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15 Things You Didn’t Know About “I Love Lucy”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing.
In any discussion of great TV sitcoms, “I Love Lucy” will come up. And rightfully so. It was a great sitcom. And, on occasion, I can still watch it today. While Lucille Ball gets credit for being a comedic genius, I think Desi Arnaz was vastly underrated, both as an entertainer, and a businessman. So, let’s take a look at some facts about “I Love Lucy.”
1: Ricky Ricardo was almost Larry Lopez.
Producers ultimately shot down the name because they didn’t like the alliteration of Larry and Lucy. I have to say I don’t care for it either. Also, if the show had kept the name Larry Lopez, would Little Ricky have been Little Larry?
It also seems like “Larry” doesn’t work as the name for the main character in a sitcom. Remember McLain Stevenson’s “Hello Larry?” Probably not, which proves my point.
2: The show was filmed before a live studio audience of 300 people.
Lucy liked immediate audience feedback and filming that way certainly provided it. And that term, “live studio audience,” as opposed to what, a “dead studio audience?”