I Love Lucy, the 1950s sitcom starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, was groundbreaking in many ways.
The casting of Cuban band leader Arnaz in a lead role was a hard sell to CBS until Ball and Arnaz proved they worked better as a team by developing a popular live vaudeville show.
They challenged CBS’s insistence on filming in New York City by successfully shooting in front of a live studio audience with three 35mm film cameras in Hollywood, a practice that set a new standard going forward.
Their partnership off-screen was a powerful entity itself, with their production studio, Desilu Productions, championing series like Star Trek when no one else would.
Yet the popular show came very close to cancelation one time, all thanks to a conflict with the National Association of Broadcasters over one seemingly innocuous event: Lucille Ball’s pregnancy.
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