“I Love Lucy,” the groundbreaking comedy that set the standard for modern-day sitcoms, challenged traditional broadcast standards and pioneered technological innovations and the concept of syndication, will receive the Television Academy’s inaugural Legacy Award, the academy announced Tuesday.
The newly created award honors a program “that’s made a profound and generational impact on audiences and remains relevant to society, culture and the industry today,” according to the academy. The award will be presented on the second night of this year’s three-night Emmy Awards ceremonies, on Sept. 6.
“`I Love Lucy’ truly helped define what television could be,” Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy, said in a statement. “Beyond its place in television and cultural history as one of the medium’s most beloved shows, its creative ambition, technical innovation and groundbreaking approach to the business of television established a blueprint that continues to influence our industry 75 years later. We are proud to celebrate a series whose impact is so enduring as the first recipient of the Television Academy’s Legacy Award.”
Starring Lucille Ball and real-life husband Desi Arnaz, “I Love Lucy” premiered on CBS in 1951 and quickly became one of television’s most popular comedies. With Arnaz at the producing helm, the show pioneered the use of three-camera filming in front of a live studio audience. According to the Television Academy, the show also broke barriers by being the first to feature a “dual ethnicity couple” on network television, and the first to show a pregnant woman on screen.
The academy noted that the 1953 episode in which Lucy gives birth to “Little Ricky” drew 44 million viewers, “more than the television audience for President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration the following day.”
Ball and Arnaz also exchanged salary cuts for ownership of the show’s negatives, which allowed them to show replays of the episodes — “singlehandedly inventing television syndication” and creating the “blueprint for residuals.”
The show won two Emmy awards for best situation comedy series, while Ball won two Emmys for best comedy series actress. She was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984 and received the academy’s Governors Award in 1989. Arnaz was inducted into the academy’s Hall of Fame in 1991.
In a statement, the TV Academy noted that “more than seven decades after its debut, `I Love Lucy’ remains one of the most beloved and influential series in television history.”
The 78th Emmy Awards will be presented over three nights — Sept. 5-6, with the main broadcast Sept. 14 on NBC.