What a team. Lucille Ball, one of TV’s first and most enduring comedy superstars, went to bat for her Cuban-born husband Desi Arnaz when CBS suggested adapting My Favorite Husband, her hit radio program, for television. She demanded Arnaz play her spouse in I Love Lucy, despite the network’s reservations that the audience wouldn’t take to Arnaz and his heavy accent. The rest is TV history, on multiple levels.
As Lucy and Ricky Ricardo in I Love Lucy, they shot to the top of the ratings. The couple parlayed their earnings into the legendary Desilu Productions studio, with shows like Star Trek and Mission: Impossible under their banner. Lucy followed I Love Lucy with more hit comedies (The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy) into the 1970s, establishing herself as TV’s most beloved female clown and paving the way for many more females to come.