Homage to 2 TV Mavens of the Past

In honor of women’s history month, I wanted to brush up on my knowledge of TV mavens that pioneered the industry. I pointed my sights to the legends Lucille Ball and Irna Philips, and here is what I discovered.

Lucille Ball – I Love Lucy

This was the first successful series with a female lead. It first aired on CBS on October 15, 1951 and ran for six seasons.

Lucy upstaged President Eisenhower. In January 1953, the live broadcast of Eisenhower’s inauguration drew in 29 million viewers. The very next day, more than 44 million viewers tuned into I Love Lucy to watch the birth of Little Ricky. This accounted for 72% of all U.S. households that owned a television, according to the Museum of Broadcast Television.

What floored me was learning that Ball’s co-owned Desilu Productions, also produced the original Star Trek series. I would have never expected to link Lucille Ball with science fiction, but I guess I still have more to learn.

Full disclosure, I have never seen an episode of I Love Lucy. Knowing what I know now, this fellow redhead deserves a slot in my binge schedule.

Irna Philips – the mother of daytime drama

I don’t know that anyone would covet for the title of being the mother of any kind of drama, but Irna Phillips wears this crown like a champ. She created The Guiding Light, which first aired on the radio in 1937, then transitioned to television in 1952. She even personally funded the pilot episode because the production company claimed that soap operas would never work on television. I wonder if the production company ever admitted they were wrong about that…

I’m embarrassed to say that I have watched more than my share of soap operas, including Guiding Light. It’s quite a deviation from the science-fiction genre that I openly admit to loving. But in my defense, I would argue that soap operas (as well as original Hallmark movies and trashy romance novels) aren’t that far off from science fiction. I mean, I am just as likely to fall in love with a mobster with a heart of gold or marry the same person nine times as I am to board a spaceship to the Pegasus galaxy on the hunt for alien warriors. Just saying…

During summer breaks as a teen, my days were devoted to watching soap operas. We didn’t have cable, so I was limited to local broadcast channels and my options were Guiding Light or a judge show. I choose to follow the light. When summer break was over, the thing I was bummed about the most was not being able to watch these soap operas on a daily basis (watching shows on the Internet wasn’t an option at this time in my life). Looking back now, it seems I wasn’t taking full advantage of my summer vacations.

Fast-forward to 2009, CBS decides to cancel the Guiding Light, with the final episode airing September 18 of that year. After 72 years and 15,763 episodes, it was the longest-running scripted drama when it went off air. The following year, Irna’s other soap baby, As the World Turns, stopped spinning after 54 years. Without a doubt, Irna deserves props for creating the most engrossing past time for housewives and binge watchers to this day.

Speaking of which, what will I binge tonight? But it’s Friday night, you say. So…