Last Updated: March 28, 1998
Formatted by: Ted Nesi
Provided by: LucyLova@aol.com

One day, Desi Arnaz walked me off the set so we could be alone. I could see that, whatever the news, it could only be bad. Swallowing hard, he said: "We just came from the doctor. Lucy's going to have a baby." He looked at me for answers to questions: What could we do? How long would we have to be off the air? How much would it hurt the show? Without thinking twice, I said: "Congratulations! This is wonderful. It's just what we needed to give us excitement in our second season. Lucy Ricardo will have a baby too."

Desi rushed off to tell Lucy she was going to have two babies, while I started wondering whether I shouldn't have thought twice before making that decision.  I immediately had a conference with Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr., who write I Love Lucy with me. We finally decided that although it had never been done before, we could tackle the job of a pregnancy on TV. We felt certain we could extract all the inherent humor from the situation while staying well within the bounds of good taste. To further insure that we offend no one, I arranged for a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister and a Jewish rabbi to approve the scripts and see the shows filmed.

The sex of the television baby was another problem. Normally, one merely waits and lets nature decide, but in doing the series, we were faced with a complicated technical problem. We thought of filming duplicate scenes with a boy and a girl and then at the last moment, incorporating into the film the one which corresponded to Lucy's real baby. Then I ventured the opinion t   that, as Lucy Ricardo would not have the same name as Lucille Ball's baby, it needn't have the same sex. Desi agreed.

"Look," he said, "Lucy gave me one girl, she might give me another. This is my only chance to be sure I get a son. You give me a boy on TV."  So it was done.

News of the baby's birth was flashed over every wire service.  Broadcasts were interrupted. It was announced in schools. Seven minutes after Lucy had her baby it was broadcast in Japan--and in many other countries where people have never seen I Love Lucy. That's the magic of Lucy. The things that happen to the Ricardos happen to everyone in the audience. We call it 'holding up the mirror.' Whatever happens, they love each other.

Lucy and Desi are not going to use their real baby on TV. One of the qualities that helps you like them so much is that they are real people and they want to give their children a good, wholesome, normal childhood, not subject them to the physical hardships of working before cameras and to the emotional strain of being celebrities. They also realize that there would be added psychological problems, if they used Desi, IV, without including little Lucie Desiree. It would complicate the baby sister relationships to have one a TV star and not the other.

The role of baby Ricky will be permanent and important on I Love Lucy. The audience will see Lucy and Ricky struggling through the exasperating, wonderful problems experienced by parents everywhere--from pacing the floor with the crying child, getting up for the two o'clock feeding, through teething, first steps, first words and on and on until, one day, maybe we'll see little Ricky marching off to school.