Here's How Lucille Ball Was Nearly Drowned by a Co-Star While Shooting a Scene for 'I Love Lucy’

There are a few things, even the ardent followers of the famous show, "I Love Lucy" weren't privy to during the span of time it ran for. One of them, the main character almost drowned in a scene!

In one of the most memorable episodes of "I Love Lucy: Lucy's Italian Movie," Lucy was filmed getting into a barrel of grapes and later stomping them with a few local Italian women.

LUCY'S DROWNING SCENE

The scene according to the show's producer, Jess Oppenheimer was completely unscripted. It was reported that while filming, Lucille Ball who plays Lucy on the show, was involved in a fight with one of the women, opera singer Teresa Tirelli D'Amico.

Ball alleged that the altercation led to D'Amico almost drowning her during the scene. Although it seemed irrational, D'Amico got mad because Lucy got grapes up her nose while shooting.

PUBLISHERS OF THE SHOW HAD ISSUES WITH DESI ARNAZ'S CUBAN ACCENT

Well, everything wasn't all bad, and there were some funny and happy secrets on the show too; like how the showrunners didn't predict that Lucy's marriage to a foreigner would work on TV.

Real life couples, Lucille Ball and famous musician Desi Arnaz starred alongside each other on the show. Desi, however, struggled with his Cuban accent and also his ethnicity. The comedy show made lots of jokes at the expense of Desi's accent but gave the honours to his dear wife, Lucy.

However, they were initially sceptical about casting Desi on the show because of his accent; they didn't think it could work. Lucy who intended to prove them wrong insisted on acting alongside her husband and the rest is history,

PRODUCERS PANIC OVER LUCILLE BALL'S PREGNANCY

When Lucille Ball learned she was pregnant at the end of the first season of "I Love Lucy," everyone panicked that the show would have to end.

Pregnancy wasn't in the books at that time, but producer Jess Oppenheimer saw it as a chance to rewrite the story. Oppenheimer concluded to sell Ball's pregnancy idea to the network. This was, however, going to be a hard sell since the Ricardos slept in separate twin beds.

Oppenheimer finally found a way, CBS and the show's major sponsor, Philip Morris, didn't like the idea of including Ball's pregnancy in the show, but eventually agreed.

They invited a priest, minister, and rabbi to supervise the scriptwriting as they rewrote the story to match Ball's big announcement. The episode where her pregnancy was revealed was titled "Lucy is Enceinte," i.e. "Lucy is Pregnant" and aired it on December 8, 1952.

The show ran for years to the delight of many, and it is still regarded as one of the best comedy shows ever!