Here’s Why You’ve Never Seen Original Open of ‘I Love Lucy’

While the theme song toDesi Arnaz as the sitcom’s stars. 

But if you were catching the show in the 1950s, the familiar heart wasn’t part of your I Love Lucy evening. In fact, that particular opening didn’t arrive until years later when the sitcom went into syndication. A curious viewer tuning into the initial episodes of I Love Lucy saw a very different way of opening the show. 

In this version, animated stick figures of Ball and Arnaz dance atop a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes, a “special blend” promising pure tobacco refreshment. The cartoon was produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbara, creators of Tom and Jerry and a host of other characters who’d become popular in the decades to come.

Befitting Lucy’s starring role, the animated redhead easily slides down a rope from atop the cigarette pack, just in time to catch Desi, who chooses to dive off instead. “Philip Morris, America’s finest cigarette, presents the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz show!” sang out announcer Johnny Jacobs. “I … Love … Lucy!”

The opening has more personality and charm than the velvety heart that replaced it, so why the change? The obvious answer is sponsor Philip Morris — for two reasons.

First, the cigarette giant dropped its sponsorship of I Love Lucy in the spring of 1955, according to Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television.  It had little to do with the show’s ratings — I Love Lucy remained a top-five hit even if it didn’t top the charts every week. The real problem was the company’s internal research, which found that the high cost of sponsorship wasn’t translating into enough smokers. Some of the company’s analysts even concluded that the sitcom’s viewers puffed less than the average Joe. (The reality: Cigarette smokers thought Philip Morris’s darts had a musty taste, a problem the company wouldn’t solve until it introduced filtered Marlboros a few years later.)

But even if I Love Lucy moved crates of smokes, you still wouldn’t have seen the animated open, essentially a commercial for Philip Morris, during reruns. The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, enacted in 1970, banned television ads that promoted cigarette smoking. That’s understandable given the lung cancer link, but it’s too bad most viewers never got to see Lucy locking up her cigarettes in a safe …

Or Lucy offering Desi a good-night puff. 

At least you know why Lucille Ball had such a husky voice on her subsequent sitcoms. That smooth, mild taste did a number on her vocal cords.