‘Lucy and Desi’: Everything to Know About the Amazon Prime Video Documentary Surrounding Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

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‘Lucy and Desi’: Everything to Know About the Amazon Prime Video Documentary Surrounding Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

Hollywood icons! Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s boundary-breaking relationship and career evolution is the subject of Amazon Prime Video’s Lucy and Desi documentary. The film, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival last month, focuses on how the I Love Lucy stars were able to change the game in Hollywood throughout their interracial marriage and years as comedy geniuses. "Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz risked everything to be together. Their love for each other led to the most influential show in the history of television, I Love Lucy,” the documentary logline reads. Arnaz, who was an immigrant from Cuba, became a bandleader and eventual producer and “technical pioneer” amid his marriage to Ball. According to the movie’s synopsis, the New York native, who came from a humble background before starting her modeling career, “found her calling in comedy,” first in radio and then on television. “When Lucille was finally granted the opportunity to have her own show, she insisted that her real-life spouse, Desi, be cast as her husband,” the description concludes. “Defying the odds, they reinvented the medium, on screen and behind the cameras." While the power couple divorced in 1960 after 20 years of marriage, their production company, Desilu Productions, and shared success as both actors and showrunners didn’t end when they split. [embed]https://youtu.be/8Ab9IshCs1s[/embed] The twosome each found love for a second time, with Ball tying the knot with Gary Morton in 1961. The couple were together until her death in 1989. Arnaz, who died in 1986, was married to Edith Hirsch from 1963 until she passed away in 1985. “Lucy and Desi really stayed in each other’s lives and hearts and worked together and were with each other until the very end. And we say in the film, they both went on to have very successful, long-lasting second marriages,” producer Amy Poehler said in January during an interview for Variety’s Virtual Sundance Studio. “[But] we grew up with this feeling that as bad as things get ruptured — as much as Lucy screws up, as much as Ricky doesn’t understand what’s going on, as bad as the pillow fight is or the burnt roast — it’s gonna be OK.” She added: “And so it was really beautiful to know that, in their own complicated and much more human and real way, Lucy and Desi hung in there together.” The Wine Country actress, 50, gushed over her film’s main subjects, noting how important it was to bring Ball and Arnaz’s story back to life. "One of the goals was to use Lucy and Desi's relationship as a structure in which to remind people that when you use terms like icons and legends … that there are people behind it,” Poehler explained. “Lucy and Ricky were characters, and Lucy and Desi were people." Scroll down to learn more about Amazon Prime Video’s Lucy and Desi: [podcast_block]

Credit: Kobal/Shutterstock

‘Lucy and Desi’: Everything to Know About the Amazon Prime Video Documentary Surrounding Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

Hollywood icons! Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s boundary-breaking relationship and career evolution is the subject of Amazon Prime Video’s Lucy and Desi documentary. The film, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival last month, focuses on how the I Love Lucy stars were able to change the game in Hollywood throughout their interracial marriage and years as comedy geniuses. "Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz risked everything to be together. Their love for each other led to the most influential show in the history of television, I Love Lucy,” the documentary logline reads. Arnaz, who was an immigrant from Cuba, became a bandleader and eventual producer and “technical pioneer” amid his marriage to Ball. According to the movie’s synopsis, the New York native, who came from a humble background before starting her modeling career, “found her calling in comedy,” first in radio and then on television. “When Lucille was finally granted the opportunity to have her own show, she insisted that her real-life spouse, Desi, be cast as her husband,” the description concludes. “Defying the odds, they reinvented the medium, on screen and behind the cameras." While the power couple divorced in 1960 after 20 years of marriage, their production company, Desilu Productions, and shared success as both actors and showrunners didn’t end when they split. [embed]https://youtu.be/8Ab9IshCs1s[/embed] The twosome each found love for a second time, with Ball tying the knot with Gary Morton in 1961. The couple were together until her death in 1989. Arnaz, who died in 1986, was married to Edith Hirsch from 1963 until she passed away in 1985. “Lucy and Desi really stayed in each other’s lives and hearts and worked together and were with each other until the very end. And we say in the film, they both went on to have very successful, long-lasting second marriages,” producer Amy Poehler said in January during an interview for Variety’s Virtual Sundance Studio. “[But] we grew up with this feeling that as bad as things get ruptured — as much as Lucy screws up, as much as Ricky doesn’t understand what’s going on, as bad as the pillow fight is or the burnt roast — it’s gonna be OK.” She added: “And so it was really beautiful to know that, in their own complicated and much more human and real way, Lucy and Desi hung in there together.” The Wine Country actress, 50, gushed over her film’s main subjects, noting how important it was to bring Ball and Arnaz’s story back to life. "One of the goals was to use Lucy and Desi's relationship as a structure in which to remind people that when you use terms like icons and legends … that there are people behind it,” Poehler explained. “Lucy and Ricky were characters, and Lucy and Desi were people." Scroll down to learn more about Amazon Prime Video’s Lucy and Desi: [podcast_block]

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Who Is In It?

Ball and Arnaz are the main characters in the film, as it includes footage from their lives together. The documentary features interviews with the couple’s kids, Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill and Desi Arnaz Jr., as well as Bette Midler, Carol Burnett, Laura LaPlaca, Eduardo Machado, Charo, Journey Gunderson, Gregg Oppenheimer, David Daniels and Norman Lear.

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What’s It About?

Lucy and Desi explores the “unlikely partnership and enduring legacy of one of the most prolific power couples in entertainment history,” the logline reads, noting that Ball and Arnaz “risked everything to be together.”

Credit: Todd Williamson/January

How Amy Poehler Is Involved

The Parks and Recreation alum is the director of the 2022 documentary. Poehler and writer Mark Monroe served as producers alongside Michael Rosenberg, Justin Wilkes, Jeanne Elfant Festa and Nigel Sincalir.

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Where Can You Watch?

Lucy and Desi begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video Friday, March 4.

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What We Learned From the Trailer

A teaser released in February gave viewers a glimpse of the highs and lows in Ball and Arnaz’s relationship. “Work became our whole life,” Ball says in an audio tape featured in the movie. “You see, when we worked, we were happy.”

The late comedian explains that there was a “lot of witch-hunting” when it came to her alleged political views in the 1950s and negative thoughts about her marrying a Cuban man, despite I Love Lucy’s success.

At one point, Ball claims, “I’m not a funny person,” before pointing out the cracks in the former couple’s relationship both on and off camera. Arnaz comments on his own work ethic, noting, “The show was one of the most wonderful things to happen in my life,” even though it was very time consuming.

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Get to Know Lucille Ball

Ball changed the face of comedy during her career, having won five Emmy Awards and earning two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She started her career on Broadway in the late 1920s before making her way to film in the 1930s. After marrying Arnaz in 1940, the couple joined forces to create I Love Lucy, which ran from 1951 to 1957.

Ball’s Hollywood success only grew as she continued to star in and produce hit after hit. She helmed her own series The Lucy Show from 1962 to 1968 and Here’s Lucy from 1968 to 1974. The Yours, Mine and Ours actress served as an executive producer on all of her shows, in addition to The Greatest Show on Earth, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible to name a few.

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Get to Know Desi Arnaz

The Cuban-American actor rose to fame while costarring in and coproducing I Love Lucy with Ball from 1951 to 1957. The pair, who divorced in 1960 after 20 years of marriage, cofounded the TV production company Desilu Productions.

Outside of his acting and producing projects, Arnaz was a bandleader for the Latin group The Desi Arnaz Orchestra. He had 66 producer credits to his name and six directing accolades, including The Mothers-In-Law series, before his death in 1986.

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Lucy and Desi’s Legacy

The exes welcomed their daughter, Lucie, in July 1951. Their son, Desi Jr., was born in January 1953. Both of their kids went into the family business of acting and producing. They each served as executive producer’s for 2021’s Being the Ricardos starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem.