Ball and Arnaz in their vaudeville show, 1951
In 1948 Ball starred in a new CBS radio show, My Favorite Husband, a domestic comedy in which Ball played Liz Cooper, the “wacky wife” of banker George Cooper. Ball had wanted Arnaz to costar, believing that working together would provide some stability for their famously tempestuous marriage. However, the CBS executives opposed the idea on the grounds that Arnaz would not be believable as a typical American husband. Two years later, when CBS suggested transferring the show to the new medium of television, Ball again asked that Arnaz costar. Again, the network opposed the idea, but after Ball and Arnaz created a vaudeville show and toured for several months with great success, the CBS executives relented and set in motion preparations for a broadcast project that would forever change the face of television.
In 1948 Ball starred in a new CBS radio show, <em>My Favorite Husband</em>, a domestic comedy in which Ball played Liz Cooper, the “wacky wife” of banker George Cooper. Ball had wanted Arnaz to costar, believing that working together would provide some stability for their famously tempestuous marriage. However, the CBS executives opposed the idea on the grounds that Arnaz would not be believable as a typical American husband. Two years later, when CBS suggested transferring the show to the new medium of television, Ball again asked that Arnaz costar. Again, the network opposed the idea, but after Ball and Arnaz created a vaudeville show and toured for several months with great success, the CBS executives relented and set in motion preparations for a broadcast project that would forever change the face of television.