Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentOn June 29, 1966, CBS had an internal debate over its morning programming: Whether to cut to a news conference about a turning point in the Vietnam war — the U.S.
bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong — or to air a decade-old “I Love Lucy” rerun. They decided to stick with “Lucy.”The sitcom, which ran 1951-57, is more than beloved: It’s become part of our collective unconscious.
The word “iconic” is overused, but it certainly applies to “I Love Lucy.”So it was an act of daring for writer-director Aaron Sorkin, stars Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem and the team to center their Oscar-worthy film, Amazon’s “Being the Ricardos,” around the show and its creators.What drew him to the project? “A few things,” Sorkin says, “but mostly the contrast between the real people and the people you see on TV.
And the fact that people even today have such an intense relationship with Lucy and Desi — except it’s really with Lucy and Ricky Ricardo; audiences just think it’s with Lucy and Desi.”“The structure I came up with, having it all take place during the production of an episode of ‘I Love Lucy,’ got me excited.
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