Vitameatavegamin Painting

"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. Plot: Ricky (Desi Arnaz) is given an opportunity to host a television show and is notified that he needs to find a girl to do a commercial spot for one of their sponsors. Lucy (Lucille Ball) begs Ricky to let her do the commercial, but he refuses. Lucy asks Fred (William Frawley) to assist her in a scheme to get Ricky to watch her on television. When Ricky returns home from his band rehearsal, she is behind the TV screen - inside the set's empty body - doing a mock commercial as Johnny, the bellhop of Phillip Morris fame. Ricky, disliking the stunt, goes behind the set and plugs the cord back into its outlet, which sets off a minor explosion behind Lucy. Ricky discovers that she has taken each part of the television set out, piece by piece (rather than sliding the whole chassis out), so that she could fit into the box. The following morning, Lucy avoids Ricky. Ricky asks Fred if he can wait for a telephone call from the girl willing to do the commercial to tell her the time and studio. After Ricky leaves, Lucy tells Fred she will deliver the message instead. When the girl calls, Lucy tells her she is not needed for the commercial and proceeds to takes her place. The director of the commercial (Ross Elliot) explains to Lucy their sales pitch regarding the "Vitameatavegamin" health tonic. What both Lucy and the director are unaware of - but what the propman (Jerry Hausner) realizes to his shock - is that the tonic contains 23% alcohol. Lucy begins her first take; takes a sip of the tonic which clearly tastes terrible, as evidenced by her grimace. After a few more practice runs, Lucy becomes intoxicated and her speech becomes comically slurred. The director asks the propman to take her to her dressing room to rest until the commercial goes live. When the television show begins, Ricky sings "El Relicario", but Lucy comes out from backstage and staggers toward Ricky. She sways, waves to the camera, starts singing along with Ricky, and repeats her sales pitch in the middle of his singing despite Ricky's attempts to keep her offscreen. Ricky desperately carries her off the stage. Notes: In later reruns, the scene where Lucy is in a broken television set doing "The Lucy Ricardo Show" edited out the sponsor she announced, Philip Morris, which was sponsoring I Love Lucy at the time. (Tobacco advertisements were banned from broadcast television beginning in 1971.) The DVD release, as well as the colorized episode, restore this. The Vitameatavegamin was originally 11% alcohol, but was increased to 23% on the show. The bottle from which Lucille Ball was at first pouring the tonic, and later drinking from directly, actually contained apple pectin. Vivian Vance, who plays Ethel on the series, is absent from this episode. Fred says that Ethel was going to see her mother. The central sketch had originally been created by Red Skelton and had been part of his vaudeville routine since the 1930s. Skelton granted Ball permission to use it in I Love Lucy. As of 2017, the dress Ball wore while doing rehearsals for the commercial is now found in the closet of actress Laura Dern The word "Vitameatavegamin" has since become a shorthand for this episode and for the I Love Lucy show in general. In 2011, more than 900 Lucille Ball lookalikes gathered under a "Vitameatavegamin" sign to honor Ball's 100th birthday, setting a world record for the most Lucy lookalikes in one place. Also in 2011, a talking Lucy doll was produced which recites lines from this episode. In the April 9, 2020 episode of Will & Grace, Debra Messing recreated the scene. 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 show starred Lucille Ball, her then real-life husband Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. It followed the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a young middle-class housewife in New York City, who either concocted plans with her best friends Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vance and Frawley) to appear alongside her bandleader husband Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz) in his nightclub, or tried numerous schemes to mingle with, or be a part of show business. After the series ended in 1957, a modified version continued for three more seasons with 13 one-hour specials; it 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. I Love Lucy became the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and it was the first to end its run at the top of the Nielsen ratings (an accomplishment later matched only by The Andy Griffith Show in 1968 and Seinfeld in 1998). As of 2011, episodes of the show have been syndicated in dozens of languages across the world and remain popular with an American audience of 40 million each year. A colorized version of its Christmas episode attracted more than 8 million viewers when CBS aired it in prime time in 2013, 62 years after the show premiered; CBS has aired two to three colorized episodes each year since then, once at Christmas and again in the spring. The show, which was the first scripted television program to be shot on 35mm film in front of a studio audience, by cinematographer Karl Freund, won five Emmy Awards and received numerous nominations and honors. It was the first show to feature an ensemble cast. It is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms in history. In 2012, it was voted the 'Best TV Show of All Time' in a survey conducted by ABC News and People magazine. Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, model, studio executive and producer. As one of Hollywood’s greatest icons, and arguably the most iconic female entertainer of all time, she was the star and producer of sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, as well as comedy television specials aired under the title The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. She is also the first female head of a major Hollywood studio, Desilu Productions, which she also owned. Ball's career began in 1929 when she landed work as a model. Shortly thereafter, she began her performing career on Broadwayusing the stage name Diane (or Dianne) Belmont. She later appeared in several minor film roles in the 1930s and 1940s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures, being cast as a chorus girl or in similar roles. During this time, she met Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, and the two eloped in November 1940. In the 1950s, Ball ventured into television. In 1951, she and Arnaz created the sitcom I Love Lucy, a series that became one of the most beloved programs in television history. The same year, Ball gave birth to their first child, Lucie Arnaz, followed by Desi Arnaz Jr. in 1953. Ball and Arnaz divorced in May 1960, and she married comedian Gary Morton in 1961. Following the end of I Love Lucy, Ball produced and starred in the Broadway musical Wildcat from 1960 to 1961. The show received lukewarm reviews and had to be closed when Ball became ill for several weeks. After Wildcat, Ball reunited with I Love Lucy co-star Vivian Vance for The Lucy Show, which Vance left in 1965. The show continued, with Ball's longtime friend and series regular Gale Gordon, until 1968. Ball immediately began appearing in a new series, Here's Lucy, with Gordon, frequent show guest Mary Jane Croft, and Lucie and Desi Jr.; this program ran until 1974. In 1962, Ball became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu Productions, which produced many popular television series, including Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. Ball did not retire from acting completely, and in 1985, she took on a dramatic role in the television film Stone Pillow. The next year she starred in Life with Lucy, which was, unlike her other sitcoms, not well-received; the show was cancelled after three months. She appeared in film and television roles for the rest of her career until her death in April 1989 from an abdominal aortic aneurysm at the age of 77. Ball was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning four times. In 1960, she received two stars for her work in film and television on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1977, Ball was among the first recipients of the Women in Film Crystal Award. She was also the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1979, was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1984, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1989. Source: Wikipedia

Painting:Acrylic on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:48 W x 48 H x 1.5 D in

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