slipintothefog
Madame X
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- Jul 2, 2009
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Some of my favorite "underrated" Lucy episodes:
-"Ricky and Fred are TV Fans": with the men distracted by boxing fights on television, Lucy and Ethel go on a series of wacky events in an attempt to thwart their attachment to the TV. After a choice "euwww" from Lucy after cutting a power cable and knocking out the power from a neighboring building, Lucy and Ethel are arrested with a cop mixing them up for a pair of female thieves, all the while the men are completely oblivious to what's happening around them, including Lucy bursting in for a split second to shout "HELP! WE'RE BEING ARRESTED!" before the cop yanks her out of the doorway.
-"Ricky Needs an Agent": solely for the brilliant sequence of scenes following Lucy getting Ricky fired from his movie contract while posing as his agent. Ricky goes on a tantrum and destroys their hotel room, shattering fragile items and bending a statue with his bare hands while Lucy eggs him on by reminding him of all the times she's goofed. He storms off and while she's cleaning the debris under the couch, Ethel comes in thinks Ricky's killed her. Suddenly, Lucy has an idea! Ethel: "How can you stand here in the middle of all this chaos and utter those four horrible words, 'I've got an idea!'?!" Lucy pulls a fast one on the movie producer and gets Ricky's job back and, when he returns later that night, he tricks Lucy into throwing a similar furniture-destroying tantrum after the place has been cleaned up.
-"Off to Florida": like "TV Fans" or "Agent" this episode starts with a simple premise of Lucy and Ethel carpooling to Florida after Lucy misplaces their train tickets, and then spirals into a series of mundane events made hilarious, with the snippy banter between Lucy and Ethel being the highlight as they sleep in the Everglades, change a flat tire (Ethel, after the jack destroys the hood of the car: "Is it supposed to do thaaaat?" Lucy: "NO, it isn't SUPPOSED to do THAAAAT!") and try to protect themselves from their driver, who they believe is a hatchet murderess (and vice versa).
-"Lucy and the Dummy": although character development was not a major concern of TV shows back then, I found Lucy's dilemma in this one to be surprisingly compelling for this age/series. A refresher: Lucy tries to fool the audience by putting on an act with a dummy that looks like Ricky, and botches it so hard that she's offered a movie contract for delivering such a comedic performance. Ricky knows that if he forces Lucy to turn down the career she'll never let him forget it because being a star is Lucy's dream. However, faced with obtaining the one thing she always wanted, Lucy examines her options for the first time and comes to the conclusion on her own that becoming a movie star would ruin her personal life and decides to pass on the opportunity. This was a surprisingly deep look at the human side of Lucy, beneath her wackiness and well-known desire for celebrity, and it's something that always stuck with me as one of the series' top moments.
-"Ricky and Fred are TV Fans": with the men distracted by boxing fights on television, Lucy and Ethel go on a series of wacky events in an attempt to thwart their attachment to the TV. After a choice "euwww" from Lucy after cutting a power cable and knocking out the power from a neighboring building, Lucy and Ethel are arrested with a cop mixing them up for a pair of female thieves, all the while the men are completely oblivious to what's happening around them, including Lucy bursting in for a split second to shout "HELP! WE'RE BEING ARRESTED!" before the cop yanks her out of the doorway.
-"Ricky Needs an Agent": solely for the brilliant sequence of scenes following Lucy getting Ricky fired from his movie contract while posing as his agent. Ricky goes on a tantrum and destroys their hotel room, shattering fragile items and bending a statue with his bare hands while Lucy eggs him on by reminding him of all the times she's goofed. He storms off and while she's cleaning the debris under the couch, Ethel comes in thinks Ricky's killed her. Suddenly, Lucy has an idea! Ethel: "How can you stand here in the middle of all this chaos and utter those four horrible words, 'I've got an idea!'?!" Lucy pulls a fast one on the movie producer and gets Ricky's job back and, when he returns later that night, he tricks Lucy into throwing a similar furniture-destroying tantrum after the place has been cleaned up.
-"Off to Florida": like "TV Fans" or "Agent" this episode starts with a simple premise of Lucy and Ethel carpooling to Florida after Lucy misplaces their train tickets, and then spirals into a series of mundane events made hilarious, with the snippy banter between Lucy and Ethel being the highlight as they sleep in the Everglades, change a flat tire (Ethel, after the jack destroys the hood of the car: "Is it supposed to do thaaaat?" Lucy: "NO, it isn't SUPPOSED to do THAAAAT!") and try to protect themselves from their driver, who they believe is a hatchet murderess (and vice versa).
-"Lucy and the Dummy": although character development was not a major concern of TV shows back then, I found Lucy's dilemma in this one to be surprisingly compelling for this age/series. A refresher: Lucy tries to fool the audience by putting on an act with a dummy that looks like Ricky, and botches it so hard that she's offered a movie contract for delivering such a comedic performance. Ricky knows that if he forces Lucy to turn down the career she'll never let him forget it because being a star is Lucy's dream. However, faced with obtaining the one thing she always wanted, Lucy examines her options for the first time and comes to the conclusion on her own that becoming a movie star would ruin her personal life and decides to pass on the opportunity. This was a surprisingly deep look at the human side of Lucy, beneath her wackiness and well-known desire for celebrity, and it's something that always stuck with me as one of the series' top moments.
