Read Online I Love Lucy: The Untold Story by Jess Oppenheimer, Gregg Oppenheimer - Free Book Online

the two of them. Usually it was because Viv had suggested some script changes or additional bits of business. Because it was Viv who had done the suggesting, Bill would flatly refuse to cooperate, often retreating to his dressing room in a pout. But underneath his gruff exterior, Bill was really a teddy bear, and he and I had a good relationship. I would listen to his complaints and then ask him to “do it for me.” And he would usually agree, but he always took pains to remind me “I’ll do it for you, but not for that bitch.”
    We were careful to make the Mertzes like the Ricardos in some ways, yet very different in others. Lucy and Ricky were comparative newlyweds—married perhaps eleven years, and still having a relatively starry-eyed love affair. Fred and Ethel, while still in love, had been married a long time and knew each other backward and forward, and didn’t much like the view from either direction.

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    Photo caption (next page):
    Bill and Vivian on set of “The Great Train Robbery.” Even though the entire world loved Lucy, everyone on I Love Lucy didn’t love everyone else.

    When we cast Bill Frawley and Vivian Vance as the Mertzes, we knew only of Frawley’s work as a character actor in films, and of Vance’s fine performance in Voice of the Turtle, a straight drama. A few weeks after we started production, we had a story idea that depended on Bill and Vivian being able to sing and dance a little. I went down to the stage where they were rehearsing and sheepishly asked them if they thought they could handle it. With our luck, I shouldn’t have worried. To my delight, they informed me that they each had had an illustrious career in the musical theater. So a whole, unexpected, wonderful new area fell into our laps as a gift.
    Another important stroke of luck for the show was Desi—Desi Arnaz. When we started I Love Lucy, I thought of Desi as a big question mark. Neitherhe nor anyone else knew whether he could really do this kind of thing at all. But he was a quick study, and considerably brighter than many people gave him credit for. And he was conscientious and worked hard to prove his doubters wrong. And in the end, to everyone’s delight, Desi proved himself to be a skillful farceur and a fine actor, providing Lucy with a charming foil and giving the show an added dimension.
    Desi was also a shrewd businessman, as he proved to CBS on more than one occasion. Technical matters, however, were not his strong point. One Tuesday morning he came into my office complaining we weren’t leaving enough blank space on the screen around the show’s credits, with the result that some of the names had one or two letters cut off.
    “I didn’t notice anything wrong on last night’s show,” I told him. “Your new TV set must need adjusting.”
    “No, there’s nothing wrong with my TV set,” Desi insisted. “I tell you it’s the prints that we’re sending to the network.”
    Well, to calm him down, I finally had to promise him I would check with the film lab. But after he went back down to rehearsals, I asked one of our technicians to go out to Lucy and Desi’s ranch in Chatsworth and check out their brand-new TV. And sure enough, that’s where the problem was. The technician made a few simple adjustments and then returned to the studio. And Desi never even knew that he’d been there.
    The following Tuesday morning, Desi was back in my office again. “I just wanted to let you know that the film lab fixed the problem,” he said, smiling. “The credits on last night’s show looked perfect.” And I told him I was glad the problem had been solved. And just as he was leaving, Desi turned back to me and said, “I told you there was nothing wrong with my TV set.”
    Desi had a lot of obstacles to overcome. He was painfully aware that CBS hadn’t even wanted him on the show in the first place and had only agreed when it became clear that they might lose Lucy to another network.And CBSwas not