LUCILLE BALL: The TV Star

The first lady of comedy brought us laughter as well as emotional truth. No wonder everybody loved Lucy

By Richard Zoglin Monday, June 08, 1998

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    Most of all, I Love Lucy was grounded in emotional honesty. Though the couple had a tempestuous marriage off-screen (Desi was an unrepentant philanderer), the Ricardos' kisses showed the spark of real attraction. In the episode where Lucy finds out she is pregnant, she can't break the news to Ricky because he is too busy. Finally, she takes a table at his nightclub show and passes him an anonymous note asking that he sing a song, We're Having a Baby, to the father-to-be. As Ricky roams the room looking for the happy couple, he spies Lucy and moves on. Then he does a heartrending double take, glides to his knees and asks, voice cracking, whether it's true. Finishing the scene together onstage, the couple are overcome by the real emotion of their own impending baby. Director William Asher, dismayed by the unrehearsed tears, even shot a second, more upbeat take. Luckily he used the first one; it's the most touching moment in sitcom history.

    Tired of the grind of a weekly series, Lucy and Desi ended I Love Lucy in 1957, when it was still No. 1. For three more years, they did hourlong specials, then broke up the act for good when they divorced in 1960. Ball returned to TV with two other popular (if less satisfying) TV series, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy; made a few more movies (starring in Mame in 1974); and attempted a final comeback in the 1986 ABC sitcom Life with Lucy, which lasted an ignominious eight weeks. But I Love Lucy lives on in reruns around the world, an endless loop of laughter and a reminder of the woman who helped make TV a habit, and an art.

    TIME senior writer Richard Zoglin still watches I Love Lucy reruns each day at 9 a.m.

    Through The Years With TV's Favorite Stereotypes

    In its earliest days, TV adapted shows from radio, Broadway and even vaudeville. In the '50s, it found its own formats. Those sitcoms, cop shows, dramatic series are still with us. But over the years, the faces have changed to reflect the ways in which we see ourselves

    DAFFY FEMALES They have gotten into scrapes, clashed with their men and tried to express their true selves since the '50s. But Lucy-style housewives have given way to more independent women

    MY LITTLE MARGIE Nut case with doting dad

    MARY Single girl with great job but gruff boss

    ROSEANNE Liberated mom with attitude

    ELLEN Bookstore owner with a cause

    TOUGH COPS Nailing murderers and drug dealers has never gone out of style. But the style of TV's law enforcers has become more aggressive, violent, and at times morally ambiguous

    JOE FRIDAY Speaks softly, rarely uses gun

    MOD SQUAD Look hip, use guns all the time

    SONNY CROCKETT Cool dresser, mean dude

    ANDY SIPOWICZ Bad dresser, meaner dude

    CRUSADERS Keeping peace in the old West or fighting to save a life today, TV's heroes never just do a job and go home at night. They agonize about their work, care for their clients, and stand up for what's right

    MARSHAL DILLON Cleans up Dodge City

    MARCUS WELBY Takes on pain and diseases

    L.A. LAWYERS Win most cases, despite doubts

    ER DOCS Save lives despite little sleep

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