I Love Lucy Episode Guide

 

[ Season 1, 1951-52 ]	[ Season 2, 1952-53 ]	[ Season 3, 1953-54 ]
[ Season 4, 1954-55 ]	[ Season 5, 1955-56 ]	[ Season 6, 1956-57 ]

 

The First Season

 

THE GIRLS WANT TO GO TO A NIGHTCLUB
Episode #2, aired Oct. 15, 1951

For their 18th Anniversary, Ethel wants to go to the Copacabana but Fred wants to go to the fights. So Ethel and Lucy tell their husbands they'll get their own dates for the nightclub. Ricky decides he and Fred should get dates too, so he calls Ginny Jones to arrange it. Lucy also calls Ginny for dates and finds out that Ricky called for dates too. Lucy and Ethel decide to disguise themselves as hillbilly dates for Ricky & Fred. Soon, Ricky recognizes Lucy when she knows where the cigarettes are. The Mertze's anniversary is then spent at the fights, with Lucy & Ethel dressed up for the nightclub. 

 

Song: "Guadalajara"

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BE A PAL
Episode #3, aired Oct. 22, 1951

Ethel helps Lucy, using a book of the week, when Lucy believes Ricky is losing interest in her. The first two chapters in the book fail: suggesting that Lucy dress up for breakfast, and the "Be A Pal" chapter advising her to take up everything her husband takes up, such as playing poker. The next chapter suggests she surround her apartment with things that remind Ricky of his childhood. So Lucy makes their apartment look like Cuba and dresses up like Carmen Miranda. 

Songs: "Mama Yo Quiero"
Cast: Richard Reeves as Hank, Tony Michaels as Charlie

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THE DIET
Episode #4, aired Oct. 29, 1951

The Ricardos and Mertzes discover they've gotten a little puffy, overweight in the last few years, which does not make Lucy happy at all. She talks Ricky into letting her audition for a show, and he tells her she can have the part if she loses enough weight to fit the costume, which she does. After her performance at the nightclub she becomes ill from her diet.

Songs: "Cuban Pete/Sally Sweet"
Cast: Marco Rizo

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LUCY THINKS RICKY IS TRYING TO MURDER HER
Episode # 1, aired Nov. 5, 1951

Ethel tells Lucy's fortune with cards and with the Ace of Spades next to Lucy's cards, she's shocked to find out it means "death". After misconstruing Ricky's phone conversation, Lucy thinks Ricky is going to get rid of her.

Cast: Jerry Hausner as Jerry.

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QUIZ SHOW
Episode # 5, aired Nov. 12, 1951

Lucy's allowance has been cut off so she goes on the radio show "Females Are Fabulous" to earn money. In order to win the money she has to make Ricky believe she's been married before.

Cast: Frank Nelson as Freddie Filmore; Hazel Pierce as Mrs. Peterson; Phil Ober as the Lucy's lost husband; John Emery as the tramp; Lee Millar as the announcer.

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THE AUDITION
Episode # 6, aired Nov. 19, 1951

Lucy wants to be in Ricky's act when an injured Buffo The Clown arrives at her apartment. She does a Professor routine with Ricky and her cello, and impersonates a seal. A TV network offers her a contract!

Songs: "Babalu", "How Dry I Am"

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THE SEANCE
Episode # 7, aired Nov. 26, 1951

To get on the good side of a producer who's interested in hiring Ricky, and who's also interested in numerology Lucy holds a seance, but she has to provide the voice for one of the spirits who finds "it's awfully hot down here"!

Cast: Jay Novello as Mr. Meriweather

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MEN ARE MESSY
Episode 8, aired Dec. 3, 1951

Lucy is disgusted with the way Ricky has been keeping the house a mess. She splits the room into two parts so she can have a clean side. When a photographer is scheduled to arrive to take pictures of Ricky, she thinks she can teach Ricky a lesson by keeping the house as messy as he does. She keeps it more than as messy as him, she adds Ethel caught inside the laundry on the line in the living room, goes hunting in the apartment etc. At the end, to her dismay, she finds out the photographer was for "Look" magazine.

Songs: "Straw Hat Song"
Cast: Kenny Morgan, as Kenny, Harry Shannon as photographer, Hazel(Sunny)Boyne as Maggie

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FUR COAT
Episode #10, aired Dec.10,1951

Ricky brings home a mink coat he'll use in his show. Lucy thinks it's for her and Ricky doesn't get a chance to tell her the truth. When Lucy finds out that he arranged for the coat to be stolen from their apartment and that the fur didn't belong to her, she gets even by cutting up a fake fur in front of him.

Cast: Ben Weldon as robber.

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LUCY IS JEALOUS OF GIRL SINGER
Episode #11, aired Dec.17,1951

Lucy reads in the paper that Ricky is seeing another woman (but he's isn't). After she finds Rosemary's (a dancer) black lace in his pocket, which he put there during a rehearsal, she decides to work her way into Ricky's show to see what he's doing. She doesn't know any of the steps and tries to get in between Ricky and Rosemary as much as she can.

Songs: "Jezebel", "El Cumbanchero"
Cast: Helen Silver as Rosemary

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DRAFTED
Episode #9, Aired Dec. 24, 1951

Lucy mistakes Ricky's invite to perform, as a letter that tells him he's been drafted to go to war. When he asks Fred to perform with him, the girls begin knitting socks for their men who now both seem to have to go to war. The men believe the knitting means the girls will have babies. They all set up surprise parties for each other on the same night and keep the guests hidden in the closet until the party is to begin.

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THE ADAGIO
Episode #12, aired Dec. 31, 1951

Ethel finds someone to teach Lucy an Apache dance that she wants to perform in Ricky's show, though he doesn't want her in it. The teacher thinks he should also be romantic to American women. Lucy makes him leave but he returns to their bedroom window to elope. After being insulted, he challenges Ricky to a duel. When Lucy leaves the room, the Frenchman states he will be Lucy's dance partner. Ricky now sees Lucy's scheme and the 2 men stage a fake duel. Lucy confesses she'd just be happy as a wife. As she and Ricky fall to sleep that night, she pours ice water over him for making her think he was shot in the duel.

Cast: Shepard Menken as Jean Valjean Raymand.

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THE BENEFIT
Episode #13, aired January 7, 1952

While singing "Shine on Harvest Moon", it's discovered that Lucy can't sing. When Ethel wants Ricky to be in her benefit show, Lucy insists that the only way to get Ricky is to let her be in it too. Lucy practices singing her scales at the piano and Ricky brings her the song "Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear", because it will "fit" her voice. Lucy insists on a better song so he chooses one that has jokes in it, but all the punch lines are his. Before doing the show, she changes the song, without telling Ricky, so that she has the funny lines.

Songs: "We'll Build a Bungalow", "Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear", "Shine on Harvest Moon"

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AMATEUR HOUR
Episode #14, aired January 14, 1952

Lucy needs money to pay for a dress so she looks for a job in the paper. She's dismayed to learn she can't get a job unless she can "do something". But she finds a well-paying babysitting job and when she phones to apply, she asks why payment is so high and asks, of what she'd be babysitting, "Is it human?". She soon finds that they're twins, but for awhile, only one of them at a time is around her, each contradicting what the other wanted, thus throwing Lucy into questioning her sanity. Their mother asks that Lucy be in a talent show with the twins, and if they win, she can keep the prize money. Lucy and the boys sing, with a little dancing helped along from one of the boys' frog which jumps onto Lucy's neck. Their performance wins them the prize money. 

Songs: "I'm Breaking My Back", "Ragtime Cowboy Joe"
Cast: Sammy Ogg as Jimmy, David Stollery as Timmy, Gail Bonney as Mrs. Hudson

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LUCY PLAYS CUPID
Episode #15, aired January 21, 1952

Lucy helps Miss Lewis by trying to have Mr. Ritter invited over to Miss Lewis' for dinner. He believes it's Lucy who wants to have him over for dinner so she creates some schemes to disinterest him in her and she teaches Miss Lewis everything she can on how to be alluring. Ritter remains mad about Lucy until Miss Lewis appears using everything Lucy taught her.

Cast: Bea Benaderet as Miss Lewis, Edward Everett Horton as Mr. Ritter

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LUCY FAKES ILLNESS
Episode #16, aired January 28, 1952

Ricky won't let Lucy be in a show, and Ethel suggests that if he keeps Lucy from doing what she wants, she may then develop depression or go off her trolley. He's not convinced, so Lucy pretends to have several illnesses, including thinking she's Tallulah Bankhead. Fred later informs Ricky that she's faking. Ricky asks an actor-friend to come over and play a doctor, leading Lucy to believe she got the "go-bloots" and if she turns green, she'll be "gone". Ricky later sneaks in a green lightbulb and for the "dying" Lucy, gets his band to play a spirited farewell dirge. Now that he has upset her, he tells her he was joking to pay her back for pretending to be sick.

Songs: "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You"
Cast: Hal March as the 'doctor'

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LUCY WRITES A PLAY
Episode #17, aired February 4, 1952

Ricky refuses to appear in Lucy's play "A Tree Grows in Havana" so she rewrites it as "The Perils of Pamela". Ricky learns that a Hollywood producer will see the show, so he appears onstage dressed to play in the original version of Lucy's play.

Cast: Myra Marsh as show hostess, Maury Thompson as stage manager.

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BREAK THE LEASE
Episode #18, aired February 11, 1952

The two couples have a fun evening singing "Sweet Sue" until the Mertzes go home and hear the Ricardos still singing in their apartment above. Disagreements occur between these best of friends, and to break out of their lease, the Ricardos invite Ricky's band over to play.

Songs: "Sweet Sue", "I Want a Girl Just Like The Girl That Married Dear Old Dad", "El Cumbanchero", "La Raspa", "Mexican Hat Dance".
Cast: Hazel Pierce, Barbara Pepper, Bennett Green (as a tramp)

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THE BALLET
Episode #19, aired February 18, 1952

Lucy returns to her ballet class, after many years, and then gets help on doing burlesque comedy, so she can be in Ricky's show. She finally is in the show, but not doing the routine required.
Songs: "Martha"

Cast: Mary Wickes as Madame Lamond, Frank Scannell as Burlesque comic

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YOUNG FANS
Episode #20, aired February 25, 1952

Little Peggy Dawson and teenager Arthur Morton fall madly in love, unfortunately, with Lucy and Ricky. To discourage the young kids, the Ricardos age themselves to such a state that the 2 teens flee from the apartment.

Songs: "Babalu"
Cast: Janet Waldo as Peggy, Richard Crenna as Arthur

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NEW NEIGHBORS
Episode #21, Aired March 3, 1952

In order for Lucy to hide from Ricky that she is snooping in the new neighbor's (the O'Briens)apartment, she escapes into their closet and hears them planning to blow up the capital, not knowing that they're rehearsing a play. 

Cast: Hayden Rorke and K. T. Stevens as the O'Briens, Allen Jenkins as Sergeant Morton

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FRED AND ETHEL FIGHT
Episode #22, aired March 10,1952

Lucy tries to re-unite Fred and Ethel after their fight, by inviting them both to dinner, without telling each of them that the other has also been invited. As they forgive each other at dinner, Lucy and Ricky have a fight. She tries to get his sympathy by pretending she was run over by a bus.

Cast: Hazel Pierce as waitress

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THE MOUSTACHE
Episode #23, aired March 17, 1952

Ricky won't shave off his mustache for Lucy, so she glues on a beard in retaliation, using Bulldog Cement by mistake. She has nothing that will remove the beard. When a movie producer visits, and enjoys Lucy's veiled Arabian dance, she is stuck when he asks to see her face.

Songs: "I'll See You in C-U-B-A"
Cast: John Brown as Mr. Murdoch

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THE GOSSIP
Episode #24, aired March 24, 1952

When Ricky tells Lucy to quit gossiping, she acts out, rather than tells, some gossip to Ethel about Betty and her husband Jack. The boys bet the girls to see who can prevent themselves from gossiping the longest. Ricky pretends to talk in his sleep about Grace Foster and later finds out Lucy gossiped to Ethel about it. In the end, Lucy makes Ricky's talked-about gossip turn out to be true.

Cast: Richard Reeves as Bill Foster, Robert Jellison as the milkman

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PIONEER WOMEN
Episode #25, aired March 31, 1952

Lucy and Ethel are gearing up to join the Society Matron's League and feel that washing dishes all these years has given them dishpan hands so they insist upon having dishwashers. Fred and Ricky bet the girls to see who goes the longest without using modern conveniences. Lucy and Ethel churn butter and make bread, but not without problems. The men and women dress as they did at the turn of the century and when the Society Matrons League comes to do an inspection, Lucy gives them a piece of her mind.

Cast: Florence Bates as Mrs. Pettybone, Ruth Perrott as Mrs. Pomerantz

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THE MARRIAGE LICENSE
Episode #26, aired April 7, 1952

Lucy finds a mistake on their marriage license and goes to City Hall to fix it. Meanwhile, Fred has a friend at the license bureau, so Ricky has them jokingly revoke the license. Lucy insists they re-create their wedding exactly as it happened.

Songs: "I Love You Truly"
Cast: Irving Bacon as Bert Willoughby, Elizabeth Patterson as "Mother"

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THE KLEPTOMANIAC
Episode #27, aired April 14, 1952

When Ricky sees Lucy sneaking silver items into their closet, he thinks she's a kleptomaniac. Fred and Ricky question her when she hides a cuckoo clock under her coat. A psychiatrist unsuccessfully hypnotizes her and she makes up a story of how she began to take things: "I saw a sign that said take one, so I took one".

Cast: Joseph Kearns as Tom Robinson

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CUBAN PALS
Episode #28, aired April 21, 1952

Lucy finds difficulty conversing with Ricky's Cuban friends and jealousy when she meets one of them named Renita. Lucy and Ethel dress as floor scrub-women to spy on Renita and Ricky at rehearsal. Lucy is appalled, and arranges for Fred to deliver Renita to the show by way of Philadelphia! Lucy becomes horrified as she does the voodoo dance instead of Renita.

Songs: "The Lady In Red", "Similau"
Cast: Lita Baron as Renita; Alberto Morin as Carlos; Rita Convy as Maria.

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THE FREEZER
Episode #29, aired April 28, 1952

Since buying sides of beef is a way to save money, Lucy and Ethel get a large freezer for the meat from Ethel's uncle. Not knowing the size of a side of beef, they order way too much beef. Failing at trying to sell the meat secretly at the butcher shop, so as to keep from telling their husbands what they bought, they decide to hide the meat in the now turned-off furnace. Lucy gets locked into the freezer and is rescued when frozen. After Fred lights the furnace, she remembers where she left the excess beef.

Songs: "Mama Inez", "Cielito Lindo"
Cast: Frank Sully and Bennett Green as deliverymen; Fred Aldrich as the butcher; Kay Wiley, Barbara Pepper and Hazel Pierce as ladies in the shop.

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LUCY DOES A TV COMMERCIAL
Episode #30, aired May 5, 1952

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Lucy proves to Ricky she can do commercials by taking apart their TV and performing inside of it. Ricky is unhappy with both her performance and for what she did to their TV. To get the job, Lucy tells the chosen actress that another girl's been hired. Down at the TV studio, Lucy is tasting the product, "Vitameatavegamin", as she rehearses, until she gets the commercial acted right, but the contents of the product contains far too much alcohol. 

Cast: Ross Elliott as the director, Jerry Hausner as Joe, Maury Thompson as prompter.

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THE PUBLICITY AGENT
Episode #31, aired May 12, 1952

Lucy wants Ricky to gain attention through publicity, so she decides to pretend that she's a princess from a foreign country whose only wish is to see Ricky Ricardo sing. To make his name even more public than usual, she phones and tells the papers not to print the arrival of the "princess" who would be staying at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. This sends a reporter to the Tropicana to cover Ricky's command performance for the expected lady of Royalty. Ethel is disguised as her lady-in-waiting, using her smelling salts to revive the fainting princess, with the reasoning, "You sing. She swoon". Ricky's multi-numbered performance at the Club exhausts Lucy and Ethel so that they must rest up in their room at the Waldorf. They are soon invaded by "intruders" looking for the "princess" with "red and black hair".

Songs: "I Get Ideas", "Babalu"
Cast: Richard Reeves and Gil Herman as "The Tiger's" assistants, Bennett Green as the photographer, Peter Leeds as the reporter.

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LUCY GETS RICKY ON THE RADIO
Episode #32, aired May 19, 1952

Lucy arranges for Ricky to be on a radio quiz show after he seems to know all the answers during a broadcast they listen to. He confesses to her he knew them because he was at the station while the show was in progress. Now that they're scheduled to be soon on the show, and Ricky is not wanting himself to look bad by giving wrong answers, she decides to visit the radio station. While there, she finds a way to obtain answers to the questions they'd be asked. Preparing herself for the broadcast by studying the answers, she is surprised to find that for that night, the format of the questions will change, and that they must pull their questions out of a jar. They win the prize when Ricky unknowingly states the answer, by merely telling Lucy how he's feeling.

Cast: Frank Nelson as Freddie Filmore, Bobby Ellis as assistant, Roy Rowan as announcer

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LUCY'S SCHEDULE
Episode #33, aired May 26, 1952

After Lucy takes forever to dress for a dinner with Ricky's new boss, Mr. Littlefield, and makes them so late they miss the dinner, he puts her on a schedule. He invites his new boss for dinner to show him that the schedule works. Mrs. Littlefield informs Lucy they're coming to dinner to "watch you perform" which was Ricky's unfortunate choice of words. In order to prevent women from being set back in years by the schedule, and in retaliation against the men, Lucy, Ethel and Mrs. Littlefield over-emphasize to the men what it's like being on a schedule: no time for conversation, no time to finish each course at dinner, and to help deliver food quickly from the kitchen to the dining table in the living room, the rolls are thrown when Lucy calls out: "Ethel, let's have those biscuits!"

Cast: Gale Gordon as Mr. Littlefield, Edith Meiser as Mrs. Littlefield

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RICKY THINKS HE'S GOING BALD
Episode #34, aired June 2, 1952

Ricky is horrified to notice his hair-line is receding. Lucy brings home the worse hair-restoring products she can find, in order to convince Ricky that the products and treatments aren't worth the worry about his hair.

Cast: Milton Parsons as Mr. Thurlough

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RICKY ASKS FOR A RAISE
Episode #35, aired June 9, 1952

Mr. Littlefield won't give Ricky a raise, so he quits. Lucy calls and makes reservations at the Tropicana, using made-up names, even phoning as if she's Tallulah Bankhead, with a plan that all these 'patrons' would get headaches and cancel at the last minute, leaving no one at the club to see Ricky's replacement sing. But then, Lucy and the Mertzes decide that to convince the boss to hire Ricky back, they should pretend to be several different patrons of the club who, once they discover Ricky isn't there anymore, would leave the premises to show they'd rather see Ricky perform, than anyone else.

Cast: Gale Gordon as Mr. Littlefield, Edith Meiser as Mrs. Littlefield, Maurice Marsac as Maurice

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© Copyright 2015 Everything Imagination, LLC with additional credit going out to Mike Broad for the initial research and writing of this guide.

[ Season 1, 1951-52 ] [ Season 2, 1952-53 ] [ Season 3, 1953-54 ] [ Season 4, 1954-55 ] [ Season 5, 1955-56 ] [ Season 6, 1956-57 ]