April 16, 1956 –
The I Love Lucy Episode, Lucy’s Italian Movie (the grape stomping episode) first aired on CBS TV on this date. This is considered on of the funniest episodes of the series.
The grape stompers were actual Italian women who didn’t speak English. In a 1974 interview with Dick Cavett, Lucille Ball went in-depth on the making of the infamous scene in which she got in a fight in the grape vat, revealing that the fight was scripted but the other woman didn’t understand that it was supposed to be phony, and as a result she wound up actually beating the hell out of Lucy. The audience and crew were oblivious to what was really happening and the fight stretched on so long that it had to be severely edited in the final cut of the show. Despite the hardships she endured during the making, Ball cited this as her favorite episode of the series.
The Haus of Dcaligari 