I LOVE LUCY Classic Episode Marathon on TVLand

[NOVARick]

I don't know about the rest of you, but some of these episodes seem like random selections to me, not classics. "Lucy Plays Cupid" and "Young Fans," for example. Those represent the best of the series? And no "L.A. at Last!" or "Return Home from Europe"?

http://www.tvland.com/marathon/ilovelucy/

OCTOBER 1

8 PM/7C Episode #18 : Breaking The Lease
After a fun evening around the piano singing favorite songs, the Mertzes retire to bed, leaving Lucy and Ricky alone to pursue a short encore. Ethel telephones demanding quiet. When Lucy explains that the Mertzes were just down there making some of that noise themselves, a fight begins which almost breaks both the lease and the friendship.

8:30 PM/7:30C Episode #42 : The Courtroom
On the occasion of the Mertzes' 25th wedding anniversary, Lucy and Ricky present them with a television set that doesn't work, generating a feud between the two families and an explosive courtroom scene.

9 PM/8C Episode #54 : Club Election
Pitted against each other in the race for the presidency of their women's club, Lucy and her best friend Ethel, try to wangle the deciding vote by devious means, while their husbands map a campaign to have them both defeated.

9:30 PM/8:30C Episode #57: No Children Allowed
The Ricardos' infant prompts Mrs. Trumbull and the neighbors to point out that there is a clause in the lease saying "no children". The Ricardos' landlords are also their friends, the Mertzes, who loyally stand by them and refuse to evict them. Ethel Mertz takes such pride in her generous action that she brags about it at a bridge luncheon and Lucy, hearing Ethel's story for the umpteenth time, blows her top.

10 PM/9C Episode #66: Never Do Biz With Friends
After the Ricardos acquire a new washing machine, they sell their old one, despite Ricky's apprehensions, to the Mertzes for thirty-five dollars. The next day, the old machine breaks down, erupting like a volcano. The Mertzes call the machine a "lemon" and take the stand that since no money changed hands yet, the deal is invalid. This causes a tremendous fight between the couples.

10:30 PM/9:30C Episode #069: Lucy & Ethel Buy The Same Dress
Lucy wangles the star role in a revue staged by her women's club on a promise that she will deliver her husband, Ricky, as the show's emcee. The fly in the theatrical ointment comes as Lucy's arch rival for show honors, Ethel Mertz, and Lucy turn up in identical gowns

OCTOBER 2

8 PM/7C Episode #1: The Girls Want to go to a Nightclub
To celebrate the Mertzes' wedding anniversary, Fred and Ricky want to go to a prize fight, but the girls want to get dressed up and go to a nightclub. Lucy threatens to find two other escorts if their husbands won't take them. This is just fine with Fred, but Ricky worries, so they find two other girls and go to the same nightclub to watch their wives.

8:30 PM/7:30C Episode #38: The Anniversary Present
Believing Ricky has forgotten their anniversary, Lucy concludes that his attentions are wandering in another direction. Her suspicions are further aroused when she sees him clasping a pearl necklace around the neck of one of their neighbors.

9 PM/8C Episode #15: Lucy Plays Cupid
Lucy tries to arrange a match between a love-starved old lady and a giddy grocery man. In her efforts to play Cupid, Lucy gives the grocer the idea that she has a crush on him.

9:30 PM/8:30C Episode #20: Young Fans
When a teenage girl named Peggy drops her steady, Arthur, for suave Ricky Ricardo, Lucy accepts the dubious challenge of teaching the clumsy school boy how to dance to impress Peggy. Unfortunately, Arthur gets carried away and proclaims his love for Lucy.

10 PM/9C Episode #46: Pregnant Women Are Unpredictable
Expectant Lucy creates a pandemonium in the Ricardo household with the unpredictable demands she makes on her bewitched husband. Lucy is overwhelmed by Ricky's considerate treatment of her, but confuses him when she becomes suspicious of his attentions.

10:30 PM/9:30C Episode #64: The Camping Trip
Lucy and Ethel come to the conclusion good marriages are based on mutual interests and invite themselves to a rugged camping trip with their spouses. Ricky submits to the proposal on the assumption the sound of the first coyote's howl will send the girls scampering back to the city.

OCTOBER 3

8 PM/7C Episode #10: Lucy is Jealous of Girl Dancer
Ethel Mertz interprets a gossip column item as meaning that Ricky is interested in one of the chorus girls in his nightclub. To keep an eye on Ricky, Lucy manages to wangle her way into the chorus line and upstages the dancer during the number as well as makes a mess of the show.

8:30 PM/7:30C Episode #13: The Benefit
Lucy resorts to womanly wiles to get Ricky to sing at a women's club benefit. Ricky is reluctant at first, but Lucy tricks him into agreeing to sing and dance with her at the function.

9 PM/8C Episode #12: The Adagio
Lucy learns that Ricky is looking for an Apache dancer for his nightclub act. Convinced that someday she will break into show business, Lucy grabs at opportunity. She dreams up a wild American Indian war dance routine and goes after the job at Ricky's club.

9:30 PM/8:30C Episode #37: The Saxophone
Determined to accompany her husband on a tour with his band, Lucy represents herself as a skilled performer on the saxophone. Unfortunately, Lucy's musical repertoire is confined to an off-key rendition of "Glow Worm".

10 PM/9C Episode #73: The French Revue
Ricky plans a French revue at the Tropicana. Lucy hires DuBois a waiter at a French bistro to teach Ethel and herself some conversational French. In exchange for the free lessons, Lucy promises to get DuBois in Ricky's show. At first Ricky is mad but finally agrees to hire the waiter on the basis of his excellent "Louise" rendition. However, much to Lucy's consternation, Ricky forbids her to "come near the club". She does her best to get into the Tropicana disguised as various things.

10:30 PM/9:30C Episode #77: Lucy Has Eyes Examined
Lucy winds up with drops in her eyes when Ricky visits an oculist, but it takes more than impaired vision to quell her latest attempts to crash the show at Ricky's nightclub--this time with a sizzling jitterbug dance.

OCTOBER 4

8 PM/7C Episode #4: Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Murder her
A misunderstood conversation between Ricky and his agent leads Lucy to wrong conclusion that he is trying to kill her. Ricky pours a sedative for Lucy so she can relax, but she thinks it's poison. With what she thinks is her last burst of energy, she drags herself to Ricky's club to shoot him.

8:30 PM/7:30C Episode #30: Lucy Does A Commercial
Lucy tricks Ricky into letting her do a commercial during a television variety show. The commercial is for Vitameatavegamin. The product contains 1/4 alcohol and by the time the commercial is ready to go live, Lucy has rehearsed so many times that she slurs her way through the entire spot.

9 PM/8C Episode #24 Gossip
Ricky and Fred bet Lucy and Ethel that they can keep from gossiping longer. The winners are to be served breakfast in bed for a month. Ricky has a surefire plan: he tells Lucy gossip while pretending to be asleep so that Lucy will spill it to Ethel and cause the girls to lose the bet.

9:30 PM/8:30C Episode #36: Job Switching
Convinced that they need to do something more lucrative than keep house, Lucy and Ethel get jobs in a candy factory. The girls are forced to work at a conveyer belt which brings the sweets to them faster than their unskilled hands can pack them.

10 PM/9C Episode #51: Lucy Goes To the Hospital
Lucy approaches the zero hour and is rushed to the hospital to have her baby. Ricky carefully works out an elaborate plan with his neighbors, Ethel and Fred, hereby each is supposed to know exactly what to do "at the psychological moment". When the big moment arrives, bedlam breaks loose.

10:30 PM/9:30C Episode #150: Lucy's Italian Movie
En route to Rome by train, Lucy is spotted by a famous Italian cinema director and is chosen to play a part in his new movie Bitter Grapes. Lucy sets out to immerse herself in the role. She nonchalantly wanders into a vineyard inhabited by a motley assortment of Italian-speaking women. She is dispatched to the wine-making area to crush grapes with her feet.

OCTOBER 5

8 PM/7C Episode #125: Lucy & Harpo Marx
HARPO MARX meets himself in the Ricardo's apartment when Lucy decides to impersonate some Hollywood notables to impress a near-sighted girl friend who has come to visit from New York. The mix up occurs when Lucy, having introduced her friend to unreasonable facsimiles of Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, and Jimmy Durante, decides to impersonate Harpo Marx just as Harpo himself comes in with Ricky.

8:30 PM/7:30C Episode #129: Lucy & John Wayne
Lucy, while souvenir collecting, lifted a cement block with John Wayne's footprints from Grauman's Chinese Theater, but a newspaper story says she was seen and an arrest is soon to be made. To avoid publicity and keep Lucy out of jail, Ricky agrees to help her replace the block and enlists John Wayne's help. One mishap leads to another and the plot thickens as does the cement.

9 PM/8C Episode #146 - Lucy & Charles Boyer
The Ricardos and Mertzes, sightseeing in Paris, are sitting on a sidewalk cafe that Charles Boyer is know to frequent. Lucy thinks she has spotted Boyer and turns to helly, but Ricky convinces her it's a mistaken identiy. Lucy, thinking Ricky is jealous, enlists the help of "Pierre Smith", who looks enough like Boyer to be him (and unknown to Lucy, actually is). To convince Ricky she really loves him, not Boyer, she intends to reject "Boyer's" advances.

9:30 PM/8:30C Episode #154:Lucy & Bob Hope
Ricky is opening a new club in which is he a partner and wants Bob Hope to appear at the grand opening. Lucy fears Hope won't appear because of her widespread reputation for monkey-wrench throwing, and wants to reassure him that this time she's butting out.(Lucy meets Bob at a baseball game, dressed in a baseball uniform and later Bob, Ricky and Lucy sing, "Nobody Loves the Ump".)

[Ireneparalegal]

They must be the TVland executive's favorite episodes.

[OH Nuts!]

Give me the Lucy DVD sets anyday over TVL, so I can see what I want when I want. Any Lucy ep at my command-Yummy Yum Yum!!!

[Lodee]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

They must be the TVland executive's favorite episodes.

At least they didn't include Drafted! That is an odd assortment of "classic" episodes.

[Madame X]

I wonder if they are going to do that (random episodes) with the "Leave it to Beaver" marathon this weekend.

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by Lodee

At least they didn't include Drafted! That is an odd assortment of "classic" episodes.

Haha! That's definitely the most hated episode of the series. What were they thinking?

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by Madame X

I wonder if they are going to do that (random episodes) with the "Leave it to Beaver" marathon this weekend.

Probably. And if they're going to do that, why don't they just call it a plain old marathon, and not a "best of" marathon. But in these days of high technology and the Internet, they could easily come up with a "best of" just by putting it to the fans to vote on at their tvland.com website. It would be so easy. If they had done something like that, I doubt episodes like "Young Fans" and "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her" would have ended up in the lineup.

[Madame X]

Originally Posted by NOVARick

Haha! That's definitely the most hated episode of the series. What were they thinking?

More hated than "Lucy Goes to Scotland?" I guess we'd have to put it to a vote!

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by Madame X

More hated than "Lucy Goes to Scotland?" I guess we'd have to put it to a vote!

I've heard so many people say they hate the Scotland episode, but I've never understood why. It's far from being one of my favorites, but I don't hate it. Do people dislike it so much because it's such a diversion from the normal I Love Lucy format (the only episode that's almost entirely a dream sequence)? I think some of the songs are catchy, I think Lucy's sword dance is funny, and I think Fred and Ethel are funny as the dragon. As for "Drafted," I just don't see any redeeming qualities. The plot is completely absurd, most of the scenes really drag, the jokes (which are scarce in this episode) are corny. Nothing about it even gives me a slight chuckle.

[Madame X]

Originally Posted by NOVARick

I've heard so many people say they hate the Scotland episode, but I've never understood why. It's far from being one of my favorites, but I don't hate it. Do people dislike it so much because it's such a diversion from the normal I Love Lucy format (the only episode that's almost entirely a dream sequence)? I think some of the songs are catchy, I think Lucy's sword dance is funny, and I think Fred and Ethel are funny as the dragon. As for "Drafted," I just don't see any redeeming qualities. The plot is completely absurd, most of the scenes really drag, the jokes (which are scarce in this episode) are corny. Nothing about it even gives me a slight chuckle.

I agree. "Drafted" is dull and pretty ridiculous. The biggest stretch involved the Mertzes: Ethel believed Fred was a soldier and Fred believed Ethel was expecting. Yeah, right!

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by Madame X

I agree. "Drafted" is dull and pretty ridiculous. The biggest stretch involved the Mertzes: Ethel believed Fred was a soldier and Fred believed Ethel was expecting. Yeah, right!

Exactly! And not only that he was a soldier, but that a man well into his 60s was being drafted! Good grief!

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by NOVARick

I've heard so many people say they hate the Scotland episode, but I've never understood why. It's far from being one of my favorites, but I don't hate it. Do people dislike it so much because it's such a diversion from the normal I Love Lucy format (the only episode that's almost entirely a dream sequence)? I think some of the songs are catchy, I think Lucy's sword dance is funny, and I think Fred and Ethel are funny as the dragon. As for "Drafted," I just don't see any redeeming qualities. The plot is completely absurd, most of the scenes really drag, the jokes (which are scarce in this episode) are corny. Nothing about it even gives me a slight chuckle.

Scotland is so boring to me. I can't stand seeing all those people in that episode and not know who the hell they are. Being a dream makes up for the corny fact that Ethel and Fred are dragons. But the song is funny, that is the only funny part to me. Back when I was younger, that sword scene was a crack-up, but to have to sit through the episode to watch those two scenes is not worth it to me. It is a pure dream musical and I can't tolerate it.

Drafted is corny also, but I get a hoot figuring out how the fab four couldn't see all those people coming into the apartment? I guess the silliness in that episode makes it easier to tolerate than Scotland.

[Rezny@gmail.com]

And in the pretty good "Lucy's Italian Movie",did anyone else notice at the very end when the Italian movie director chose Ethel for the role ,instead,while Fred and Ricky looked on,and Lucy said something,and below it in subtitles,it said Censored?Anyway,the episode is not too bad.Better than "Lucy Goes to Scotland".Another one they COULD have shown,was the one where Lucy was jealous of a woman from Ricky's past named Carlotta Romero(whom he made up,-or THINKS he did,but is REAL,and the ending,where Lucy happily meets an older Carlotta Romero ,who is nothing like Lucy imagined,and is a classic scene),or lots of others.Instead of choosing which ones THEY(The TVLand programmers)think were classics,they should have let we viewers decide.

[Rezny@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

They must be the TVland executive's favorite episodes.

Obviously.There are lots of OTHER good ones they ,as I said,COULD have aired.

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by rezny9@hotmail.com

Instead of choosing which ones THEY(The TVLand programmers)think were classics,they should have let we viewers decide.

Definitely.