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cbs<\/p>\nYou would think that major sports events or major new coverage of socio-political milestones would be the biggest things in television \u2013 and you would be wrong. Big moments in pop culture have stolen the zeitgeist like no other events in history, and one of the biggest examples occurred 73 years ago on this day. <\/p>\n
On January 20, 1953, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower was sworn into office However, that televised Inauguration event could beat out the ratings of another event that had been televised the night before, on January 19, 1953: I Love Lucy\u2018s milestone baby birth episode, which not only changed the landscape of TV, but also changed the lives of the stars behind the show, forever. <\/p>\n
I Love Lucy\u2019s \u201cLucy Goes to the Hospital\u201d Episode First Aired 73 Years Ago, Today<\/p>\n
cbs<\/p>\n
Lucy Goes to the Hospital was Episode 16 in Season 2 of I Love Lucy. The story saw titular character Lucy Ricardo (comedic actress Lucille Ball in real life) go through a hilariously chaotic journey of having her water break, and having to take a mad dash journey to the hospital, with the supporting cast of husband Ricky (Desi Arnaz Jr.) and friends, all finding their carefully rehearsed plans going to shambles, while poor Lucy just tries to stay calm. By the end of the episode, Lucy and Ricky left the hospital with their newborn baby. <\/p>\n
\u201cLucy Goes to the Hospital\u201d was watched by 44 million viewers, which was more than the 29 million who watched Eisenhower being inaugurated. By analyst estimates, I Love Lucy captured the attention of 73.9% of all American homes and television sets. That still makes it one of the biggest events ever in America popculture history; the viewership percentage for \u201cLucy Goes to the Hospital\u201d was only bested by Elvis Presley\u2019s first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show three years later in 1956, which still holds the record with 82.6% of American households tuning in. But while Elvis just gave a milestone musical performance, Lucille Ball (and Co.) had done so much more\u2026<\/p>\n
I Love Lucy\u2018s Baby Birth Was An Unprecedented Mix of Real Life & TV<\/p>\n
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CBS<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just a TV character storyline that drew in most of America: It was the real-life event that was actually taking place onscreen. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Jr. were a real-life married couple who already had one daughter, Lucie D\u00e9sir\u00e9e Arnaz, and were expecting a second child, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, while I Love Lucy\u2018s second season was airing. The couple made the groundbreaking decision to write the pregnancy into the second season, which was a very tricky thing to pull off, given the very strict censorship rules in place at the time. Certain depictions of pregnancy or even mentioning the word \u201cpregnancy\u201d were forbidden (the word \u201cexpecting\u201d was used); Ball, Arnaz, and the show\u2019s executives had to get the entire storyline approved by multiple religious figures to guarantee there would be no controversial offenses. <\/p>\n
They obviously walked the tightrope, filmed the episode in November of 1952, and on January 19, 1953, \u201cLucy Goes to the Hospital\u201d aired in its primetime slot on CBS. Meanwhile, earlier that day, Lucille Ball actually delivered her son in Los Angeles via a scheduled C-section birth. The synergy between real life and the events of the show had never been seen before.<\/p>\n
It was a milestone first for TV sitcoms and the medium of television in general, and many later shows would follow I Love Lucy\u2018s example by making real-life births part of the show. In fact, TV\u2019s current longest-running sticom, It\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia did its own twisted ode to I Love Lucy with its Season 6 finale episode \u201cDee Gives Birth\u201d, which saw series leads Rob McElhenney (Welcome to Wrexham) and Kaitlin Olson (High Potential) celebrate the birth of one of their two sons through a seasonal pregancy storyline that culmiated in Olson\u2019s character, Dee, giving birth (for all the wrong reasons).<\/p>\n
Good luck finding five people on a crowded street who can tell you what the Eisenhower inauguration was all about. <\/p>\n