Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are the toast of Hollywood once again.
The lovefest for I Love Lucy continues with Amy Poehler’s documentary Lucy and Desi, coming to Amazon Prime Video March 4. On the heels of last fall’s Being the Ricardos and TCM podcast The Plot Thickens: Lucy, Lucy and Desi adds another layer to the story behind one of Hollywood’s most famous couples.
“They are of the moment,” Poehler tells EW of the recent spate of Lucy-focused projects. “A woman and an immigrant who lived the American dream. A sexy power couple who lived and lived publicly. Two industry outsiders who pushed against gender stereotypes. A husband and wife with young children who have a lifetime of rupture and repair.”
The doc premiered at the 2022 Sundance film festival, above.
Sundance Institute ‘Lucy and Desi’ features new interviews and hours of tapes recorded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
Using new interviews and hours of tapes recorded by Ball and Arnaz themselves, the documentary takes viewers behind one of television’s greatest love stories and most prolific power couples. Lucy and Desi tells the story of how Lucy and Desi fell in love and channeled their romance (and business acumen) into one of the most influential shows in television history.
“Lucy and Desi are two outsiders who changed an entire industry,” Poehler says of her impetus for making the film. “Their story represents the success that hard work and big swings can bring. But icons are people, and hopefully this film reminds us of that.” Poehler also cites Ball as a personal inspiration.
The documentary features interviews with Ball and Arnaz’s daughter Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill and son Desi Arnaz Jr., as well as Norman Lear, Carol Burnett and Bette Midler.
As the woman whose name was at the heart of the show, much of the attention often goes to Ball. But Poehler was intent on telling this as a story of a remarkable couple and giving equal time to both Ball and Arnaz. “Desi Arnaz was an amazing musician,” Poehler explains of the dual focus. “One could say he was as equally talented as he was a businessman. He worked his way into rooms where few Latino men were allowed to enter. His contribution to the show and to the success of Lucy and Desi is often minimized, when in fact he was an incredible innovator and business leader. And maybe most importantly, the character of Ricky represented a new way of looking at a Cuban-American in the 1950s.”