Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz Pt. 2

I Love Lucy was changing sitcoms forever, and Lucille and Desi pushed the envelope further with a shocking pregnancy storyline in season 2. But some differences couldn't be reconciled, and eventually their marriage dissolved for good. After six seasons, two children, and a hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee, would their friendship endure? It's all right here in part 2!

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't know if I can open us by singing
the I Love Lucy theme song I wanted to, and
I feel like it's not in public domain considering it's
still on Hulu. I mean, people still own the rights
to I Love Lucy. Yeah, one day we'll be able
to sing it for free. But now, well, imagine I'm
singing it while Diana says, Oh what am I saying?

(00:24):
Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the show.
Everyone is welcome back. So happy to have you this episode. Oh,
I know you're thirsty for part two of this one
because I am literally I think it's water over here. Ah, water,
America's water. Stay hydrated out there. Yes, it's important for

(00:48):
your skin, it's good for your organs. Yeah, it's good
for your breathing down, your brain probably probably good for everything.
It's water, I tell you it's a water is good
for your brain because if you don't ever drink water, Uh,
your brain will die. So okay, that's fair. Yeah, hey, uh,
it's so great to have you back for part two
of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Yes, two of the

(01:11):
coolest people who ever lived who happens to have a
very tumultuous relationship. Um, but that's what brings them here
to ridiculous romance. If they had just been a boring
old married couple who were on TV, then um, they'd
be who's the boring old married couples on TV? Rock
and Michelle Obama. That's when I said, think of a

(01:36):
boring married couple on TV. You immediately went to the Obama's.
They're not very boring people, but their their relationships is
kind of boring because it's so stable and normal. I
was thinking, like, you know, uh, Kevin James is probably married.
I was trying to think of an actual couple. I
know I was too. I'm not saying Kevin James Leah Remedy.

(01:59):
I was just thinking of, like, I don't know, Kevin
James wife might be a producer or something, and they
might be very exciting. So who knows, Maybe we'll be
doing the Kevin James episode before you know. Wow, that
would be a shock. But hey, you know, who knows,
Kevin James, if you're listening, tell us all your secrets.
Maybe an episode. I don't know if I want Kevin

(02:20):
James's secrets. Yeah, I guess it's hard to name a
boring couple because I don't know until you look into it.
You just never know. Some people hide multitudes. But before
we get into the really amazing life of the I
Love Lucy Show, we first have a mail call awesome.

(02:47):
So this one's super cool. Kendra reached out to us
on Instagram and she said, I recently listened to your
episodes on Hadrian and Antonis right before I traveled to
Grease where I am now. I mentioned your episode to
the guide and they showed me a statue related to
that story. Thought i'd share, and she sent us a
picture of one of the surviving statues of Antonus. That's

(03:09):
so cool if you go back and listen to the
Hadrian and Antona's story if you haven't yet. Uh, there
was a whole cult built around Antonus and they would
build statues of him in their cities just to get
the emperor to favor them. Um. And there was I
think hundreds of these statues. Obviously, I think there's only
a few hundreds surviving. Yeah, I can't remember now. Very

(03:32):
cool that Kendra got to see one, and also very
cool of Kendra to be out here telling not just
her friends and neighbors, uncles, and aunts, but her tour
guides in Greece Total Strangers be more like Kendra, tell
Total strangers in Greece to listen to Ridiculous Romance. It
doesn't fit in the out tra music, but I feel

(03:53):
like maybe we can wedge it in there, find a
way to shorn it in. Tell your friends, neighbors, uncle's
and aunts, your tour guides in Greece, and any strangers
you come across. Well, it's a little we'll have to
spend some time on it. You know. It's no, it's
no too many girls, it's no halle hallelujah. I'm a bum,

(04:16):
but I go out a night and I get me
some hallelujah. Oh wow, we got the second verse. I
told you there's more to it. I was just oh, well,
thank you so much Kendra for sending that in. Yes,
that was very cool to see actual statue of Antonist

(04:37):
out in the wild. Now I want to go. We
haven't been to Greece. No, I have been to Greece.
Oh yeah, you've been. If you get a chance, I
told Kendra, if she gets a chance to see Santorini,
do it because it's just gorgeous and it's really beautiful,
So anyway, we're definitely gonna go there. Isn't that like
what you do in Greece. Probably, I don't know. I

(04:58):
thought Santorini was one of those like go two places,
but maybe not. It probably is. I mean we we went,
so it's definitely and we have were doing like a cruise,
like a Mediterranean cruise thing. So if it was on
a port then probably it is pretty touristic. But it
was really cool and I loved it. It was beautiful
and it was like the most blue water ever. If
you go to the United States, you got to see

(05:19):
New York City. A lot of people won't tell you this,
but it's off the beaten path. Yeah, there's a little
something there they called Disney World. Uh, tell us, shoot
us a message and tell us where to go in
your home country. Yeah. We love to travel and we're
really hoping to get back to it to some point

(05:40):
when that's a little easier. But yeah, so please send us.
Yeah ship to do and where you live, Kase, we
would live to dream over future trips. Yeah, we were
your recommendations. But for now we're dreaming about Lucille Ball
and Desi Arnaz and they're amazing, rocky, strange, bizarre and

(06:02):
incredible life together and apart, And uh, I think that
we've got to get into part two. So what do
you say We jump in, Let the hay the French
come listen. Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell.
There's no match making, a romantic tips. It's just about
ridiculous relationships, a love it might be any type of

(06:23):
person at all, and abstract cons that are a concrete wall.
But if there's a story, were the second glance ridiculous?
Rolett's a production of I Heart Radio. So when last
we spoke at the end of part one, Desi had
sealed the greatest deal in television history by getting them

(06:44):
to agree to let them shoot in Los Angeles on
film and take a pay cut in exchange for, you know,
just the rights to the reruns, which was an insanely
good deal because nobody knew what reruns were at the time.
We sure do now, although I guess in a way
reruns are falling out of favor because if it's streaming,

(07:05):
you can just watch any episode any time. For you
youngsters out there, there was a point where you had
to wait for an episode to come back on again.
A second time, and usually a show has had to
reach a hundred episodes before it went into syndication to
be shown you know, weekly on reruns and stuff. So
there were some shows you even even recently, there were

(07:25):
some shows you saw once and until streaming came along,
you never saw again. Yeah, so very true. It is
a different time. I'm back in our childhood. But shooting
on film changed a lot for Lucy and DESI. It
gave them a lot more to work with. They really
wanted to focus on quality and innovation when it came

(07:48):
to make an I Love Lucy, So they asked their
cinematographer friend, Carl Floyd it was a German cinematographer, to
come and work on the show as their director of photography.
He was the DP on the movies Metropolis, which if
you're into old movies, or even if you're not, Metropolis
is really awesome. Uh. It was one of those film

(08:10):
school movies where I was like, Okay, there's an old
classic movie. I guess I have to watch it so
that I can, you know, join those conversations with film. Yeah.
But then I watched it and I was like, oh,
this is a super cool movie. It's pretty awesome. Sometimes
they're classic for a reason. Oh yeah. So he was

(08:30):
DP on Metropolis, also Boris Karlov's Dracula, and he actually
directed Karlov's The Mummy. So this guy was a big deal, right.
Karl Freund was where it was at in the nineteen fifties,
and he initially didn't want anything to do with television.
He was kind of like this beneath me. I will

(08:52):
not sully my career with such a useless mediums television
real artists on the back. But it's a big screen.
Yeah that don't do this little thing. This is for
children steal. It's sclean, stilly, little, tiny, tiny TV screens.

(09:13):
I'm not interested in your little TV shows. He's got
a lot of sides. We'll find him. He'll be around
a lot, we'll find this voice. So he's not into
it initially, but Lucy and Desi went to him personally

(09:34):
and they sat him down and they just charmed the
absolute hell out of this guy. And he's like, all right,
this challenge seems worthy of my efforts, and they he
agrees to do the show together. They're going to revolutionize
the sitcom and they all know it. I mean, they're

(09:54):
gonna do it, or they're gonna die trying because they're not.
They're not going to do things the usual way. They've
already shaken it up. A few years back, the show
Amos and Andy was trying to save money so they
could keep making more episodes, and they figured out that
it was cheaper to use three cameras and shoot simultaneously
and then cut that footage together, rather than the previous format,

(10:18):
which was to shoot each scene several times with one
camera pointing in different directions. So Carl is like, step one,
I'm stealing zat yoing. I'm just gonna borrow this little
format here, and I'm going to make some magic hopping.
And he did with his skill as a cinematographer, and

(10:41):
that format it became the shooting style that we know
today on those famous three camera sitcoms. We're talking, you know,
from the nineties, Friends and Seinfeld, we're talking all in
the family, going back earlier than that, Happy Days. Uh,
I'm just going back in time. But but two and
a half men, I think I don't know, I stopped

(11:02):
watching three cameras. It comes a while ago, but they
still happened. Yeah. Meanwhile, Daisy is a performer. We know this,
but he's a band leader. He used to he's used
to live club theater. He's used to being in the
room with people beating off of their energy. And that
is real people, all right, And we all know it
now because the pandemic. But like people saw comedy shows

(11:24):
and theater and stuff through their screen, and you know,
it was different. It's not the same without there's an
exchange that happens. And I could talk to you about
it for hours on end, but I'm not going to. Um,
but it is a really powerful exchange and uh, it's
kind of is the magic of live performance. Um. It
happens in concerts and it happens in theater as well,

(11:47):
And so he was kind of like, Hey, I want
a live studio audience. I want people in the room
to laugh at these jokes. It really makes a difference.
And this was completely unprecedented. So CBS freaked out like
they always did whenever they try to bring something cool
to the table. Yeah, They're like, you are you are

(12:08):
you crazy? There's so many issues here. People live people.
While we're shooting a TV show, people are unpredictable, Like
they're gonna laugh at all the wrong times. They're gonna
be noisy, they're gonna be smelly, they're gonna, you know,
be coughing and farting, and like, they're gonna make this impossible.
They're gonna throw tomatoes when they don't like the jokes. Probably,

(12:30):
isn't that what people do? I don't know. I haven't
met common people ever since I became a CBS executive.
I like tomatoes that they also though, they did point
out that the fire code made it impossible as well.
They were like, it's you know, they're thinking about their

(12:50):
normal way of doing things, their regular system, and they're like,
you can't have a hundred people an extra hundred people
on a sound stage while we shoot TV because there's
there's big sets, and you're gonna have to move them
around while you change the set and you change the
there's nowhere for them to sit. There's it's just you're
talking about a whole big mess. We're shooting in the

(13:11):
kitchen right now, but the living rooms on the other
side of the sound stage. You gotta get everybody up
and walk them over there. It's gonna take extra time.
And then yeah, if there's a fire or something like,
we're all gonna die. So they said, nope, it's gonna
be canned leafter canned laughter. We love it. That's the
magic of television, so deal with it. That's what they've

(13:33):
been doing for years. Was just like you get prerecorded laughter,
you added in after a joke, you probably play it
live while they're filming, and you're like, yeah, how is
that any different than a live audience. We can control it,
you know, we can control how much laughing is like,
get a lot of control over that. So Desi and

(13:54):
Carl Freund, who are not ones to you know, just
sit back and say whatever you say bo you know. Ah,
he said, no, I guess we're not doing it. No, no, no.
They got together and they started laying out design concepts.
They're like, okay, well, what if it's not just big
random sets laid out around the studio. What if all
the sets are side by side, all facing the same

(14:16):
direction towards a row of audience seats. They won't have
to move, they can watch the whole thing from where
they are, and there's a clear exit in case of
a fire, just like a theater. Do it like theater?
And the CBS executives are like, well, hot, damn does

(14:37):
he think you did it again. I'm so glad I
had this idea to bring in a live studio audiences.
I sure am, I'm a very I pictured myself as
a very large man with a cigar and a thin mustache,

(15:00):
of course, and like the three camera format, this set
up with a live studio audience with the sets all
facing the same direction, side by side. Again, this is
the way many sitcoms are still filmed today, seventy years later.
And it wasn't just the arrangement and camera layout, a
laundry list of camera elements that are standard for modern sitcoms,

(15:23):
like close ups, medium shots, long shots. They were all
polished and perfected by freund On. I Love Lucy. Shows
used to have to reset their lighting depending on which
actors the camera was focusing on, but Carl developed a
flat lighting technique and it naturally lit the whole set
without having to make a lot of major adjustments between shots,

(15:46):
which can be very time constrom and obviously for an audience,
incredibly boring, so you'd lose all that energy you're getting.
And if there were any shadow issues, he brought in
paint in all different shades of gray, so you could
just paint the gray the right way so it didn't
show that insane. Oh there's a weird shadow of some

(16:08):
of our equipment here, so that's a darker gray than
the rest of the set. And he's like, well, paint
that a very light gray and then when the shadow
hits it, it'll look the same as the rest of
the wall. That's so crazy. See they were thinking, like
no rules, you know what I mean. When some people
can really remove boundaries, you can tell like there's some

(16:29):
and it seems so like I'm sure when he said it,
people are like, what of gray paint? Like what is
this German guy? But like it worked, and it was
like simple and effective and weird and it worked. Do
not scoff at the gray painting technique, you know, not
what you say. And of course the live audience was

(16:53):
a hit. Does he knew they'd behave themselves? He trusted
a live audience that was his people. You know, we've
talked about this. The guy came from the club scene
and then combined that with his experience in vaudeville and
Lucille's experience in vaudeville theater. It gave them the realistic
energy that just hadn't been felt on TV before, and
they would have regular audiences of returning people, and if

(17:17):
an actor wasn't in a scene, they would go out
and sit in the audience as well and join in
the laughter. In fact, you can regularly hear desis Arnez's
signature laugh just echoing through the studio when, like, you know,
it was a scene of Lucy and Ethel getting into
their Shenanigans or something like that, you can hear that
and you know it when you hear it, that very

(17:38):
distinct Desi Arnez laugh. Sometimes you'll hear a woman saying
who when something crazy happens, and that is Lucille Ball's
mother d D. She became a regular audience member as well,
a family affair exactly at CBS, we're mindblown again by

(17:58):
the incredible innovation the team. What a great idea they
were like, oh boy, this live studio audience laughter is
the way to go. Yeah, you're welcome, world. We did it.
We did it, Let's do it again. Yeah. So what
did they do? Did they convert every other sitcom to

(18:18):
a live studio audience and get the same effect. No, silly,
because that would be expensive. They just recorded the laughter
from the I Love Lucy live studio audience and used
it on other shows. No, you Dane dogs wrong, Lesson,

(18:41):
that's not that's not what we're supposed to take from this.
They left to sound so much more spontaneous than the
other leafter, let's can that spontaneous laughter, and then it'll
sound more spontaneous when it's can lighter and another show,
it's brilliant, Larry, here's a bag of money so much.
I didn't do anything, but it's so crazy. You can

(19:03):
hear desi arnez is. That's the same crazy signature laugh
on all kinds of other sitcoms from the fifties, which
is so funny that he had this signature laugh. And
they're like, desi arnaz it is just in the audience
for every show show he's so supportive. Oh my god,
that's insane that they're like, that's laughter. It's it's it's fresh,

(19:24):
it's it's new, it's live, it's the actors are feeding
off of it. That's so great. We'll do it on
every show, by which I mean we'll just steal, like
you're not getting what you want. Here's the thing though,
not those other shows. They're all that funny you know,
getting the laugh so we'll get the laughs from the

(19:44):
funny show. Maybe some people will be tricked and they
think of that, enough funny shows. A funny show. Oh
F Troops really not selling this week? Give me some
of that laughter from I Love Lucy anyway? Any F
Troop fans out there. Okay, we're talking about what a

(20:06):
difference Lucy and Desi made in this industry, right and
how how different TV would be today if they hadn't
done what they did because they revolutionized the sitcom and
we're literally still watching. It's not even like they did
some things and those eventually turned into what we're watching today.

(20:26):
We're literally watching what they did today. So with that
in mind, speculation station, what the hell would have happened
if Lucille Ball had been cast in Gone with the Wind?
Oh my god, I mean completely different. We'd be talking
about how Vivian Lee, the least funny sitcom actress in

(20:48):
TV history on the show I Love Vivian that lasted
three episodes before it was canceled. Would we even know
anything about Vivian Lee because, as you pointed out, we
don't know much of about her. Now I'm sure she
worked in the time, so I don't know, but but yeah,
how weird if sitcoms might not be the same at all.

(21:09):
Like I wonder if if it's possible that someone else
would have thought of some of these innovations. But I mean,
it's pretty incredible that they caught so many lightnings in
a bottle at the same time, you know what I mean.
It's just one of those butterfly effect things where I
don't know if this I don't know that somebody else
would have come up with the same thing because it
was so unique to Lucy and daisis live experience and

(21:32):
their and their ability as producers. Because any other you know,
vaudeville actor might have gotten a TV show. But if
they didn't have the business savvy to be absolutely in
charge of every element and the smoothness to talk their
way into doing what they wanted to do, then I

(21:53):
don't think anybody else could have pulled it off. I
think the studio would have just kept doing it the
way they wanted to do it. That would have evolved
into something that we probably can't even imagine today, you know.
They maybe maybe it just would have gotten to the
single camera comedies that we watched today faster, or maybe
TV would have died. I mean, certainly, I tell you

(22:13):
one thing, the entire culture of celebrities in television comedy
today would probably be a completely different set of people. Yeah,
I mean, think of how many people got famous in
the three camera sitcom format. Jason Bateman, are are good
friend in front of the show, Jason Bateman? Or um

(22:36):
our good friend in front of the show? Kevin James,
I mean a good friend in front of the show?
Will Smith? Sure, yeah, definitely another excellent three camera sitcom
fresh Prince of bel Air and another great friend. And
he's a he's a good friend. All this the whole cast.
It was nice to have them here last week. But

(22:57):
I know, I couldn't believe they both came. But yeah,
an Alfonso, I mean, you know, we thought it was
gonna be trouble, but they all got along time. It
was a really nice time. I forgot to email them
afterwards and say thanks for coming. But I'm sure they'll
be fine with it. We can do it today. Oh
that's a good idea, you know what, We'll just do
it right now. Hey, y'all, since I know you're listening
to the show, Thank you for coming the other night
cast of Fresh Prince of bel Air. It was so nice,

(23:19):
lovely having you. Um and uh, yes we we are
in for each of your next projects. All right, we
better pull out of speculation station get back to the
all right. Of course, they did clash on some creative ideas.
For example, what we saw in the show was dasise

(23:40):
choices to play Fred and Ethel actors Vivian Vance and
William Frawley. Lucy had wanted another actress that she knew,
Babe Benderette and her friend Gail Gordon from Radio Lucy's
old We talked about him in the first part, but
they would They had a working relationship for fifty years. Oh,
they were very close colleagues and friends. And ultimately the

(24:05):
network sided with DESI and they cast Vivian and William,
who are the Fred and Ethel that we know and
love today. I mean, they're hilarious on that show. But overall,
their creative differences weren't really a source of friction in
their relationship. All of their screaming and yelling and fighting
stemmed from more personal matters, and there was a lot

(24:25):
of screaming, yelling and fighting. Um, they both wanted children,
but there was one continuous struggle that they were dealing with.
Up to this point, they had suffered three miscarriages together,
and that wasn't like a source of friction per se,
like they were being cruel to each other about it
or something. Um but Daisi especially came from a large family,

(24:47):
many many children. They both were feeling like they wanted
something in their lives that was starting to feel unattainable.
And you know, there's a lot of people out there
with fertility issues, and it can be such a sort
of heartache to be so desperate for something that seems
to be coming so easily for other people especially you know,

(25:09):
we all know we have those baby waves and the
people in our lives where it seems like everyone you
know is pregnant or something like. And if you're struggling
with fertility in that time, it can be very dark,
you know, it can be I think just to wait,
you know, and it can be an enormous weight in
a relationship and drag everything down and down and down.

(25:30):
I'm sure a lot of people know that, hopefully, and
you know, you have what they clearly seem to have,
which is at least some support for each other and
it wasn't like a blame game or something. You know,
nothing cruel like I say, nothing cruel from Daisy, like
where I don't need to get pregnant or something. Nothing
like that. Um, but anyway, just to say that's you know,

(25:52):
if you're out there with a fertility issue, we see you.
It's very hard and thinking about you. Unfortunately, their creative
baby is being developed in nineteen fifty with I Love Lucy,
and they got pregnant and their first child was born
in nine fifty one, just before the show started to shoot,
and that was their daughter, Lucy with an I E

(26:13):
said of a y just a differentiator from her mother
even where you say it sounds And despite their business
and creative unity, things have been really rocky in their marriage.
Lucilla really hoped that their daughter would smooth things out
and fix the problems they were having. This common misconception,

(26:33):
I think that a baby can fix it. It's common
misconception that conception well solve your problems. Is there a
conception joke here? I found it. I'm glad, thank you
for finding that. Uh, usually babies just make it more complicated.
I don't know anyway, So she was hoping Daisy would

(26:55):
stop his wandering eye, that he would be more focused
on being the family man that she won at him
to be. And again he wanted children to so that's
kindly possibly get really wrapped up in his family and
things were better for a time, does he reportedly stopped
his womanizing habits. Working together in l A really seemed
to help the to solidify their relationship in the early days.

(27:18):
Um so they were doing really well there for a minute,
and she probably was like, yes, babies fix everything right.
And the show, of course, we don't need to tell
you was an immediate hit. Everybody's talking about I Love Lucy.
Their existing celebrity was exponentially increased all across America. People
are slapping their thighs and choking on their TV dinners

(27:41):
from laughing so hard at Lucy and Ricky's antics. I mean,
this was just the talk of the town. Hundreds of
people a year choked to death from laughing and I
Love Lucy success on CBS. Tune in and choked to death.
Maybe don't eat while you watching. And so, of course

(28:04):
the show was obviously renewed without question. CBS as dollar
signs in their eyes, and again I'm just They're like, oh,
we're so smart putting an interracial, wacky couple on TV.
It's exactly what America wanted. Bags of money all around
for us, look like so much. Three cheers for me.

(28:29):
So yeah, everybody's happy and things are going great, which
seems like a great place for us to just kind
of sit in this positive environment for a few seconds
while we take a quickly commercial make and welcome back
to the show, everybody. So just as season two, If

(28:52):
I Love Lucy was moving into production, Lucy and Dessie
were surprised with a second pregnancy. I guess we don't
you know, if it was a surprise. It was like, well,
we definitely were having sex and hoping for a child. Maybe,
so yeah, it seemed ill timed anyway, so it might
have been a surprise. Might have been a surprise. Yeah,

(29:13):
speculation station. They were surprised, a great surprise. So there
was no way that Lucy was not going to be
very obviously pregnant long before the season was through, and
a lot of people think that this was TV's first
on air pregnancy. Actually, in the show, Mary Kay and

(29:34):
Johnny wrote the lead actress is pregnancy into the plot
because hiding it was proving to be too difficult. How
many very difficult to pregnant? How many pillows could she
carry around before it looks weird? I live on Brooklyn
Amy Santiago. In one season, the actual actress is pregnant.
She's always carrying this enormous purse on whichever arm or

(29:59):
bellies facing out. So it's funny when you when you
can catch it. When you go they're pregnant, You're like,
I see you putting her behind a desk all the time.
She's always like looking up from the bridge or something.
Hide nerd values somewhere. Yeah, they're just wearing real loose
stresses out of nowhere. So anyway, there was precedent to

(30:19):
having pregnancy shown on television, but as usual, our friends
at CBS, we're very like freaking out a pregnant woman
on TV. Oh wait, we keep telling the kids to
come from storks. What are we gonna do? Tell me,
little sill, Yeah, I think of the children. How are

(30:40):
we supposed to explain this? Yeah, hets and minds across America.
We'll just start projectile vomiting at the television mentioned of
America life. It's completely unethical this goes against the will
of God himself. The show or talking about a pregnant
woman on TV, it's like, do you all know where
babies come from? For real? Like you've never seen a

(31:03):
pregnant woman? Like do you have children? Does your wife?
Is she okay? Desi Arnez who is a man who
seems to take glee in pushing the envelope and challenging
the studio's decisions, which I love. Every time that he's
told no, he's like, let me just work around that.

(31:24):
I'll just work around that. Let me turn that no
into ah, yes, we would love for you to do that.
And so he's like, oh, I'm sorry Americans won't like it.
Let me go ask America real quick. And he literally
he rounds up a Catholic priest, a rabbi, and a
Protestant minister, and I guess they walk into a bar

(31:49):
kin of pregnant woman Beyonce. Literally he says, hey, do
you guys have a problem with pregnant women existing? And
they all go consult with their very us, God's or
whatever and they come back and they're like, no, that's
dumb as hell. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
You can absolutely show a pregnant woman, and you can
talk about a pregnant woman. That's all hunky dorry. No

(32:11):
God would forbid that. That's insane. So it turns out
Jesus was born literally there's a very prominent pregnant woman
in the story of the Bible. Like in the Bible,
there's pregnancy. So the CBS executives are like, okay, okay, okay, okay,

(32:32):
you're twisted my arm. Fine, you can have a pregnancy
storyline on the show. You can show it, but oh god,
you can't say the p word pregnant. Why why shocking?
You know, why was pregnant the word that Emily's across

(32:54):
America just couldn't handle the mention. I think it's just
the idea of human and out of me existing. The
mere suggestion that sex is a thing that exists in
the real world was just too clutching pearls. I've never

(33:18):
it's not gonna go give me some pearls so I
could clutch them. So they never say pregnant on the show.
They will say expecting or they will say infanticipating, which
is so much worse than pregnant. Truly awful. Do not
say the word infanticipating to me ever, please thank you.

(33:40):
I hate it. I would stop watching a TV show
if they said that word. Also, how is infanticipating worse
than pregnant? I mean better than pregnant? Like that's so
much worse than pregnant anyway, d the storylines a hit
because somehow Americans were able to relate to a wife
being pregnant. Yeah, nobody knows about pregnancy. That's not going

(34:03):
to play. How many American audiences have ever heard of
pregnancy before? One of them? Everyone who was ever born.
On January the episode Lucy Goes to the Hospital aired
with over seventy one of American televisions tuned in, and

(34:25):
the episode was intentionally time to air the same day
that Lucy old Ball had a c section and delivered
their son, Desi Arnez the fourth cute. That's cute. That
is almost a gimmick. Yeah, little little publicity. Hey, Lucy,
how'd you like to have your c section next Thursday?
She's like, it's supposed to be this Wednesday. Can you

(34:48):
put it off because we're trying to do this whole
thing with the episode airing at the same time. Okay,
I can I can I cross my legs? Until then
more people tuned into that episode. Then the following morning's
coverage of the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, So
America was basically like, Hey, I like Aike, but I

(35:10):
like Little Ricky Moore. Where's that button? Right? I like
Little Ricky. Out of its six seasons, four seasons of
I Love Lucy were the most watched show in the
United States. The show won the Emmy for Best Comedy
Program in nineteen fifty three and fifty four. Lucille Ball

(35:33):
was nominated several times, and she won in nineteen fifty
three and nineteen fifty six. Vivian Vance was nominated a
bunch of times, and she won in nineteen fifty four.
William Frawley was nominated several times himself, yet there were
no Emmy nominations for Desi Arnez. In nineteen fifty six,
he was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Television Achievement

(35:56):
for his work in front of and behind the camera
to help shape the America and sitcom. But kind of
insane that he was never given, you know, an Emmy nomination,
and it makes me pull into speculation station here, even
though it's not really a speculation at all that it's
almost like William, Yeah, sure, we'll nominate him. Vivian, Yeah, sure,

(36:20):
let's nominate her. Lucille, of course, you've got to nominate her.
How about Desi Arnez. I don't know. Something about him
is different that just makes me not feel like he
deserves recognition. I mean, come on, guyslus clearly, I mean,
Desi Arnaz was the only weak link in Freaking I

(36:43):
love Oh my god, they're all hilarious, but I the
times I have just died laughing at one of his
facial expressions. I mean his like the way his exasperated,
like Unlyssie's doing something crazy. It's just unmatched. It's brilliant.
Think the man is as good on camera as he
is in the in the offices. He's a genius. He's

(37:06):
one of a kind and insane and obvious that he
was not given awards recognition for that. So you know,
I don't know who knows why they decided to pass
over him. We may never be able to understand. Total mystery.
Big shrug. I don't know what's different about Desi Arnaz
from the rest of his cast mates. Come on concin

(37:30):
about the show was so big everyone wanted to be involved.
Guest stars like Bob Hope, John Wayne, Eve Arden, Harpo,
Marx Orson, Welles head A Hopper, Red Skelton, Milton Burrow,
and even George Reeves as Superman appeared on the show. Amazing.

(37:51):
That means Ricky and Lucy are d c canon. Yes, hello,
so w B. If you're trying to be out here,
can beating with m c U. I think you know
what to do? Can we please get down of Lucy?
You know, Justice League with Ricky Ricardo. Let's speculation station.

(38:15):
Maybe that's what they're gonna do with this new Aeron
Sorkin movie they're making about Lucy and Desh. My god,
absolutely not Aeron Sarkin would never get into the superhero game,
But wouldn't it be great if they spun it off,
just stuck them in there. They're like, listen, they say
it seemed like Heroes to me. What a crossover? So yeah, together,

(38:39):
as we keep saying, they're an industry powerhouse. But Desi
alone was a master businessman and artist. Lucille once said
Daisi revolutionized television. At first, everybody thought it was me
who was calling the shots and making the decisions. But
it was when we started doing other series besides our own,
and I never showed up at a meeting that they
believe that DESI as the brains. You gotta show up

(39:03):
to meetings, guys, right, that's how you get shipped. Then,
his daughter Lucy pointed out that his presence on television
gave him more power in the business world. She said
it was good for him that he was that lunatic
cuban in people's living rooms every Monday night, because he
would call them up on Tuesday and negotiate as the
head of Desilu. So basically had this wacky comedy persona

(39:27):
that everybody thought he was. We kind of get their
guard down about him. And then he showed up the
next days Mr Business and starts calling the shots and
making demands and being like, how about I just totally
innovate this entire system that you think I can't change.
WHOA I thought you were just a silly congo leader,
you know, and I am. Yeah. They all started on

(39:49):
the whole board room and starts doing the congo liner
on the table and they're like, I don't know what's happened,
but it's it's the magic hilling. What did I say
yes to? Who cares? Let him do it? On her end,
Lucy was finally the star that she set out to be,
and here she is advancing the cause of women in comedy.
I think a lot of people thought at the time that,

(40:10):
you know, the woman role in the sitcom had to
be something very specific, that there was a place, there
was a certain side of behaviors they had to have that.
I mean, that's true, but Lucy totally broke that open.
I think definitely. She admitted that she had developed bravery
as an actress through her years, so she was getting

(40:31):
that confidence that she didn't have originally, you know. And
she knew she was shy and and wasn't kind of
willing to step forward and take the stage when she
was younger, and now she really felt the strength and
the power to do that. So this was so different
from her days in school. With that attention. Hug Betty Davis,
She's Betty sit out. But she still didn't consider herself

(40:55):
a natural comedian, right She said that she was terrible
at table reads. A lot of people thought her abilities
came so naturally to her, but she actually put a
lot of work into each and every beat. She would
take the script home each night and she would read
over it obsessively, going over every single joke and moment,

(41:15):
and she practiced each and every facial expression, those iconic
lucy facial expressions that just seem so natural and ridiculous
of just nobody else can do it. That's because she
practiced them over and over and over again all night
long until she got it perfect. And then she would
come in the next day and just kill like the crew,

(41:38):
like couldn't stop laughing because she was so good. But
I think we'd take that for granted that it wasn't
necessarily something that came naturally to her, that it was
a product of a lot of hard work. And that's
something I think that people often think when it comes
to comedy, that it's just easy for funny people to
be funny. And I think that's one of the reasons

(41:59):
that comedy is so much less recognized in terms of
the skill and the quality that it takes. You know,
a dramatic actor is going to win an award over
a comedic actor every time, but almost any actor who's
done both will tell you that comedy is so much
harder because the timing required is so much more precise.

(42:23):
It's like the difference between cooking and baking. Oh yes,
I think comedy is like you really need the exact
right ingredients and the exact right temperature and the exact
right time stirred the exact right amount of times. Like
it's it's more precise than you think. Especially even if
you're doing improv or something off the cliff you have
to have a lot of training to do it well. Yeah,
and we've all seen a bad improv show, so I

(42:44):
don't have to tell you. If you haven't, don't, God
save yourself. If you haven't, you probably have, but don't,
but see a good improv show because there's nothing like it. Amazing.
It's not fun. But yeah, but with cooking, you can
be a bad cook, but it's much easier to like,
I don't know, just kind of play in that space
in a different way. Then in nineteen fifty three, the

(43:06):
House un American Committee was out there trying to track
down all these America hating Rudolph the Red Nosed Commies.
They were secretly trying to sell Hollywood secrets to the
Russians or something whatever they thought they were doing communist celebrities.
They're gonna gonna ruin this country by I don't know,

(43:27):
being communists, Yeah, just being one. Yeah, I think that's it.
Like did they did they think that actors had the
nuclear coats? Maybe? So? Anyway, Senator Joseph McCartney, well known
for hating entertainment and humor, dug up that in nineteen
thirty six, Lucille Ball had registered as a communist. So

(43:55):
they dragged her before the committee and they held this
big hearing, and she testified that she had indeed registered
as a communist, but she had done it to appease
her grandfather, and her mother and brother had done the same. Actually,
her grandfather is a strong socialist that he basically coerced
them into joining UM. But it wasn't something she claimed

(44:16):
any particular interest in. She later said in an interview
that she was never worried about the public not taking
her side because quote, I think any time you give
the American people the truth, they're with you. Oh, Lucy,
simpler times. Only if only man simpler simpler times. The
sweet summer child, you didn't know about the winter winter

(44:41):
came anyway, So before they filmed the next episode, of
I love Lucy. Daisy went out to warm up the
crowd as he usually did, and he explained about the
hearing and about Lucy's grandfather and just told him the
whole story. And he told him the only thing read
about Lucy is her hair, and even that's not legitimate.

(45:06):
Scandal over situation fully diffused. Thank you, DESI, Wow, you
should be a hostage negotiator. I mean I think that
Lucy was in general right, like about you know, just
being truthful, just like, yeah, I did registers at communists
and it wasn't no thing. And also like I mean,

(45:27):
you know, she wasn't going to take the opportunity to
explain the differences between communism and all that blah blah
blah um. But yeah, it just wasn't a big deal.
But j Edgar Hoover thought it was a big deal,
and he never forgot it. He didn't forget anything. Mr

(45:48):
Grudge and the FBI kept tabs on Desi and Lucy
for years. They would take any hint of socialism onto record.
One night, Lucy's like you want to share a piece
of kake. It's like three agents in a van outside
they want to share. So it looks to get a gun,

(46:11):
so it looks like they're prepping for a case against them.
But Hoover was also already mad at Desilu for producing
the series The Untouchables, and that series credited Treasury agent
Elliott Ness for feats achieved by the FBI, So he
was really just being a petty ass about it, like
that was but I did that, not Kevin Costner. That

(46:36):
was the movie Untouchables. But still apparently Hoover had g
men watching The Untouchables obsessively trying to find any mistakes
to file away, like like your tax dollars at work,
your tax dollars at work, folks just watching TV all day.
One day, I'm gonna get a podcast and I'm gonna

(46:57):
tell him everything they didn't run. That'll show them. I
wonder if that's what's really going on. Whenever we see
those headlines like this company wants to pay you thousand
dollars a week just to watch a Netflix, it's the
it's the government, it's the FBI being like no takedown
any instance where they say the name Gregory. I want

(47:17):
you to watch Sweet Tooth and tell me if those
little animal children are communists. So all in all of
course this amounted to nothing, but you know, not for
lack of Hoover and McCartney trying. Um, So, I think
we're gonna go take a quick break here and share

(47:38):
a piece of cake, and we'll be right back after
this commercial. All right, we have ordered our dinner and
we are back, ready to keep going until dinner gets here,
until the gunner gets here. Hopefully we finish this final

(47:58):
chapter of Luz and Desire then if not, this episode
will end with us dropping everything in the middle running
out the door. Alright, anyway, so things were still rocky
behind the scenes for Lucy and Desi. Um. Keith Thibodeaux,

(48:18):
who played their on screen son Little Ricky, said he
would overhear loud arguing and cursing and glass shattering Um
their real life daughter Lucy said there was no abuse, like,
no actual hitting or name calling or anything like that,
but there was a lot of anger, a lot of
screaming Um and over the years, Desi did devolve into alcoholism,

(48:44):
and of course there were too many girls, common theme
throughout both these parts. A friend of theirs later said
that Dzi's attitude was basically, Hey, I love Lucy. The
other women are just paid for. So what's the problem again.
I think we talked about this before. But the problem
is you're in a committed relationship and these rules have

(49:08):
not been established, right. Yeah, Like I get that. He
feels like You've got my whole heart. I love you.
You're the most important person in the world to me.
So who cares if I wunk around with some other girls?
But she cares, and she cares. That was the agreement
that she understood when you got married, that it was

(49:29):
just the two of you. It was like that that
idea might be fine for some couples. Hey, you and
me are a thing, and the other girls or whatever,
that's just fun. I'm just going to Yeah, whoever. I mean, like,
you don't like roller coasters, and it's totally okay for
me to go ride roller coasters with other women, right,

(49:52):
I mean you said in a real shady way. Yeah,
of course it is. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, if you
wanted to write jokes with somebody else, I might feel
a little like coup Is that about that? I would
never talking to you write jokes with other people? Well, yeah,
I know, but you know, that's that's our thing. That's

(50:14):
that's our personal experience. You know. Um and if anybody
out there wants to write some jokes, you can find
me on Twitter at oh grade. It's Eli. We don't
have to tell Diana. I'll see it because it'll be
on Twitter. Yeah, but you never liked my tweets, that's

(50:36):
not true. In biography, there's a story from her publicist,
Charles Pomerantz. The magazine Confidential had just come out with
a story about Desi being a womanizer with some choice
details about, you know, some of the goings on with
Desi Arnaz, and her publicist used his connections to get

(50:59):
loose see an advanced copy. He's basically like, look, I
just want you to know this story is about to run.
I love you, Lucy wanted you to have this first,
just so you could read it before anybody else did,
so you knew what was about to go down, right.
She's like okay. She takes the magazine and later that
day on set, when she wasn't needed, she took it

(51:21):
into her dressing room to read it. Now everybody knows
what's going on. So the whole crew is like gathered
around waiting, staring at the door, just waiting for yeah,
just frozen, like oh ship this is gonna be so insane.
They're just waiting for her to blow her bright red
top this salacious story that's about to be printed about

(51:46):
Desi Arnaz and his nightly activities. So after a few minutes,
she opens the door and everybody like, plays it really cool,
Like I wasn't standing here waiting for you to come.
You know. She's like, okay, I get it. She looks around,
sees everyone, and then she just walks right past Desi

(52:06):
in his dressing room chair. She tossed the magazine in
his lap and said, oh, hell, I could tell him
worse than that. She's like, y'all missed a few in there.
This was a scoop. She don't care. She's like, this
is nothing. You want dirty details. You should have called me.

(52:28):
The writers like why didn't know you'd answer me. But
I'll go get my pen and paper. I Love Lucy
ended in ninety seven. It was the first show to
end at the top of the Nielsen ratings. Usually your show,
and you know, because it's not doing well of the ratings,
the probably like keep going more. At that point, there

(52:49):
were a hundred and eighty episodes and Desilu, who had
been breaking it in on the rerun, sold the syndication
rights back to CBS for were point five million dollars
calculating roughly forty million dollars today. That's pretty good. They

(53:16):
took that money and some other money, and for six
million dollars they purchased r k O Studios and its
movie lot, which made Lucy the first woman head of
a major film studio. Incredible, and they continued working together.
They even extended I Love Lucy into The Lucy Desi

(53:38):
Comedy Hour. It was that was like thirteen episodes and
they would air occasionally as specials over the next three years.
So they're still cranking out the comedy and doing great
business wise, but unfortunately their marriage had effectively been over
for years. Um they were going through the motions kind
of for the sake of the family. But Ball summed

(53:59):
up the last five years of their marriage as just
booze and broadso maso many girls, okay, And so in
nineteen sixty she decided they would be better off apart
than together, and they officially divorced in the divorce papers,
which she filed the day after shooting their final episode

(54:20):
of The Lucy Desi Comedy Hour. She referred to the
marriage as a nightmare, which is sad because they were
just such a good business couple that like, it sucks
when you can't be romantically a couple at the same time.
But it's not always the same you know, that's not
the same relationship at all. Anyway, that's a bummer. They

(54:40):
were finally officially divorced two months later. No last minute
dance clubs this time, no fun less less dinners that,
no trick divorce story. It just they were done. But
fortunately their relationship actually greatly improved after they decided to separate.

(55:05):
They both clearly wanted this divorce. It wasn't working out.
Lucy even said, we didn't even get two lawyers for
the divorce. One lawyer was like, wait, I gotta do.
Their daughter said that it took a few years to
calm down, but they stayed friends till the better end,
and that was good for the kids. See the I

(55:27):
mean right there again. A business relationship, however, wonderful and
perfect and great doesn't necessarily translate to a good romantic relationship,
and it seems like all of their connection still there,
but they just could never really Mary pun intended their
visions for what marriage should look like yeah, yeah, um,

(55:50):
so that's just too bad, and they both remarried. Then
the very next year, Lucy married Gary Morton, whoever he is,
and I know, right, Lucy's like, well, I loved him
and married him and was very happy for the rest
of my days. Um. And then Desi married a woman

(56:12):
named Edith mack Hirsch two years later. But I love Lucy,
director William Asher said, neither of them ever got over it.
I think she always loved him, and there's no question
that he always loved her. I think, like you said,
like they just couldn't reconcile what they wanted marriage to be.
Everything else was there who else could measure up to

(56:35):
either one of them. It's one of those couples where
you're like, of course you had to be together. Everyone
else would have seemed like nobody. You know, you're Lucille Ball,
you're Desi Arnaz, You're both these incredible, very unique people,
and they gave it a shot. But I think they're disagreements,

(56:56):
like you said, over what they wanted marriage to be.
It was we're stronger than you know what? What what
brought them together? And you can't blame Lucy either for
being like, please don't go sleep at a bunch of
prostitutes all the time, Like we are pro sex work
in this house, I think pro sex workers. Yeah, I
support them, your sex workers. Hey wait, I mean what

(57:20):
what's that now? We can't afford that, by the way,
I know that's what it's really the money. I'm like,
what how much the money? Don't we I can't afford
what you deserve. But yeah, I don't know. I think
it crosses your mind, like diseases or what are you
going to bring home to me? I mean, what are

(57:41):
you gonna bring them the kids? Like, I don't know
what you're doing out there with any number of strangers,
And that's that's disconcerting. Even if you don't care about
sex has to be just between us, and that's what
makes our relationship special and different from our other relationships
with people. Even if that's not your mindset, it would
still be a lot to be like I know here
going out all the time with like sex workers. And

(58:04):
maybe that made her extra uncomfortable. Maybe if it was
just a regular affair, she could have had an easier
time with that. I don't know. I'm speculating speculations, right, right,
And I'll just caveat in there just so we say
it that, of course, sex workers no higher risk for
transmitted diseases than having sex with any random person. In fact,

(58:26):
my understanding is that there's a lot of extra caution
that goes in, uh for for sex workers. They don't
want it either. Anyway, All speculation on what we're saying
here is loose women or popping out babies left and right.
I'm saying loose women are doing just fine out of

(58:48):
their business. Loose seals, loose seals. Well, we just got canceled,
that's what did it. Uh. We love women on this show. Women.
If you choose to be a sex worker, that's fantastic.
That is fantastic. It's great, And honestly, anyone who's mad

(59:10):
about it is jealous, including me, Like, sounds like pretty
pretty solid career. I mean right, I mean you don't
have to like it, don't don't use it, but a
lot of people it's it's a thing people want to buy,
and we like that in this country. So I don't
know why we're trying to get trump. It's like drugs.
I'm like, what I am? So people want to buy it,
don't what don't we were like, guns are cool to buy,

(59:31):
but not drugs. We love it when people buy things
in this country. Why are we stopping people from buying things?
Don't let them buy the thing? Well, Tangent decide. Lucile
Ball was very active in the industry, continuing into the sixties.
She was a friend and mentor to Carol Burnett, incredible
comedian as well. God, I mean, I wish Carol Burnett

(59:54):
was a friend and mentor to meet exactly. She started
in a number of TV com these specials through the seventies,
and she was an assistant professor at California State University Northridge.
Can I go to schools freaking Lucy al Ball walks
in the door, I'm your teacher. And here's the thing
about that I think is would be really amazing the

(01:00:17):
way that she talks about her comedy as very crafted
and meticulous and not just a natural talent that she had.
I'm like, she can probably teach the hell out of
it because she does it through method, through formula, through practice,
and not just you know, whereas like someone who's naturally
very funny might walk in and be like, I don't know,

(01:00:38):
just be funny, you know, like Lucy's got the skills
to pass on. Not that a naturally funny person wouldn't.
I know that. You know, anybody who's teaching comedy knows
what to say. But I think there is something a
little extra valuable in somebody who has to work hard
and puts out high quality comedy through that work. I

(01:01:00):
would love to teach comedy if I wanted to teach,
that's the kind of thing like, well, I would have
to dedicate myself to that for a long time, and
I'm not good at dedicating myself at things for a
long time. Present company excluded, thank you. But you know, yeah,
if I could just magically walk in and give a
lesson one day that was, you know, already prepared for

(01:01:23):
me by me, that'd be great anyway. So in sixty one,
Lucy's already starring in The Lucy Show and Desi Arnaz
was directing working together. So they're working together again. The
best part of their relationship is what they did when
they worked together. But he was kind of overwhelmed with

(01:01:45):
all his responsibilities, and he ended up asking Lucy to
buy out his shares of Desilu, their production company they
had together. She paid him two point five million dollars.
That sounds like a about twenty one point five million today.

(01:02:06):
Change change, change to change. So once he was bought out,
she became the first woman's CEO of a major television
and movie production company. Incredible, I mean, boss, bitch shit
first and first, if anybody deserved to be the first, well,
if anybody deserved to be the first, it was probably
many decades before that when it was a male dominated industry,

(01:02:29):
but still glad it was. If it had passed by Lucy,
it would have been an even greater travesty, agreed the company.
At this time, Desilu wasn't doing great. Movie studios were
beginning to produce their own TV shows, so that was
taking a lot of business away from smaller production companies.

(01:02:49):
The only program they were making at the time was
The Lucy Show, and so she decided, let's get back
into heavy production and start cranking out some content. So
the board gets together and Lucy's like, we gotta start
making shows, we gotta start producing new shows again. And
they do kind of barrel into that and they end
up producing a lot of shows. The Untouchables, of course,

(01:03:10):
is one of them that we mentioned earlier. Uh, there's
a show called Angel, probably not the same that we
know today. Angel. Uh. Mission Impossible was one of their shows,
the original Mission Impossible. UM. And one day in nineteen
six four, this fresh young producer comes up to knock

(01:03:30):
on Lucy's door. His name is Gene Roddenberry, and he says, hey,
have I got a pilot for you? And it was
for this little show called Star Trek. And at first,
according to star trek dot Com, Lucy kind of totally
missed the point of the show and she thought the
title referred to a group of traveling USO performers during

(01:03:53):
World War Two. I would love to see that start
very different, that there's a bunch of stars and they're
trucking through. I've been on the Star Trek. Everybody, everybody
in vide Fils done the Star Trek. As he got
his start on the Star Trek. But after she kind of,
you know, was corrected and sort of figured out what

(01:04:15):
it was, she still jumped on board. Author Mark Cushman
wrote that she was known for playing a character with
hair brained schemes, and she had learned well from Desi Arnez.
He had been called crazy many times by industry insiders,
but he always proved his critics wrong, and that was
something Lucy really applied here, because even while some board

(01:04:37):
members were very resistant to the idea of Star Trek,
Lucy supported it and she pushed for it, and eventually
the pilot episode called The Cage was produced. This was
expensive and it was complicated, but as it's coming together,
they're starting to think, hey, you know what, this Star
Trek show might actually be a cultural miles done that

(01:05:00):
sets up a franchise for decades to come. So they
finished shooting The Cage and it was terrible. Nobody liked it.
Thumbs down for Star Trek. We're not gonna do this show.
It was awkward, it was confusing and cheesy and just
not very fun. But Lucy had really come to believe

(01:05:24):
in Gene and his project, and she was like, look,
I know there's problems, but I know they're fixable. And
she fought really hard against the other executives and in
a very very very rare move, she convinced the studio
to film a second pilot. They retold the whole thing

(01:05:47):
and they got this new actor, William Shatner to come
in and play the lead, and the show no surprise
to everyone who's alive in the world today was a hit.
The studio accountant at hall All once said, if it
weren't for Lucille Ball, there would be no Star Trek today.
So do you hear that, Chris Pine here, that Patrick

(01:06:10):
Stewart ain't None of y'all would be the stars you
are today if that weren't for Lucy. We all love Lucy.
It's so random. I mean, I feel like that's a
fact that a lot of people know. Now it's kind
of gotten around there. But if you didn't know that,
like I I'm more or less just learned that, and
I'm like, Lucille Ball made Star Trek happen. Okay, Well

(01:06:32):
I knew. I knew that she was a producer on
Star Trek and that Gene Roddenberry came to her, but
I didn't know that she had to convince him to
make another pilot. That's that is very unusual. So you know,
just like they say in Star Trek, never give up,
never surrender. May the force be with you to infinity

(01:06:52):
and beyond. Yes, all of these famous Star Trek quotes
about perseverance, and Ian McKellen says, right, Ian mckelly in
the Wizards. Yea, his hair changed his color. You know,
he who shall not be named? Yeah, all clastic. You're
welcome for the classic Star Trek references. I hope we
don't get sued by the star of Star Trek Mr

(01:07:16):
Mark Campbell and incomes the hate man. Right, we got
canceled again. Now we've got women and Trek ease after us. No,
just kidding. So many of our listeners, like, I know
you're fucking nerds. So many of our listeners. So many
of our listeners are women trek eas very funny guys. Whatever. So.

(01:07:41):
In nineteen sixty two, after selling his interest in Desilu
to loose Seal, Desi retired to his horse ranch in
Las Cristas, Mexico. A few years later he returned to
the industry. He started Desi Arnaz Productions and he produced
The Mothers in Law sixty seven Classic show. The Classic

(01:08:03):
Show The Mothers in Law. He appeared frequently as a
guest start. What do you think the Mothers in Law
is about? I haven't looked. Is it like his mother
in law and her mother in law are roommates get together.
It's like an odd couple, but they're both mothers in law.
They gotta switch identities. Yeah, I'd watch it. I'd watch it.

(01:08:28):
In the seventies, Desi made a number of TV appearances,
including as a guest host on Saturday Night Live in
NY six to promote his autobiography A book. Alright, what
a name here we've been talking about Desi Arnaz is
one of the most creative and innovative forces in the

(01:08:48):
entertainment world, and his autobiography is titled I mean, He's
not wrong. It is a book I know, didn't know
but he did. Nobody read it and be like, well
does he I don't know. There's so many other titles. Hey,
no one was going to tell Dessi to do anything differently,

(01:09:08):
so in fact, they probably did try. And he was like,
I'll prove you're wrong. And I mean I think it's sold. Well,
probably fine. It's got a four point two on good Reads, Okay,
I actually I would be very interested in reading it.
It is available on audible for I don't remember. You

(01:09:31):
can find this inaudible. His SNL appearance, by the way,
ended with the whole cast doing a massive congo line
through the SNL studio. Of course, uh, he only ever
semi retired. UM. He moved with his wife Edith to
del Mar, California, and was breeding horses. UM. She died

(01:09:55):
and a year later he was diagnosed with lung cancer. UM.
He had been a heavy smoker for most of his life,
including Cuban cigars, Cigars cigarettes and then it cops cigars,
Cuban Sirett, Can I offer you a cigar? Y, I'm

(01:10:18):
almost smoked down my entire cigar. Larry another Cigarro sigar
right away, Bob Cigar and Lucy seventy five years old.

(01:10:38):
She was about to return to sitcoms with a show
called Life with Lucy, and she came to see him
in his last days. It's unclear what their full conversation was,
but it was loving, it was kind, their daughter says.
His final words to Lucy were I love you too, honey.
Good luck with your show. And he passed away on

(01:10:58):
December two, just five days before Lucille was awarded the
Kennedy Center Honor. Must have been a bitter sweet day
for her, been fully in grief for him, Yeah, partner
of a lifetime and good friend for lifetime for sure.
So Life with Lucy was going into production. It was

(01:11:20):
co starring her longtime radio foil Gail Gordon, and it
was produced by none other than Aaron Spelling. But wow,
that's so funny thing about Aaron Spelling being old enough
to produce a Lucy O ball like, right, but we're
talking to the mid eighties now, No, yeah, it makes sense.
But Life with Lucy was canceled just a few months

(01:11:41):
into its run. Reviews were terrible. Audiences were really disappointed
that it wasn't up to the quality that Lucy's shows
had been earlier in life, which is asking a lot.
She's I'm seventy five, I'm giving you all I got.
I gave you a lot already. He already sucks me dry.

(01:12:02):
The thing was, Lucy had been hesitant to return to screen.
She agreed to do it, citing that she missed having
a daily project to work on, and she made her
character's last name Barker to continue her tradition of having
surnames with a R in them. On other shows she
was Ricardo, car Michael, and Carter and that was a

(01:12:24):
tribute to Desi Arnez. She always had the A R
in there. But honestly, in hesitating to do the show,
turns out her TV instincts may have been correct again
because it was panned by critics and audiences alike. Sadly,
it became known as one of the worst sitcoms in
broadcasting history. I'd argue is probably not still true today

(01:12:48):
because there's been some real stinkers in the last so
we've definitely outdone that in badness since then. But I
haven't watched it. I don't know. Maybe it's untouchably awful.
In Lucy suffered a mild heart attack in in nine

(01:13:10):
she gave her final appearance on television when she was
a presenter at the Oscars with Bob Hope. They were
given a standing ovation, well desert both both of them
deserves inivation, and it said that that is exactly what
she wanted her final moments on stage to be, and
a month later, she passed away from a ruptured abdominal

(01:13:33):
aortic aneurysm. And Ball's friend Ruda Lee told Closer magazine
about Daisy and Lucy, they spoke so lovingly of each
other you almost forgot they weren't together anymore. It's amazing
how kind of more romantic their partnership was when it

(01:13:54):
wasn't romantic, you know, some people can't live together, man,
And that's just the ray of the world. Yeah, and
if they're just like I mean, these two were best friends, right,
and they were best business partners, and they did incredible
things together. They changed literally together, they changed the world.
Who could relate to that besides each other? And I
think we've seen that in some couples that we've done

(01:14:15):
in the past, that it's just like we are such
iconic figures in history. Who could I possibly connect to
that could know what I've been through and know what
the things I've done and really understand the person that
I am. Because I could be with someone who loves
me unconditionally for who I am and thinks I'm the

(01:14:38):
best thing in the world. And I might think that
of them too, but they still they'll never quite get
the experiences I've had the way that you will. You
know that that's that's an untouchable bond, an unbreakable bond.
So much bonded them besides children, which of course is
a huge lifetime bond, but also, yeah, all the struggle

(01:15:00):
of the early years, all the time, all the stage times,
all the horrible phone calls, like all the miscarriages, and
they're shared grief on that and that struggle to absolutely yeah.
That's a heart. That's a person you keep, maybe not
in the same capacity, but you keep that person absolutely yeah.
And I'm so glad that they were able to. You know,

(01:15:22):
sometimes those romantic relationships fall apart and it is so
ugly that all of that that you were just talking
about is kind of lost. Yeah, and the friendship goes
with yeah. Yeah, and that's that's Sometimes that's for the best,
and sometimes that's really sad. I mean, you know, I'm
very good friends with nearly nearly all of my exes, um,

(01:15:45):
because of course they're great people, otherwise I wouldn't have
dated them, you know, Yeah, and we have shared experiences
and we have uh lasting important friendship. I mean, these
are people that will always be important to me. Um.
And you know, and there's people I've dated who it's
for the best that we don't speak to each other anymore,

(01:16:08):
you know, and that's their fault, not mine. So UM,
you know, I don't know, Um, if you're listening, Um,
you know you're not. You're definitely not listening, and you're
probably fine. I mean, you know, I think you're a
treasure baby, But I think they're okay, it was for
the best for everyone. But anyway, I'm just glad that

(01:16:30):
they were able to keep that. Obviously because they had
two children and that was best for them too, but
also just because again, what a golden moment in history
at these two people being together well, and it's cool
that they didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater
per se. They were like, I know that we can't
be married anymore, but we still work together, and we

(01:16:51):
still want to work together. We're still friends and we
still want to be friends, and we're still co parenting,
and we still want to co parent, like we're going
to get the same little way and everything. Like I'm
I don't want to fight with you. I don't want
to ruin this. Yeah, what the good part that we
do have, it's very real, that's the part I want
to preserve. Sometimes the divorce preserves the good stuff rather

(01:17:12):
than than getting rid of it too. So anyway, I
thought you meant literally they didn't throw out the baby
with the bath They weren't like, we're getting divorced and
screw the kids. Then go live with your their step grandparents.
One of them will go live with your parents. One
of my parents now and then of course, whatever happened

(01:17:34):
to Desilu, this massive, important production company that just change
the whole game of television. I mean, you don't hear
the name Desilu anymore, so you don't think it just
fizzled out. It did not. After Lucille sold her shares
to Gulf and Western for seventeen million dollars, which tally's

(01:17:54):
up to a hundred and thirty million dollars today. How
the company was rebranded as the TV production arm of
Paramount Pictures, and that led to a chain of acquisitions
which would bring success to companies like Viacom we all
know is like you know, Comedy Central and many other networks.

(01:18:16):
They're Viacom, up N and eventually CBS, who had phased
out the Paramount TV brand but recently they resurrected it.
And we're not hearing about CBS All Access anymore, are
we know? We're hearing about Paramount Plus and again all
from Desilu. Yeah. Incredible. These people are just I mean,

(01:18:42):
as a comedy lover, as a television lover, as a
history lover, come on, Lucy and DESI hit all all
the good ship. Amazing people and a relatively recent history. Um,
getting this recent every year, I suppose, but but still

(01:19:02):
it's some of that modern history of a sort of
modern entertainment that we get to talk about as supposed
to going back to ancient Rome and like, yeah, these people,
sure if you took them out of history and the
world might be different today, but we're not living in
their legacy the same way that we are literally still
living in Lucy and Ricky's Lucy and desease legacy. But

(01:19:25):
it's also interesting to see in their story kind of
where his male nous and her whiteness yes for each other. Yes,
Like there's many times where you can see that if
it had been her and not him, it wouldn't have
gone the same way. But then again, he never got
his nominations the way she did, and you know, like

(01:19:45):
you just can kind of see those two different marginalizations
working so differently for both of them at the same time,
and I find that really interesting. I thought about that
when she said a lot of people assumed I called
the shots, and I'm like, wow, you really just like
even over sexism, you kind of maybe put your racism

(01:20:07):
and said, well, she's the one in charge, she's the
smart one. She doesn't have an accent, so she's probably
the one making the business decisions. I really think played
into that maybe you know, and then like, oh, Ship
dos Arnetz is actually fucking brilliant and can probably out
business everybody in this room. And I'll tell you why.
It's because he knew people. He knew people so well,

(01:20:31):
and he cared about people. You know, he cared about uh,
bringing people laughter and entertainment and joy and dance and music,
all these things that people thrive off of and they
want and they'll give anything to have it. Yeah, some
of the best material, some of the best content comes
from people who are really their end goal is not

(01:20:53):
ratings or money or fame or glory, but joy. They
know that entertainment is joy. That's what entertainment does. It
makes you happy to be alive for at least a
few minutes in time, and that's really valuable and important.
It's just like why it matters to have somebody direct
us O shows you need that, you really do need that.

(01:21:16):
It is part of the human experience. It's very important.
And I think he had that where he's just like,
I just know what makes people happy, laugh and feel good,
and that's what I want to make happen here. And yeah,
maybe it's some weird idea where we're gonna bring in
a bunch of paint or whatever, but I'm gonna do
it my way, and I think it's gonna work because
I'm just looking for the joy. I'm not looking for

(01:21:38):
the money necessarily, you know what I mean. And I'll
get into it now. I mean that's why when they
say things like, well, times are tough, so what's disposable
all the arts is an insane proposition. And I don't
just say that as an artist. I think I have
that perspective as an artist that Okay, good luck. Can

(01:22:02):
you imagine a world with none of this, with no entertainment,
with no performance? I mean, how could you? How? Why
would you want to live in that world? That is
not a productive society, that is not a group of
people who are going to be at their best or
be living their best experience. So like, even if you're

(01:22:25):
just math and numbers and a product sales, you know,
money circulating, like that's the only thing you care about.
Good luck taking the arts out of the mix. You
talked to DESI, you know, because he he'll tell you
how you can have both and where they and he

(01:22:45):
will put you to shame um, which is literally one
of the most frustrating things about the argument we should
cut the arts to save money, because the arts make
money and they it's jobs. It's insane amount of jobs up.
So I live in Atlanta, so we're we have a
very we have a very pointed feeling about it's funding,

(01:23:09):
especially because I'm in arts nonprofits. But it's just it's
just galling because it's so clear in the numbers and
in all of the info about it, and you just
can't seem to hammered in anyone's brain. And I kind
of get it, you know again, being a nonprofit, you're like, fundraise, fundraise, fundraise,
So I'm out here asking for money for my cool

(01:23:33):
theater show when other people are like, let's feed children,
you know, let's freaking save some burn victims, let's handle
cancer like you know, they seem to be such more
important issues, and they are, and of course they deserve
all money and attention, obviously, but the theater thing matters too,
It really does, and it doesn't seem as big, but

(01:23:55):
it really is well, and there's other less important things
that the money could be pulled from happening. But but
but it is that that impact I mean, not to tangent,
but the economic impact of something. You know, you spend
on a small arts festival, and it's not like circulates
it through the economy. It's all the nearby businesses, it's

(01:24:20):
all of the associated vendors, it's all of everyone who
touches anyone who touches that. It is a web of
of of industry. I mean, there's there's so much else
involved in arts that it's it's ridiculous to think that
if you got rid of it, you're only affecting it right,

(01:24:42):
or that you're saving money because you're really not. I
mean again, you're being these greedy exects, thinking short term
money instead of long term gain and leaving a lot
of money on the table because you're done. Anyway, that
was for you Atlanta slash Georgia and the thunder is
well a bit of a tangent, But but that's what

(01:25:04):
happens here. On Ridiculous Romance. We talked about these romances
and then we you know, we expound. We talked about
how they I don't know, whatever they pops into our head. Yeah,
we just like to talk so anyway, we'll never go
on like a bagpipe. Well, let's cut the pipes. Um.
We're so glad you guys tuned in. I hope you
love this story as much as I do. I hope

(01:25:27):
we did Lucy and Daisy justice because they deserve, uh,
you know, just an epic presentation of all that they
did for the world today. Really really just two of
those people who just came in and changed it all.
I know they're doing that movie Aaron Sorkin um has

(01:25:48):
right in that Lucy and Daisy movie about it's like,
I think it's about a week of their lives during
an episode of I Love Lucy that they're shooting. So
I'm very intrigued, um, because they are fascinating characters in
real life, and I think that's the movie is more
about them as real people than it is about you know,

(01:26:08):
Ricky and Lucy screen. Yeah, which is I guess good
because I don't see Nicole Kidman doing Lucy's big humor,
big faces and all that stuff. And Bardem is so
different from Desi Arnez in my mind. But I've I mean,
their daughter Lucy has been out talking about it and
she's like, hey, it's not about impersonations. These are these

(01:26:30):
are really good actors bringing my parents to life in
a really interesting way. So I'm very excited about it. Yeah,
I think it's gonna be cool. Will definitely see it.
Oh yeah, and you'll hear us bringing this episode up again,
what it's got. Maybe you're listening to it now because
the movie just came out and we were like pushing
it real hard. What if the reviews are really bad?

(01:26:50):
Really excited with the movie. Yeah, let it be known
that on that today in September of're oh god, today
September one, we're very excited about this movie in the future.
And should it be terrible, Well, we didn't know. How
could we have known? It'll be another life with Lucy

(01:27:11):
all over again. Oh no, the worst thing Aaron Sorkin's
ever done. All right, well, please let's hear from you.
I want to know what you thought. I want to
know other ideas for episodes you've gotten the future. I
want to know about your Grecian tour guide that you
told about the show reach out. You can email us

(01:27:31):
at romance at iHeart media dot com, or on the
social media platforms Twitter and Instagram. I'm at dianamite boom.
I like how we clarify the social media platforms Twitter
and Instagram. Like they wouldn't know what we mean if
we just said Twitter and Instagram. Is Twitter? Is that
a social media platform? I don't know. It's just something
to say. Guys. All right, you're at dianamite boom, I'm at.

(01:27:54):
Oh great, it's Eli. The show is Adverdick Romance. Follow
us uh and and say, hey, yeah, you can't wait
to bring you the next exciting episode of the next
Ridiculous Romance. Thanks as always for tuning in. We really
appreciate you taking the time to hang out with us.
We can't wait to do it again. Absolutely, we'll see
it anything. I so long, friends, it's time to go.

(01:28:17):
Thanks so listening to our show. Tell your friends name's
uncle s Indance to listen to a show ridiculous roll
nance