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Lucy graces cover of 60th anniversary TV Guide

Brock

By Brock,
in The Danfield Tribune

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leenorman Newbie

leenorman

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TV Guide has created a beautiful photo Lucy cover to celebrate their 60th anniversary:

 

o-TV-GUIDE-60TH-ANNIVERSARY-LUCY-570.jpg

 

 

Other covers HERE feature Mary Tyler Moore, Bill Cosby, Star Trek, and the Simpsons.

 

And great interview with TV GREATS including Carol Burnett and Carl Reiner on TV Guide's Diamond Jubilee.

 

Thanks, Brock; you ARE THE BEST!!!!! Loving you, JK

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HarryCarter Newbie

HarryCarter

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I got the TV Guide and there are various photos and mentions of Lucy throughout the issue. There is also a two page interview with Desi Jr.!

 

He helped make TV Guide Magazine a hit right out of the box. And we, in turn, helped make his life utterly confusing! On April 3, 1953, a chubby-­cheeked newborn named Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV — eventually known as Desi Arnaz Jr. — graced the cover of our very first issue with a cover line touting him as "Lucy's $50,000,000 Baby." Lucy, of course, was Lucille Ball, the madcap, flame-tressed star of America's most adored sitcom at the time, I Love Lucy, while Dad was Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz — and both of them knew the value of publicity.

 

Lucy and Desi purposely scheduled little Desi's Cesarean birth for January 19, 1953, because, on that same night, Lucy Ricardo was going to deliver Little Ricky on I Love Lucy. The double baby blast caused a ­frenzy (a record 68.8 percent of all sets were tuned to CBS for the episode), and it shoved another major news event — the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the following day — out of the public consciousness. Life only got crazier from there.

 

"Because that cover was so widely seen, everyone thought I played Little Ricky, and that's stuck with me throughout my life," says Arnaz, who now runs the Boulder City Ballet Company in Boulder City, ­Nevada, with his wife, Amy. "Of course, my parents only added to the mis­understanding by casting a series of ­infants — there were six in all — who matched the TV Guide photo."

 

More head-scratching followed when Arnaz became BFFs with Keith Thibodeaux, who played Little Ricky as a tyke. The two were ­frequently photographed together and would even team on the drums to warm up the I Love Lucy studio audience. Eventually, fiction became fact when Arnaz played ­Lucy's son on her 1968-74 series, Here's Lucy.

 

"I wouldn't trade any of it — not even the confusion — because it's all been a blessing," Arnaz says. "How lucky I am that I can turn on the TV any day of the week and see my parents! I Love Lucy seems to be stuck in a weird time warp. The humor and situations are still as fresh as the first time they aired. And the thing that's most wonderful about it — even beyond the laughs — is the love factor. No matter what crazy stunt Lucy pulled or how many times the Ricardos battled with their friends Fred and Ethel Mertz, everyone's jealousy and idiosyncrasies and dumb mistakes were ­for­given in the end. There's a reason it was called I Love Lucy. Love was what it was all about."

 

That held true even when Lucy shocked the nation by filing for ­divorce in 1960, while the duo was still starring in a series of I Love Lucy spin-off specials on CBS called The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. "My parents' problems started long before that, but you'd never know it by watching them transform into Lucy and Ricky," Arnaz says. "The show was very healing for them because, in a way, they were playing the best parts of themselves. On screen, they were the perfect team. And, sadly, you couldn't help but wonder, 'Why can't they do that in real life?' because their love for each other was so big, so extraordinary. Even after the divorce, they remained best friends and made the split as easy as possible for me and my sister, Lucie. So even the bad stuff turned out good."

 

Still, one thing bothers Arnaz when he looks back: that cover line. "A $50 million baby? Really? Not only does that sound like some kind of sci-fi show, I can't imagine anyone thought I was worth that much," he says with a laugh. "It's a lot of money, especially in 1953!"

 

Were we guilty of overhype? Perhaps, but there's no denying the ­power of Lucy and Desi back then. Up to that point, no character was allowed to be pregnant on TV — even the word pregnant was banned — so interest in Lucy's groundbreaking mommyhood was huge. It triggered an avalanche of merchandise that included dolls, games, books and nursery sets, as well as Lucy maternity wear and Desi smoking jackets (though, oddly, no ­cigars). Replicas of the Ricardos' bedroom and living-room furniture also hit stores just as Dad's recording of "There's a Brand New Baby in Our House" was zooming up the charts. We even suggested Little Desi's worth might actually be closer to $100 million.

 

But that photo on our cover? Priceless. And it came with quite a backstory. In a TV Guide Magazine piece that ran on our 20th anniversary, then-Hollywood bureau chief Dwight Whitney revealed that the coveted pics of baby Desi had instead been promised to those juggernaut publications Life and Look. How did we, the new kid in town, score the coup? The elder Desi took a meeting with a TV Guide Magazine rep, ­during which he had the photos stacked on his desk. At one point, wrote Whitney, Desi "excused himself to go to the men's room, making it clear that if several pictures were missing when he got back, he would not notice." Yes, it was that simple.

 

"I was the innocent victim in a massive publicity stunt, and I embrace it," says Arnaz. "I can truthfully say that when I was born, everyone was laughing. And you know what? I sincerely hope that's the way I go out."

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JoeySanJoaquin Newbie

JoeySanJoaquin

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My issue was delivered today, but no Lucy cover for me. I went straight to the Desi, Jr interview :) . Interesting how TV Guide acquired the baby photo for their cover! Really nice words from Desi about his parents.

Which one did they send you, VIv? I subsribe too and got the Star Trek cover (now had it been the Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto version, I wouldn't have minded so much!) so I have to get this one too ...for the vault, yeah...that's it, for the vault! ;)
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rickee Newbie

rickee

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I got the General Hospital one. And I enjoyed Desi Jr.'s interview.

 

How many pages was the first issue of TV guide since there were only what, 20 tv shows on in 1953?

 

To be exact, 24 pages of the actual articles and 48 pages of the A1-A48 local listings and ads.

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vivfantoo* Newbie

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Hi Leenorman, I don't know if TV Guide subscribers can request certain covers or not, but I would guess no because it would probably be too difficult to fulfill requests if thousands of people did so. I think they only do multiple covers to commemorate special events. With this being their 60th anniversary, it may happen a lot more in the coming months. It sure has been a treat to see so many Lucy mentions so far this year! :)

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leenorman Newbie

leenorman

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Hi Leenorman, I don't know if TV Guide subscribers can request certain covers or not, but I would guess no because it would probably be too difficult to fulfill requests if thousands of people did so. I think they only do multiple covers to commemorate special events. With this being their 60th anniversary, it may happen a lot more in the coming months. It sure has been a treat to see so many Lucy mentions so far this year! :)

 

Thanks, Viv: Love, Joyce

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  • 2 weeks later...
AmyArnaz Newbie

AmyArnaz

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Dumb question; but, have to ask: Can a subscriber REQUEST/DEMAND the cover of their choice? I had no idea TV Guide makes multiple covers for the edition(s)....seems like an awfully expensive proposition.

 

Not sure if a certain cover can be requested. We saw the Lucy cover in our doctor's waiting room and Desi got permission to snatch it. We never saw any TV Guides anywhere so wrote to TV Guide and received a few Lucy covers just yesterday. I thought Desi did a great job with this interview. Loved what said. Love him.

Happy Spring everyone.

xoxo Amy Arnaz

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HarryCarter Newbie

HarryCarter

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Not sure if a certain cover can be requested. We saw the Lucy cover in our doctor's waiting room and Desi got permission to snatch it. We never saw any TV Guides anywhere so wrote to TV Guide and received a few Lucy covers just yesterday. I thought Desi did a great job with this interview. Loved what said. Love him.

Happy Spring everyone.

xoxo Amy Arnaz

 

It is a great interview, Amy. I'm glad TV Guide sent you some copies.

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HarryCarter Newbie

HarryCarter

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The latest issue of TV Guide has a list of the 60 greatest TV comedies of all time. Number one is I Love Lucy! Seinfeld came in at number three! I like the group who put this list together better than the one a few years ago.

 

Here's the top ten:

1) I Love Lucy

2) All in the Family

3) Seinfeld

4) The Honeymooners

5) The Simpsons

6) Mary Tyler Moore

7) M*A*S*H

8) The Cosby Show

9) Cheers

10) Saturday Night Live

 

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C L A U D E Newbie

C L A U D E

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The latest issue of TV Guide has a list of the 60 greatest TV comedies of all time. Number one is I Love Lucy! Seinfeld came in at number three! I like the group who put this list together better than the one a few years ago.

 

Here's the top ten:

1) I Love Lucy

2) All in the Family

3) Seinfeld

4) The Honeymooners

5) The Simpsons

6) Mary Tyler Moore

7) M*A*S*H

8) The Cosby Show

9) Cheers

10) Saturday Night Live

Agreed, however you can never have everybody agreeing in these matters, I have three at least that I would remove from THAT top ten, LOL! Great that they at least got the ILL part correct.

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vivfantoo* Newbie

vivfantoo*

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I just read through my issue today & was thrilled to see that I Love Lucy received the well deserved top honor! Did you all notice the smaller I Love Lucy mention in the Big Bang Theory ad on page 37? (I'm working my way over to the Chronology section here to post these for Leenorman :) ).

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