Todd Purdum: How Desi Arnaz & “I Love Lucy” Created the TV Business

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.8 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John welcomes legendary former New York Timesman Todd Purdum to the show to discuss his new book, “Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television.” Purdum tells the story of Arnaz's rise to become the most powerful and influential Latino executive in Hollywood history: from his arrival in America as a Cuban refugee in the 1930s to his first taste of fame as a nightclub bandleader (and instigator of the Conga dance craze) in the 1940s; and from his culture-shifting roles as co-star (with his wife, Lucille Ball) of the country's most-watched TV show and cofounder of its most prolific TV production company in the 1950s to the raft of innovations he unleashed that gave birth to the rerun, the syndication market, and thus the business model on which the industry thrived for more than half a century. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, that's my prime delivery.
0:03.1	What, already?
0:04.0	Only one thing can match the buzz of Prime's fast delivery.
0:08.0	And that's the buzz of Prime's entertainment.
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0:11.0	Heads of State, that new action comedy with Idris Elba as the Prime Minister, John Sina as the President,
0:16.0	and Priyanka Chopra Jonas as their only hope looks like a blast.
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0:24.2	For only $899 a month, join now.
0:26.8	Content includes limited ads, subscription or to renews.
0:29.1	For more information, go to amazon.com.uk.uk slash Prime.
0:36.9	Aloha and namaste, everyone, and welcome to Impolitic with John Heilman, a puck and
0:41.2	Odyssey joint featuring lively in-depth conversations with the people who cruise the quarters of power
0:46.1	in America, sculpting and shaping the ebb and flow of our politics and culture.
0:50.7	For the better part of the four-plus decades in which Todd Purdom's name appeared in the pages
0:58.2	of some of the most storied publications in the annals of American journalism.
1:02.1	In the New York Times, where he graced the gray lady's pages for 23 years to Vanity Fair,
1:09.2	The Atlantic, Politico, his byline itself, which always included and
1:14.3	still always includes his middle initial, Todd S. Purdom, was synonymous with a rare
1:22.1	combination of rigorous reporting, writer Le Alon, and Stentorian authority. It was also, certainly to me, but also to most readers, I would guess, synonymous with politics.
1:34.6	At the times, Purdom covered politics at every level in New York and Washington, D.C.,
1:39.1	from City Hall and Capitol Hill to the State House and the White House, where he closely charted the careers
	...

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