Lucie Arnaz says a senior CBS executive responded to her reminder about I Love Lucy‘s 75th anniversary by asking, “Oh, do we own that show?”
The daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz recounted the exchange in a Facts Verse interview published September 26, 2026. She described her lunch companion as someone high up at the network but declined to identify him.
The sitcom reached its anniversary on October 15, having premiered on CBS that day in 1951. Its original run lasted six seasons and produced 180 episodes before ending in 1957.
Ball and Arnaz played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, with Vivian Vance and William Frawley as their friends and landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz.
She Says the Executive Called Back With Plans for a Special
The executive had initially expressed surprise at how old the series was, Arnaz recalled, when she asked what the network planned to do. Paramount‘s licensing website lists I Love Lucy among the CBS Studios and CBS Broadcasting entertainment libraries.
About a week after the lunch, Arnaz said, the executive contacted her with an idea, an anniversary broadcast special followed by two colorized episodes, which she could help select. She welcomed the offer.
By the time the interview was recorded, however, she had received no further call. As quoted by Parade, she acknowledged the network might still have plans: “For all I know maybe they are doing something.”
Parade reported on October 13 that CBS’s published primetime schedule for the anniversary night listed its regular series, including Elsbeth.
Arnaz Says Forgiveness Keeps Viewers Coming Back
For the anniversary, Arnaz shared a clip from her 2011 Television Academy interview, writing, “Happy 75 years I Love Lucy. You’re still lookin’ great!!!”
In the archival conversation, she described the sitcom’s central appeal as “unconditional love.” Lucy could create enormous trouble, but someone would still forgive her and care about her when the episode ended. As Entertainment Weekly reported, Arnaz believed viewers wanted the same freedom to make mistakes and still be loved.
She Honored the Writers Who Made Lucy’s Schemes Work
In a separate anniversary post, Arnaz shared an interview with writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh Davis. She praised their scripts and her mother’s ability to perform the material. Her tribute also honored writer-producer Jess Oppenheimer and her father.
The Television Academy recorded Carroll and Davis’s joint interview in November 1997. They discussed their earlier work on Ball’s radio comedy My Favorite Husband, their move into television and the development of scenes such as the candy-factory sequence.
Unseen Photographs and an Early Script Are Being Preserved
On the anniversary, the National Comedy Center announced a preservation project involving Arnaz’s family company, Desilu, Too. Hundreds of previously unseen backstage photographs are being digitized, including images of the cast, writers, crew and visitors to the set.
Arnaz said the photographs and negatives had spent years in boxes. The collection also includes 35mm prints that her parents owned for private screenings.
An early pilot draft came from Carroll’s collection through his daughter, Christina. It dates from a stage when the production was called The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Show and its central couple were named Lucy and Larry Lopez.
The museum will also spotlight 75 artifacts on social media, including Ball’s blue polka-dot dress and a straw hat Desi wore for musical numbers.
A new exhibition featuring selections from the collection is planned for 2027 at the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum in Jamestown, New York.