In ‘Lucy and Desi,’ Amy Poehler strives to humanize TV icons

For Amy Poehler and millions of millions of Americans, “I Love Lucy” wasn’t just something that was on television

For Amy Poehler and millions of millions of Americans, “I Love Lucy” wasn’t just something that was on television. It was a show that “came with your TV and was on your whole life,” she said.

But it’s also one that, in the 65 years since it ended, loomed so large as a defining pillar of sitcom comedy that it and the vibrant couple behind the show have been flattened under the weight of words like “icon” and “trailblazer." It’s why Poehler was especially excited to dive into the world of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz for the new documentary “Lucy and Desi” (streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Friday) and bring them back to earth.

“One of my goals was to really make it feel like we were seeing them again as human people,” Poehler said. “As nuanced and complex thinkers as we think we are, sometimes our brains need to be reminded that the little people that were on a black-and-white show on our TV were actual flesh and blood people who had wants and needs like everyone else.”

The doc explores their unlikely ascent to Hollywood moguldom as well as their fascinating relationship on screen and off. She was a girl from Jamestown, New York, who saw modeling and acting as a way out and he was a child of wealth and privilege whose life was upended during the Cuban revolution in 1933, when he and his family fled to America and had to start from scratch.