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Frederick Hobart Mertz, played by William Frawley, is a fictional character in the 1950s American sitcom I Love Lucy .
Fred was born and raised on a farm in the Midwest; in one episode, Ethel says that Fred's mother comes to visit once a year from Indiana. Fred is of Irish descent and has at least one brother. He toured the country in vaudeville before retiring to New York City.
He is a World War I veteran and is married to Ethel (Vivian Vance), and they often make fun of each other. Their wedding anniversary is May 3rd. Ethel often calls Fred a "fat old goat", and in return, Fred calls Ethel the "bottomless pit" due to her voracious appetite. Having been "wiped out" in the Great Depression, he is a penny pincher and gives Ethel very little money. Nevertheless, Fred always has the money when an investment opportunity comes along (e.g., diner purchase, oil stocks).
As a young man, Fred was in vaudeville with his friend Barney Kurtz, as the duo of "Mertz and Kurtz", known for "tap dancing, soft shoe and smart quips". Later, Fred continued in vaudeville with his wife, the former Ethel Potter. It is mentioned that he was once a Golden Gloves boxer, and Fred wears a sweater from Golden Gloves 1909 in one episode.
Eventually, Fred and Ethel retired from show business and bought a brownstone apartment building in New York City. In the early 1940s, Lucy and Ricky moved into the brownstone, and Fred, Ethel, Lucy, and Ricky quickly develop their friendship (the date of the Ricardos' tenancy changed during the duration of the series)[ citation needed ], with Fred and Ricky Ricardo becoming best friends, and Lucy and Ethel doing the same. Despite being retired from show business, Fred and Ethel guest on Ricky's show, if asked.
When Ricky does something to upset Lucy, she plots revenge and drags Ethel into her plan, often against her will. Ethel often tells Fred, who tells Ricky, and the two come up with their own plan to get even with their wives. Occasionally, it is Ethel who is away and Fred who is dragged into Lucy's scheme. Usually, Fred expresses his exasperation with a phrase: "Oh, for corn's sake."
The Fred Mertz character, the actor who portrayed him (William Frawley), and some of their costumes are memorialized in the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York (Lucille Ball's real-life hometown).
Fred was referenced in "The Apartment", a Season 2 episode of Seinfeld , when Jerry Seinfeld felt insecure about a loud neighbor living above him.
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III, known as Desi Arnaz, was a Cuban-American actor, musician, producer, and bandleader. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, in which he co-starred with his wife Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball are credited as the innovators of the syndicated rerun, which they pioneered with the I Love Lucy series.
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. The series starred Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley, and follows the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a young, middle-class housewife living in New York City, who often concocts plans with her best friends and landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz, to appear alongside her bandleader husband, Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz), in his nightclub. Lucy is depicted trying numerous schemes to mingle with and be a part of show business. After the series ended in 1957, a modified version of the show continued for three more seasons, with 13 one-hour specials, which ran from 1957 to 1960. It was first known as The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show, and later, in reruns, as The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.
William Clement Frawley was an American Vaudevillian and actor best known for playing landlord Fred Mertz in the sitcom I Love Lucy. Frawley also played "Bub" O'Casey during the first five seasons of the sitcom My Three Sons and the political advisor to the Hon. Henry X. Harper in the film Miracle on 34th Street.
Vivian Vance was an American actress best known for playing Ethel Mertz on the sitcom I Love Lucy (1951–1957), for which she won the 1953 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress, among other accolades. She also starred alongside Lucille Ball in The Lucy Show from 1962 until she left the series at the end of its third season in 1965. In 1991, she posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is most commonly identified as Lucille Ball’s longtime comedic foil from 1951 until her death in 1979.
The Lucy Show is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1962 to 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the fourth season (1965–1966) divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program for its second season, remained. For the first three seasons, Vivian Vance was the co-star.
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, better known as Desi Arnaz Jr., is an American retired actor and musician. He is the son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
"California, Here I Come" is a song interpolated in the Broadway musical Bombo, starring Al Jolson. The song was written by Bud DeSylva, Joseph Meyer, and Jolson. Jolson recorded the song on January 17, 1924, with Isham Jones' Orchestra, in Brunswick Records' Chicago studio. It is often called the unofficial state song of California. In 2020, it entered the public domain.
Ethel Mae Mertz , played by Vivian Vance, is one of the four main fictional characters in the highly popular 1950s American television sitcom I Love Lucy. Ethel is the middle-aged landlady of the main character, Lucy Ricardo, played by Lucille Ball. Ethel was most likely born about 1905, and was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is married to Fred Mertz, played by William Frawley, with whom she had a career in vaudeville. The two female characters are close friends, habitually scheming together; Ethel is generally the voice of reason as a counterpart to Lucy's harebrained ideas.
The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour is a collection of thirteen black-and-white one-hour specials airing occasionally from 1957 to 1960. The first five were shown as specials during the 1957–58 television season. The remaining eight were originally shown as part of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Its original network title was The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show for the first season, and Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Presents The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show for the following seasons. The successor to the classic comedy, I Love Lucy, the programs featured the same cast members: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, and Little Ricky. The production schedule avoided the grind of a regular weekly series.
"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" or "By the Light of the Silv'ry Moon" is a popular love song. The music was written by Gus Edwards, and the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1909 and first performed on stage by Lillian Lorraine in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was also used in the short-lived Broadway show Miss Innocence when it was sung by Frances Farr.
I Love Lucy is a 1953 American comedy film that is a spin-off of the sitcom I Love Lucy. Except for one test screening in Bakersfield, California, the film was never theatrically released and was shelved.
The Hollywood Knickerbocker Apartments, formerly the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel, is a historic former hotel, now retirement home, located at 1714 Ivar Avenue in Hollywood, California.
"Lucy Does a TV Commercial" is the 30th episode of the 1950s television sitcom I Love Lucy, airing on May 5, 1952. It is considered to be the most famous episode of the show. In 1997, TV Guide ranked it #2 on their list of the "100 Greatest Episodes of All Time". In 2009, they ranked it #4 on their list of "TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time." The initial episode was watched by 68% of the television viewing audience at the time.
Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, also known simply as Lucy and Ricky or the Ricardos, are fictional characters from the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, portrayed respectively by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The Ricardos also appear in The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, and Lucy also appears in one episode of The Ann Sothern Show.
Lucy is a 2003 television film directed by Glenn Jordan. It is based on the life and career of actress and comedian Lucille Ball. The film premiered on May 4, 2003, on CBS.
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by Time in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for her work in all four of these areas. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She earned many honors, including the Women in Film Crystal Award, an induction into the Television Hall of Fame, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
"Lucy and Superman" is an episode of the sitcom I Love Lucy, and was first broadcast on January 14, 1957 on CBS. The episode was written by Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf. Directed by James V. Kern, it is the 13th episode of the sixth season, and the 166th episode of the series.
"The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub" is the second filmed episode of I Love Lucy but the first one aired. Originally, "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her" was supposed to have been aired instead, as it was the first one filmed, but numerous production problems kept Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and others, who had a stake in the success of the program, from airing it until the problems had been fixed. Instead, it was determined that "The Girls Want to Go to the Nightclub" was a better product to introduce the American public to their program. It debuted on CBS on Monday, October 15, 1951 at 9:00 pm.
Enrique Alberto Ricardo IV, better known as Little Ricky, is a fictional character from the American television series I Love Lucy and The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour (1957–60). Little Ricky is the son of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Little Ricky lives with his parents in a New York brownstone apartment building, which is owned and run by his godparents. During the series' final season, the family moves to a suburban house in Westport, Connecticut.
Being the Ricardos is a 2021 American biographical drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, about the relationship between I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star as Ball and Arnaz, while J. K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg are featured in supporting roles.
