The film focuses on Ball and Arnaz, who are married in real life and also starred as a couple on the classic sitcom "I Love Lucy". The "Ricardo" in the title is the last name of their characters in the show. The story is set in a work week during the filming of "I Love Lucy", from the script reading on Monday to the filming with an audience on Friday. During this period, the two encountered a huge crisis, which might end their careers and their marriages. Historically, it was Ball who asked the "I Love Lucy" production team to let her husband Arnaz also star in the show (this show is adapted from Ball's popular radio play). CBS was reluctant at first, worried that the audience would not like to see a very "American" heroine with a Cuban man.