Wagon Train
1957
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Oct 25, 2018 · This week's video is a guest star spotlight on Barbara Pepper, who appeared ten times on "I Love Lucy." Learn more about her!
- 12 min
- 3.7K
- KJ Ricardo
A long-time friend of Lucille Ball, Pepper was first considered for the role of Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy, but was passed over, purportedly due to the fact that she had a drinking problem. William Frawley ("Fred Mertz") did, likewise, and already had been cast.
May 31, 2020 · In 1944, Pepper met actor Craig Reynolds on the set of the film The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry and the two married in 1945. They had two sons together. After Bea Benadaret proved unavailable, Pepper was one of Lucy’s top choices to play Ethel Mertz. There was concern, however, about her drinking.
- Kara Kovalchik
- 3 min
- CBS DIDN’T THINK AMERICANS WOULD BUY THAT LUCY WAS MARRIED TO A “FOREIGN” MAN. When CBS approached Lucille Ball with the offer of turning her popular radio show My Favorite Husband into a television show, she was agreeable with one condition: that her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz, would be cast in the role of her spouse (played on the radio by Richard Denning).
- LUCY AND DESI HAD TO TAKE THEIR SHOW ON THE ROAD TO CONVINCE THE NETWORK BRASS. Arnaz had a successful career touring the country with his rhumba band, which was one of the reasons Lucille wanted him to get cast as her TV husband—to keep him off the road and close to home.
- THE SHOW BROKE GROUND IN SEVERAL WAYS, SIMPLY BECAUSE THE ARNAZES WOULDN’T MOVE TO NEW YORK. Lucille and Desi wanted to work in Los Angeles, near their home and their new baby daughter Lucie.
- ONLY LUCY WAS ALLOWED TO MAKE FUN OF RICKY’S FRACTURED ENGLISH. After a few episodes were filmed, it became an unwritten rule that only Lucy would ever poke fun at her husband’s pronunciation problems.
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning six seasons.
Over the years, Barbara would be glimpsed several times on I Love Lucy (1951), including the classic episode "Friends of the Friendless" and as a frightened hospital nurse who is taken aback by Ricky Ricardo's severe voodoo make-up when Lucy gives birth to Little Ricky.
I Love Lucy (1951–1957) Barbara Pepper: Party Guest, Chorus Girl, Customer in dress shop, Friends of the Friendless Member, Neighbor, Nurse, Voice of the Woman in 4B, Woman in Butcher Shop, Woman on Bus
