When the first episode of I Love Lucy aired in October 1951, no one expected its main actress, Lucille Ball, to become a Hollywood superstar. Ball was a 40-year-old redhead who had been working in show business for two decades without a big break. But by the time the show (in its many incarnations, including The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour and The Lucy Show) went off the air in 1974, she had become a household staple in more than 80 countries. The most famous I Love Lucy scenes — the grape-smashing and the chocolate-candy-eating episodes spring to mind — are just as funny today.