--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: I Love Lucy image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d4a50f0cc37cec5/69869f26810bbbb0edc92f84/t100_tv_i-love-lucy1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 12, 2014 # _I Love Lucy_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett The sitcom that by now is almost a synonym for “classic” got that way by doing all the things that everyone at the time knew you weren’t supposed to do. You couldn’t have a female star who was both attractive and funny. You couldn’t have her male lead be an urban Latino—playing those devil conga drums at that!—whose Cuban accent was thicker than a platter of ropa vieja. You couldn’t for God’s sake build a storyline around a (gasp!) pregnancy. Lucille Ball’s contributions to TV’s past are so obvious—Vitameatavegamin, the Tropicana Club, the slapstick routines—that it’s better to note what this show says about today’s future: sometimes the greatest sign of a future-classic TV show is that it doesn’t look like classic TV. [Get This TV Series](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007TKH16/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103604/i-love-lucy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103604/i-love-lucy/"},"headline":"I Love Lucy","datePublished":"2014-08-12T14:29:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:23.904Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103604/i-love-lucy/","keywords":["Comedy","Family","Sitcom"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d4a50f0cc37cec5/69869f26810bbbb0edc92f84/t100_tv_i-love-lucy1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d4a50f0cc37cec5/69869f26810bbbb0edc92f84/t100_tv_i-love-lucy1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103604/i-love-lucy/","name":"I Love Lucy"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"I Love Lucy","description":"Lucille Ball's contributions to TV's past are so obvious that it's better to note what this show says about today's future: sometimes the greatest sign of a future-classic TV show is that it doesn't look like classic TV.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Hr3vdZ0D/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T19:13:48.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Hr3vdZ0D.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103604/i-love-lucy/","duration":"PT34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103604/i-love-lucy/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```