"I Love Lucy"
"They call me Sally Sweet I'm the Queen of Delancy Street When I start to dance everything goes chick-chicky-boom Chick-chicky-boom"
I love Lucy, literally, and that was the beginning of her part in the Cuban Pete scene of I Love Lucy's chapter "The Diet" . In that chapter Lucy tries everything at hand to lose weight with Ethel's help to be able to act with her husband Ricky Ricardo on his musical number (no further spoiler). Of course the plot of this episode, and all the others (sexism of the time aside) show the inmense talent of Lucille Ball as a comedian.
"I Love Lucy" hit the 50s and became, if not the first sitcom, the one that set the bases for all the sitcoms that aired even decades after it. The idea of the show came from the radio comedy My Favorite Husband in which Lucille interpreted a housewife of "extravagant methods" but the TV show had one indispensable condition set by Lucille to starr I Love Lucy, her fiction husband had to be her real husband, Desi Arnaz, and the reason, to try to save their 10 year marriage in ruins due to the little time they spent together and Desi's infidelities...
... and while the producers weren't so sure of the reception that could had a marriage between the cuban Desi and the american Lucille at that time, people loved it and I Love Lucy became an awarded complete success! They complemented each other in the screen and had a wonderful chemistry with their supporting character's actors Vivian Vance and William Frawley, the episodes were filmed on a set with public per request of Lucy and that public would laugh at the scenes of a Desi who mixed his native spanish with english and the hilarious Lucy so they could avoid the canned laughters.
They eventually founded Desilu Studios, producer of series like Star Trek but the incredible success of the couple and their two children weren't enough to save their marriage that ended in 1960. Few years later Lucille bought Desi his part of the company, nonetheless they remained close the rest of their lifes.
Definitely Lucy and Ricky Ricardo gained the hearts of generations of americans and many people all over the world for years to come, so much, that Mattel dedicated an entire Barbie collector line with facemolds of Frederick Jackson, the sculptor of the stars at the company, conmemorating the most celebrated moments of Lucy with Ricky and Ethel on the screen of I Love Lucy.
"How was I Love Lucy born? We decided that instead of divorce lawyers profiting from our mistakes, we’d profit from them.” Lucille Ball