The WORST episodes of I Love Lucy
Every episode of I Love Lucy ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of I Love Lucy!
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 - Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos
Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/25/1959
In order to get Milton Berle to perfom at a benefit at Little Ricky's school, Lucy uses Ricky's name to spark his attention. When Ricky catches her, Lucy must act in secret and decides to visit Mr. Berle's office. At the office, she overhears Milton's agent saying that Mr. Berle needs a secluded place to work on his new book. After discussion, Milton's agent suggest he write his new book at Lucy's farmhouse. Later, when Fred catches a "mysterious man" visiting Lucy while Ricky is at work, Ricky becomes furious.
#2 - Lucy Goes to Alaska
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/9/1959
The Ricardos and Mertzes head to Alaksa, but arrive a day early and their room is not ready; it is occupied by none other than Red Skelton, who generously shares his room with the foursome. Later, Ricky and Fred learn that they own land that is all ice and are constantly at each other's throats. Ricky and Fred's bickering causes Lucy to ask Red if he will buy the property, but chaos ensues.
#3 - Lucy Goes to Mexico
Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/6/1958
Maurice Chevalier is slated to perform with Ricky's orchestra on the USS Yorktown, but soon finds himself smack dab in the middle of the Ricardos' and the Mertzes' misadventures as they head for Tijuana, Mexico.
#4 - Lucy Hunts Uranium
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/3/1958
The Ricardos and the Mertzes head to Las Vegas' Sands Hotel where Ricky and his orchestra are performing. Lucy and the rest of the gang (including Fred MacMurray) catch the uranium hunting bug, but it's every man for himself as the race is on to see who will be the first to claim $10,000. MacMurray's wife June Haver also guest stars.
#5 - The Celebrity Next Door
Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 12/3/1957
Lucy and Ethel find out they have a new next-door neighbor moving in. When she comes to use their telephone, they find it's none other than Tallulah Bankhead, prolific stage and film actress. Suddenly, Lucy realizes this means she has a chance at getting Bankhead to appear at her local PTA benefit. To impress the star, she invites her to dinner, conning the Mertzes into posing as her hired help. The meal and a series of meetings after it, creates a riff between Ms. Bankhead and Lucy. With this riff, who will perform at the PTA benefit?
#6 - Lucy's Summer Vacation
Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 6/8/1959
Harry Bailey, an agent of Ricky's, told the Ricardos that they can use his summer home for a vacation. But he also promises actors Ida Lupino and Howard Duff the same thing. Both the couples arrive at the cabin not knowing at first that the others are there. After the couples both decide to stay, the wives brew up a plan to spend more time with their husbands, who are more interesting in fishing than bonding.
#7 - Lucy Wants a Career
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/13/1959
Lucy gets tired of the same old daily routines that being a housewife has to offer, so she decides to get a job. While looking in the newspaper, she finds out that Paul Douglas is looking for a female assistant (a "Girl Friday"). Lucy lands the job; but on the first day, as usual, goofs up. However, the public thinks her blunders are scripted (and funny) and want more. She is signed into a contract with the show, but has mixed feelings when she begins to miss her family.
#8 - Lucy Wins a Race Horse
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/2/1958
Lucy pesters Ricky about getting a horse for Little Ricky but he refuses because a horse is too expensive. She ends up winning a horse after entering a contest and there's a lot of horsing around as she now has to figure out a way for Little Ricky to keep the horse without sending the family to the poor house. Harry James and Betty Grable guest star.
#9 - Lucy Meets the Moustache
Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/1/1960
Ricky is depressed because he hasn't gotten any movie or television offers lately. Lucy wants to cheer him up, and remembers that Ernie Kovacs and his wife, Edie Adams, live nearby -- and they have their own television show. Lucy invites them to dinner, and Ernie ends up inviting Ricky to appear on his TV show. Little Ricky, that is. When Lucy tries to remedy the situation, trouble ensues
#10 - Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/6/1957
Newspaper columnist Hedda Hopper comes to the Ricardos' home in Connecticut to interview them about how they met. They then weave the tale about how Lucy and her best friend, Susie MacNamara, went on a cruise to Havana and Ricky and Rudy Vallee caught their eye. After much adventure, Lucy and Susie must figure out a way to get Ricky and Rudy to America.
#11 - Lucy and Superman
Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/14/1957
When Stevie Appleby, Caroline's son, has a birthday party the same day as Little Ricky's, Lucy looks for unusual entertainment to lure the children. Ricky remembers that Superman is in town, and he invites him. But when Ricky is unable to corral Superman, Lucy is left with no choice but to dress as the Man of Steel herself. George Reeves makes a special guest-star appearance in this episode.
#12 - Little Ricky's School Pageant
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/17/1956
Little Ricky’s school pageant — “The Enchanted Forest” — is coming up and it’s coming up short on cast members, so the Ricardos and Mertzes volunteer. Ricky’s a hollow stump, Fred’s a frog and Ethel’s the fairy princess (because she can fit into the costume). And Lucy? She’s a witch.
#13 - Country Club Dance
Season 6 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/22/1957
The Ricardos and the Mertzes go with their neighbors, Ralph and Betty Ramsey, to the country club dance. A pretty visitor quickly convinces the men they are Romeos in disguise. This development forces the women into glamorous clothing and beauty treatments to prove that they, too, can be glamorous. Barbara Eden guest-stars.
#14 - Building a Bar-B-Q
Season 6 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/8/1957
Lucy has a problem deciding what to do to get her vacationing husband, Ricky, out of her hair so she can do her housework. She and Ethel solve the problem by putting their husbands to work building a barbecue.
#15 - Little Ricky Gets a Dog
Season 6 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/21/1957
The Ricardos' apartment begins to resemble a pet shop when Little Ricky gets a puppy. Lucy and Ricky are both determined to get rid of the puppy after their son brings it home -- as are their landlords, Fred and Ethel. They have a hard time overcoming Little Ricky's arguments that a puppy would be a welcome addition to a home that already boasts a canary, a frog, a lizard, a turtle, and some goldfish.
#16 - Christmas Show
Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/24/1956
It's Christmas Eve and Ricky warns his young son: "Santa won't bring the tree and the presents until you go to sleep." It takes some effort to cajole the boy, but after Lucy convinces him that Santa will have no trouble coming down the chimney ("he brings the North Pole with him and slides down it like a fireman."), he's off to bed. The coast clear, Fred and Ethel arrive with a Christmas tree. "It's a gift from me and Ebenezer," Ethel reveals about the five-dollar fir. The four friends begin to trim the tree until Lucy discovers "a branch on the right side that spoils the shape." Fred solves the symmetry problem with a pocket saw as Ricky says to Lucy, "Our lives have sure been different ever since you told me you were going to have a baby." We flash back to the sentimental moment at the Tropicana in 1952 when Lucy breaks the baby news to Ricky (from "Lucy is Enceinte"). This reminiscence over, we discover that Fred got carried away with his saw while listening to the baby tale - the tree is now a spindly stripling. While Fred goes off in search of a replacement, Ethel and Ricky start singing "Jingle Bells," but when Lucy joins in with her off-key rendition, they recall, once again in a flashback sequence, the barbershop quartet harmonizing of "Sweet Adeline" (from "Lucy's Show Biz Swan Song"). With the last note sung, we return to the Ricardo apartment just as Fred enters with a new tree - he got this "last minute" one for only fifty cents. The foursome starts decorating the tree and discussing Little Ricky's Christmas gifts, as Ethel realizes: "It seems like only yesterday he was born." This is the perfect lead-in to a flashback of Ricky, Fred, and Ethel rehearsing Lucy's trip to the hospital (from "Lucy Goes to the Hospital"). Finally, it's Christmas morning. The four principals are up early and wearing Santa outfits. When they hear Little Ricky approaching the living room, they hasten to the kitchen so the boy won't be disillusioned by seeing four Santas. Sudden
#17 - The Ricardos Visit Cuba
Season 6 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/3/1956
Still on their vacation, the Ricardos go to Cuba, where Ricky wants to introduce his relatives to Lucy and Little Ricky.
#18 - Ragtime Band
Season 6 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/18/1957
Lucy decides to take part in the fundraising campaign of the Westport Historical Society, and offers to get her husband and his band to perform for their kickoff function. There's only one hitch -- Ricky won't do it. So Lucy decides to form her own band featuring herself, Little Ricky, and Fred and Ethel Mertz.
#19 - Lucy's Night in Town
Season 6 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/25/1957
After spending six whole weeks in their new Connecticut home, Lucy dreams of a night in New York City and it turns into a nightmare. Four carefully hoarded tickets to the Broadway musical hit "The Most Happy Fella" are supposed to get the Ricardos and the Mertzes in to see the sold-out show. But difficulties arise when Fred Mertz gets nervous about pickpockets because he's carrying $500 in cash in his pockets.
#20 - Lucy Gets Chummy with the Neighbors
Season 6 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/18/1957
With the best intentions in the world, Lucy somehow causes a misunderstanding with her neighbors, the Ramseys. It all starts when Betty Ramsey offers Lucy some advice and a wholesale deal on furniture. For a time, the Ricardos' whole future at their Connecticut home seems threatened.
#21 - Desert Island
Season 6 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/26/1956
Lucy and Ethel will do anything to keep Ricky and Fred from judging a Miami Beach beauty contest (and end up being menaced on a seemingly deserted island as a result).
#22 - The Girls Go Into Business
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/12/1953
Lucy and Ethel are all set to go into business when they buy a new dress shop. But what to call it? Ethelu's? Lucyeth's? Unfortunately, naming the shop isn't their only problem when they are unable to sell any dresses and must sell the shop.
#23 - Lucy Goes to Scotland
Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/20/1956
The Ricardos and Mertzes are on their way to Paris, but first Lucy wants to go to Scotland to seek members of the McGillicuddy family into which she was born. In a classic dream sequence, Ricky appears as Scotty MacTavish MacDougal MacCardo.
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#24 - Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/22/1956
Little Ricky is scheduled to play the drums in a children's orchestra. Although his parents and their friends the Mertzes are overcome with nervousness, Little Ricky seems calm until his big moment arrives; then he goes to pieces. His next performance is six months away, but Lucy feels she must do something about his stage fright now. Howard McNear, who played Floyd the barber in "The Andy Griffith Show," guest-stars.
#25 - Deep-Sea Fishing
Season 6 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/19/1956
It's Lucy and Ethel vs. Ricky and Fred in a fishing contest while they're on a Florida vacation. The wager: $150 (about what Lucy and Ethel had spent in hotel boutiques), so both sides do a little cheating to ensure a victory.