Editing Desi Arnaz (section)

===''I Love Lucy''===
{{main|I Love Lucy}}
On October 15, 1951, Arnaz co-starred in the premiere of ''[[I Love Lucy]]'', in which he played a fictionalized version of himself, Cuban orchestra leader Enrique "Ricky" Ricardo. His co-star was his real-life wife, Lucille Ball, who played Ricky's wife, Lucy. Television executives had been pursuing Ball to adapt her very popular radio series ''[[My Favorite Husband]]'' for television. Ball insisted on Arnaz playing her on-air spouse so the two would be able to spend more time together. [[CBS]] wanted Ball's ''Husband'' co-star [[Richard Denning]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Richard Denning |url=https://variety.com/1998/scene/people-news/richard-denning-1117882474/ |website=Variety |access-date=March 2, 2019 |language=en |date=October 21, 1998}}</ref>

The original premise was for the couple to portray Lucy and Larry Lopez, a successful show business couple whose glamorous careers interfered with their efforts to maintain a normal marriage. Market research indicated, however, that this scenario would not be popular, so [[Jess Oppenheimer]] changed it to make Ricky Ricardo a struggling young orchestra leader and Lucy an ordinary housewife who had show business fantasies but no talent.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}} The character name "Larry Lopez" was dropped because of a real-life bandleader named Vincent Lopez, and was replaced with "Ricky Ricardo". The name was inspired by Henry Richard, a family friend and the brother of P.C. Richard of [[P.C. Richard & Son]]. This name translates to Enrique Ricardo. Ricky often appeared at, and later owned, the Tropicana Club, which under his ownership he renamed Club Babalu.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}

Initially, the idea of having Ball and the distinctly Latin American Arnaz portray a married couple encountered resistance as they were told that Desi's Cuban accent and Latin style would not be agreeable to American viewers.<ref name="title=Sotomayor: More 'Splainin' to Do">{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-silver/sotomayer-more-splainin-t_b_236347.html|title=Sotomayor: More 'Splainin' to Do|access-date=June 18, 2010|work=HuffPost|quote=CBS executives originally did not want Ball, a sassy redhead, married to a Latino on the program|first=Allison|last=Silver|date=July 16, 2009}}</ref> The couple overcame these objections, however, by touring together, during the summer of 1950, in a live [[vaudeville]] act they developed with the help of Spanish clown Pepito Pérez, together with Ball's radio show writers. Much of the material from their vaudeville act, including Lucy's memorable seal routine, was used in the pilot episode of ''I Love Lucy''. Segments of the pilot were recreated in the sixth episode of the show's first season. During his time on the show, Arnaz and Ball became TV's most successful entrepreneurs.