James Baquet

During “The Golden Age of Television” in America (1947-1960), one of the most enduring shows starred a scrappy redhead and her Cuban-bandleader husband. I’m talking about Lucille Ball and her then-husband Desi Arnaz in the show “I Love Lucy” (with a catchy theme song performed by Arnaz and his orchestra). It aired from 1951 to 1957.

In the show, Arnaz plays the Cuban bandleader and club owner “Ricky Ricardo.” In every episode his wife Lucy gets herself into a predicament and tries to hide it from Ricky — which just makes things worse. When Ricky gets wind of the problem, he scolds her — in his Cuban accent — with the catchphrase: “Lucy! You got some ‘splainin’ to do!”

Lucy’s accomplice in these capers is her pliable neighbor Ethel Mertz, who’s married to grumpy old Fred Mertz. The Mertzes are also the Ricardos’ landlords in their apartment building in New York City.

A number of plots in the sitcom’s 180 episodes show Lucy trying to escape the humdrum life of a middle-class housewife by appearing onstage with Ricky or somehow otherwise being involved in the glamorous world of “show biz.”

In one episode, she’s the spokeswoman for a health tonic called “Vitameatavegamin.” She repeatedly flubs the name, requiring many tries; since the “tonic” is 23% alcohol, she soon ends up completely drunk, for great comic effect.

In another episode, she and Ethel take a job at a candy factory, where a speedy conveyor belt gets ahead of them as they try to wrap the chocolates on it. The men, meanwhile, make a huge mess in the Ricardo’s kitchen while trying to prove that a housewife’s job is easy.

“I Love Lucy” was the most-watched show in the U. S. in four of its six seasons. Season 2 is especially noteworthy for following Lucy through her pregnancy with “Little Ricky” — a storyline made necessary by the fact that Lucille Ball really was pregnant with Desi Arnaz’s baby.

After the series ended, Ball continued to be popular in later sitcoms and starring roles on Broadway. She was also the first woman to run a major television studio. She and Arnaz had founded Desilu Productions, which produced such popular television series as “Mission: Impossible” and “Star Trek.”

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. device for moving goods in a factory

2. helper in doing bad things

3. boring

4. repeated expression

5. energetic

6. bad-tempered

7. silly activities

8. bad situation

9. messes up

10. easily convinced