lucy on the phone to Casting, “Couldn’t you hire a Little Ricky who could enunciate? I have to repeat every goddamn line the kid says.”

R62 they would have never let them use the word "damn", are you crazy? Way too dirty

I'm Don Loper hoping my guest appearance will lead to a spin-off, which I like to call Loper's Ladies.

I’m the set carpenters who are forced to create a very accurate looking NYC subway platform set that gets used once for five minutes.

I’m the lady attached to the big, heavy harp in the back row of Ricky’s band at the club who none of the guys help down and invite out with them for a bite at lunchbreak—always the player, but never played. :(

We're the Art Department, who week after week effortlessly make audiences all over America believe the Ricardos and the Mertzes are actually visiting a different European country. On a budget!

[quote]Random ILL thought but a couple of days ago I was watching an episode and they cracked a joke about Kinsey....you know from the infamous Kinsey sex studies? I thought that was probably the most risque joke they ever told on the show.

Especially notable since they had to change the lyrics to "Too Darn Hot" in the movie version of "Kiss Me Kate," which was released around the same time (1953). "According to the Kinsey report ... " became "according to the LATEST report ... "

I'm Mrs. Richard Carlson, hoping my appearance on the show will lead to some major magazine covers and a modeling contract.

I'm Vivian Vance spending some extra time in makeup after getting roughed up by the hubby again.

I’m Georgia Holt. I’m one of the models in the Paris episode. I’m doing this because I got a ten year old brat at home named Cher.

Stop it mom. You're being mean.

I’m a nobody by the name of Aaron Spelling who gets hired to play a hick. I’m odd looking but bet I’ll have a gorgeous daughter one day.

I'm the Franciscan Ivy dinnerware.

[quote]gorgeous daughter one day

I didn't know Aaron had another daughter, r79

I'm also Aaron Spelling, and I think some day in the future I'll be a big producer and create Lucy's most successful sitcom.

We’re wax tulips.

Did somebody say two lips? Was it Lucy?

I'm Spring Byington, filming "December Bride" on the Desilu lot. Mary Wickes better keep her hands off of MY Lucy!

[quote]I'm Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh, taking the old scripts and replacing the cover page with one that says "Alice" for 25 years in the future.

I'm Jess Oppenheimer, taking the old "My Favorite Husband" scripts to Madelyn and Bob so they can make a few minor tweaks and turn them into "I Love Lucy" scripts.

I’m Frawley waiting for my entrance cue in plain sight of the camera.

I'm the Swiss cheese on white bread sandwich from the Desilu commissary, handily shoplifted by Fred Ball that afternoon to be tucked into Lucy's backpack for the Alpine avalanche episode.

I'm the daily "rubdown" William Frawley gets at the Hollywood Athletic Club after work from Sven.

I’m Gary Morton, watching initial airings and thinking “Damn, why’d they spend so much money on this!? I could do it much cheaper if anyone would let me!”

I'm Liberace visiting the set and fending off Viv's sexual advances.

I'm Richard Widmark's grapefruits.

And I also play Bobby the Bellboy.

I’m Lucy ripping off Viv’s false eyelashes.

“NOBODY WEARS FLSE EYELASHES ON THIS SHOW EXCEPT ME!”

I'm Barbara Eden, hiding from Desi in my dressing room.

I'm the reproduction of a Degas. I'm in the second apartment.

I’m Lucy and Desi chowing down on fried chicken at the table read and not offering to share.

[quote]I’m Lucy and Desi chowing down on fried chicken

This is a euphemism, surely.

I’m your uncle vaudeville. There were no goddam laugh tracks.

I’m Tallulah Bankhead showing off her cooch backstage after ripping off her slacks.

And I'm Mary Wickes, getting moist at r99.