Episode Details

Lucille Ball was a failed B-movie actress who became the most powerful woman in television history. She co-founded Desilu Productions, pioneered the three-camera sitcom format, greenlit both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, and did it all while the industry assumed a woman could not run a studio.

This episode traces Ball from her difficult childhood through her years as a Hollywood contract player, the creation of I Love Lucy, and her transformation from comedian to executive at a time when neither role was supposed to be available to women.

• I Love Lucy pioneered the three-camera setup and live studio audience format still used in sitcoms today
• Desilu Productions greenlit Star Trek and Mission: Impossible when no other studio would touch them
• She was the first woman to run a major television production studio
• Her real-life pregnancy was written into I Love Lucy, a first for American television