The Best Episodes of I Love Lucy
Last Updated: Apr 8, 2019
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.
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#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?
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#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.
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#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.
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#5 - 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.
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#6 - 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.
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#7 - 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.
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#8 - 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.
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#9 - 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.
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#10 - 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.
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#11 - Ricky and Fred are TV Fans
Season 2 - Episode 30
With Ricky and Fred glued to a TV fight, their wives go to the local cafe, where service is so slow that Lucy makes change for herself at the cash register and the girls are arrested. They finally prove their innocence and get home to husbands who didn't know they were gone.
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#12 - 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.
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#13 - The Diner
Season 3 - Episode 27
The Ricardos and the Mertzes buy a diner, name it ""A Little Bit of Cuba"" and go to work. Well, the Mertzes go to work; the Ricardos ""greet."" Not surprisingly, relations are soon strained. Can a food fight be far behind?
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#14 - 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!
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#15 - Redecorating
Season 2 - Episode 8
Waiting to find out if she has won a home furnishing contest, Lucy won't leave the house, much to Ricky's annoyance. He tells Fred to call her and say that she's won. In her joy, Lucy sells all the old furniture, leaving Ricky with the job of buying it back.
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#16 - 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.
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#17 - Lucy's Last Birthday
Season 2 - Episode 25
Convinced everyone has forgotten her birthday, a forlorn Lucy sits on a park bench and meets up with a group of musical ""lost souls."" To embarrass Ricky, she brings them to the Tropicana, only to discover that a surprise birthday party awaits her.
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#18 - 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.
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#19 - 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.
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#20 - Lucy Wants New Furniture
Season 2 - Episode 28
Lucy tries to hide some new furniture she bought without Ricky's permission in the kitchen. Discovering his wife's extravagant purchase, Ricky insists that Lucy pays for it from her allowance.
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#21 - The Indian Show
Season 2 - Episode 24
Even the arrival of the baby hasn't dampened Lucy's showbiz aspirations. Wanting to get into the new Indian act at the Tropicana, Lucy pays off one of the performers and appears herself, carrying Little Ricky papoose-style on her back.
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#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.
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#23 - Lucy Goes to the Hospital
Season 2 - Episode 16
Ricky and the Mertzes rehearse for pregnant Lucy's trip to the hospital. It turns out to be predictably chaotic, but Lucy does deliver Little Ricky.
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#24 - The Publicity Agent
Season 1 - Episode 31
Lucy poses as a princess for a publicity stunt.
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#25 - 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.
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