The First ‘I Love Lucy’…The Photo And The Video
The First ‘I Love Lucy’…The Photo And The Video
Although “Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Murder Her” was the fourth episode to air, it was actually the first one shot. The film date was September 8, 1951 and the air date, November 5.
This photo was probably taken on September 7, a day before dress rehearsal. Being the first show, a lot of initial blocking was needed as was wardrobe planning. They wanted to do the show without stopping and this meant Lucy and others had to wear layers of clothes for quick changes.
In this episode, Lucy only has one costume, but in the second and third, there are several changes which she wore in layers, but that stopped after the third episode and they would stop for changes. Pickups were few and usually done at the end.
Great photo. Amazing that they used 3 of these massive Mitchell BNC camera rigs shooting simultaneously moving from angle to angle without colliding or getting in each other’s frame. They could only film in 11 minute segments, including roll-up to speed and slates, because a standard fully loaded 1000′ magazine (as shown here) only ran for 11 minutes then would have to be reloaded. So the blocking of the camera crews was as critical as the blocking of the actors. Ingenious.