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What episodes are you watching on "I Love Lucy"?


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Still savoring the joyous release of the phenomenal Blu-Ray Ultimate Season One and despite the fact this season is perhaps my least favorite -- given there are so many "crude" (for lack of a better word) early episodes as they find their way, technically as well as character-wise -- I'm enjoying every episode I watch despite any flaws it may have because of the flawless presentation quality as well as the amazing wealth of bonus features, especially the wonderful guest cast bios, the "flubs" and photo stills both rare and familiar.  What a treasure trove! :peachonthebeach::HALKING::lucythrill:

Season 1, Disc 5

1. Fred & Ethel Fight

2. The Moustache

3. The Gossip

4. Pioneer Women

5. The Marriage License

6. The Kleptomaniac

7. Cuban Pals

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"No Children Allowed"---an under-rated gem of an episode. So tight and funny. Not a wasted moment from start to finish.

Again, nothing outlandish happens here. Everything was completely realistic. All 4 get their little moments and are excellent.

It's so well edited, directed and SCORED. I love the transition music between the "scene" and Ethel retelling it for Ricky and Fred. It's one of the few times SOMETHING has happened between the two scenes and we don't know it yet. We just see Lucy less enthused about the story. (What might have been funny here is a silent "blabbing montage" to the music with Lucy getting less and less tolerant.)

Watch Ethel when the girls arrive for the bridge game. She is pantomiming the story to Grace Munson and comes in with her dialogue at the EXACT moment required. Very well executed. (And of course "That's MY sandwich").

What a great introduction of Mrs. Trumble, excellently portrayed by Elizabeth Patterson. The ending could not be sweeter.

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Upon watching Equal Rights last night I realized how the whole lead up to the equal rights discussion really is not about men vs women. Lucy makes everyone wait while her nails dry. She keeps interfering in Ricky’s story and even teases him about how he tells it. She makes decisions for the whole group on where they are going to eat without any input from them. It’s not until Ricky puts his foot down and yells at her that we start segueing into equal rights. The only thing really about men vs women here is how this house is going to be run by a man and you’ll listen to what I say. Ricky never would have gotten so mad if Lucy wasn’t being such a jerk. This is what he was reacting to. This is a good case of the childlike character trait of Lucy coming out. She only thinks about herself and expects everyone to cater to her.

 

Once we get into the episode it does a good job of pointing out some gender inequality issues but I wonder if there was a better way to get there. When you look at the beginning it sort of seems like a stretch to get to the men vs women issue.

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As I watch the shows  from season three lately, I am stunned that the shows seem to be earlier in my mind, here I thought these were shows from the previous season as they are outlandish like Bonus Bucks and the Hawaiian one where she gets soaked in all that food.  I can't believe they're newer than I thought.

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  • 3 weeks later...

No, the episodes LEADING to the Hollywood ones, I understand the writers could not do a perfect show every week so they had a great one followed by some mediocre one, then back to great and then one that was off a little.  It MAY continue with the Hollywood eps, wasn't the perfect Bill Holden one followed by the one with the starlets which was so so . . . I never liked Bullfight Dance, but didn't THAT also follow a perfect one?

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Just watched the Bill Holden one, and it was always my all time fave ep so I have seen it more than any other but Godamnit it STILL makes me laugh.  After close to sixty years of watching it over and over.  You touched her got me, then, Lucy face to face with Bill in the booth, then Ethel cutting the spaghetti, and of course the nose on fire bit and dunking it.  Don Juan and the starlets was a letdown after that one but still gets me when Ricky tries to SPLAIN that he had been home that night!  Glib isn't he?  Here they finally went for more realistic and sophisticated dialogue, finally!

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Lucy talking to Ethel as she prepares to get on her knees to face Holden, then moves with tremendous speed and stops at EXACTLY the right spot in front of Holden's face is quite simply amazing.  No hesitation.  No anticipation. One inch either way wouldn't have worked.  What we tend to lose sight of that these works of art were perfected in 2-3 days and then it was on to the next one.  The fact that they created a classic as often as they did is mind-boggling.

Just watched the Bill Holden one, and it was always my all time fave ep so I have seen it more than any other but Godamnit it STILL makes me laugh.  After close to sixty years of watching it over and over.  You touched her got me, then, Lucy face to face with Bill in the booth, then Ethel cutting the spaghetti, and of course the nose on fire bit and dunking it.  Don Juan and the starlets was a letdown after that one but still gets me when Ricky tries to SPLAIN that he had been home that night!  Glib isn't he?  Here they finally went for more realistic and sophisticated dialogue, finally!

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I got interrupted reading your first line and that meant something different in my dirty mind.

 

But yes, excellent point. How they managed to do that so perfect is amazing. Everything after that is hilarious and no words said. I've either read how the scene played in the script or maybe heard Madelyn read it once. Either way to take the stage direction and see how it eventually played is a true testimate on how wonderful Lucy was.

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Exactly!  And Lucy did the same thing in the Van Johnson episode, when she's fake talking to him and Van or Dan's sleeping, you can hear a pin drop in that studio as she taps the magazine and you only hear her finger thumping it.  Her reaction as he wakes up is just priceless and the way she leaves so perfect again.  Shel, you and I just always think alike, thought the same thing when Neil started talking about Lucy getting down on her knees, LOL!

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Exactly again, Lucy was so great at everything she did that we didn't realize at the time we were seeing genius at work.  Her every movement, every speech, every detail just flawless and natural.  Like a real wife would react, like a true fan fawning at celebs, every piece of action portrayed naturally but so much detail and perfection always.

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Had a pause in my posting there as The Fashion show was on and Lucy was modeling that tweed suit, LOL!  I was wondering what to dress as for Halloween, but I just love Mrs Forrest Tucker's beautiful evening ball gown, in PINK MINK yet, I might wear something similar and go as Mrs Tucker's transgendered son.

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I was trying to remember what show she had worn it on, of course, Monte Carlo.  The beginning of the anniversary show she wears the one I always had trouble describing to you, that black dress with the opening that makes it seem like we are seeing her slip underneath, LOL!  Wasn't that peignoir just the best, seeing it up close you see how much work there is in it too.

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And Bullfight Dance, that I never particularly enjoyed because of that last number let down, I obviously forgot that it was just a few minutes in an otherwise pretty good show.

 

Bullfight Dance is always such a curiosity. Aside from the fact the final number started off in life as the original ending for Lucy Is Envious, the script for this episode (up until the ending) is so crisp and jam-packed with great moments.

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