10 Fun Facts About A Classic TV Series

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Next:

I Love Lucy

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1) I Love Lucy is based on Lucille Ball's hit radio show, " My Favorite Husband".

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2) Bea Benaderet was the original choice to play Ethel Mertz

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3. William Frawley and Vivian Vance actually hated each other in real life. 

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4.  When Lucy was pregnant with Little Ricky the show was not allowed to use the word "pregnant" opting for the word "expecting" instead. 

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5) Lucy originally wanted Gale Gordon to play Fred Mertz. But he was already busy on TV playing Mr. Conklin on "Our Miss Brooks".

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6. Desi and Lucy refused to move to New York to make the show because they wanted to start and raise their family in California resulting in them creating Desilu so they could do the show. 

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7. THe show's prints survive so well because it was photographed on actual film

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8. Jess Oppenheimer, the producer, developed the main character and the concept after working on Fanny Brice's show Baby Sooks which also featured a grown woman doing childish things.

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9) Lucy and Desi had to do a live "Cuban Pete" vaudeville show in a New York City Theater to convince CBS that the American public would accept Desi Arnaz as her husband.

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10. Producer Jess Oppenheimer sued Lucille Ball midway through The Lucy Show, claiming that she was still using the character and concept he had developed for her on My Favorite Husband and I Love Lucy. Oppenheimer won the court case, and Ball had to pay him a creator's fee, even though he remained uncredited on The Lucy Show. When she prepared to launch her next series Here's Lucy she had her attorneys pay Oppenheimer again, so that he wouldn't sue her a second time.

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Next:

Leave It to Beaver

1) Max Showalter, AKA Casey Adams, was the first Ward Cleaver in the "Leave It To Beaver" pilot, which was called "It's a Small World".

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2. Beaver's friend Larry disappears midway through the series, at the beginning of Season 4. Rusty Stevens was fired because his mother caused trouble behind the scenes. Larry's absence is not really explained. But he does appear again in the very last episode in a flashback scene. Stevens reprised the role in the 1983 TV movie STILL THE BEAVER.

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3) Madge Blake played the always flustered mother of Larry Mondello. Also she was a regular on several other classic TV series, but her claim to fame was as a MGM character actress in  "An American in Paris" and "Singin' in the Rain".

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4) On the wall in the Cleaver's house were two famous Gainsborough portraits, Pinkie and Blue Boy, which are on permanent display at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA. (This is one of my favorite things about this show)

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5. Hugh Beaumont died in 1982. So he was unable to be part of the 1983 TV reunion movie STILL THE BEAVER. But the special was dedicated in his memory, and Ward Cleaver's death was written into the story.

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6) Richard Deacon was a standout as Lumpy's formal and business-like father, who always called him Clarence.

A few years later, "Deac" would become a character actor star in "The Dick Van Dyke Show".

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7. The ratings success of STILL THE BEAVER led to a revival series The New Leave It To Beaver. However it was not filmed at Universal studios in California like the first series; it was filmed at Universal Studios in Florida. 

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8. Leave It to Beaver debuted on CBS in 1957, then moved to ABC. 

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9. The most expensive episode in the series to produce was "In The Soup" from Season 4.

This is the episode where Beaver takes a dare to find out if there is really soup in the soup bowl on a billboard. He ends up falling into the bowl.

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10. There were 234 episodes produced of Leave It to Beaver. The revival series, The New Leave It to Beaver, had 101 episodes.

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Next: 

You'll Never Get Rich/The Phil Silvers Show AKA Sgt Bilko

1) This sitcom received eight Emmys during its run with three consecutive Emmys for best comedy series.

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2) Nat Hiken created, produced and wrote "The Phil Silvers/ Bilko Show".

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3. Ran for four seasons and 144 episodes were produced.

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4) Nat Hiken featured some up-and-coming young talent on "Bilko" who became big stars:

Dick Van Dyke, Alan Alda, George Kennedy and Fred Gwynne.