… or did they merely share an already-common idiomatic expression?
It’s pretty common knowledge that the television program I Love Lucy originated as a radio comedy called My Favorite Husband (or if it’s not common knowledge, it’s at least easy to find out, the internet being what it is). Were there any other titles in popular culture that followed the pattern of My Favorite [insert noun here]?
I’m curious to know if the name of the Bill Bixby/Ray Walston vehicle was an homage to Lucy and Desi’s radio program.
There’s also My Favorite Brunette from 1947. My Favorite Husband dates from 1948.
My Favorite Blonde dates from 1942, as did the Porky Pig cartoon My Favorite Duck. My Favorite Wife also shows up as a silent film title in 1929, but the IMDB has nothing other than the title.
I suppose that My Favorite Husband might have some influence, but I suspect My Favorite Martian was the idea of the show’s producers, not the production company.
[NITPICK] Actually Desi was not involved in the radio show. Richard Denning played Lucy’s husband. When the network wanted to move the show to television Lucy refused to do it unless they agreed to have Desi play her husband. The network gave in, albeit reluctantly. [/NITPICK]
Some of the scripts for MFH were recycled for ILL - the other week, I heard an episode of MFH all about Lucy’s poor time management, leading to her husband setting up a schedule for her, which was almost identical to the ILL episode from the first season “Lucy’s Schedule.”
