What are the WORST I love Lucy episodes?

Scotland. I have sufficient.

R1 yes... The Brigadoon episode. Horrible!

I like the dress shop episode.

I despise the Scotland episode and many of the ones where they travel abroad.

All

The one that definitely jumped the shark was Mrs. Trumbull's Suicide.

I'm curious why so many episodes of ILL are missing on the Hulu app.

I agree with Scotland and will add the Bob Hope episode, although I tend to hate anything with Bob Hope, so I'm biased. Still, that number with Lucy tap dancing with the floor tiles stuck to her cleats is just awful.

The one where Lucy tried to trick Desi into performing in his show. That one.

Any and all episodes featuring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

When I was a kid I always confused Tennessee Ernie Ford and Tennessee Williams.

R9 I hated all the episodes with "MARE-EE-OH". Tennessee Ernie Ford was bad, too.

Lucy and Viv Kill a Hobo.

Little Ricky Didn't See the City Bus.

Lucy's Back Alley Abortion.

Anytime Ricky sings babaloo.

Scotland is awful, but some of the other European episodes are among the funniest in the series: "Lucy gets a Paris Gown" especially, but also "Lucy's Italian Movie," "Bon Voyage" (with Lucy being helicoptered onto the ship), "Paris at Last," and "Return Home from Europe" (with Lucy disguising the block of cheese as a baby on the airplane).

R3, Ethel wanted to name the shop Ethelu. Lucy wanted to name it Lucyeth.

The one where Fred develops an Asian fetish when a new tenant, Mei Mei Tsung, moves into 2C. Lucy and Ethel dress in (Chinese) qipao dresses and style their hair with (Japanese) kanzashi. When that ruse doesn't work at diverting Fred's attention, they bully Mei Mei out of the apartment yelling "Ching chong chung!!"

The one where Ethel volunteers at the domestic violence hotline and unknowingly fields a call from Lucy

The one where Lucy finds Fred passed out during autoerotic asphyxiation. Not wanting to alarm Ethel, who was recently "visiting her mother" (but actually in a sanitorium), Lucy removes Fred's leather hood, puts him in a chair, and hides behind him. When Ethel walks in, Lucy does her best "Fred" voice and moves his mouth with a string as if he were awake. Ethel, still under a haze of Thorazine, notices nothing.

Later, Little Ricky finds Fred's hood and Lucy has some splainin' to do.

They are all horrible but even worse are: Here's Lucy, The Lucy Show, Life with Lucy,

Plus her drunk appearances on Password Plus.

[quote]Plus her drunk appearances on Password Plus.

LOL

I get that the 1950s were a different time, but even taking that into account, the "Black Eye" episode was in poor taste.

Other least favorite episodes include all the ones guest starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, the episode in Italy were Lucy misses Little Ricky, the Scotland episode (of course), and some other throw-away episodes too forgettable to now recall. I also dislike some of the more slapstick-oriented episodes, like "Bonus Bucks."

The one where she had to babysit the twin boys and did a cowboy song. Oof.

The Forgy.

Fred and Ethel Fight

Mertz and Kurtz

Lucy Cries Wolf is pretty bad

Only the Scotland episode is bad. Most of the others are good to great.

r27 = the ghost of Jess Oppenheimer

Whichever episode it is that ends with angry Ricki spanking crying Lucy. I mean, come on.

I wish he'd spanked me, r29!

The driving to Florida in a black suit episode sucks almost as badly as driving to Florida in real life.

I dislike many of the Little Ricky-centric episodes.

R1, didn't that one have Elsa Lancaster?

The one where Ricky goes gay for a day to teach her some type of lesson.

I always wondered if Vivian Vance resented the black eye episode.

R21, At least in the "Bonus Bucks" episode, we get to see Desi shirtless when he removes his pajama top to take a shower.

One of you bitches should compile a list of all "Desi shirtless" episodes.

r33 it did

The Scotland episode is the only one I cannot watch.

The one with the Internet pedophiles was good.

[quote]the episode in Italy were Lucy misses Little Ricky

That's actually my favorite episode. It's one of the few where Lucy doesn't fuck everything up.

The European episode with the passports and bicycles.......episode mentioned above when Lucy is in Italy trying to call Little Ricky - especially the annoying Italian brat....I think it was Bart Braverman.

The Bob Hope and Orson Welles episodes......

I can take all the rest - but it's hard to watch episodes with a jealous Lucy putting Ricky through the wringer since that was basically what they were going through in the real lives at the time....

I never liked The Fashion Show, because a sunburn is so painful. It made me cringe, not laugh.

I like the female killer when Lucy and Ethel were on the road

Unfortunately, they edited out the scissoring scenes from that episode, r43

The very last episode with the statue. Bleh!

Lucy and Ethel shoot porn

"I Lick Lucy"

Any episode that shows them all singing on stage. I agree the Brigadoon episode was a SNOOZEFEST 🥱

Little Ricky's School Pageant

Frankly, the very popular episode when Little Ricky was born is overrated.

The one with Bea Benaderet and Edward Everett Horton

Drafted

Several S1 episodes are tough going, even with syndication cuts, but hey, they did 35 episodes that year.

"The Quiz Show" and "Don Juan is Shelved."

The CT episodes. The episode with those two lame af young people who looked in their 40s.

Dissenting voice here about Scotland and the black eyes episode. My brothers and sisters always tried to do the sword dance and we thought it hysterical. Dumb kids, but we still love to say, "with a hoot and a hoot and a heh and a heh" for anything ridiculous. The only thing that bothers me is that she's in Scotland to see her mother's relatives the McGillicuddys but as that is Lucy's maiden name she'd be looking for her father's relatives, right?

Also, when Lucy is reading the murder mystery aloud and the phone rings and she jumps up: "They found the body!" Astounding bit of physical comedy for a heavily pregnant woman.

The worst "baby" show was "Lucy Hires an English Tutor."

Nicole Sullivan should have played Lucy in the big screen movie, darn it! She captured her much better than that other Nicole.

[quote] .episode mentioned above when Lucy is in Italy trying to call Little Ricky - especially the annoying Italian brat....

I was going to mention that one. It sucked.

The one where where they lose the ladies club treasury and Ethel has to pimp Lucy out as a streetwalker. Though the awkwardness when Fred is the first customer is handled well.

While it never jumped the shark, I'd say the all-around best seasons were 2 and 3.

[quote]Any and all episodes featuring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Hey! Fuck you!

The first episode filmed after Lucille returned from giving birth to Desi Jr is "No Children Allowed." What's funny is that it's one of the few true Ethel episodes. Viv is great in it.

The one where the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League decides to use the Ricardo apartment as a bordello on Friday afternoons and Carolyn Appleby loses her glasses & thinks Ricky is her 2pm trick Mr. Montrose and is on her knees blowing him when Lucy & Ethel get back from the meat market,

"Little Ricky's Circumcision"

The one where Ethel can't take Fred's neglect any longer, so she waits for Lucy to go to the market, sneaks into the Ricardo's apartment with her spare key, pins an unsuspecting Ricky down, and shoves all ten inches into her mouth.

I figured I've probably ended up seeing all the episodes simply because they've been in syndication all my life but, wow...I guess I've missed quite a few of them!

It’s not in the best of taste, but I always laugh when Lucy keeps getting turned away by the back alley abortionist. The various disguises she tries are increasingly hilarious!

The last minute “fix” of a spontaneous miscarriage just shows how tired the writers were by that point, though.

The Superman episode

The one where Wernher von Braun helps Little Ricky with his science project.

Fred Molests Little Ricky.

Lucy and Ethel unwittingly purchase Fentanyl-laced smack from Carolyn Appleby's dealer.

The one where young George Jefferson applies to rent a vacant apartment in the Mertz's building.

I like the one where Lucy finally tricks her way into getting into a show, but then Ethel cuts this massive putrid fart inside the Copa Cabana and they have to evacuate and cancel the show.

I hated "Redecorating the Mertz' Apartment' because Lucy got blamed for something that was totally not her fault.

r71 = Fred

The body language in r21 is hilarious. Desi and Viv look seconds away from tearing off each other's clothes and having hot makeup sex in front of Bill and Lucille.

I never liked "Ricky Needs an Agent"

All the episodes that infantilize Lucy!

Episodes when they made Lucy mostly stupid and devoid of self-control (such as when they buy the car for the trip to California and Lucy lies about having gotten it insured, and where they're all jailed because of Lucy unwisely smarting off to the overly-strict sheriff) were frustrating/irritating to watch, not funny.

[quote]and where they're all jailed because of Lucy unwisely smarting off to the overly-strict sheriff

I would say this episode ("Tennessee Bound") is the worst of the series.

Also, r77, "Ricky Needs an Agent" fits the bill of "Stupid Lucy devoid of self-control"

I know there was a live audience, but they *had* to have been adding a laugh track on a few of the episodes.

I also dislike episodes where Lucy is a crappy friend to Ethel. (Yes, I know, MARY!!!)

The one that sticks out is Club Election. The women unanimously want Ethel to be their next president. Instead of being happy for her, Lucy demands that she be nominated too. Hilarity ensues! But really, it just makes Lucy look petty and selfish.

r79 someone at Desilu said that Phil Ober came to all the shows and laughed really loudly. They speculated he just enjoyed hearing himself during the episode.

Oops, r81 was meant for r80

R80 - Uh-oh! HA HA HA HA.

The Friends of the Friendless episode is about as funny as watching doctors surgically remove the gerbil from Richard Gere’s asshole.

The one where they sit around and discuss Sartre.

That female voice from the audience you can often hear saying "Uh oh" followed by laughter was Lucy's mother, who attended every show.

Even during filming, the warmth between Desi and Viv is palpable. She's always going out of her way to touch him, and when she nails a line, he often breaks character and laughs affectionately.

"Lucy is envious" was considered by the staff of I Love Lucy to be the shows single worst episode.

That was in the Bart Andrews book.

Interesting, r88. I wouldn't even put it in my bottom ten.

One of those rarely-seen hour-long shows guest starring Liberace. He babysits "Little Ricky" and makes suggestive remarks about "Little Ricky's" long drumstick for his age. Cringy.

[quote]One of those rarely-seen hour-long shows guest starring Liberace.

After filming, did Vivian ask Lee to marry her?

A lot of the hour-long episodes are unwatchable.

R92, The one with Tallulah Bankhead is hilarious.

r93 that's one of my favorites of the series, for the dinner scene alone:

Lucy: Ethel Mae, will you please stop boring Ms. Backhead!

Tallulah: When Ms. Bankhead is bored Ms. Bankhead will let you know.

...

Lucy: You'll have to excuse Ricky, he's from Cuba.

Tallulah: Yes, I had a feeling he wasn't from Alabama.

...

Lucy: That'll be all, Ethel Mae.

Ethel: You bet your sweet life that'll be all!

...

Lucy: Ethel Mae was my nanny

Ricky: She was a goat?

The one where Ethel,Mrs. Trumbull, Carolyn Appleby, and Ricky’s ho Grace gang up and beat the shit out of Lucy for being such. a bossy, controlling, conniving cunt?

And they call ME a bitch!

The Christmas Tree one.

The one where Ethel transitions to pursue a visibly-pregnant Lucy.

I hate the Scotland episodes, as well as the England episodes where Lucy performs for the queen and that Hilary Brooke with resting cuntface wants to fuck Ricky. I enjoy the other Europe episodes. The CT episodes are hit and miss. I think what I disliked most about those was that the writers basically elevated Betty Ramsey to the same status as Ethel as Lucy's best friend after knowing her for a hot second.

The roots! Look at the roots!!

The one where Lucy and Ethel go to Mrs. Trumbull's anal bleaching specialist and hijinks ensue.

Did Lucy want Bill Holden or John Wayne to fuck her, because she sure played it that way? At least with Holden, she played it as if her panties were sopping wet for him.

MARY!! r102

Lucy can't retract her prolapsed anus so she try's to smuggle it on the plane as a cheese.

F&F r104

Episode 3 from season 6, “Little Ricky Masturbates On The Toilet”. After her finds blood in his sperm he tells Lucy about it.

The Christmas Tree episode mentioned above was considered so mediocre at the time that it was the only episode that wasn't put into syndication, so many people have either never seen it or don't remember it. It finally resurfaced only a few years ago when CBS inexplicably decided to colorize it and show in primetime.

[quote]I always wondered if Vivian Vance resented the black eye episode.

I doubt it. It probably just reminded her of her home life and she didn't give it a second thought.

When Lucy kills one of the chicks on live TV.

Well, r109, that episode was originally titled "Lucy and Ethel make Crush Porn"

The episode with Fred wearing his pants cinched around his neck.

You're gonna have to narrow it down more r111

The one where Albert needs to stop fucking around and just EAT HIS FUCKING LUNCH!

Speaking of r108, I also wonder if Viv resented the sublease episode (with Jay Novello). He's still suffering from the effects of a nervous breakdown after witnessing a murder, and, in order to get him to leave the Ricardo's apartment, Lucy and Ethel stage a murder of their own.

Viv was apparently very sensitive to these issues, and didn't even like it when the word "crazy" appeared in a script. (Someone claims that, when Lucy learned this, she would use the word "crazy" to get under Vivian's skin.) Plus, the stress of the show combined with the deterioration of her marriage made her fear another breakdown.

Sorry queens, Lucy was annoying.

Them's fighting words in these here parts r115

"Lucy Does a TV Commercial"

It was practically implied in the episode where Ethel visits Albuquerque that she was fucking or at least was DTF Buddy Hackett. Her rendition of The Chocolate Soldier in that episode is hysterical.

Elizabeth Patterson was quite a dish!

r118 have you SEEN Fred?

Does anyone NOT think that Fred and Barney Kurtz were FB's in their vaudeville days?

Fred and Ethel clearly enjoyed a lavender marriage.

On another thread, someone had a theory that middle-aged Fred had groomed Ethel when she was still a teenager, which is why Ethel's father hated him so much.

I always thought that the Ramseys appeared in all the CT episodes, but after re-watching them recently, the annoying Mary Jane Croft only appeared in a few, and the even more annoying Frank Nelson was in exactly two (Lucy Get Chummy With the Neighbors and Country Club Dance). For some reason, they seemed more prominent in memory than in reality. Many people put down the CT episodes, but except for the final clunker where they dedicate a statue, they were all pretty funny, especially Country Club Dance and Lucy's Night in New York.

I love the CT episodes as well, and I would have loved had they done another full season in CT.

The only thing I didn't care for was the house, which looked like a reconverted barn. There wasn't the warm and coziness like there was in the apartments. Even the furniture looked uncomfortable.

"Little Ricky Explains to the Police Where Mrs. Trumble Touched Him"

Mary Jane Croft said that Desi directed where he wanted the furniture to go on the new CT set. He was the one who had the idea to put the sofas back to back. She mentioned that in some interview I saw where she talked about Desi's perfectionism as a producer.

The scene in the CT episode where Lucy stuffs her blouse full of eggs so Ricky won't realize she's raising chickens and then he comes in and insists they rehearse their dance, ending with his pulling her into an embrace, got the longest, most extended laugh of any gag in the entire series. It went on so long that half of it was cut for the broadcast.

^That's one of my least favorite of the CT episodes. Although she was brilliant with slapstick, I'm not a big fan of the Lucy-centric episodes where she's mugging for the camera. I much prefer the ensemble episodes. First Stop, when they stay over at that rickety motor lodge on the way to LA, is one of my favorite episodes because it's an ensemble piece. Lucy's antics advances the plot, but it's basically an ensemble piece.

I agree r129.

I loved Mary Jane Croft, I thought she fit in well on the show. The CT episodes were a refreshing change for the show, I enjoyed them except for the last episode. I can see why Lucille took Mary Jane with her when she did her other shows.

Vivian had a warmth that Mary Jane lacked, r131. I think she complemented Lucille much better.

I hate any episode where Lucy blacks out teeth. Shudder.

I don't know if it's the worst. But it's the first "least favorite" I thought of. I agree with most of the other choices mentioned, too.

R77 I’m a big fan of Teensy & Weensy.

The murder episode was the very first episode filmed but the fourth or fifth episode aired because they had to work out some technical problems during post production.

The episode where Betty takes Lucy furniture shopping is a favorite.

I would love to know what drama happened behind the scenes that made everyone at Desilu hate Phil Ober. He could have become a regular, a la Frank Nelson, especially since he was always at the studio anyway. I'm convinced he did something to piss off Lucille when he appeared in "The Quiz Show"

"I loved Mary Jane Croft"

I used to call her Mary Jane Cunt.

Gale Gordon also lacked warmth. I can't tolerate the later seasons of The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy. It's mostly Lucy hamming it up without adequate tempering.

Why did the Arnazes move the location of the show from NYC to Connecticut? It never made much sense to me.

It gave them more potential storylines, r141.

The show in NYC had kind of run its course

Plus Ricky was making movies, he was a famous band leader with gigs across the country and in Europe it didn't make sense that he was still living in a small apartment. Personally, I think they should have moved the show to Hollywood full-time.

R142, Plus, many growing families in this country were also making similar moves from the city to the suburbs in the 1950s.

Interesting idea r143. I personally liked the Hollwood episodes better than the Europe episodes

*Hollywood

In the Hollywood episode where Ricky sells the car and forgets to get train tickets for "the Merzes", did Ethel really think that Lucy was maneuvering to fuck Fred? That was an odd episode.

The Murder Mystery episode was indeed filmed first and then held back for broadcast for a few episodes but it wasn't because of tech problems -- though there a few as they learned how to use the multiple camera technique (the first thing they did was drop the use of a fourth camera). No, they held it back because the subsequent episodes shot were much better, as posters above realized, and they wanted to get the show off to a strong start.

She was trying to get back at Ricky, who was off fucking a long line of studio pass-around whores.

(r149 was in response to r147)

[quote] The Christmas Tree episode mentioned above was considered so mediocre at the time that it was the only episode that wasn't put into syndication, so many people have either never seen it or don't remember it. It finally resurfaced only a few years ago when CBS inexplicably decided to colorize it and show in primetime.

Uh … not very accurate. The Christmas episode was considered a one-off at a time that special holiday episodes were mostly non-existent. It relied heavily on flashback clips from prior episodes. It was left out of syndication packages for those reasons. And it resurfaced more than 30 years ago, well before the colorizations began. It was first aired in b&w in 1989 (the year Lucy died), and was so popular that it was aired again a year later, in the colorized version.

The first Very Special Episode where Ethel catches Fred frequenting the opium dens in Chinatown. The intervention gags fell flat.

Do you like Tilly?

r143

I agree... CT really didn't offer too much(except of course the I have sufficient line)

There are some definite clunkers in season1 but most I can still watch. I have never watched the scotland ep all the way through though

r147, maybe Lucy was paying Ethel back for all the times Ethel looked seconds away from ripping off Ricky's clothes and servicing him on the Ricardo's sofa

Seriously, Viv touched Desi EVERY chance she got

I don't hate "Lucy thinks Ricky is Trying to Murder Her", but the basic plot makes no sense. There is no reason/moment for Lucy to make the leap that Ricky wants to kill her. The two best parts of the episode is the Theodore line and learning that Fred doses Ethel from time to time when she gets hysterical.

Tilly do you have a cold?

I must have went outside without my shroud

I agree with those who dislike the episode in which Lucy thinks Ricky is trying to murder her and the terrible Scotland episode, but the very worst for me is when Cousin Tennessee Ernie Ford came to New York. Man, was he an annoying screen presence.

Not as annoying as Lucy’s wicked city woman.

I like Tennessee Ernie Ford, he kind of grew on me over the years. Plus, they gave him a lot of funny little lines and asides that he sells with warmth and confidence.

Ernie Ford is tolerable in the one where they run into him in Bent Fork on the way to Hollywood, mostly because the episode is not really about him. I find the earlier two-parter in which he first appears unwatchable. He is the opposite of funny.

It was called "The Landlord With the Twisted Lip", R152.

I thought the episode where Christine Jorgensen guest starred as Lucy’s school chum Barney who has transitioned as Barbara was funny. Many thought the doctor’s examination scene was in poor taste, however, especially when Lucy finds out Barney’s nine inch dick is still intact and asks the doctor if it can be given to Ricky as a transplant.

I hated Lucy's Bicycle Trip and Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo.

Lucy, dahling, it's Cynthia. Cynthia Harcourt.

Poor Lucy! Those episodes where she was jealous of some pretty young thing putting the moves on Ricky must've really hit close to home. Desi had to have fucked Joi Lansing. She was such a hot piece of ass, I probably wouldn't have turned her down either, and I'm a gay man. Did he fuck Barbara Eden or Gloria Blondell?

The one where Cesar Romero showed up in a dress and Lucy was terrified he was trying to steal Ricky.

I like the one where the boys go on a fishing trip, leaving a bored Lucy and Ethel to wrangle with “Double Ended Danger” (original title)

Look for a young Bruce Dern as the uncomprehending medical student called in to “untangle” matters when the thing gets stuck. (“Hey, could I bring you two into class?” / “Why? Do you have better instruments there?” / “No, but we’ve never seen Siamese twins joined like you!”)

R166, In her autobiography, Barbara Eden wrote that she spent the entire week of rehearsing that episode evading Desi.

"Lucy Plays Cupid" from Season 1 is up there

[quote][R166], In her autobiography, Barbara Eden wrote that she spent the entire week of rehearsing that episode evading Desi.

And I think I heard her say in an interview that Lucille Ball couldn't have been nicer to her. If so, that's very strong of Lucy. The show must go on!

[quote]And I think I heard her say in an interview that Lucille Ball couldn't have been nicer to her.

Lies!

Did Phil Ober really believe Lucille and VIv were having an affair? I would think if were going to be jealous of anyone in Viv's circle, it would be Desi.

*if he

[quote]And I think I heard her say in an interview that Lucille Ball couldn't have been nicer to her.

Lucy seems to only have had problems with people who weren't prepared or who didn't like to rehearse as much as she did.

Don't look at me, r175

[quote]the episode in which Lucy thinks Ricky is trying to murder her

You could tell they were trying to make a funny Hitchcock style episode but they just didn't pull it off. I guess if you like Lucy being incredibly annoying, you'd love that episode. I remember turning it off when she started hopping around the kitchen like a Marx Brother.

[quote]I guess if you like Lucy being incredibly annoying, you'd love that episode.

I have sufficient.

I'm a Lucy fan, but she was unnecessarily harsh to Joan. She was also mean to Tallulah.

We had a rough time of it as well, r179.

Joan was drunk off her ass the entire episode. It's obvious from watching her in that episode. Lucy had every right to be pissed. She invited this has-been on her show and obviously allowed the writers to pen story/dialogue for her portraying her as still a huge film star, yet she can't even put down the booze for two minutes and deliver a professional performance. Lucy should've kicked Joan in the cunt.

r181 = Christine Crawford

Darling, Lucy may have been rude to me but I took off my sweater and showed my tits to her husband when we were all in a pre-production meeting at Desiwho. Someone had mentioned they adored my sweater so I tore it off, gave it to them, and sat there, topless. That charming Vivian Vance, far wittier than that cotton candy-haired Ball person, then snapped, "I like the pants!"

A lot of season one was taken too much from the radio show and it didn't translate well. In other seasons they took parts of the radio scripts and worked them around new ideas, which played much better..

Lucy (called Liz on radio) was not as kooky as Lucy Ricardo.

r183 Viv just wanted to lick Tallulah's snatch

I love the TULIPS episode in Connecticut with the runaway lawn mower. Lucy describes what happened the way she described how the old Cadillac ended up stuck on the front of the new Pontiac.....and Ethel's questions - "..and then what happened...." were expert in keeping the scenes moving.....

"When I looked back all that was left was a sea of stems....."

"They'd better believe it or Ricky & Fred will be plenty their footprints somewhere and it won't be Grauman's Chinese....." (This line is now cut from the episode as it's now shown).

Joan hit her Pepsi bottle because Lucy was being a fucking tyrant. Things got so bad that Desi was called in to bring peace back to the set. Poor Joan. She didn't deserve that.

"Poor Joan. She didn't deserve that."

Oh, REALLY?

Eve Whitney was a dyke!

Christina, Joan should have shipped your ungrateful ass back to the unmarried teen mom the Tennessee Children's Home Society stole you from.

You rang R189?

Re: Tennessee Ernie Ford, I used to know an older gay who played in his band during the '80s. He said that when TEF was performing an emotional song (I think it might have been a religious anthem), he'd turn away from the audience for a moment and poke himself in the eyes so that when he turned back around tears would be streaming down his face.

In the Eve Whitney episode, Bill Hall was a hot silver daddy. What was he doing married to that mousy Louanne?

Lucille had big dick energy.

They look particularly dykey here.

One of Ethyl's greatest line delivery to Fred:. "You say one word and I'll take YOU apart and put you back together!"

R196, "One of Ethyl's greatest line delivery to Fred:. "You say one word and I'll take YOU apart and put you back together!"

Oh, dear.

"Ethyl"

She's my favorite character on "I Love Loosey".

I love loosely, dahling.

I don't care for the one where "Lucy Plays Cupid", and they have (46-year old) Bea Benaderet made up like an old spinster named "Miss Lewis" pining over some old codger named "Mr. Ritter" played by Edward Everett Horton.

"Lucy and Ricky try BDSM"

The one where Lucy gets a colonoscopy is pretty boring.

I LOVE JUICY

The script that called for Lucy to hit a talent agent Ethel mistook for a burglar over the head with a heavy pot and into unconsciousness and for she and Ethel to not even contemplate rendering him medical attention but instead to sit him up on the couch and pretend to be in conversation with him so he wouldn't know what had happened when he finally (hopefully) "came to" was problematic and made their characters seem very self-centered and cold-hearted. And shame on the audience for laughing at a character portraying someone who may have a concussion or serious head injury.

Was r203 the early-2000s reboot?

Vivian threw in a great unscripted sight gag in r204.

The episode where Fred joins the John Birch Society.

[quote]The one where Cesar Romero showed up in a dress and Lucy was terrified he was trying to steal Ricky.

That wasn’t an episode, that was real life!

The episode where Ricky suspects the new neighbors are lesbians. Jean Arthur & Janet Gaynor guested.

Then it was revealed Jean and Janet were just vacationing lumberjacks, I recall, and everyone swapped baby pictures over tea. Hilarious!

Oh, I had a different recollection of that episode r210! Peeping Toms Rick and Fred drill a hole into Jean and Janet's apartment, hoping to witness some hot girl-on-girl action. But Lucy and Ethel are onto them! They sneak into the apartment with a spare key and engage in good-natured scissoring for their husbands' sake.

When Jean and Janet return home from shopping and walk into the scene, the Ricardos and Mertzes have some splainin' to do!

Mary Martin said that episode of I Love Lucy was a real eye opener for her. She couldn’t wait to collaborate with Janet on “something.”

[quote]But Lucy and Ethel are onto them! They sneak into the apartment with a spare key and engage in good-natured scissoring

So .... like every other episode.

I just remember giggling at that episode “Lady Lumberjacks” when it was on after school. My Aunt Lou from Santa Fe and her female companion Tomtom decreed it “not funny,” and left.

I love the episode where Lucy thinks Ricky is having an affair with another woman -- Minnie Finch. When Lucy and Ethel visit Minnie's apartment, a dykey Kathryn Card opens the door. Lucy says, "Ah, we're conducting a poll," and Card replies, "Your name ain't Kinsey, is it?"

LOL!

god, remember when Lucy couldn’t get to a salon and had to have Ethel dye her pubes “Burgundy Beaver”in the kitchen? That was rich. Though it showed surprising tenderness, too.

One of my favorite bloopers occurs in the "No Children Allowed" episode where Ethel refers to Mrs. Trumbull as "Mrs. Turnbull" when she's playing a performance of "Because my friendship with the Ricardos is worth all the money in the world" to the girls in their club. I'm surprised they didn't reshoot that error.

Were there any fuckable guest stars? Male guest stars, that is. For me, it would be Cornel Wilde and yummy hairy Claude Akins in that native get-up. Oh and maybe the lifeguard at their Hollywood hotel.

Maybe not the worst but definitely the most disgusting. Lucy mistakes Jacques Cousteau for the plumber and before he can say a word pushed him into the bathroom (O,S.) to clear her clogged toilet. Only line I can remember: "I'm glad you brought your goggles".

R218, Rock Hudson was on the show at his beefcake prime-most fuckable. Hello?

Surely there were more fuckable men than just a handful

Anyone catch the part of Rock's scene when he enters the pool and cruises the cute shirtless guy hanging by the pool? I always wondered if Rock fucked him in some empty office or utility closet at Desilu after he finished filming for the day.

R220 Rock was a top, dear.

John Wayne looked pretty yummy. Lucy was obviously impressed when she gave him a back rub. Her face told the entire story. I bet she had to change her panties after that scene.

r217 in Vacation from Marriage, Viv's line is "And you won't see me for a whole week, Fred!" She hesitates just before "Fred," I think to stop herself from saying "Phil."

I once read that in another episode she says "Desi" instead of "Ricky," but I've never found it.

[R220] Rock was a top, dear.

Where did you get a crazy, misguided idea like that?

R226, From me.

Rock didn’t get AIDS from being a top.

In the Van Johnson episode, which I LOVED, watch Vivian's blooper when Carolyn is leaving. She tries to sit in the chair but she's on the arm side and so she collapses into the chair and has to straighten herself out.

Even the worst ILL episodes are better than many sitcoms today.

The one in which Ralph Ramsey gets caught masturbating by his son Bruce and Little Ricky was the nadir.

R228, As if tops were immune from contracting the virus.

I meant to do that, r229

I watched r229 out of curiosity. It looks like Viv was supposed to stand up from the armrest when Ricky and Fred walk in, and then sit back down in the chair so Fred sit on the armrest. But for some reason she doesn't stand, and rather clumsily falls backward.

Lucille notices as Vivian falls and for a split second does NOT look amused. Her hands go straight to her hips.

In an interview, Doris Singleton said the ILL set was very businesslike. There wasn't a lot of joking or frivolity, and Lucille was rather intense. Lucille also had a small cadre of friends with whom she would often play backgammon when not rehearsing. (Doris was not part of this circle.) Doris said if Lucille liked you, you'd be asked back, a lot. (I guess she liked Frank Nelson for some inexplicable reason.) But if you made a mistake, she'd never invite you back again.

She also said Vivian and Bill weren't on speaking terms. Bill would come in with the racing form under his arm and already be chomping at the bit to go home for the day. Vivian was somewhat asocial and would retreat to her dressing room when not rehearsing. Apparently, Phil Ober demanded she keep a record of every moment of her day and all her social interactions, so maybe she figured the fewer people she spoke to, the less likely he would be to start a fight.

Lucy was a horrible human being - so no one blames Desi for fucking around on her.

That's a stretch, r236. Interestingly, though, Viv often took Desi's side when he and Lucille would fight.

[quote]Lucy was a horrible human being

No she wasn't. She had her flaws, and could be difficult to work with, but I wouldn't call her a "horrible human being."

[quote]Ethel refers to Mrs. Trumbull as "Mrs. Turnbull"

Actually Ethel calls her as Trimble and that is correct according to the script. The others were wrong.

I always wanted Ethel to perform a matinee of "Because My Friendship With the Ricardos" for me. She should've taken her show on the road and sold tickets.

r240 = John Dodds

Doris Singleton also said that one of the actors in the women's club didn't perform well and was never asked back. I want to watch the episode (The Club Election) to try and figure out which one it was.

r242, I think it was the first actress to play Marian Strong. She was a mousy brunette and she was awful. I want to say she appeared in the club election episode, but I could be wrong. I just recall her tripping over her words. Shirley Mitchell then assumed the role and played it for several episodes throughout the seasons.

Thanks r243!!

If looks could kill

The club election was a terrific episode. It had a great sight gag of Lucy giving her expensive matching sweater and purse to Carolyn in exchange for helping her win the election.

Were these women's clubs common? I know my grandmother was in bridge club (1940s-1970s), but that was different.

Hmmm Margie Lizst and Peggy Rea who were club members on THE CLUB ELECTION both were in three episodes of I LOVE LUCY.

The only club member who never came back was Lurene Tuttle......although as you say Shirley Thompson took over the role of Marion Strong......

r248 watching it, I thought maybe Doris was referring to Lurene Tuttle. She wasn't great.

Going through episodes ... The Indian Show from Season 2 is pretty bad.

[quote]R237 Interestingly, though, Viv often took Desi's side when he and Lucille would fight.

Because Miss Ball was a CUNT.

Lies r251!

Didn't Lucille make Desi fire Elois?

The worst one was when they were in Hollywood and Lucy took her son Jimmy to meet a plumber that looked like Jack Benny to Sea World and they saw Elizabeth Taylor and Lucy got Liz's ring stuck in a dolphin and Ethel and Fred bought the dolphin and all four of them opened a restaurant called a "Little Bit of Cuban Dolphin"

Did Desi fuck Joi Lansing in the desert island episode? When he first saw her, it looked like his nose was balancing two ping pong balls.

[quote] and Lucy got Liz's ring stuck in a dolphin

It was such a shock that they used this as a way to kill Lucy off. With her ring stuck in the dolphin’s spout, Lucy couldn’t get away and drowned. The final scene of Ricky collapsing when he hears the news was shocking and heartbreaking.

Joi Lansing, good to the last drop.

There is no bad Lucy episode. I'd still be laughing if I had a head.

Any episode where the Ricardos and Mertzes argue about money. I find no humor in "cheapskate" plot lines, only frustration in listening to the characters argue and temporarily despise each other.

The Van Johnson episode was on Decades today. The moment in question has Vance sitting on the arm of a chair during the scene as Caroline is leaving, as she would be facing the door. When Ricky and Fred come in, she tries to stand but I think she realizes she can't stand because she would have been blocking the shot of the boys coming in, so she very awkwardly falls backwards into the chair. It's one of the more obvious mistakes in the series. And BTW, the phone call where Ethel tries to tell Lucy that Caroline has found her glasses is not a great scene for her.

Why did they all yell their lines? It's a bit distracting and a little jarring.

R257, Joi Lansing was Sinatra's off and on squeeze for years.

What about Joy Bang - did she do any episodes? Or was she too Actors Studio?

r260 can't a girl have an off night?!

r260 my only guess, upon watching that scene again, is that Vivian was supposed to stand earlier, as Doris and Lucille start to say goodbye, and forgot, and by the time she remembered it was too late.

A minor blooper occurred in the "Lucy's Schedule" episode from S1. Edith Meiser, who played Gale Gordon's wife Mrs. Littlefield, screwed up her line when she said "If Alvin sees what he likes here tonight, he is going to put me on a schedule too." She should've said "If Alvin likes what he sees here tonight..." That line was Lucy's cue, and there was an awkward pause before Lucy says her line, as if they both suddenly realized she screwed up the reading.

[quote]Why did they all yell their lines? It's a bit distracting and a little jarring.

She was used to performing in venues that were lower status and didn't have good microphones so the performers had to speak up.

They played fast and loose with spousal abuse, and there were negative references to Ricky's ethnicity, not to mention comical references to suicide. Why hasn't this show justifiably fallen prey to cancel culture. It's a piece of offensive, antiquated garbage that should be banned.

[quote]R267 She was used to performing in venues that were lower status

Burlesque houses!

[quote]They played fast and loose with spousal abuse

MARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, see r35

Not just the black eye episode. How about the one where he spanked her after she maneuvered to move to a bigger apartment, or any of the countless times he threatened to hit her. I find it all incredibly offensive in this day and age, and it should be canceled.

r268/r271 spousal abuse was viewed much differently prior to the women's movement

[quote]I find it all incredibly offensive in this day and age, and it should be canceled.

Surely r271 is trolling

I just watched the Carlotta Romero episode and Desi has an amazingly honest moment. When his agent Jerry tells him that he knows Carlotta from the singing group The Five Romero Sisters, Ricky says softly, "Oh for goodness sakes". There was a lot of nuance in that line and I totally believed him.

[quote]They played fast and loose with spousal abuse

But I played slow and meticulous with it.

You do realize it was the 50s. It was a different time. No one was going to be put in jail for spanking their wife. This is the same time frame when women's doctors talked to their husbands about their wives health and women couldn't get credit in their own name.

r276 not to mention the psychiatric community often attributed spousal abuse to defects in the woman (too frigid, too domineering, too masochistic. etc)

Men were sometimes arrested, r276, but the wife had to file charges. Which, of course, rarely happened.

[quote]"Lucy is envious" was considered by the staff of I Love Lucy to be the shows single worst episode.

The president of CBS at the time also reportedly said the same thing.

I loathed the episode about Ricky's Uncle Alberto and how much Lucy was dying to get his approval. Uncle Alberto was a cunt and I would've told him to go fuck himself.

And I agree with whoever said the Monte Carlo episode when Lucy wants to go to the casino but Ricky won't let her. I would've told him bitch you ain't my daddy and gone anyway.

I would have GLADLY called him daddy r280

"It's a piece of offensive, antiquated garbage that should be banned."

You should have been aborted.

MARY r282!

What's so objectionable about "Lucy is Envious"? I can think of far worse episodes.

Lucy is Envious is one of my faves.

Why did they never show Lucy and Ricky going to church on Sundays?

"Why did they never show Lucy and Ricky going to church on Sundays?"

The Ricardos were Atheists. She may have been a screwy redhead, but she was intelligent.

The ones including Desi's Ricky or the actress playing Lucy Ricardo's mother. First one performed like a ham, the second one was grating.

The abortion episode was grim.

Lucy Cries Wolf is possibly Vivian's worst episode of the series.

She flubs her lines a few times and, in one case, her lines appear overdubbed. And something about her performance generally is off the mark.

She also looks bloated and unhappy, and is not wearing her wedding ring (perhaps the episode without it). She'd gained weight. I think it's one of the few times she let her personal life interfere with her performance.

I think Lucy is Envious is a terrific episode, though it should be called “Women From Mars.”

I would never give extra terrestrials top billing over myself, r291

The opening scene of Lucy is Envious sets up the title but it's often cut and the episode is still great. It indeed should have been named "Women From Mars".

My favorite line in that one is,

Ethel: The ad says they're looking for girls.

Lucy: We're girls.

Ethel: We are?

Lucy: If you divide everyone up into boys and girls, we're girls.

And when the guy meets them he asks: "Where are the girls?"

The only thing I didn't believe was that they were each paid $500 for this PR stunt. That sounds like a lot for the 50s.

$500 in February 1954 (which is when this episode was filmed) = $5,343.94 in March 2022, r294

Also, the $7.50 Lucy pays Dore Schary = $80.76 in March 2022

I hated the one when Desi feigned having a heart attack for sympathy and Lucy told him exercise might help.

Hands down worst episode is when they visited the Falcon Crest vineyards in Tuscany Valley, and Lucy wondered into the vat, started stomping grapes with her feet, and got into a grape-throwing cat fight with Angela Channing. Ricky was going to stop them, but then Peter Stavros showed up and had a more enticing offer for Ricky.

I hated the one where Lucy replaced the lemonade with gasoline and Fred drank it and Ethel was all like "That's the way it goes.."

Did r297 happen IRL?

"Lucy Writes a Novel" is one of my favorite episodes of the series.

Vance's delivery is impeccable. In r301, Lucy says, "I'm writing what I know."

Ethel replies, "That won't be a novel, it'll be a short story."

I loved when Eddie Grant thought Lucy was setting up a booty call with him. Eddie was cute. Lucy should've spread for him.

Did ILL have a "series finale" episode, or did it just drop off the Earth unresolved like Gilligan's Island?

The last episode of the regular series was the ghastly "The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue," r304

The last episode of the hour-long episodes was "Lucy Meets the Mustache"

So, no.

The worst part of the Black Eye episode is when Lucy reenacts the fight and Ethel can barely contain her glee as Lucy describes in graphic detail how Ricky beat the shit out of her.

I thought “”Lucy Finds Her G-spot” was in poor taste. Though the bit about the downstairs neighbor complaining about a leak in their ceiling was admittedly funny.

Lucy Ricardo is a pretty unlikable character, all things considered.

I love this Eve Whitney bitch, her side eye is delish! And the great line about the Lucy's powder: "I'm not wearing powder.". And gets gets the most dolled up ever.

The episode where Viv's husband chased her through their house brandishing a knife.

File under "Things men in the 1950s should have been arrested for, but weren't."

[quote]R309 And gets gets the most dolled up ever.

Thanks to me.

I’ll say it again - Miss Ball was A CUNT. Would the $50 raise really have killed her?

Ethel's line about Mrs. Trumble, "Let's let HER get a load of us" is fraught with meaning.

In "Ricky and Fred are TV Fans", Lucy and Ethel are mistaken for a pair of female criminals whose weapon of choice is a pair of scissors.

Surely this was a metaphor for their .... "relationship"

A funny episode was the one where the women bet the men that the others can't go without gossiping. So Ricky and Fred make up some hot dirt about the fat little milkman and a married neighbor (anyone remember her name?). The scene where Ricky spills the fake gossip by "talking in his sleep" is hilarious.

I never liked any of the episodes that resulted in the gang "putting on a show". I hated those.

I never cared for most of the Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour shows, but there was one great one. The cast of Make Room For Daddy appear as the Williams Family, and get into a dispute with the Ricardos and Mertzes. Of course oh-so-nice Kathy Williams (Marjorie Lord) tries to smooth things over, to which Lucy snarls "Don't you EVER get Mad?".

Lucy did a great jitterbug with that hepcat (before her eyes got dilated)

The only hour-long episodes that really work for me are Tallulah Bankhead, Fred MacMurray, and the Make Room for Daddy crossover. They did get progressively worse. The nadir had to have been the one with Howard Duff and Ida Lupino. That episode is unwatchable.

Thank you, r315, I've been biting my tongue all these years wanting to say what you just said!

That $500 the girls earned for Women From Mars was just enough to pay for that Don Loper Basic Dress.

Lucy Ricardo is lovable. That's why she was able to get away with all that shit. There was a vulnerability to the looniness and naivety. Once she lost the vulnerability, the looniness and naivety on Lucy Carmichael and Lucy Ricardo became ridiculous. She seemed senile and her bossiness was not unnoticed as the writers began giving Vivian bitchy lines: Lucy: That container has too big a mouth Viv: That makes two of you.

I also hated Lucy's Switzerland episode. Viv has one of the worst Ethel moments in it. When they're trapped in the cabin and Lucy has the last sandwich, Ethel demands a bite of it. When Lucy refuses, Ethel says to Fred "let's take it away from her". She sounded like a greedy, fat pig.

When Ted Williams drops by and Lucy is so flustered she says "Put your head anywhere - I mean hat".

That's Tom Williams, hot, hung and rich enough to attract the Eve Whitneys of the world.

[quote]hot dirt about the fat little milkman and a married neighbor

That fat little milkman was Bob Jellison, who also played Bobby the Bellman in the Hollywood episodes.

[quote]She sounded like a greedy, fat pig.

You won’t get an argument from me.

The woman the milkman was rumored to be having an affair with was Grace Foster. We later saw her in the Anniversary episode where Ricky goes up to her apartment to buy pearls for Lucy.

In the Women From Mars episode, Viv has a blooper that's edited out. When the girls are going over the chain link fence, Viv drops her laser gun. Watch her and you can see the gun is very loosely placed in her belt. The edit comes and the gun is gone from the belt and lying on the ground. Later when the woman screams, Lucy has to retrieve her own gun from Ethel because they only have one.

The episode with Ann Sothern had to be shelved because Ann said there weren't enough big things for her to stand behind.

It was later reshot as one of the hour long episodes with Lucy declaring "There's a cruise ship, is that large enough for you to stand behind?"

Actually the Sothern episode was 75 minutes.

The Paul Douglas one where Lucy wants a career is pretty rancid too. The Bob Cummings one has its moments.

I think there was another rare mistake by Lucille Ball in the scene where Lucy and Ricky are talking about reupholstering the Mertzes' couch. IIRC, Lucille said "reupholster the chair" or something like that (she should've said the couch) but Desi saved it by saying it correctly, then when she agreed, he said "I didn't hear you." I can't remember it exactly because it's been so long since I've seen it but think it was part of an episode I absolutely hated because, as another poster noted above, it ended with Lucy getting blamed for something she didn't do, so not one of my favorites.

Ah yes, it was Lucy's idea to redecorate and she had no business doing it when she was incompetent .

R327, I used to think the same thing but after I saw it again, Ricky keeps telling Lucy again and again to mind her own business and let them work out their own problems. Of course, there's no episode if she did that, but after a while, she really did seem more meddlesome than usual, however well meaning. Ricky was also strongly suggesting that she could be harming their marriage and it's also why he doesn't seem to mind paying for the mess, which is contrary to other episodes like the washing machine one.

[quote]In the Women From Mars episode, Viv has a blooper that's edited out. When the girls are going over the chain link fence, Viv drops her laser gun. Watch her and you can see the gun is very loosely placed in her belt. The edit comes and the gun is gone from the belt and lying on the ground. Later when the woman screams, Lucy has to retrieve her own gun from Ethel because they only have one.

Never noticed this r324!

[quote]Actually the Sothern episode was 75 minutes.

The extra 15 minutes was the Hedda Hopper wraparound. When the shows were first released for syndication, it was removed. It wasn't restored until the 90s.

Didn't they keep going through a blooper unless the director yelled CUT? They were so cost conscious.

It was always riveting when they did a behind the scenes show that showed the sets containing the apartments and the audience seating area, wh. was on wheels. Desi would come out first and introduce the cast members.

What you're describing is the extra material for the I Love Lucy movie, r332. The show was so extraordinarily popular, that they decided to put three episodes together to make a movie. They filmed a sort-of "story" of a married couple coming to see a filming of an ILL episode, and that's where they also shot Ricky introducing everyone. The film had a wildly successful release in Bakersfield, CA, and Desilu prepared for a national roll-out. But by that point, Lucy & Desi had already committed to "The Long Long Trailer," and MGM was insistent that it be billed as Lucy and Desi's return to the big screen, and demanded the I Love Lucy film be shelved. It was lost until the 1990s, and was finally released to the public on the DVD of the hour long episodes.

r332 one thing I noticed rewatching the entire series during lockdown was that Viv had to reshoot a lot of her lines later. I don't know if it's because she flubbed them and they kept shooting, or because the mics didn't pick her up. The first instance occurs early, in one of the first episodes. (I'll look it up later.) It's noticeable in eg "Lucy Learns to Drive", when she's discussing Fred's catatonic state with Lucy in the first scene.

Lucy was a loser.

A loser and a boozer.

A loser, a boozer, and a Chesterfield user.

Lucy stumbled over her lines sometimes too. In the Madame X episode, she stumbles over the line, "Ricky, have you seen your silver cigarette case?"

Do you think Lucy was into giving head to Ricky, or was she finished with him after her second child?

And we won’t excuse ‘er!

r339 did Lucy and Ricky lock their second child away, a la Genie?

I think Lucy and Desi probably had a great sex life and he was the love of her life. And Lucy was no stranger to giving blowjobs. That's probably why she put up with him as long as she did. She probably got fed up being made a fool of. All of those blind items in Confidential and the other rags. Everyone knew what was up.

She couldn't hold a candle to me in the BJ department, r342. My BJ was good enough to turn a gay man straight.

More likely, a straight man gay

It's amazing how many episode titles contain the word "cock, even the hour-long shows. Were Oppenheimer/Pugh being lazy, or were they trying to sneak in some double entendres?

Cocks Are Messy

Cuban Cocks

Lucy Does a Cock

Ricky Asks for a Cock

Vacation from Cock

Ricky Has Cock Pains

Cock Resistance

The Black Cock

No Cocks Allowed

Lucy's Last Cock

Ricky and Fred Are Cock Fans

Too Many Cocks

Ricky Needs a Cock

The Cock Hunt

Lucy's Italian Cock

Lucy Hunts Cock

Lucy Makes Room for Cock

Lucy Wants a Cock

r345, I read your post during a meeting and it was all I could do not to laugh hysterically.

Well done.

[quote]Lucy Does a Cock

Just one?

The one where Lucy removes the gasoline from the boat and they land on Gilligan's Island.

Seven Cocks for Seven Rickies!

A Streetcar Named Scrotum!

A Cock Grows in Havana!

#NeverForgetNeverForgive

The episode were Ricky is arrested for domestic violence and Lucy and Ethel solicit donations around the neighborhood so he can make bail.

I loved the John Wayne episodes, but even as a kid I never understood why Graumann's simply didn't have Wayne do another cement footprints and signature during the premier of Blood Alley, where he was making an appearance. Talk about publicity. His block is stolen so now he has to do another one in front of an audience.

Something I noticed during the Decades telecasts are that William Frawley wore a pinkie ring, not on his wedding finger. That's not something Fred Mertz would have done.

Sticky Fingers Sal and Pickpocket Pearl were dykes.

And R353 packed fudge!

Eleanor Holmby and her blonde traveling companion were also a couple of lezzies.

R355's dick looks like a small Fudgicle and smells like shit.

r356's hair looks like a bad dream you'd have after eating too many watercress sandwiches.

And Sticky Fingers Sal LIKES it that way, R357!

R358 likes to step on Sticky Finger's toes.

Other mediocre episodes include:

Lucy is Jealous of a Girl Cock

Lucy gets Ricky on the Cock

Ricky Thinks he's Getting Cock

Lucy Hires an English Cock

Lucy Changes her Cock

Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Cock

Ethel's Cock

Ricky Sells the Cock

[quote[Ricky Sells the Cock

My personal favorite.

The one where everyone involved works especially hard to convince the audience that Lucy is not a miserable, disagreeable bitch.

The two episodes where the Ricardos move to the country were awful. The first, where Ethel essentially has a breakdown when she realizes the Ricardos are going and then insists they stay was incredibly annoying. Her crying made me want to slap her. The other, where they try to void the sale by pretending to be undesirables was pretty much the start of terrible situations from the writers.

Different strokes for different strokes, but I thought the episode where they pretend to be gangsters is a riot. The first part of the episode, where Lucy squishes all the furniture together to make Ricky feel the apartment is smaller than he thought, is borderline retarded. But the episode redeems itself IMO with the gangster twist.

R364 it was makes me laugh when Lucy says:

Don't step on the brain's toes, Fingers.

[quote]The first, where Ethel essentially has a breakdown when she realizes the Ricardos are going and then insists they stay was incredibly annoying. Her crying made me want to slap her.

r363 = Phil Ober

If not the worst episode the most socially irresponsible: Ethel is furious when she finds out Fred bought a gun for self protection. So he gives it to Little Ricky to hold until he can convince her it's necessary.

All of them. Every bloody one of them.

I'd say Season 3 was the most consistent in terms of quality.

So do we think Rock Hudson fucked that shirtless extra hanging around the pool whom he smiled at?

Why did Tennessee Ernie Ford warrant THREE separate episodes?

^Because they weren't able to do one complete 90-minute episode.

One of my favorite episodes is "Lucy Cries Wolf," the season 4 opening episode. Ball was pure genius with her reactionary expressions as Lucy hid on the apartment ledge and eavesdropped on Ricky/Ethel/Fred pretending to contemplate her death as they knew all along that she was on the ledge.

The episode where Ethel leaves Fred for Liberace.

There were at least two episodes where Ethel thought Lucy and Fred were fucking. The idea was bizarre. They should've had Lucy suspect Ricky and Ethel were fucking, but maybe not since the implication would've been that Viv was more attractive than Lucy, who never would have stood for that.

Please. Ethel suspecting Fred of fucking old Mrs. Trumble would have been more realistic, given their similar ages.

r375 given the fact Viv couldn't keep her hands off Desi, it doesn't seem too much of a stretch.

They should have have had an episode were Ricky and Fred thought Lucy and Ethel were fucking.

Looking back on Ball’s career, I Love Lucy seems like a miracle. Not particularly likable second string movie actress becomes America’s Sweetheart. And then spends the next three decades being a bitter, disappointed bore.

I'm pretty sure Viv would have fucked Desi if given the opportunity. She apparently had no scruples about fucking married men.

Also, she put on weight during the Hollywood season.

The one where Fred fists Ricky is a fave.

Desi was hung like a horse.

Fred wound up using Ethel's hostess pants as a cum rag. He did the same thing the year before with that mystery gift that was too long to be a stole but too short to be a volleyball net.

I had Ricky's 11 inches 4 times last week. That's 44.

LOL r384. Well done.

Did Desi give Viv a bonus in her paycheck the week when she had to crawl into bed with Frawley in the "First Stop" episode road trip on their way to Hollywood?

If there is one thing Fred is not, and there is ONLY one thing he is not and that is a chicken theif

r386 Desi let me crawl into his pants after filming and we called it a day.

Yum, r388! Lucky bitch. I bet toothpaste wasn't the only fluid that wound up on your face that week of filming.

I never had sufficient.

Of Desi, that is.

Vivian and Bill were best friends off-screen.

"Lucy Campaigns for Eisenhower"

"Mrs. Trumble Throws a Sex Party"

[quote]"Mrs. Trumble Throws a Sex Party"

Oh, dear.

My Handy Dandy vibrator arrived today. I named it Ricky.

Desi was so horny all the time, he would even sniff around Verna Felton's pussy.

R396, True, but the mothballs were too much for him.

Desi used to eat me out. Oh he had the most marvelous technique with his tongue. I used to refer to it as "Mickey Licky."

Kinky r398!

He never fucked me!

I wonder if the Arnazes and the Obers ever had a foursome.

Were Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred all only children?

No siblings ever appeared or were even mentioned.

I'd never thought about that, r402. Great point.

I think in early iterations, the Mertzes had a grown child. But the idea was later dropped.

Also, r402, Ethel's parents were apparently divorced. Her mother lived in New York and her father lived in Albuquerque.

I could swear in one of the very early episodes, Ethel mentioned something about Fred having a brother.

Phil Ober was brought in as technical consultant on the black eye episode. Seriously.

R402 I thought some of those relatives that visited them at their hotel in Cuba were Ricky’s siblings.

God, how old were the Ramseys? Mary Jane Croft and Ralph Nelson both looked to be pushing 60, yet they had that young son. More oddly, MJC played the mother of an infant, in the Lucy/cheese episode, just a few months earlier before first appearing as Betty.

r406 and Viv was a technical consultant on the episode that featured a lesbian affair set in a mental institution.

[quote] Her rendition of The Chocolate Soldier in that episode is hysterical.

You should've seen her performance of "The Chocolate Train" in my living room.

What was Viv's actual mental health diagnosis?

She had the Gobloots, r411.

As I've posted in past ILL threads, for me the best seasons were those from the beginning right up until the moment Ricky tells Lucy he's going to Hollywood. From that point forward, the series basically became a road show -- they were always going someplace, from Hollywood to Europe to Florida to Connecticut and then it was over. There were certainly good episodes in all of those locales along the way but I did find it tiresome that they could never stay home anymore.

I'd argue that the best episodes were when they were traveling. The William Holden episode is the pinnacle in my opinion.

I agree r413. My favorite episodes are from Seasons 3 and 4 (before Hollywood).

They took them on the road because it gave them an opportunity to have Lucy to interact with celebs. Which celeb would she have interacted with in NYC? Mary Stuart? Eileen Fulton?

Did Vance really show up for filming with bruises?

Yes, r417, but don't look at me! She got them when she fell off the roof of the sanitarium after trying to escape.

Great idea for an episode r418!!

It's often recounted that the only person who laughed when the I Love Lucy cast and crew gathered to watch the series premiere was Phil Ober. Everyone else was silent, watching intently, while he guffawed loudly throughout -- much to others' annoyance.

He truly could not abide Vivian being the center of attention at his expense.

The William Holden might have been the best but mainly because William Holden was in it!

I nominate the Rock Hudson episode as a runner up, r421

[quote]The script that called for Lucy to hit a talent agent Ethel mistook for a burglar over the head with a heavy pot and into unconsciousness and for she and Ethel to not even contemplate rendering him medical attention but instead to sit him up on the couch and pretend to be in conversation with him so he wouldn't know what had happened when he finally (hopefully) "came to" was problematic and made their characters seem very self-centered and cold-hearted. And shame on the audience for laughing at a character portraying someone who may have a concussion or serious head injury.

MARY!!!

It would've been funnier if Ethel had been the one struck and rendered unconscious.

Isn't that the episode where Vivian, while straightening him up on the couch, stuck the comb under his nose, making him look like Hitler? Totally unscripted and brought down the house?

I'm surprised Lucy let her get away with it. She hated any deviation from the script and what had been rehearsed. I wonder if there were repercussions behind the scenes.

r425 meet r206

Hitler? I thought she was trying to make him look like Ernie Kovacs.

I think it looks far more like Hitler r427.

The official designation for the show on script pages was "Lucy". Ball saw the first week's script and each page had ILL at the top and she said she didn't want to see "ILL" everyday for the next five years.......

Phil Ober was orgasmic when he first saw the acronym designation at the top of the ILL pilot script: SLAP (Script: Lucy/Arnaz Pilot). He convinced Viv to take the part on that alone.

Poor Phil Ober. A Princeton grad with an illustrious Broadway (and later diplomatic) career and he's only remembered as Vivian Vance's abusive ex

I remember him as Dore Schary

One of my favorite glaring continuity errors has to do with Dore Schary. When Lucy's mother shows up in NYC and decides she wants to go with them to Hollywood, she says it's because she wants to take the book she wrote directly to Dore Schary. Several episodes later in Hollywood, when Lucy and Ricky are discussing the possibility of Schary firing Ricky, her mother keeps screeching obnoxiously, "Now I've heard that name. Who's Dore Schary? Who's Dore Schary"? How quickly the writers forget.

More likely, how quickly Mrs. McGillicuddy forgot…

Mrs. McGillicuddy needed some sense slapped into her!

The Hitler sight gag was absolutely not ad-libbed. Lucy didn't like deviating from the scripts and her reaction to it also didn't suggest it was ad-libbed. The scripts were amazingly precise in what what going to happen in the physical comedy.

r436 = the ghost of Lucille Ball

Maybe she had early-onset dementia, r433

Interestingly, Vivian's family liked Phil Ober a lot. Her sisters found him charming and likeable.

[quote]Phil Ober was orgasmic

File under "Sentences one would only encounter on DL"

Phil Ober had a huge dick. Viv sure knew how to pick ‘em.

Too bad she was a frigid lesbian r441

Enough about Vivian's beard! Can we please redirect this conversation to MY sitcom?

Phil Ober WAS a huge dick, r441

I wanted to be Betty Ramsey when I grew up. She was the epitome of the emotionally detached WASP.

But people from Albuquerque are so warm and friendly r445!

What's so great about being from Albuquerque - I could have been from there if I hadn't been born in Jamestown.

Albuquerque has sufficient.

^I'll say. Ethel Mae Potter, I never forgot her...or her delicious pussy. Good mammories, um, memories.

During their senior year of high school, Ethel became pregnant with Billy Hackett's child. Ethel, estranged from her mother and afraid of her father, thought that she could end the pregnancy with a bottle of Jose Cuervo. But she only became very ill.

Mertz and Kurtz were passing through Albuquerque that week. From the window of his hotel room, Fred noticed an attractive blonde wandering along the railroad tracks. She possessed a soft vulnerability, so unlike the whores he usually traded intimacies with. He struck up a conversation with the buxom teenager, who was drunk and despondent, and, learning her fate, agreed to take her on the road to escape the inevitable wrath of her father. When Mertz and Kurtz arrived in El Paso later that week, Fred took young Ethel across the border for a back alley abortion in Juárez.

The botched procedure rendered Ethel sterile. But she now felt indebted to Fred, older and a little gruff, and agreed to marry him. He learned she had a powerful singing voice, and later incorporated her into his act.

They never spoke of that trip to Mexico, or that terrible day when, along the railroad tracks, Ethel had deemed her life unlivable. They only looked forward, at the hopes and possibilities that still lay on their horizons. But many years later, after their retirement from show business, Ethel would sometimes lay awake in bed. She would hear little Ricky Ricardo crying, or practicing his drums, and think back on the life she'd left behind in Albuquerque. She'd look over at Fred, once her savior, and resent the drudgery that her life with him had become. She'd think about that baby who had once been only a burden, and wonder if she'd have been a good mother. Not a godmother. But a real mother, with a child all her own. Someone who loved her.

In those stolen moments, she'd think of Billy Hackett. The softness of his lips. The sweetness of his breath.

For corn sake! But somewhat believable…

How else would you account for the 75-year age difference, r451?

I know it seems greater, but they were only 22 years apart

ONLY 22 years, r453?! The man campaigned for Thomas Jefferson!

Ethel, what in Sam Hill is going on with your pussy? Shave that damn thing. It looks like Life With Luigi down there.

r455 Lucille preferred it that way.

R450, you should turn this into a screenplay. That’s the fad these days, doing “alternate” views of a famous property.

Do a whole alternate view of ILL, a la Wicked! Lucy meets Ricky, who is turning gay tricks in Havana with his pal, Cesar. She and her pal Suzie are beard-hunting.

Only if I get a bigger role than Vivian r458

r457 we'll see ...

OMG, do we have a Phil Ober Troll? Only in Data Lounge, lol.

More than one r461!

Too bad they couldn't have gotten Barbara Pepper to play Ethel. She and Frawley could've bonded over their love of booze.

Lucy wanted Barbara Pepper for Ethel when Bea Benaderet wasn't available. But she was as big a drunk as Frawley and CBS wouldn't let Desi hire her.

Vivian made Ethel her own but you can see her struggling to find her voice in the first few episodes. Pepper would have been more believable with Frawley or whomever they were considering at the time and she would have also seemed a step down in class from the Ricardos. Pepper is very funny and charming on Green Acres so she might have been good.

r465 = the drunken ghost of Barbara Pepper

Can you imagine their first choice, Gale Gordon, as Fred? He was so unbearable, and I hated his couple of ILL episodes as Mr. Littlefield. I'm glad they went with Frawley.

Dreadful, r467. I can't imagine him in the role.

He was also terrible when he replaced Joseph Kearns in Dennis the Menace. He lacked Kearns's warmth.

Desi's great talent was his ability to recognize talent in others. Hence the hiring of Bill and Viv.

Lucille ... not so much. Had she been the one who watched Viv in Voice of the Turtle, I doubt she'd have hired her.

But Lucy gave us Carole Cook.

[quote] He lacked Kearns's warmth.

Plus Kearns oozed a raw masculinity and hot sexiness that Gale Gordon couldn’t touch.

Who remembers Metrecal?

"Kearns suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on February 11, 1962, during the third season of Dennis the Menace, after being on the Metrecal diet for six weeks, forcing him to retire from his role.

Kearns was hospitalized, but never regained consciousness and died on February 17, 1962, five days after his 55th birthday. He was buried at the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles."

Gay face for days . . .

r471 = Percy Livermore

I always liked Joseph Kearns.

I would have made the perfect Fred Mertz.

I'm old enough to remember when Joseph Kearns died in 1962.

Phil Ober as Fred? Imagine Oppenheimer/Pugh's rewrites. In the Lucy decorates the apartment episode, instead of Fred yelling at Lucy for the fan spreading the feathers all over the place, it would've been Fred grabbing the fan and throwing it at Ethel. Cue laugh track.

Actually, if Desi had his way, Ethel would have been Bea Benederet. They lucked into Viv.

I thought if Desi had his way, Ethel would have been Eve Meyer.

Lol r478 ... the possibilities!

Fred's Constipation.

That over-pruned climax was worse than the rice overflow, the bread overflow and the soap overflow.

My fist overflowed when I found out Ethel bought the wrong brand of laxative r482

Quit trying to make Phil Ober happen, and trying to climb on other posts to do it, Sunshine.

It carries the whiff of OCD and passive-aggression, a terrible combination.

I assume I have r483 blocked for a good reason

“Lucy and Ethel Help a Friend”

When Carolyn Appleby reveals she has never blown her husband and he’s become disinterested, Lucy and Ethel invite Ricky’s band over to teach Carolyn how to give a spectacular blowjob.

r486 Cesar Romero guest stars

Meant to say I have r384 blocked for good reason.

She's the one who stated "Women have ruined academia" in another thread

Ugh ... let's try this again.

I meant to say I have r484 blocked

Sorry r384!!!

The episode where Lucy misses several doses of Thorazine

New door locks for Fred was the worst.

I can't remember -- is that the episode where Ethel knocks the talent scout over the head r491?

"I can't remember -- is that the episode where Ethel knocks the talent scout over the head [R491]?"

Imagine how much funnier if would've been if it were the other way around?!?! I'm leaking pre-cum just thinking about it.

Oh my.

Only on DL® r493

New door locks is when Ethel uses Fred's birthday present money to buy new door locks for the entire building because of Madam X

Thanks r496

According to something I read years ago, Vivian was originally supposed to be in the "Lucy Does a TV Commercial" episode, but was too beaten up to appear on camera. (Hence the "visiting her mother" lines delivered by Fred.)

If true, r493 must have had multiple orgasms when that episode aired.

She killed that baby chick. Fuck you, Lucy!

I’m not crazy about the whole first season. They hadn’t found the groove yet.

R499, I forgot about those chicken episodes. I really hated them and the longest laugh unfortunately sent the wrong signal to the writers as they started doing more and more of the "splash comedy".

That's nothing compared to the spirits she killed on set, r499

Well, if anyone knows about spirits, r502, it certainly would be you!

You just saved your spirits for the set of Password Plus r503

Lucie Arnaz claims that Lucy and Ginger Rogers were distant cousins.

Lucy, Ginger and Lucie . . .

That clip had me smiling from beginning to end

r505

Lela Rogers, mother of Ginger Rogers,

Lela Rogers was reportedly related to Ball on her mother's side which made Lucy and Ginger distant cousins (the two actresses were also lifelong friends).

With a name like Ginger, how can she not be related to me?

r261 their average fan was born in 1903.

Lucy was a bitch. Years after her divorce from Desi she called him a loser during an interview. Sure, she was pissed off and hurt that he frequented prostitutes before and during their marriage, but Lucy was engaged to someone else when her affair with Desi began, and she banged others during her marriage to Desi, including Henry Fonda. FU Lucy.

Desi should've listened to me when I tried to tell him the best way to keep Lucy in line.

Is this true?

[quote]she banged others during her marriage to Desi, including Henry Fonda

How so, r512? By having a third-rate career in forgettable films and television?

Viv, if you keep that up, I'll be planting my feet somewhere, and it won't be Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

You bet your sweet life it won't be Grauman's r515!

r511 = the ghost of Joan Crawford

Ann Sothern certainly was fat for her Lucy show appearances. Too bad she didn’t have enough self control to stop overeating.

Ann Sothern was positively svelte next to Barbara Pepper

I thought Lucille was faithful to Desi ... ?

The Phil Ober troll is hilarious. He sounds exactly like I suspect the real Phil Ober sounded.

I always think of Lucy giving William Frawley his last TV scene (after MY Three Sons gave him the heave-ho).

Only on DL is there a Phil Ober troll.

Miss Pugh desperately wanted me to play Ralph Ramsey, but Frank Nelson beat me to the punch!

Frank got the part because Desi wanted an actor the audience would like.

[quote] I always think of Lucy giving William Frawley his last TV scene

I always think of Lucy giving William Frawley his last hand job.

LOL r524!

Sometimes I wonder if Viv's inability to get Phil cast opposite her in Guestward, Ho! was the last straw in their marriage, They separated shortly thereafter

She pulled no punches trying to convince Desi to cast him

I landed a few punches, though

“Ethylu” and “Lucyeth “sound like a pair of Shakespearean lesbian lovers.

In the passport episode, when Fred says that his photo looks like a "fist with eyes," keep your eyes on Viv. If you look closely, you can see the lump in her throat and the dread in her eyes. Now that's how you train a wife! When I saw that episode for the first time, I got hard as a rock.

Maybe, r531, but Lucille still had a bigger dick than you.

I'm still waiting for one of you Lucille Ball experts to answer my question at r513

How many of you learned "second acting" from Lucy when she went to see "Most Happy Fella?"

The most happy fella episode was probably my favorite of the CT episodes.

R513 is not true.

Thanks r536

It certainly packed a punch, r535.

r525 = Vivian Vance

Is it true Frawley was booted from My Three Sons?

Stanley Livingston was trying to be diplomatic but I think he really didn't like Frawley. He said something like he was very rough around the edges but he didn't say it with great affection. In the Bart Andrews book, someone said that Frawley was a totally bigoted man who hated all minorities.

[quote]Frawley was a totally bigoted man who hated all minorities.

I can believe it.

^Sort of like your typical DL poster.

Frawley left My Three Sons because he was no longer physically capable of performing his part. He couldn't remember any lines and couldn't stand up for longer than a minute. He passed away only about a year later. I don't remember whether he was actually fired but I suspect he left by mutual agreement.

[quote]He passed away only about a year later.

Champagne for everyone!

I kept suggesting to Pugh and Oppenheimer to add a "SLAP HER, FRED!" to the audience laugh track whenever Ethel acted up. Norman Lear eventually used (stole?) that idea for "Good Times." If I do say so myself, I really was a pioneer, ahead of my time, wasn't I?

Too bad you spent so much time kicking around Desilu and making everyone uncomfortable rather than pursuing real acting jobs, r546

Boy, you're really gunning for a black eye, aren't you, r547?

Don't you have a third-rate television program to appear in, r548?

Oh for fuck sake, go spread that weathered moth-eaten pussy of yours for your chocolate soldier.

Shouldn't you be busy occupying a footnote to entertainment history, r550?

I created a companion thread.

R541, not true at all. I saw Barry Livingston (Ernie) being interviewed, and he said Frawley was very much liked by all the sons on the show. William Demarast was a good fit for the role of Uncle Charlie, but none of the kids liked him much.

Poor Viv. Having to work with cranky old Frawley during the day, and then having to deal with abusive Ober when she got home. No wonder she was in psychiatric care.

They were all terrible and unfunny.

r554 after Vivian's death, Lucille speculated that Ober was responsible for most of her mental health problems. She said he enjoyed humiliating her.

Viv probably wanted out of I Love Lucy because she knew it was ruining her marriage. She actually approached Ober about quitting the show, but he told her to stay. He liked the money, and spent most of her earnings during their marriage on luxuries. At the same time, he loathed the fact she was more successful and wanted to make her suffer. His whole thing about "Lucy and Ethel act like dykes" was meant to embarrass her. Sometimes watching the show, I think about how trapped and helpless she must have felt.

Hiss! Hiss hissss hiss!

If you keep doing that Swedish accent, I'll go back to five dollars.

I'd suggest you pay me the entire ten dollars, r558, unless you want to find out why Viv is so well-behaved.

You have no idea what it was like dealing with Vivian. I did everything thing I could to advance her career, at great expense to my own flourishing career, I might add. At one point, I approached Louis B. Mayer about starring Viv in one of his remakes. He was doing so many at the time,. Among my suggestions were "Seven Vivs for Seven Batterings", "The Obers of Wimpole Street", "Throw Viv in a Fountain", "Beat Me in St. Louis". He wouldn't go for any of them, no matter how much I pleaded. So you see, despite what Lucille says, I did my best.

LOL r560!

[quote]at great expense to my own flourishing career

HA r560! When you were beating me up for "misbehaving," you spent your Hollywood "career" harassing me at Desilu, hitting on my friends and making them uncomfortable, and playing tennis with A-listers who punctuated sets with, "I'm sorry, what's your name again?"

Oh please, R557!! I insulted I Love Lucy, it's not like I said something against the Golden Girls (which I would NEVER).

The one where Lucy thinks she’s going to catch Ricky flirting with a girl at a costume party at the nightclub. She and Ethel decide to crash the party to spy on Ricky but have no time for elaborate costumes so they cut up the sheets Ethel just bought at a white sale and dress as ghosts—but they can barely see because Ethel cut the eyeholes too far apart (“You said six inches!”) so on the way over they follow a group of revelers dressed as ghosts (“Look! They must be going to the costume party!”) but end up inadvertently marching to a KKK rally!

[quote]but end up inadvertently marching to a KKK rally!

Lucy's spider when they asked her to set the cross on fire was her best ever!

And Lucy and Ethel's surprise when they see Fred Mertz there.

It's not so surprising r566.

[quote]“You said six inches!”

Funny, r564, I also told this to Fred on our disappointing wedding night.

Lucy was a selfish, scatter-brained bitch! Yes, she was a regular little mother to me, but I WILL NEVER forget the time she nearly killed me, when she let my baby buggy roll into the middle of traffic.

Did r297 really happen?

Another vote for the matchmaking episode featuring the execrable Bea Benederet and Edward Everett Horton.

I generally love Bea Benaderet, but agreed that episode is unwatchable.

I haven't seen the Bea Benaderet episode since I was a kid. Maybe I'll watch it today to see how bad it is.

Bea was only 45 in that episode. Why is she made up to look 87?

Viv, Lucy and One Cup.

Phil, Viv, and One Fist

Wait -- this is the WORST thread. r576 should be signed Viv!

I need motivation to get going this morning, so I put on the Scotland episode. If that doesn't get me out of my apartment, nothing will

Lucy getting blowjob lessons from Ricky's cuban pal Sandor (guest Cesar Romero).

The one they updated to make relevant for audiences in 2022: Lucy's Back-Alley Abortion

"Ricky's Screen Test" The one where Lucy helps Ricky audition. She is so annoying when she gets scared when the scene clapper snaps behind her and screams like a ninny... multiple times.

I don't remember that one r581

r582

it's the one that he ties Lucy to a chair

Lucy goes to Scotland.

The Miami episode; she tries to preserve a dead fish in a bathtub.

[quote]it's the one that he ties Lucy to a chair

Tell me more ...

The Tennessee Ernie Ford episodes were the worst.

Well I'll be gosh darn ding donged, r586!

Did anyone else jerk off to the scene in the "Lucy Goes Amok on the Lawnmower" episode where Lucy punches Ethel in arm?

The irreverence of the Phil Ober troll(s) cracks me up

Like you can still get it up, r588

Lucy And Ethel take karate classes. They kick each other in the stomach throughout the whole episode. In Vivian Vance's unpublished autobiography she claimed network executives told her if she could induce an abortion in Lucy she would get a $25,000 bonus.

R591, nice try but that was Lucy and Viv and Lucy teaches her son karate so he could beat up Viv's son Sherman.

Did anyone else cum buckets in the scene in the Monte Carlo episode when Fred threw Ethel to the ground after he learned that the money in their suitcase was not her inheritance but belonged to Lucy? C'mon, you're among friends. You can admit it!

We all hated you, r593

Visually and audibly, for me, the first couple of seasons pre-Hollywood. Lucy's looks, character, and pushing high-pitched character's voice just seemed grating to me. I thought that once they got to the period where the Arnazes were real-life filming "The Long, Long Trailer" at MGM and their Ricardos went to Hollywood with the Mertzes, somehow that return to big-screen performing and lighting really made Lucy and the show bump up the sophistication and her character really solidified her looks, wardrobe, confidence, voice delivery, etc. Lucille finally seemed to become comfortable being Lucy Ricardo in all ways, to the point that you feel you're now just eavesdropping on L.R.'s real-life comic adventures and not watching Lucille Ball's acting performance.

R595 Mary! But I agree…

And Vivian Vance’s wardrobe and appearance also rose to believable levels of sophistication for her character.

New thread!