Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m celebrating the 75th anniversary of I Love Lucy, which premiered on CBS-TV on October 15, 1951. As television’s first terrific sitcom, I Love Lucy is a primary subject in my book GREAT AMERICAN SITCOMS OF THE 1950s, which is still available for purchase here (or on Amazon here). In it, I talk all about Lucy‘s development and the many reasons why it’s such a foundational situation comedy.

Aside from the book, you can celebrate this milestone anniversary by screening the first aired episode of I Love Lucy, “The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub,” as it would have been seen upon its October 15, 1951 debut. Oh, I don’t just mean with the original openings, closings, and commercials intact, but also on a period-appropriate set — specifically, my beautifully restored Admiral television. That’s restored, not retrofitted. Meaning, it’s using the internal mechanism (with picture and sound tubes!). The set is made out of Bakelite and was released as model 20×122 in September 1949, when less than ten percent of American households had a TV.

Admiral made approximately 400,000 TV sets in 1949, of which I estimate — conservatively — this model, with its compact 10-inch screen, constituted 50,000. To break down some more numbers, there were approximately 13 million households with TV sets when Lucy premiered in mid-October 1951, and with this initial broadcast scoring a 38.7 rating, that means about five million homes were watching. So, with approximately 50,000 of those 13 million homes owning this particular model, if 38.7% of them were watching, then about 19,400 households saw this episode of I Love Lucy on October 15, 1951 via their own 20×122 Admiral.

Now, YOU can count yourself among them. Well, on Thursday, October 15 (at 9:00 PM EDT), that is, when I premiere the video LIVE on YouTube at this link. In the meantime, here’s a clip of what you can expect. Enjoy — and stay tuned!

Come back next week for another Wildcard! And stay tuned Monday for a musical treat!