“I Love Lucy” was Sunday Night’s Number 1 Scripted Show, Nearly Twice as Many Viewers as “Mad Men”

Showbiz 411 ^ | May 19, 2015

[SMGFan]

Sunday night: Two reruns of “I Love Lucy” from the 1950s, colorized (objectionable, but ok whatever) scored the highest total viewers of all scripted shows that night.

“Lucy” had 6.4 million total viewers. That’s almost twice the very high “Mad Men” score of 3.3 million viewers on Sunday. That’s shows with scripts. The Billboard Music Awards had 11 million, and “60 Minutes” had 9 million.

But of all the other shows on TV Sunday night– Dateline, The Simpsons, Battle Creek– Lucy prevailed.

“Lucy” scored twice as many total viewers as Andy Samberg in “Brooklyn Nine Nine.”

[Larry - Moe and Curly]

“Lucy was a Red..”

Thought you may be interested in this. Transcript of Lucy’s interrogation by the House Un-American Activities committee.

https://www.archive.org/stream/investigationofc07unit/investigationofc07unit_djvu.txt

INVESTIGATION OF COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES IN THE
LOS ANGELES AREA-PART 7
HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

EIGHTY-THIRD CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

SEPTEMBER 4, 1953

Printed for the use of the Committee on Un-American Activities

INCLUDING INDEX

UNITED STATES
UOVEKNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
31747 WASHINGTON : 1953

Boston Public Library
Superintendent of Documents

H NOV 4 1S53

COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES

United States House of Representatives
HAROLD H. VELDE, Illinois, Chairman
BERNARD W. KEARNEY, New York FRANCIS E. WALTER, Pennsylvania

DONALD L. JACKSON, California MORGAN M. MOULDER, Missouri
KIT CLARDY, Michigan CLYDE DOYLE, California
GORDON H. SCHERER, Ohio JAMES B. FRAZIER, Jr., Tennessee
Robert L. Kunzig, Counsel
Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., Counsel
Louis J. Russell, Chief Investigator
Thomas W. Beale, Sr., Chief Clerk
Raphael I. Nixon, Director of Research

II

CONTENTS

September 4, 1953 :

Statement of— Page

Lucille Desiree Ball Arnaz 2561

[Borges]

Lucille Ball was the head of the studio when she OK’ed the production of ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘Star Trek’.

[Nero Germanicus]

Coincidentally, Marlo Thomas was on CNBC yesterday talking about transitioning from the entertainment industry to businesswoman-entrepreneur.

[discostu]

Yeah so? AMC has built their empire on niche shows. They’ve learned that in a nation of 311 million people it takes a very small percentage to be profitable. Especially under the cable model which includes very low overhead and LOTS of reruns.

[greene66]

Might have been interesting to see if I still recognized her. I saw Stephanie Powers interviewed on tv about a year ago, and for the life of me, didn’t recognize her!

[discostu]

They were never going to kill him. The credit sequence was a metaphor for Don’s final arc. In it he starts in his chair master of what he surveys, “falls” past the advertising he’s unleashed upon the world, and lands back in his chair master of what he surveys. In the show he freaks out about life in McCann, drives across the country running into much of what he has wrought, and invents one of the iconic commercials of the 20th century.

[Gator113]

She was remarkable in so many ways.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Lucy was funny like clowns are funny, which is, they aren't.

She never seemed human to me. Still doesn't.

But Ricky should have let her go to the club. At least once.

[Nero Germanicus]

I did not recognize Marlo Thomas yesterday. I assumed lots of plastic surgery was the reason.

[brichard]

She admitted no such thing. She admitted signing that document, she did not admit to being a communist. Why are you trying to stir up crap? You might want to read a little on U.S. history and you’ll realize that there was no cold war in 1936, and being affiliated with the Communist Party at that time was no big deal, and no threat to anyone. Lucille Ball was not a political person at all and did this in 1936 to calm her eccentric grandfather. The House Un-American Activities Committee investigated her in 1953 and cleared her completely. They found no other involvement by her with the Communist Party. And she devoted much of her time in the 1940s to helping the war effort on behalf of the U.S. Her husband at that time was serving in our military. Ronald Reagan was a close friend of Lucille Ball’s, right up until her death. You know the old sayings, “you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep” and “guilt by association.” Was Ronald Reagan a communist, too?