Characters by debut decade
Sitcom characters who debuted in the 1950s
The television sitcom took its modern shape in the 1950s, and I Love Lucy did more than any other show to set the pattern. Lucy and Ricky Ricardo and their landlords and best friends, Fred and Ethel Mertz, arrived on CBS in 1951 and were filmed in front of a live studio audience.
Every character on this list made their first appearance between 1950 and 1959.
4 characters on this list.
I Love Lucy(4)
CBS, 1951 to 1957
- Lucy RicardoLeadPlayed by Lucille BallThe redheaded New York housewife who dreams of breaking into her bandleader husband's nightclub act and keeps landing in hilarious trouble with her…
- Ethel MertzMain castPlayed by Vivian VanceLucy's landlady, best friend, and reluctant partner in crime, a sharp-tongued former vaudevillian who always says the scheme is a bad idea and then…
- Fred MertzMain castPlayed by William FrawleyThe grumpy, penny-pinching landlord of the Ricardos' brownstone, a retired vaudeville song-and-dance man who becomes Ricky's best friend and Ethel's…
- Ricky RicardoMain castPlayed by Desi ArnazLucy's charming, hot-tempered Cuban husband, a bandleader and singer at a New York nightclub who loves his wife dearly and wants her to stay far…
More character lists
By show
- I Love Lucy
- M*A*S*H
- Happy Days
- Cheers
- The Golden Girls
- Full House
- Seinfeld
- Family Matters
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
- Frasier
- Friends
- Everybody Loves Raymond
- That '70s Show
- Malcolm in the Middle
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- Scrubs
- Arrested Development
- The Office
- How I Met Your Mother
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- 30 Rock
- The Big Bang Theory
- Parks and Recreation
- Modern Family
- Community
- New Girl
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine
- Schitt's Creek
- Superstore
- The Good Place
- What We Do in the Shadows
- Ted Lasso
- Abbott Elementary
- Home Improvement