Lucy’s Legacy: How Lucille Ball Shaped Modern Pop Culture

When you hear the name, Lucille Ball, you immediately think of an effervescent redhead pulling wacky faces and making everyone in America laugh. However, Ball was more than just America’s favorite comedienne. She was a television pioneer and her artistic and business decisions have shaped the entire landscape of 21st century pop culture.

Sure, it’s easy to see how Lucille Ball’s comedy stylings influenced the likes of Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. However, she also was the first women to head a major television production company. She and husband Desi Arnaz founded Desilu, which didn’t just back I Love Lucy. Desilu is also the studio that gave us The Dick Van Dyke show, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. In fact, Lucille Ball was the person who pushed behind-the-scenes to make Star Trek and Mission: Impossible actually happen.  J. J. Abrams might actually owe his Star Wars: Episode VII directing gig to Ball since he got the job on the strength of his work on Mission: Impossible 3 and the Star Trek film reboot.

Lucille Ball made other creative choices that have had irrevocable repercussions on the cultural landscape. CBS balked when Ball wanted to cast Desi Arnaz as her onscreen husband in I Love Lucy. You know, it had something to do with the fact that she was white and he was Cuban and people are terrible. Ball stuck to her guns, however, and gave television one of its first interracial couples. When Ball got pregnant, she worked it into the show and appeared pregnant on camera. So, when you see Kerry Washington making out with Tony Goldwyn on Scandal (or if you saw her wearing baggy clothes to hide her pregnancy), you’re seeing Lucille Ball’s influence. People can make out with people of different races and pregnant women can keep their jobs as actresses!

So, in honor of what would have been Lucille Ball’s 103rd birthday, let’s toast to the fact that her legacy will never die.