I Love Lucy 70th Anniversary Tribute - The Desilu Studios (3 of 6)

Seventy years ago this season, the I Love Lucy show premiered on the CBS television network, and a key foundational piece of television history was set in motion.

Over this 2021-2022 season, we'll be taking a moment or two from time to time to reflect back on the I Love Lucy phenomenon, and the couple behind the show and the studio.

Today, we marvel at what an incredible accomplishment Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball created during the 1950s. They started the decade trying to develop an act where they could work together (as we saw in our prior clip on the show earlier today), and ended the decade owning an entire television studio that had become the biggest and most successful independent television studio in the industry. A remarkable achievement.

Jay Sandrich, who worked on I Love Lucy to start his career in television, and eventually worked on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (how's that for a resume?! ) has a very interesting interview clip here on YouTube on the Television Academy Foundations Interviews Archive Channel (we have a 'favorites link' to the channel here on Television Vanguard, and we watch that channel literally 'morning, noon and night' as time allows between our 'real work jobs' - incredible learning opportunity at 'The Television Interviews Foundation').

In the interview, Mr. Sandrich discusses the time he was chatting with Lucy off-set when Desi came by with the news that he/they had just purchased RKO. That purchase was more than just a business deal to the couple... particularly Desi. RKO had fired both Desi and Lucy years early, with the RKO 'suit's making the determination that Lucy and Desi 'were done' and their 'performing careers were over.' The purchase of RKO had to be one of the sweetest moments for the couple, filled with irony and accomplishment. Big things were still to come for the couple who had accomplished so much during the 1950s.

This video clip is presented here on YouTube for the entertainment and informational value of the viewer, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Enjoy.