‘Lucy Tells the Truth’ Was a Powerful Comedic Spotlight for Lucille Ball

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In a feature spotlighting the best pop culture has to offer, Brian examines a classic I Love Lucy episode that gave Lucille Ball a particularly strong comedic showcase.



Today, we look at a classic I Love Lucy episode that gave Lucille Ball a particularly strong comedic showcase

This is “All the Best Things,” a spotlight on the best TV episodes, movies, albums, etc.

This is a Year of Great TV Episodes, where every day this year, we’ll take a look at great TV episodes. Note that I’m not talking about “Very Special Episodes” or episodes built around gimmicks, but just “normal” episodes of TV shows that are notable only because of how good they are.

All this month, I’ll be spotlighting great women-centric TV episodes.

Obviously, I Love Lucy was inherently a female-centric TV show, as it was a showcase for the brilliant comedic actor, Lucille Ball. However, since the episodes tended to be about Lucy’s getting her comeuppance at the hands of her husband, Ricky (played by Ball’s real-life husband, Desi Arnaz), it’s a bit trickier for me.

But you know what? Whatever, it’s fine, Lucy Ricardo WAS a mess, so it makes sense for her crazy plans to come down on her head, so I’ll just pick a strong showcase for Ball on the way to the inevitable comeuppance. I’m going to go with Season 3’s “Lucy Tells the Truth” from 1953, where Ricky and the Ricardos’ neighbors, the Mertzes (William Frawley and Vivian Vance) bet Lucy $100 that she can go a whole day without telling a lie.



She shocks them all by going into a radical honesty period, which she suddenly finds freeing. The others find it funny when she is turning her truth on others, but when she begins to point out her issues with THEM, they don’t like it.

Ricky then arranges for her to get an audition for a TV appearance where the only way to get the job is to lie, and she does, saying that she speaks Italian, but gets into an Italian knifethrower’s act, which freaks her out until she learns the whole thing was as ruse.

Ball’s depiction of a brutally honest Lucy was amazing. Really gutsy stuff, including revealing nominally her real hair color and weight at the time.