First of all, I'm totally pro-Lucy and I view her as a total feminist/rebel, perhaps the originator of what Gloria Steinem has since labled "outrageous acts and everyday rebellions."

But I do have a question: how many times and in which episodes did Ricky actually spank Lucy? I know it happened in one episode, where the Ricardos and Mertzes change apartments, but are there more?

THANKS!

Yeah, there were some earlier.

I want to say the one where she tries to set the grocer up with her old lady neighbor...who's name I can't remember. I can see the scene in my head but not sure if that the right episode.

Originally posted by dawsongirl
Yeah, there were some earlier.

I want to say the one where she tries to set the grocer up with her old lady neighbor...who's name I can't remember. I can see the scene in my head but not sure if that the right episode.

Yeah that's the right episode. Ricky didn't want Lucy to get involve in other people's business and she just wanted to help a sweet old lady and he spanked her. BTW, the old lady's name was Miss Lewis.

Originally posted by ILoveLucyfan4eva
BTW, the old lady's name was Miss Lewis.

Ahhh, yes! Thanks!

Originally posted by cary o'dell
First of all, I'm totally pro-Lucy and I view her as a total feminist/rebel, perhaps the originator of what Gloria Steinem has since labled "outrageous acts and everyday rebellions."

But I do have a question: how many times and in which episodes did Ricky actually spank Lucy? I know it happened in one episode, where the Ricardos and Mertzes change apartments, but are there more?

THANKS!

It happened a total of three times: in Lucy Plays Cupid, The Ricardos Change Apartments, and Ricky's Life Story.

I've always viewed the spanking as Ricky kind of joking around. I don't think that Ricky was genuinely angry in those scenes. But if that happened nowadays, gosh would that raise some eyebrows!

Originally posted by Ricardos4ever
I've always viewed the spanking as Ricky kind of joking around. I don't think that Ricky was genuinely angry in those scenes. But if that happened nowadays, gosh would that raise some eyebrows!

The funny thing is, people always remember Ricky spanking Lucy, even though it only happened a couple of times, but they NEVER seem to remember the few times Lucy tried to slug Ricky.

Gloria never hid the fact that she HATED the shows because of things like the spanking scenes, but she admitted she loved the way Lucy ran her real life though.

Originally posted by SPLAIN
Gloria never hid the fact that she HATED the shows because of things like the spanking scenes, but she admitted she loved the way Lucy ran her real life though.

I'm sorry that Ms. Steinem hated the shows, but I still love her anyway!

What do you expect Jane, this is a fanatic feminist, she doesn't seem to understand this is a TV show, set in the 50's! At least she had the decency to admit Lucy ran her life in a perfect matter, she could have said Lucy deferred to her two husbands, but she knew she was the first head of a studio who worked in a male dominated business and had separate accounts from her two hubbies, and never let the male dominating ways of society stand in her way. She always said she had taught Desi a lot about women, and he was an old fashionned Latino!

Originally posted by SPLAIN
What do you expect Jane, this is a fanatic feminist, she doesn't seem to understand this is a TV show, set in the 50's! At least she had the decency to admit Lucy ran her life in a perfect matter, she could have said Lucy deferred to her two husbands, but she knew she was the first head of a studio who worked in a male dominated business and had separate accounts from her two hubbies, and never let the male dominating ways of society stand in her way. She always said she had taught Desi a lot about women, and he was an old fashionned Latino!

Gloria Steinem is indeed a trailblazer with deeply held convictions who waged war in a very justified fight. I think women the world over owe her a debt of gratitude. She brought so many issues to the table that people never thought about before. Some of the fights she waged and helped win are with regard to things we now take for granted. For example, before she came along, it was commonly believed that a woman dressed the least bit provocatively deserved (and perhaps wanted) to be raped. And that women who did the same work as men didn't deserve to be paid the same salary. Society's whole way of thinking about women's issues, in large part due to her, has forever been altered.

As for her view of I Love Lucy, I wonder how many episodes she actually watched or how closely she watched the show. If, for example, she only watched a handful of episodes, like The Audition, I can see where she'd be upset by the show. But if she paid closer attention, and viewed the show in context to the era when it was made, she'd see how revolutionary the Lucy Ricardo character was.

It's totally understandable that she would not be able to stand Lucy begging her husband for money all the time, i can relate to that. It would be hard for kids today to remember that when women's lib started, people against it used all these ploys like saying all rest rooms would be for both sexes and so on, well, aside from Aly McBeal, i've never seen that anywhere. I always loved that scene in Mary Tyler Moore where Mary says to Lou, you can't use that argument that the man has to feed his family, where the woman doesn't, as then you'd have to pay the man with five children more than the one with two!

Originally posted by SPLAIN
It would be hard for kids today to remember that when women's lib started, people against it used all these ploys like saying all rest rooms would be for both sexes and so on,

I remember my grandmother making that very argument when the Equal Rights Amendment was about to be voted on!

Originally posted by SPLAIN
well, aside from Aly McBeal, i've never seen that anywhere. I always loved that scene in Mary Tyler Moore where Mary says to Lou, you can't use that argument that the man has to feed his family, where the woman doesn't, as then you'd have to pay the man with five children more than the one with two!

I love that show!

Lucy was not a labeled feminist. She did what was right. Her running things at her productions company was just different to others. She had the talent, praise, and confidence from all around and with that kind of support, how could she loose?

Feminists are activists that go around and promote their views. Lucy just did what she had to do. She was a true stepping stone.

As for Gloia Steinem, like some feminists, they cloud the minds with political correctness so much that it wipes out their sense of humor. In other words they take what is suppose to be a joke and raise it as a political issue.

I Love Lucy is comedy..not an issue. But everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Peace

You know it's funny, up until Gloria made those comments about Lucy, although she only knocked the show, not Lucy herself, i always liked her, she was different from those other fanatics and seemed sensible, and i hate to be sexist, but i always found her so attractive, and she had brains and made good arguments!

Originally posted by JaneTVFan


The funny thing is, people always remember Ricky spanking Lucy, even though it only happened a couple of times, but they NEVER seem to remember the few times Lucy tried to slug Ricky. what episodes did she do that in???

Originally posted by BubbleLuvGrl026
what episodes did she do that in???

In "Lucy and the Dummy" she punched the dummy's head, thinking it was Ricky. In one scene (I can't remember the episode) she challenged Ricky to a fight, saying "put up your dukes, boy!" Does anyone remember what I'm talking about? And I remember a couple occasions when Lucy was hitting Ricky with a bag or something. Ricky was cowering over, covering his face with his arms while Lucy was pounding away at him. One time was in the Scotland episode when Lucy woke up from her dream and started hitting him with her pillow. But I seem to recall another episode where this happened, but they weren't in bed that time.

You might be thinking of the one where Lucy dreams he ran off with 'Carlotta Romero,' who in Lucy's dream was a sexy temptress, but later the real person appears and she is "so full of... so full of... well, so full." {Lucy} But they were in bed then and, like the Scotland ep, Lucy started pounding away at him in his sleep with her pillow-- all for a crazy dream.

And the ep where she made like a boxer was the one with Richard Widmark, when Ricky refused to let her come to their lunchtime meeting.

A couple of times she kicked him. And in the "gossping" episode she blew soot throught the furnace duct at him and Fred.

Lucy and Ricky were not always too nice to each other (neither were Fred and Ethel, of course) or to other people; especially Lucy, the way she used people to go after her goals based on an her unrealistic view of herself... think of "The Diet," where at the end she motions to Ethel to open the broom closet door and there is the dancer whose place Lucy stole in the show tied up and gagged. Yes, Lucy was sometimes an actual criminal-- also as in stealing John Wayne's footprint block and claiming to represent a movie studio to try to have Fred's old clunker bought back, and then becoming the imposter agent behind Ricky's back.

I know this has gone a bit off-topic, but although this is not 'PC,' I don't think Ricky spanking Lucy is a terrible thing compared to some other injustices in the show, most often committed by Lucy.

my favorite "punching" scene is in Lucy Meets the Queen when she grabs Ricky by the shirt and says "If you don't let me be in your show at the Palladium, I'm going to give you such a punch, you'll talk funnier than you do now." :lol: i don't really try to read into the punching or spanking, i just look at it as supposed to be slapstick, i don't think they were actually trying to make a statement with it. just my opinion. :)

Originally posted by lucyfan1983
my favorite "punching" scene is in Lucy Meets the Queen when she grabs Ricky by the shirt and says "If you don't let me be in your show at the Palladium, I'm going to give you such a punch, you'll talk funnier than you do now." :lol: i don't really try to read into the punching or spanking, i just look at it as supposed to be slapstick, i don't think they were actually trying to make a statement with it. just my opinion. :)

I agree with you and tdr, but I'm just rethinking this a bit and wondering if there is a difference between punching and spanking. Spanking is something that is associated with the punishment of children. I wonder if what people object to is the representation of the wife (Lucy), through spanking, being treated as a child in relation to her husband, instead of as an adult equal. If Lucy spanked Ricky instead of punching him, maybe folks would be quiet about this issue. But then again, if Ricky had punched Lucy, like Lucy has done to him, people would be upset at that because that would look like spouse abuse, yet nobody cares about Lucy punching or beating Ricky. I think what it gets down to is political correctness run amok. People have trouble remembering Lucy punching Ricky, much less the episodes when she did that, but they gasp at the sight of Ricky spanking Lucy and never forget about it. I think political correctness has made us very sensitive to the sight of a woman being hit, but not notice a man being hit.

My God, people, it's a TV show set in the 50's, lots of old ideas back then, but it had to be funny, so they resorted to this type of thing, this politically correct garbage has got to take into account it was a comedy show, and she behaved like a child, so he spanked her! Nowadays, you can't even spank your kids, might get reported to the cops by a neighbor!

Originally posted by cary o'dell
First of all, I'm totally pro-Lucy and I view her as a total feminist/rebel, perhaps the originator of what Gloria Steinem has since labled "outrageous acts and everyday rebellions."

But I do have a question: how many times and in which episodes did Ricky actually spank Lucy? I know it happened in one episode, where the Ricardos and Mertzes change apartments, but are there more?

THANKS!

Hey I know a Cary O'Dell! I never did see Ricky spank Lucy, but when she made him mad she always acted like he was going to beat her up or something.

Yeah, and some people refer to it as comedy!:)

I'm a big LUCY fan and I love everything about those shows - except the spankings. I never understood that. While Lucy's character was somewhat childlike, I think a husband spanking his wife is a little silly - too silly. I find those scenes uncomfortable to watch.

Brenton, if you were there fifty years ago married to a woman who behaved like a child, you would threaten her with spanking too if it was a comedy show and needed to get laughs. I don't get uncomfortable like you when i see those scenes, i don't like them there at all, but i know it was a comedy in the 50's and they also smoked and they did many other things i didn't like, we have to stop nitpicking at all these things, it was a different time, 50 long years ago, that's all i'm saying! Some male here in my office this morning threatened a female with spanking when she misbehaved, that's wrong, but 50 years ago, it was a different era. Twin beds, can't use the word pregnant and lots more nonsense!

In "Lucy Is Jealous Of Girl Singer" she beats the living daylights out of Ricky with a rolled up newspaper, whereas in "Lucy Plays Cupid", when he 'spanks' her, you can see that he isn't even making contact. I don't think anybody really need to worry about it being offensive, even by modern standards. Remember either one of them could refuse a script if they didn't want to perform it. In "The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub" Lucy in her 'hick' disguise is really throwing Ricky around, too. He was obviously pretty resilient!

:wave:

I agree, it's just a television show!
I think the spanking scenes are pretty funny. It's not like he was really trying to hurt Lucy.
And I've seen Ricky spank Lucy in two episodes, Ricardos Switch Apartments and lucy Plays Cupid, but I didn't see it in Ricky's Life Story! Are you sure thats the right one. Or dang, maybe TVLand edited it out. lol I wanna see it!

I would gladly PAY somebody to make this thread dissapear! LOL! It's like they're bringing out all the ones that irritate me to give me a heart attack or something. Just keep repeating to yourself Claude, it was a TV show in the fifties, it was a comedy, they wanted you to laugh, she behaved like a child, he was like a father, so he would threaten to spank her, repeat, repeat again . . . until the blood vessels stop contracting! LOL!

I'd chip in some money there too, Claude. This thread annoys me. People always bring it up on message boards every now and then and I am getting tired of seeing it! I never understood why people make such a big deal out of it.

sorry, if I brought it back..i was just looking at some posts and said something. *shrugs* u don't have to read it.

Originally posted by crazyredhead
sorry, if I brought it back..i was just looking at some posts and said something. *shrugs* u don't have to read it.

Oh, don't apoligize. All I'm saying is that a lot of people make a big deal out of the spanking thing, saying "Ohmygosh, did you see him spank her? That's terrible!" And I just don't get it. It's a tv show, it's all in fun.

i know, lol, I think it's pretty funny! :lol:

Oh, one more thing, does Ricky 'spank' her in Ricky's LIFE Story?

Ooh, yeah! He does doesn't he? Are you talking about at the end, when he's 'playing Babalu'? lol
sorry, I don't mean to continue this thread.. >.<

Originally posted by lucyfan1983
my favorite "punching" scene is in Lucy Meets the Queen when she grabs Ricky by the shirt and says "If you don't let me be in your show at the Palladium, I'm going to give you such a punch, you'll talk funnier than you do now." :lol: i don't really try to read into the punching or spanking, i just look at it as supposed to be slapstick, i don't think they were actually trying to make a statement with it. just my opinion. :)

Ha ha.... I could watch that ep over and over just to see that one scene :lol:

Anyway, I don't read into the punching or spanking stuff either, since as you said it was mostly slapstick comedy on ILL.