I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along wit ...

'' is an American television

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

starring

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golde ...

Desi Arnaz Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, and film and television producer. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom '' I Love Lucy'', in which he c ...

Vivian Vance Vivian Vance (born Vivian Roberta Jones; July 26, 1909 – August 17, 1979) was an American actress and singer best known for playing Ethel Mertz on the sitcom '' I Love Lucy'' (1951–1957), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Out ...

, and

William Frawley William Clement Frawley (February 26, 1887 – March 3, 1966) was an American vaudevillian and actor best remembered for playing landlord Fred Mertz in the American television sitcom '' I Love Lucy'', "Bub" O'Casey in the television comedy ser ...

. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. All 180 episodes aired on Mondays. In total 180 episodes of ''I Love Lucy'' were produced, plus a pilot episode. The

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

, which was not made for broadcast and did not air as part of the show's original run, is generally not counted as one of the episodes and therefore listed separately for reference. It is, however, available on DVD and Blu-ray releases of the first season. Following ''I Love Lucy'', a further 13 one hour-long episodes were produced under the title of ''The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show'' (later and more commonly known in syndication as ''The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour'') with the same cast and later packaged as seasons 7, 8 & 9 under the ''I Love Lucy'' series.

Series overview

Episodes

Unaired pilot

This unaired pilot was considered lost until the widow of Pepito Pérez (the clown who appeared in the pilot) notified CBS that she owned a copy, given to Pérez by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball in gratitude for his performance. The pilot was first broadcast on CBS television stations nationwide on Monday, April 30, 1990, 39 years after it was originally filmed.

Season 1 (1951–52)

Season 2 (1952–53)

Season 3 (1953–54)

Season 4 (1954–55)

Season 5 (1955–56)

Season 6 (1956–57)

''The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour'' episodes

After season six, the series was renamed ''

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' for its original broadcast run and rather than airing as weekly half hour series, hour-long episodes were produced to run occasionally during the year. There were thirteen hour-long shows. The first five were broadcast as specials during the 1957-58 television season. The other eight episodes were broadcast as part of the ''

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse ''Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse'' is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on the Columbia Broadcasting System between 1958 and 1960. Three of its 48 episodes served as pilots for the 1950s televisio ...

'' from October 6, 1958, to April 1, 1960. The series was subsequently broadcast in syndication as ''The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'' and ''We Love Lucy''. This show had the same cast as ''

'', employed many of the other same actors, and featured many famous guest-stars. Of the original ''I Love Lucy'' cast, besides the principals, only Lucy's mother appeared in any ''Comedy Hour'' episode. She appears in season 3, episode 2 'The Ricardos Go To Japan' as Little Ricky's babysitter.

Series overview

Episodes

Unaired pilot

Season 1 (1951–52)

Season 2 (1952–53)

Season 3 (1953–54)

Season 4 (1954–55)

Season 5 (1955–56)

Season 6 (1956–57)

''The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour'' episodes

Season 1 (1957–58)

Season 2 (1958–59)

Season 3 (1959–60)

References

Further reading