For more than 70 years, I Love Lucy has remained one of the most beloved sitcoms in television history. When CBS first aired the show in 1951, audiences fell instantly in love with Lucille Ball’s slapstick brilliance, Desi Arnaz’s charm, and the show’s groundbreaking portrayal of a Cuban-American marriage.
But on Monday, October 13, the new series TV We Love shines a spotlight on the only living main cast member left from that iconic ensemble — Keith Thibodeaux, who played the Ricardos’ son, Little Ricky.
Thibodeaux, who used the stage name Richard Keith at the time, joined the show at just four years old after the famous “baby episode” made television history. That 1953 episode, “Lucy Goes to the Hospital,” coincided with Ball’s real-life birth of son Desi Arnaz Jr. and still holds the Nielsen record for the highest audience share ever — more than two-thirds of all U.S. households with TVs tuned in.
“[Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz] took me in as their own child and introduced me to their children, Lucie Jr. and Desi Jr., who I became really good friends with as a kid. We grew up together,” Thibodeaux recalls in TV We Love.
That friendship came with its own complications. Desi Arnaz Jr. spent much of his life being mistaken for Little Ricky — a mix-up Thibodeaux remembers vividly.
“There was always that dynamic of people getting us mixed up. I think in [Desi Jr.’s] mind, it was very hard. He wanted to do what I did,” said Thibodeaux.
The 74-year-old actor also says he was a born performer — quite literally.
“I started playing drums when I was like 2 years old on trash cans in my backyard in Lafayette, Louisiana,” he says. “At the audition for the I Love Lucy show, they were looking to expand the part of Little Ricky. I went to meet Lucy there in her glory, there she was in the flesh, and she looked at me and she said, ‘Well, he’s cute. But what does he do?’ and my dad said, ‘He plays the drums.’ So I started jamming on the drums… finally Desi himself came over, started playing with me, stood up after a while, laughed and said, ‘I think we found our Little Ricky.’”
“My dad said, ‘This is huge, this is a big deal,’ and here I am, four and a half years old, I was Little Ricky,” Thibodeaux recalled.
The young actor vividly remembers the energy of the live studio audience and the perfectionism of his TV parents.
“It’s a lot of pressure for a little kid. You did one take and that was it,” he says. “Lucy was very demanding of everybody being right on cue. Desi treated me really, really good. He’d teach us how to fish and ride horses and swim. I had a heart for him.”
Now 74, Thibodeaux remains a cherished link to the show that helped define television comedy. His memories are a poignant reminder of how much warmth, precision and heart went into every I Love Lucy laugh.
