I Love Lucy Blogathon–Top 5 Underrated Episodes of “I Love Lucy”

I’m here again with my second of three total posts about my all-time favorite television show–I Love Lucy! Everyone knows about the most famous moments of I Love Lucy–even people who have never seen an episode (they’re probably out there, hard to believe, I know), are probably aware of Vitameatavegamin. They’ve probably seen Lucy and Ethel struggling to wrap chocolates on the conveyor belt at Kramer’s Kandy Kitchen, or watched Lucy almost drown in the wine vat while stomping grapes with her large pizza-sized feet.

In this post, I wanted to highlight five underrated episodes which are just as funny as the more famous, iconic moments in the series. In this context, I’m considering “underrated” episodes to be ones that haven’t received a colorization and aren’t typically mentioned in any “Best of I Love Lucy” articles or other publications.

1. Home Movies. This is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. It made me laugh the first time I saw it and it made me laugh the hundredth time I saw it. The episode opens with Fred and Ethel getting ready to go over to Lucy and Ricky’s for an evening of home movies–courtesy of the new film projector that Ricky has recently purchased. Fred is dreading the evening as he’s tired of watching the same home movies of Little Ricky. Fred and Ethel come up with a scheme to try and keep the conversation from lagging so that Ricky doesn’t have a chance to suggest his home movies. Unfortunately for them, they start eating Lucy’s caramels and are unable to speak. Ricky, having just purchased a new screen for his projector wants to try out the screen and once again plays the same home movies.

However, the evening ends up in shambles when Lucy falls asleep, while Fred and Ethel sneak out. Ricky is upset. He’s so upset in fact, that he informs Lucy, Fred and Ethel that he’s planning to make a television pilot film and he was going to use them as actors; but has since changed his mind. Discouraged and also never missing a chance to get into show business, Lucy decides that she will also make a television pilot film, starring herself, Fred and Ethel. She will then splice her film into Ricky’s so that he will unknowingly screen both films for the television producer.

Lucy, Fred and Ethel decide to make a western-themed show. Lucy paints a hilarious backdrop of a saloon (frankly, Lucy should look into being a backdrop artist. She’s a great painter). She and Ethel play cowboys, Tex and Nevada, respectively. They play out a typical Western scenario of two cowboys singing “I’m an Old Cowhand,” then playing cards and smoking. Nevada accuses Tex of cheatin’ which leads to a duel. Fred plays the sheriff who bursts into the saloon and wants to arrest Tex and Nevada.

Then we see Lucy at work running a film splicer and cutting the films together. However, we don’t see the end product until Ricky screens it for the producer. This film is hilarious. It starts with Ricky singing “Vaya Con Dios,” then goes into Lucy’s video, then back to Ricky, then Little Ricky, back to Lucy, then all of a sudden, it really goes haywire. The sound is mixed up with Lucy’s sound playing on top of Ricky’s video. There are random shots of Little Ricky. Then the film and sound start playing backwards, with the hilarious shot of Lucy’s cigarette smoke going back into her mouth. Then the film is sped up, then abruptly ends with Ricky’s “This is a Ricky Ricardo Production!” and Fred’s “I Got Wind of It!”

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2. Mr. and Mrs. TV Show. This episode begins with Lucy secretly having lunch at 21 (offscreen) with an executive who is acquainted with Carolyn Appleby. The executive, Harvey Cromwell, wants to do a show with Ricky. Lucy tells Ricky and is incensed when he wants to do the show, but without her. Eventually however, the executives come up with a concept for their show, a Mr. and Mrs. morning show, featuring Ricky and Lucy. Ricky is reluctant, but Cromwell insists, saying it is a “Mr. and Mrs. Show or else!” He has to convince Lucy to be a part of the show without telling her the truth. He feigns enthusiasm at her singing and makes her think that he’s going to demand that Lucy be added to the show.

Next, we see a common plot device on I Love Lucy, with Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel running through the entire show as written with no mistakes. Next up is the dress rehearsal before filming–or so they think. Cromwell tells Ricky (and only Ricky), that the “dress rehearsal” will be the actual show. They don’t want Lucy, Fred and Ethel to know they’re being filmed. It is right before the “dress rehearsal” when Lucy discovers that Ricky didn’t want her on the show after all. To get back at him, she decides to perform a different version of the show–with hilarious results. Lucy’s new performance brings my favorite line, “I woke up this morning feeling real blah. Felt like a real slob.”

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3. Bullfight Dance. This episode takes place during the Hollywood season. In this episode, Lucy is approached by Ricky’s agent to write an article called “What It’s Like to Be Married to Ricky Ricardo.” Lucy sees this as a golden opportunity. Lucy’s article is meant to promote the Heart Fund benefit that Ricky will be headlining. Lucy of course wants to be involved. Ricky of course says no. Lucy decides to blackmail Ricky by writing two versions of her article–one flattering to Ricky and the other not.

Not wanting bad publicity, Ricky concedes to Lucy’s demands. At first he asks her if she wants to do a musical number with him. He suggests a number where she sings “Humoresque” and he’ll sing “Swanee River.” Anyone familiar with these two songs will know that they both have the same medley, just different lyrics. The idea with this number is that the two performers will be singing their respective songs and then they’ll have moments of harmonization. However, Lucy keeps getting mixed up and starts singing Ricky’s song. Eventually, Ricky suggests a different number–a matador themed number. He’ll be the matador and Lucy will be the bull. Annoyed about her perceived demotion, Lucy decides to feminize the ferocious bull and steal Ricky’s thunder. She makes hilarious changes to the bull, including adding big eyelashes, lips, and a hat with flowers on it.

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4. Ricky Thinks He’s Getting Bald. In this episode, Ricky starts becoming self-conscious that his hairline is receding. Lucy thinks he’s nuts; but he can’t be convinced. He’s driving her crazy, insisting on wearing hats inside to hide his perceived baldness. To try and cure him, she decides that she’s going to purchase the most disgusting, most painful hair restoration treatment she can find.

While at the hair restoration store, she meets Mr. Thurlough, the hair restorer man. Mr. Thurlough thinks that Lucy’s talking about herself when she explains that she needs to find a treatment for someone who thinks they’re going bald. After explaining to him that it really is for her husband and not her, he tells her an anecdote about another woman and her alleged balding husband. Apparently, to convince this man that he actually had a lot of hair, the wife invited a bunch of actually bald men so he could compare. Lucy decides to do the same thing and has Mr. Thurlough hook her up with some of his bald clients. This plan fails.

At her wit’s end, Lucy decides to follow through on her original plan, to make Ricky go through the grossest, smelliest, most painful hair restoration treatment. She sits him down and starts going to work. She essentially makes a salad dressing on top of his head with oil, vinegar, and eggs. Then, she makes a mustard plaster and has Ricky put a nylon over his head. This leads to the funniest scene in the episode when Ricky pulls the nylon all the way over his face–scaring Lucy. Eventually, he covers his head in the mustard plaster and puts a heat cap on top of it, so he can bake.

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5. Lucy Raises Tulips. The penultimate episode features Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel living in the country in Connecticut. Lucy and Ricky own a large home with Fred and Ethel living in the good-sized guest home on the property. Lucy has entered the annual tulip competition, a competition which has been won by her neighbor Betty Ramsey, every year. Lucy is determined to win. The judges will be visiting her home in the next day or two and she wants Ricky to mow the lawn so that it looks nice. However, Ricky is procrastinating.

Lucy ends up trying to mow the lawn herself and runs amuck on the machine. After getting home from driving on the Boston Post Road against traffic, Lucy accidentally mows through Betty’s tulip garden. She comes up the idea to replace Betty’s yellow tulips with lifelike wax ones from the nearby store. Since Lucy was only able to mow half the lawn, Ricky opts to finish the job, however he does it in the dark, so dark it was darker than the inside of his sombrero. Unfortunately for Lucy, Ricky has accidentally mowed right through her tulip bed. To cover up his indiscretion, he decides to replace the flowers with lifelike pink wax tulips, resembling Lucy’s. Both Lucy and Betty are now competing with wax flowers.