I Love Lucy is a popular American situation comedy, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The series originally ran from October 15 1951 to May 6 1957 on CBS. The show continued on for three more seasons with 13 one-hour specials, running from 1957 to 1960, known first as The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and later in reruns as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

It was the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the ratings (to be matched only by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld), although it did not have a formal series finale episode. I Love Lucy is still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world.

The show won five Emmy Awards and received numerous nominations. In 2002, it was ranked second on TV Guide's top-50 greatest shows, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners . In 2007, it was placed on Time magazine's unranked list of the 100 best TV shows. The same year, the Washington Post named it the second best TV rerun, attesting to its longevity and sustained popularity.

I Love Lucy was a 1953 feature film spin-off of the immensely popular sitcom I Love Lucy. Except for one test screening in Bakersfield, California, the film was never theatrically released and was shelved.

The film consisted of three first-season episodes edited together: "The Benefit", "Breaking the Lease" and "The Ballet". In the opening scene, Desi Arnaz speaks to the studio audience and introduces the cast, just as he would do at every filming of the show. Additional scenes featuring the cast were filmed and put between the episodes to tie them into one cohesive story. Eight minutes of newly shot footage (including actress Ann Doran as an audience member on her way to the taping) were added for the beginning of the film and an additional five minutes were added to the end. . Just as he would always do, Arnaz thanks the audience at the end and brings the cast out for a curtain call.

A test screening in Bakersfield, California went very well and Desilu prepared to release the film. But MGM demanded the movie be shelved because they felt it would diminish interest in The Long, Long Trailer which Lucy and Desi were contractually bound to promote. The I Love Lucy movie was ultimately forgotten.

But in 2001, the film was found and clips of it were featured in I Love Lucy's 50th Anniversary Special. A screening was held in August 2001 at the 5th Loving Lucy fan convention in Burbank, California.

Cuban Bandleader Ricky Ricardo would be happy if his wife Lucy would just be a housewife. Instead she tries constantly to perform at the Tropicana where he works, and make life comically frantic in the apartment building they share with landlords Fred and Ethel Mertz. The first major show to be put on film rather than kinescope. Written by Ed Stephan

This film consisted of three episodes edited together: "The Benefit" (ep. #1.13), "Breaking the Lease" (ep. #1.18) and "The Ballet" (ep. #1.19). New scenes were filmed to help connect the three episodes into one cohesive whole. Also, new wraparound segments were filmed. The opening segment shows the studio audience filing in for the filming. Desi Arnaz welcomes the audience and introduces the cast as he typically did before every filming. In the closing segment, Arnaz thanks the audience and the cast take their final bows.

The only public theatrical screening of the film was a showing in Bakersfield, California. The screening was a tremendous success and Desilu Productions prepared to release the film nationwide. But MGM Studios wanted to promote Long, Long Trailer, The (1954) (which Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had already signed to do) as Lucy and Desi's return to feature films. MGM demanded that I Love Lucy (1953) be shelved.

After the film was shelved, it was pretty much forgotten about and had been considered lost. But in 1996, editor Dann Cahn began searching for it. In 2001, he found it in a mislabeled film can in a vault. Clips of it can be briefly seen in I Love Lucy's 50th Anniversary Special (2001) (TV)

The film was finally released to the public in October 2007 as part of a DVD containing all the episodes of both "I Love Lucy" (1951) and "Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The" (1957).