The BEST Episodes of I Love Lucy
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Oct 7, 2019
Network: CBS
Cuban Bandleader Ricky Ricardo would be happy if his wife Lucy would just be a housewife. Instead she tries constantly to perform at the Tropicana where he works, and make life comically frantic in the apartment building they share with landlords Fred and Ethel Mertz, who also happen to be their best friends.
#1 - Harpo Marx
Season 4 - Episode 28
Lucy decides to impersonate some Hollywood notables to impress nearsighted Caroline Appleby, who is visiting from New York. A mixup occurs when Lucy, having introduced her friend to ""Gary Cooper,"" ""Clark Gable,"" ""Marlon Brando,"" and ""Jimmy Durante,"" decides to impersonate Harpo Marx just as the real Harpo arrives at the apartment with Ricky.
9.24 
#2 - Home Movies
Season 3 - Episode 20
Ricky's home movies move the Mertzes to walk out, and prompt Lucy, Fred and Ethel to make a movie of their own, a ""Western musical drama"" shot in the Ricardo living room. But that's not to mixed up with a TV pilot Ricky's making, is it?
8.90 
#3 - First Stop
Season 4 - Episode 14
The Ricardos and Mertzes have a hard time finding accommodations that will please everyone on their trip to California. They finally hit a greasy restaurant where stale cheese sandwiches cost them a dollar apiece. Hoping to find something better elsewhere, Ricky pays the check. The couples leave -- only to return several hours later, fooled by some purposely misleading road signs.
8.81 
#4 - The Star Upstairs
Season 4 - Episode 25
Cornel Wilde becomes the one-hundredth movie star Lucy has seen in Hollywood; he is living in the penthouse directly above the Ricardo suite. Determined to get a glimpse of the handsome actor, Lucy disguises herself as a bellboy, then hides under the star's luncheon cart to gain entry into Wilde's suite. Things go smoothly until she finds herself locked out on Cornel's terrace and must make her way down the side of the building using a few blankets as rope. Swashbuckler Cornel Wilde guest-stars as himself in this episode.
8.69 
#5 - The Great Train Robbery
Season 5 - Episode 5
Lucy gets mixed up with a jewel thief on a cross-country rail trip that marks the end of the series' Hollywood sojourn. That's not the only reason it's a bumpy ride. Another is that Lucy keeps pulling the emergency-brake cord.
8.61 
#6 - Bull Fight Dance
Season 4 - Episode 23
Lucy literally blackmails Ricky into getting her a part in one of his guest appearances on television. He does get her a role -- as a bull. When Lucy is displeased with the turn of events, she transforms the bull's image from that of a snarling beast to a mincing creature resembling Elsie, the Borden Cow. Look for the classic scene where Lucy upstages Ricky in this episode.
8.60 
#7 - Tennessee Bound
Season 4 - Episode 15
The Ricardo-Mertz westward trek faces a delay — they're all thrown in jail for speeding — in Bent Fork, Tenn., home of Lucy's ""cousin"" Ernest, who'll do all he can to get them out of the pokey, even if it means marrying one of the sheriff's two daughters, Teensy and Weensy.
8.54 
#8 - Don Juan is Shelved
Season 4 - Episode 22
Ricky's movie is shelved, so Lucy schemes to get Ricky another role. The plan: impress MGM studio boss Dore Schary by any means necessary, even if it means that Schary must impress himself. But first, there are 500 fan letters to write.
8.47 
#9 - Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined
Season 3 - Episode 11
Lucy finally gets her chance to be in show business, when she tricks Ricky into letting her do the ""Jitterbug"" in one of his shows. She's terrific during rehearsals, but problems occur when Lucy accompanies Ricky (who's been suffering from headaches) to the eye doctor just before the show. There, the doctor decides to examine Lucy's eyes, as well. He puts some eyedrops in Lucy's eyes which ""relaxes"" them, but Lucy's vision is blurry for the next twenty four hours. Naturally, this causes problems since Lucy has to perform that night.
8.44 
#10 - The Freezer
Season 1 - Episode 29
Where's the beef? It's in Lucy and Ethel's new walk-in freezer (according to Lucy, the ""human popsicle""). Of course, Ricky and Fred have a beef with their wives, because they paid $483 for it. The meat company won't take it back, and they can't sell it to customers waiting in the local butcher shop, so they're stuck with it. And speaking of stuck, Lucy gets herself locked in the freezer!
8.43 
#11 - Sentimental Anniversary
Season 3 - Episode 16
Lucy and Ricky want to spend their 13th wedding anniversary alone, but the Mertzes have another idea: a surprise party.
8.40 
#12 - The Hedda Hopper Story
Season 4 - Episode 21
Lucy takes a dive in an effort to further Ricky's career by creating a big splash in Hedda Hopper's Hollywood column. Her scheme turns out to be ""all wet"" in an adventure that could only happen to Lucy and Ethel. Hedda Hopper, the renowned Hollywood gossip columnist, guest-stars as herself.
8.40 
#13 - Ricky's European Booking
Season 5 - Episode 10
Ricky’s band is going on a European tour but he can’t afford to take Lucy — who’s not about to take this lying down. Her plan: raffle off a TV set to benefit “Ladies Overseas Aid.” “We’re ladies,” Lucy tells Ethel (who’s scheming to go, too). “We want to go overseas. And, boy, do we need aid.” The Pied Pipers perform the theme from Ball and Arnaz’s 1956 movie Forever Darling.
8.39 
#14 - Lucy Makes Room for Danny
Season 8 - Episode 2
The Ricardos prepare to go out of town for two months and decided to rent their home out to Danny Williams and his family. But when their plans fall through, Lucy and Ricky are forced to move in with Fred and Ethel in their guest house! Lucy, however, drives Danny crazy with her constant visits, and things get a bit out of hand. Danny Thomas, Marjorie Lord and Gale Gordon guest star.
8.38 
#15 - California, Here We Come
Season 4 - Episode 13
The Ricardos and Mertzes head for California. But first, of coures, there are complications. The chief one: Lucy's mother, who shows up and wants to accompany them. Ricky objects (to put it mildly), and when Fred and Ethel overhear him complaining about too many people on the trip, they take it personally. And when the dust from that blowup finally settles, there's packing to do.
8.35 
#16 - The Publicity Agent
Season 1 - Episode 31
Lucy poses as a princess for a publicity stunt.
8.33 
#17 - The Charm School
Season 3 - Episode 15
It's time for charm school for Lucy and Ethel when their men eye a pretty woman at a party. But Ricky and Fred are anything but charmed by the results.
8.33 
#18 - Job Switching
Season 2 - Episode 1
Ricky wants Lucy to try working for a week, so she and Ethel get jobs at a candy factory, where they are totally inept-especially at wrapping chocolates-due to a speeding conveyor belt that has them stuffing chocolates in their mouths, blouses, and hats.
8.31 
#19 - Lucy Hires an English Tutor
Season 2 - Episode 13
Lucy hires an English tutor so that Ricky won't give their yet-to-be-born baby bad speaking habits. The lessons are free, but Lucy does promise the tutor a payback: he'll get to sing at the Tropicana. Of course, Lucy neglects to tell Ricky this.
8.31 
#20 - Lucy Does a TV Commercial
Season 1 - Episode 30
Desperate to be in Ricky's new television commercial, Lucy makes every attempt to get her way; which eventually pays off. But her one-and-only chance flops when she is forced to test the sponsor's product over-and-over, a vitamin syrup called Vitametavegimin, which is 25% alcohol.
8.30 
#21 - Bon Voyage
Season 5 - Episode 13
Ricky, Ethel, and Fred are aboard their ship to Europe when Lucy rushes down the gangplank for one last goodbye to Little Ricky, who will be in Lucy's mother's care while she is in Europe. The ship heads out to sea, leaving Lucy frantically trying to catch up with it.
8.30 
#22 - Lucy's Bicycle Trip
Season 5 - Episode 24
The Ricardos and Mertzes pedal their way from Italy to the French Riviera. It's a bumpy ride, thanks (of course) to Lucy, who left her passport in her purse, which she locked in a suitcase, which she sent ahead to their hotel in Nice. That presents problems when they get to the Italian-French border.
8.29 
#23 - Pioneer Women
Season 1 - Episode 25
Having been bet by their husbands that they can't do without modern conveniences, Lucy and Ethel churn butter and bake bread from scratch-an eighteen foot loaf! But then Lucy demands that Ricky live as if it's the turn of the century for him, too.
8.28 
#24 - Men are Messy
Season 1 - Episode 8
""Men are nothing but a bunch of messcats,"" insists Lucy Ricardo, while Ricky insists that ""a man's home is his castle."" To make a point, Lucy divides the apartment in half, so that Ricky can be as messy as he likes on his side. But when Ricky's press agent, Kenny Morgan, lines up a publicity spread in Halfbeat Magazine, Lucy decides to teach her sloppy husband a lesson by turning the Ricardo apartment into a regular pig pen. Little does Lucy know that this photographer is not from the musician's journal, but is actually from Look magazine.
8.28 
#25 - Lucy Learns to Drive
Season 4 - Episode 12
Lucy learns to drive — then teaches Ethel everything she knows. The crash course begins as Ricky buys a brand new convertible for their California trip. Lucy wants to learn to drive it and Ricky reluctantly agrees to teach her. And with that experience under her belt (she can't really be blamed for that U-turn in the Holland Tunnel, can she?), she sets out to teach Ethel to drive. It's a good thing the car's insured. It is insured, isn't it?
8.28