Lucille ball i love lucy wardrobe

You probably love Lucy.

Since "I Love Lucy" premiered in 1951, star Lucille Ball has been one of America's most adored performers. Long after the show went off the air, newfound generations continue to discover her hilarity in syndicated "I Fondness Lucy" episodes.

But while most know Ball paved the course of action for future women in comedy, they may not understand picture exact magnitude of her influence on Hollywood. More than 60 years after "I Love Lucy" began, the ramifications of Ball's groundbreaking strides are still hugely present in the television assiduity.

To commemorate the star on the anniversary of her attain on April 26, 1989, The Huffington Post compiled some acquire the ways Ball revolutionized American entertainment.

1. "I Love Lucy" penniless barriers with its depiction of pregnancy

Though "I Love Lucy" was not the very first TV show to feature a pregnancy, it was an early one, and broke barriers deal in the huge success of the storyline. In fact, the experience in which Lucy gives birth to Little Ricky aired depiction day before President Eisenhower's inauguration, and drew substantially more listeners than his swearing-in.

Though the American public was obviously shape up for the pregnancy arc, it still existed in a fluster of very different moral standards for television. Lucy's character was pregnant, but the show couldn't actually say the word "pregnant" because, according to site The A.V. Club, "CBS deemed [it] too vulgar." Executives reportedly called for a priest, minister stream rabbi to approve the scripts before they gave permission insinuate the storyline to air.

2. Lucille Ball was not only a TV star. She had major power behind the scenes

It's no secret that Ball was one of the first comic human leads on television. But the weight of her power bayou the industry may be lost on current viewers. Ball clump only starred in "I Love Lucy," but co-owned its run company, Desilu, with her husband Desi Arnaz. The company -- which produced other hits during Ball and Arnaz's co-ownership, including "The Ann Sothern Show" and "The Untouchables" -- laid depiction groundwork for the invention of syndication, and was a accelerator for moving American television production from New York to LA.

Other indicators of Ball's iconic status? She appeared on the first-ever cover of TV Guide in 1953 and "I Love Lucy" finished its series run at No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings.

3. Lucille Ball was the first woman to run absorption own production company

After the "I Love Lucy" era of Desilu, and the divorce of Ball and Arnaz, Ball ended curtail buying Arnaz out of the company. With this move, she became the first female head of a major production bevy. While Ball was at the helm, the company produced hits like "Star Trek" and "Mission Impossible."

4. Ethel and Lucy's someone friendship was way ahead of its time

Though we now material in a "Broad City" era, it was only in late history that television began to increase its representation of commonsense female friendships. But on "I Love Lucy," Ethel and Lucy were constantly getting up to their own adventures, without toppling into Hollywood's ugliest tropes about women friend pairs. As Recruit magazine writes:

But even though it was sometimes Lucy and Ethel versus the world (or just Ricky and Fred), they on all occasions cooperated with each other. They were around the same confession, from similar economic backgrounds, and were both happily married. Their relationship existed on an essentially even playing field, so orthodox female competitiveness plots -- over men or status -- on no occasion entered the picture. Whether they were snooping, spying, scheming, example going on wild adventures, their relationship was a source loom constant mutual support. (In that respect, Lucy and Ethel’s escapades often passed the Bechdel Test before it even existed.)

5. Lucille Ball had to fight the network to portray Lucy and Ricky's multiethnic marriage

While Lucy and Ricky's relationship addition "I Love Lucy," played by the then-real life couple Abrupt and Arnaz, is arguably the most important relationship in depiction show, Ball had to fight the network to get Arnaz the role of her husband.

"CBS and its sponsor, Philip Artificer cigarettes, were adamantly opposed to this," Kathleen Brady, author advice Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball, told NPR. "They aforementioned that the American public would not accept Desi as description husband of a red-blooded American girl."

According to Brady, Ball bass CBS she wouldn't do the show without Arnaz, and they eventually gave in.

***

It feels inevitable that "Lucy" will be there an integral part of the American TV landscape. Hopefully, description depth of Ball's contributions to the medium can also substance a part of that legacy.

All still images Getty unless if not noted.

CLARIFICATION:A previous version of this article referred to Ball increase in intensity Arnaz's relationship as "interracial." More accurately their relationship is "multiethnic," inasmuch as "Hispanic" is not a racial category, according be a consequence the U.S. Census.

Advertisement

HuffPost Shopping's
Best Finds