15 Fun Facts About ‘I Love Lucy’ You Never Heard Before

4. What did you say?

Early on in the filming of I Love Lucy, it was clear to the crew as well as audiences that only Lucy was allowed to make fun of Ricky’s pronunciation mishaps. When the writers tried it any other way, letting other characters ridicule the way Ricky spoke, the studio audience simply wasn’t having it and these jokes fell flat.

5. Blondes don’t have all the fun

Could you imagine having a safe for hair dye? Lucille Ball did. Irma Kusely, Ball’s hairdresser, dyed the star’s hair from its natural brown hue to what he called Golden Apricot. While Ball entered Hollywood as a blonde, she chose the red that would become her trademark when starring in the film DuBarry was a Lady (1942) and never looked back. The celeb kept her hue which was achieved using regular dye and a henna rinse as balance—a wealthy sheik would send Ball the henna—tucked away in a safe in Kusely’s garage.

6. Love to hate you

We’ve all heard stories of stars that played close friends or lovers onscreen and absolutely hated each other off-screen. Unfortunately this was the case for Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz) and her TV husband William Frawley (Fred Mertz). A slew of insults were thrown around backstage, but both stars were smart enough to ensure they kept their mutual frustration towards each other behind-the-scenes and out of the public eye. Why so mad? Well, Vance was twenty-two years younger than Frawley and hated having him play her husband on the show.