why i love lucy

lucille ball is my favorite actress and this month she's the star of the month on turner classic movies.

my love of lucy began my senior year of high school. my parents were going thru a divorce and i spent quite a bit of time with my aunt & uncle. my aunt would watch i love lucy every night on tvland and i'd watch along with her. it didn't matter how hard things were at the moment--lucy and ethel's antics would always crack me up. ever since, no matter how blue i'm feeling, lucy can cheer me up. i also find myself occasionally getting into a pickle that leaves someone saying i have some 'splainin' to do.

i became curious about her as i kept hearing snippets about her life and so i started reading books about her. when her autobiography was released, i received it for christmas and read it in a single setting. i learned not only was she quite beautiful and talented, she was also brilliant and savvy. she created the concept for the i love lucy show. when her marriage to desi ended, she became the first woman to head a studio...desilu productions--which produced star trek and the andy griffith show. she was a trailblazer in her industry.

but the two things i think i admire most about lucille ball is her tenacity and her capacity to love unconditionally. she persevered thru a variety of tough situations, being labeled a communist during the mccarthy hearings and nearly blacklisted not to mention her divorce from desi. and she loved dearly her mother and grandfather who raised her with some very strange and often harsh parenting styles. and despite their divorce, she and desi remained devoted to each other speaking to each other nearly every day until his death.

and so now you know why i love lucy... and in case you're wondering, my favorite episode of i love lucy is episode 113, l.a. at last, original airdate february 7, 1955 featuring guest star william holden. it's the one where lucy catches her fake nose on fire. i have a lucy doll based on this episode, complete with a fake nose with a burnt tip.