The BEST episodes written by Madelyn Davis
#1 - Lucy's Bicycle Trip
I Love Lucy - 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.
Watch Now:Amazon#2 - With Viv As a Friend, Who Needs an Enemy?
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 23
Viv shows up for a surprise visit, and tells Lucy she may stay in California for a year, but everything goes awry when Harry fires Lucy and hires Viv in her place, making Lucy furious. After a few weeks, Harry can't stand Viv and Viv can't stand Harry. Lucy comes up with a scheme to get Viv to quit, but Kim blabs the whole thing to Viv.
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#3 - Housewarming
I Love Lucy - 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.
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#4 - Lucy Raises Tulips
I Love Lucy - 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.
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#5 - Lucy Does a TV Commercial
I Love Lucy - 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.
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#6 - The Ballet
I Love Lucy - 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.
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#7 - Pioneer Women
I Love Lucy - 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.
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#9 - The Freezer
I Love Lucy - 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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#10 - Ricky Asks For a Raise
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 35
Ricky asks for a raise, but his boss (Gale Gordon) turns him down, prompting Lucy to prove just how popular a performer he is. Her scheme involves making a lot of bogus reservations at the club on the night that somebody else is playing, then show up in various guises(including Fred in drag) feigning indignation that Ricky's not performing--and leave in a huff.
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#11 - Men are Messy
I Love Lucy - 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.
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#12 - Lucy Does the Tango
I Love Lucy - Season 6 - Episode 20
Chicken-raising and practicing a tango for Little Ricky's school PTA meeting combine to get the Ricardos and the Mertzes in a verbal battle. It's up to Ricky, Jr. and his neighborhood pal Bruce Ramsey to straighten things out.
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#13 - The Publicity Agent
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 31
Lucy poses as a princess for a publicity stunt.
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#14 - Lucy's Schedule
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 33
Ricky puts Lucy on a rigid time schedule.
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#15 - Lucy Writes a Play
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 17
Lucy is busily writing the script for the play that her women's club is going to put on, a little something called "A Tree Grows in Havana," and she needs Ricky to appear in it. When Ricky sees the script, he immediately declines. So Lucy is then left with no alternative but to get Fred to agree to do the role. Deciding that Fred wouldn't be very good for portraying a Cuban character, Lucy decides to rewrite the play so that it is set in England. Later, however, Ricky decides that he wants to be in the play when he hears that some very important sponsors are going to be at the women's show. So he manages to trick Fred into giving him back the role. But Ricky doesn't know that Lucy has rewritten the play. This leads to some pretty disastrous results.
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#16 - Lucy Plays Cupid
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 15
Miss Lewis, the Ricardos' elderly neighbor, requests Lucy's assistance in getting the attention of Mr. Ritter, the elderly grocery man whom she is sweet on. Lucy readily agrees to give Mr. Ritter a dinner invitation for Miss Lewis. The first complication arises when Lucy shares the news with Ricky, who spanks Lucy for interfering and makes her promise to give the note back to Miss Lewis. But, when Lucy proceeds to give Mr. Ritter the note anyway, he misunderstands and thinks the invitation is from Lucy herself. This leads to an unsuccessful plan by Lucy to discourage Mr. Ritter and Ricky's telling Mr. Ritter that he can have her. In spite of all these unintended mishaps, Mr. Ritter and Miss Lewis do in fact wind up together, never to be seen on any future episode.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV#17 - Harrison Carter, Male Nurse
Here's Lucy - Season 5 - Episode 3
Harry plays 24hr home-nurse when Lucy arrives home from the hospital after the others (Kim; Vanda & Mary Jane) all fail to help due to other commitments.
Watch Now:Amazon#18 - Lucy's Big Break
Here's Lucy - Season 5 - Episode 1
Lucy Carter breaks her leg, and is in the hospital. She is attracted to a doctor, and attempts to get his affection.
Watch Now:Amazon#19 - Kim Moves Out
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 20
Kim has decided it is time for her to move out of the house, but Lucy becomes an annoying mother hen. Ultimately, Kim plans to teach Mother a lesson.
Watch Now:Amazon#20 - Lucy and Eva Gabor Are Hospital Roomies
Here's Lucy - Season 5 - Episode 2
Lucy's new hospital roommate has broken her foot, and steals the attention from Lucy. Lucy being Lucy torments Eva for the entire stay.
Watch Now:Amazon#21 - Lucy Is Really In a Pickle
Here's Lucy - Season 5 - Episode 15
Uncle Harry recruits Lucy and Kim to don pickle costumes and perform in a television commercial, but as filming is about to begin, Lucy is nowhere to be found, as she finds herself caught up in yet another Lucy-style mishap.
Watch Now:Amazon#22 - Kim Finally Cuts You-Know-Who's Apron Strings
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 24
Kim moves into her own apartment (one managed by Lucy's brother) and deals with neighbors and lecherous men.
Watch Now:Amazon#23 - Lucy and Flip Go Legit
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 1
After working for him as a secretary Lucy convinces Flip Wilson to play the part of Prissy in a local production of Gone With the Wind, with Harry as Rhett Butler, Lucy as Scarlett O'Hara, and Kim as Melanie.
Watch Now:Amazon#24 - Lucy and Her All-Nun Band
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 8
Lucy books an all Nun band to help Harry's sister who is a sister with a benefit. Lucy takes saxophone lessons from Freddy Martin to join the band when the saxophone player becomes ill.
Watch Now:Amazon#25 - Won't You Calm Down Dan Dailey?
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 9
Lucy goes to work for movie star Dan Dailey, and star struck Lucy drives him crazy. Dan pleads with Harry to take her back at the Unique Employment Agency.
Watch Now:Amazon#26 - Ginger Rogers Comes to Tea
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 11
Lucille and Uncle Harry attend a Ginger Rogers film festival. Ms. Rogers attends in disguise, and is seated next to "you-know-who". When Lucille offends Ms. Rogers, she leaves the theater, but also leaves her purse. Discovering the true identity to the stranger, Harry and Lucy plot to return the purse to meet her again.
Watch Now:Amazon#27 - Someone's On the Ski Lift with Dinah
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 7
Harry invites Lucy & Kim to join him at a friends ski lodge. Lucy encounters Dinah Shore while there. The two get stuck together on a ski lift, where Lucy proceeds to sing a medley of Dinah's hits to her, and otherwise annoy the singer.
Watch Now:Amazon#28 - Lucy Helps David Frost Go Night-Night
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 12
David Frost needs help on an airplane to England to make sure he gets a good nights sleep but hires Lucy which is never a good thing. She has to stay awake during the whole flight to keep visitors away. Once on the plane Lucy's constant distracting keeps him awake. After creating an international incident Lucy then falls asleep while appearing on David Frost's TV show to explain it.
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#29 - Lucy Fakes Illness
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 16
After all this time, Lucy has finally found what she believes to be the perfect solution for getting into show business. After Ethel gives her a book about diseases, Lucy decides that she will pretend that she is suffering from numerous psychological ailments so that Ricky will feel sorry for her and let her go into show business. To convince Ricky that she is really "ill," Lucy pretends that she doesn't know who she is, and at one point "thinks" that she is Tallulah Bankhead! When Ricky eventually gets wind of Lucy's trick, he hires a phony doctor to scare Lucy back to health.
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#30 - Lucy in the Swiss Alps
I Love Lucy - Season 5 - Episode 21
In Switzerland, the Ricardos and Mertzes are caught in an abandoned cabin during an avalanche. It’s one of Lucy’s own making (of course), and it leads to some soul-searching and confessions. But not by Ricky: “We might be saved!” They are — by an oompah band playing “La Cucaracha.”
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#31 - Fred and Ethel Fight
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 22
Fred and Ethel have been going at each others' throats for the past few days now, and aren't talking to each other any more. (Fred: She called my mother a weasel!)To get them back together, Lucy comes up with a plan: She will invite Ethel to dinner, while Ricky will invite Fred. Neither Mertz will know that the other is coming, Lucy hopes that she can bring the Mertzes together so they can talk out their issues. Lucy commences with her plan, but during dinner, she and Ricky start to bicker. By the end of supper, the Mertzes leave the Ricardos' apartment as happy as larks, but Lucy and Ricky are now at each others' throats. It's now up to the Mertzes to bring the Ricardos back together.
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#32 - Drafted
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 11
When Lucy opens a telegram addressed to Ricky ordering him to appear at the Army's Fort Dix, she assumes that he has been drafted. Ethel suspects that Fred has been drafted as well. Their suspicions are confirmed when they see them drilling in the living room with brooms. They don't know, however, that Ricky and Fred are practicing a dance routine for a servicemen's show. To get their men "ready for the army," Lucy and Ethel take to knitting blankets and other things for them. They also plan a going away party for them on Sunday night. Ricky and Fred, meanwhile, think that the girls are pregnant. Chaos ensues when they plan a similar party (a baby shower) for that same night.
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#33 - Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 32
Lucy secretly books Ricky on a radio quiz show.
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#34 - The Gossip
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 24
Ricky is disgusted by Lucy's obsession with gossiping about other people. According to Ricky, Lucy acts as if it is her "life's blood." Fred, too, is disturbed by Ethel's love of gossiping. The two girls then point out that both Ricky and Fred have been known to gossip, also. The boys then challenge the girls to a bet: They will see who can go without gossiping the longest, and the winners will receive breakfast in bed for a month. The bet commences, and everything is going fine until Ricky comes up with a plan to cheat so that he and Fred can win.
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#35 - The Benefit
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 13
Ethel wants Ricky to a headline a benefit show for her women's club, but Lucy refuses to ask him, unless she can be on the bill, too. After plenty of coaxing on the part of Lucy, Ricky finally says that he'll do it. But Lucy then gets a chance to look at the act that she and Ricky will be doing for the benefit. Ricky has all the punch lines! She decides to rewrite the jokes and teach her husband a lesson.
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#36 - The Moustache
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 23
Lucy dislikes Ricky's new moustache. In order to take revenge, she glues a moustache and beard on to her face. Then, Ricky agrees to shave his moustache off, as long as Lucy gets rid of hers. Lucy tries to get the facial hair off, and is unsuccessful. They try to get a special substance to take the glue off, to find out that it is not made anymore.
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#37 - The Anniversary Present
I Love Lucy - Season 2 - Episode 3
Lucy thinks that Ricky is pitching woo with a sophisticated neighbor. The woman is actually a jeweler who Ricky has commissioned to fashion a pearl necklace to surprise Lucy with on their anniversary. Lucy takes to spying before the deal can go down and almost loses out on her big surprise.
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#38 - Cuban Pals
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 28
Lucy burns with jealousy when she gets an eyeful of Ricky's dance parter Renita (Lita Baron) from the "old days" in Cuba. She was a child then, but no more! Determined to keep them apart, Lucy heads to the club in disguise, and finds herself in the clutches of a wild man named Ramon.
Watch Now:Amazon
#39 - Lucy Meets Charles Boyer
I Love Lucy - Season 5 - Episode 19
Charles Boyer deals with a star-crazed Lucy in this guest appearance. The setting: Paris, where the Ricardos and Mertzes are lunching at a sidewalk cafe. Boyer is at a nearby table, and when Lucy and Ethel spot him they immediately repair to the ladies room to plot their approach. Ricky tries to stop the assault but nobody can defend against the star-struck Lucy.
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#40 - Lucy Wants to Move to the Country
I Love Lucy - Season 6 - Episode 15
Lucy decides that it would be nice to move to the country and prevails on Ricky to place a comfortable deposit on a big house. Ricky agrees and puts a down payment on a house in Westport, Connecticut. It is not long before Lucy changes her mind. Lucy, Ethel, and Fred put on disguises to try and help poor Ricky get his deposit back.
Watch Now:Amazon#41 - Lucy and Mannix Are Held Hostage
Here's Lucy - Season 4 - Episode 4
Lucy, using binoculars to view a building across the street, thinks she has seen two criminals commit a burglary. The criminals spot her. The next day, before Lucy comes into work, the crooks force Harry to tell them where Lucy is. Harry spills his guts and the hoodlums lock him in the closet. After Harry is freed, he first tells Lucy what happened and she should leave home. He then calls private detective Joe Mannix to protect Lucy.
Watch Now:Amazon
#42 - The Amateur Hour
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 14
Lucy,as usual, spends too much money on a dress. So she tells Ricky that she will get a job babysitting in order to pay for it. The trouble is, she didn't know that she would be winding up babysitting a pair of rambunctious, spoiled twins. The twins do almost everything to Lucy besides burning her at the stake. The twins' mother eventually calls, and says that if Lucy performs at a variety show with the twins, she can keep the prize money $100.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#43 - The Adagio
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 12
Lucy volunteers for Ricky's Parisian apache dance number for an upcoming Tropicana show. And Ethel finds the perfect person to teach her the basic aspects of Apache dancing-Jean Valjean Raymand, who is the nephew of the woman who runs the French hand laundry. This Frenchman has more than dance lessons in mind, however. When Ricky finds him hiding in the hall closet, fireworks commence. Jean challenges him to a duel behind Radio City Music Hall, but they ultimately decide to stage a fake fight in the bedroom to teach Lucy a well-deserved lesson.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#44 - Breaking the Lease
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 18
The show opens with the Ricardos and the Mertzes sitting around the Ricardos' piano, singing songs together. After the Mertzes leave, Lucy and Ricky wind up in an argument: Lucy wants to leave the bedroom window open, while Ricky wants it closed. The Mertzes, who are trying to get some sleep, are most irritated by the noise. They angrily phone the Ricardos and demand that they cut down on the racket. This, as you can imagine, leads to a big quarrel between the Ricardos and the Mertzes. Lucy and Ricky decide that they can't take it anymore, and they want to move out. However, there is a slight problem--they've signed a lease. The Ricardos thus decide to become the most undesirable tenants ever so that they can break that lease. They succeed in doing so, but ultimately decide that they can't move away and that they must apologize to their friends.
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#45 - The Olympics
Sanford and Son - Season 5 - Episode 11
Fred competes in the Senior Olympics to defeat a rival suitor for Donna's affections.
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#46 - The Young Fans
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 20
A shy young teenager named Peggy has a major crush on Ricky. Ricky, however, is tired of all this "attention" that this girl is giving him, so asks Lucy to have a talk with her. During their conversation, Lucy asks Peggy to think of some other boys her own age that she might like to go out with instead. Peggy, it seems, also likes a boy named Arthur Morton. Unfortunately, Arthur is painfully shy and cannot dance, so Lucy volunteers to give him a dance lesson. But it is then that Arthur becomes infatuated with Lucy! To get the two off their backs, Lucy and Ricky come up with a solution: they will dress up and act like 90 year olds, and scare their "young fans" back to reality.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#47 - New Neighbors
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 21
Lucy becomes afraid that one of her new neighbors is threatening to kill her and convinces the others that the neighbors are trying to kill them...which gets them into big trouble.
#48 - Be a Pal
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 2
In order to keep the honeymoon from ending with Ricky, Lucy consults a book that leads to all sorts of hilarious situations as Lucy tries to follow the book's advice.
Watch Now:Apple TV
#49 - The Kleptomaniac
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 27
When Ricky finds a closet full of valuables that Lucy has collected for a bazaar, he mistakenly thinks that she's become a kleptomaniac. He secretly calls in a doctor to hypnotize her, but Lucy is wise to his plan and feigns recalling a notorious past.
#50 - The Séance
I Love Lucy - Season 1 - Episode 7
Lucy suddenly becomes interested in numerology and superstitions. After advising Ricky that it's a good day for him to make deals, she realizes that she read yesterday's horoscopes and that today is actually a bad day for Ricky. She thus says "no" to a very important business call for Ricky from Mr. Meriweather. In the process of putting things right, Lucy conducts a seance. Classic Ethel quote: "Ethel to Tillie, Ethel to Tillie, come in Tillie."
Watch Now:Apple TV