The Two I Love Lucy Stars Who Couldn't Stand Each Other In Real Life

"I Love Lucy" is still the gold standard of American sitcoms. The series wasn't just a hilarious look at marriage; it also broke new ground as the first show to use the multi-camera format, forever changing the way TV was made. And while the focus was on the day-to-day hijinks of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, their downstairs neighbors and landlords, Fred and Ethel Mertz, were constant figures fans loved. In real life, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz filmed the classic series in the midst of a tumultuous marriage, but their private issues never appeared on screen. As it happened, William Frawley and Vivian Vance, who played the Mertzes, were in a similar position without actually being married. 

Fred and Ethel's on-screen arguments were nothing compared to the barbs the actors lobbed at each other. According to Lucille Ball biographer Geoffrey Mark, the problems started before the show even began filming. When Vance first found out that Frawley was playing her husband, she was reportedly upset about the 22-year age gap, saying (per Remind), "Husband?! He could play my grandfather!" 

Vance continued to complain about the age difference. When Frawley found out, he looked for ways to get back at her and, as told in "I Love Lucy: The Untold Story," got the writers involved. According to Gregg Oppenheimer, "When Bill got wind of her complaints, he was offended, and retaliated by suggesting lines for himself that characterized Ethel as having 'a figure like a sack full of doorknobs' or some other of a long list of insults." Vance and Frawley continued to work together on "I Love Lucy" and "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour," but when a spin-off about the Mertzes was considered, Vance refused. 

After "I Love Lucy" ended, William Frawley joined the cast of "My Three Sons." At the same time, Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball were filming "The Lucy Show" on the lot. Frawley decided to keep his feud with his former TV wife going, and got two of the young actors from his new show involved. Speaking with People, Barry Livingston, who played Ernie Douglas, revealed that Frawley convinced him and his brother, Stanley, who played Chip, to gather metal film canisters from around the soundstages. Once they had enough, Frawley brought the boys to the stage where "The Lucy Show" was recording and opened the door. From there, the Livingstons took over. When they could hear Vance saying her lines, "...we threw this box up there, and all these film tins came crashing down. Some of them took off rolling and spinning and running into each other. It really made a commotion."

Tim Considine, one of the sons on "My Three Sons," shared a nastier story with Page Six. According to Considine, a lieutenant general visited the set one day and was excited to meet Frawley. Considine fretted over the lunch the men shared, worrying that Frawley would say something untoward, but things went well: "I was thinking, 'Hey, this is a great success. [Frawley] hasn't said anything to put anyone off." Almost as if it were a sitcom, that was when Frawley let loose. When the lieutenant general asked Frawley about working with Vance on "I Love Lucy," the actor called her a rude word. Frawley's last acting credit is for an episode of "The Lucy Show," and while Vance regularly appeared in the series, she isn't in that one.