The BEST Episodes of I Love Lucy
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Dec 14, 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 - 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.
9.40 
#2 - 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.
9.28 
#3 - 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.
9.27 
#4 - Lucy Raises Tulips
Season 6 - Episode 26
Suburban living gets Lucy into a flower-show competition, and she raises tulips with a vengeance as she tries to beat out her neighbor, Betty Ramsey, for first prize. Lucy asks Ricky to mow the lawn so that her garden will look just right. But he only mows half before taking off for a baseball game, leaving Lucy and Ethel to tiptoe through the tulips -- with the lawnmower.
9.20 
#5 - Housewarming
Season 6 - Episode 23
Fred Mertz installs an intercom system between the Mertz guest-house and the Ricardo main house. The intercom causes some confusion when Lucy and Ricky overhear what they believe to be plans for a housewarming party given for them.
9.16 
#6 - Ricky's Hawaiian Vacation
Season 3 - Episode 22
Ricky's band is to play in Hawaii-and guess who wants to go also? Lucy's plan: to go on a game show that gives away airline tickets. It calls for some trickery, and Lucy just *might* meet her match in the show's host, Freddie Fillmore, a prankster par excellence.
9.12 
#7 - Lucy Misses the Mertzes
Season 6 - Episode 17
As the Ricardos get settled in their new country home, they immediately wind up in a mix-up with their old friends Fred and Ethel Mertz. Missing their old friends already, Lucy and Ricky decide to visit the Mertzes. At the same time, the Mertzes decide to trek to the country to visit the Ricardos, and what began simply becomes complicated.
9.08 
#8 - 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.
8.76 
#9 - 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.
8.67 
#10 - 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.
8.58 
#11 - The Ballet
Season 1 - Episode 19
Even after all this time, Lucy still longs to get into one of Ricky's shows. When she learns that there is an opening in one of Ricky's acts for a ballet dancer,as well as a burlesque comedienne, Lucy decides to take a ballet class-which leads to some pretty disastrous results. Fed up, Lucy then hires a teacher to teach her the art of burlesque comedy. It is then that Lucy learns that Ricky still has one spot available in his act. Falsely assuming that it is the burlesque comedienne, not the ballet dancer, that Ricky needs for his act, Lucy goes to the club and mayhem ensues.
8.56 
#12 - 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.
8.51 
#13 - 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.
8.48 
#14 - 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.
8.47 
#15 - 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 
#16 - 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 
#17 - 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.
8.38 
#18 - The Publicity Agent
Season 1 - Episode 31
Lucy poses as a princess for a publicity stunt.
8.38 
#19 - Equal Rights
Season 3 - Episode 4
Lucy and Ethel demand equal rights for women. Okay, say Ricky and Fred at the restaurant: separate checks for the four of them. Thus begins Lucy and Ethel's careers as restaurant dishwashers. So they plot revenge: they'll scare their husbands by claiming to have been robbed.
8.38 
#20 - 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.
8.37 
#21 - Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her
Season 1 - Episode 4
Lucy 's new whodunit and a misunderstood phone conversation work together to lead Lucy to think Ricky is trying to poison her. So with what she believes is her last burst of energy, Lucy hastens to the Tropicana to confront Ricky with a gun.
8.35 
#22 - 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 
#23 - 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.
8.33 
#24 - Lucy's Italian Movie
Season 5 - Episode 23
En route to Rome by train, Lucy is spotted by a famous Italian cinema director and chosen to play a part in his new movie "Bitter Grapes." Lucy sets out to immerse herself in the role. When she nonchalantly wanders into a vineyard inhabited by a motley assortment of Italian-speaking women, she is dispatched to the wine-making area to crush grapes with her feet.
8.33 
#25 - 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.
8.31