Any “I Love Lucy” Fanatics Out There? Check Out The Shocking Top Ten Behind The Scene Facts About Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, And Fred.

After decades of being on the air and in syndication, “I Love Lucy” continues to be a family favorite. However, many folk aren’t aware of some of the “behind the scene”drama that took place. So we decided to post the top ten interesting and little known facts about our four main characters…..Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred.

1. The show was shot in front of a live audience that included 300 viewers. It was done from the first shoot until the last. Amazingly, there were a lot of “one take” scenes. Desi Arnaz later claimed that Lucille Ball works better if there are real people in her front watching her performance.

2. Desi Arnaz is probably the best in the industry when we talk about being prepared for every single scene. His incredible memory allowed him to read and memorize every one of his lines in just one script reading. Staffers on the show say he never messed up his lines despite very little preparation for every single scene.

3. Do you remember the famous grape stomping scene with Lucy? Turns out Lucille was actually choking on the grape, but continued to film. Once the cameras were off, the crew realized she was actually choking and came to help. If you want to track down the scene, it was in the episode “Lucy’s Italian Movie.”

4. Frawley’s portrayal as Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy will do down in TV comedy history, but he reportedly could not memorize his lines so well. He would get so frustrated with his lines, that he would supposedly rip out pages from the script and complain about having so many lines in each episode.

5. Desi Arnaz’s accent got a lot of attention on the show, but if anybody other than Lucy made fun of the way he spoke, those jokes were usually met with silence from the audience. It was an unwritten rule on the show that only Lucille Ball could make fun of Desi’s pronunciations.

6. Whenever Lucy got herself into a crazy situation, someone off camera can be heard saying, “Uh-Oh!” That person is Lucille Ball’s actual mother and she was present at every filming. The sound producer for the show, Glen Glenn, even used the “Uh-Oh!” for other shows!

7. While Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance ended up becoming close friends, it did not start that way. In fact, Ball began the show questioning if Vance could play her part in a comedic way without taking the spotlight from her. The good news is that they patched thing up as the series began.

8. William Frawley had a reputation for drunken binges and crazy antics, which caused  much hesitation on behalf of the others to work with him. Desi Arnaz, however, knew Frawley was the best casting choice, but gave him one stipulation: never be late. Frawley, in all the time on the show, never missed a day.

9. All four main actors received wide-spread acclaim for their work, but it was Desi Arnaz who never received an Emmy nomination. William Frawley received five noms, but never won. Lucy and Vivian Vance both won for their roles, though Vance was far behind Lucy who won four times on 13 nominations.

10. Desi Arnez would often skip rehearsals and table reads to attend to Desliu Studios business. However, the actor was always able to memorize his lines after reading the script, and would deliver them perfectly at tapings. Arnaz would even memorize other character’s lines to make sure everything was on point.