Paramount+ Just Added One of the Greatest Sitcoms of All Time

One of the most beloved and acclaimed sitcoms in television history is now streaming on Paramount+. All 180 episodes of I Love Lucy are now available to stream on Paramount+ and marks the first time that the complete series has been available to stream in one place. The series can also be streamed through the Paramount+ add-on with Amazon Prime Video.

Starring Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, I Love Lucy debuted in the fall of 1951 and ran for six seasons and 180 episodes through the spring of 1957. The series followed the Ricardos and their life as a young, middle-class couple living in New York City with Ricky as a singer and bandleader working on his career as a nightclub performer in the city and Lucy as a housewife spending her time running the home, but frequently getting into hilarious misadventures, often with their friends Fred (William Frawley) and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance).

The show was groundbreaking. It was the first scripted television program to be shot on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience as well as the first show to feature an ensemble cast, among many innovations. The series remains very influential to this day and is considered by many to be one of the greatest series in television history. Even after I Love Lucy ended in the spring of 1957, it was followed up by The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, a collection of thirteen black and white one-hour specials which aired over the course of three seasons from November 1957 to April 1960. The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour featured the same cast members from I Love Lucy (including Richard Keith, the young actor playing Lucy and Desi’s son, Little Ricky, who was born in Season 2 of I Love Lucy) and also kept the main plot of I Love Lucy.

The series has also been the subject of various documentaries and other films, including Amazon Prime Video’s 2021 film Being the Ricardos which stars Nicole Kidman as Ball and Javier Bardem as Arnaz, J.K. Simmons as Frawley, and Nina Arianda as Vance. Kidman, Bardem, and Simmons have all been nominated for an Academy Award for their performances in that film.

I Love Lucy has had a long history in syndication, though a complex web of licensing contracts had previously kept the series from being streamed entirely in one place. Even with the series’ new home on Paramount+, fans can still stream 102 episodes of I Love Lucy on Hulu and 40 episodes that are included with Amazon Prime Video.

All 180 episodes of I Love Lucy are now streaming on Paramount+.