9.5/101,092 votesLoading...#1 - Lucy Does a TV Commercial
Season 1 Episode 30 - Aired 5/5/1952
Desperate to be in Ricky's new television commercial, Lucy makes every attempt to get her way; which eventually pays off. But her one-and-only chance flops when she is forced to test the sponsor's product over-and-over, a vitamin syrup called Vitametavegimin, which is 25% alcohol.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
9.5/10685 votesLoading...#2 - L.A. at Last
Season 4 Episode 16 - Aired 2/7/1955
Lucy arrives in Hollywood with stars in her eyes. She heads for The Brown Derby, a celebrity hangout, where she encounters Eve Arden and William Holden -- and inadvertently presents Holden with a custard pie in the face. Hollywood legends William Holden and Eve Arden guest-star as themselves.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
9.4/10831 votesLoading...#3 - Job Switching
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/15/1952
Ricky wants Lucy to try working for a week, so she and Ethel get jobs at a candy factory, where they are totally inept-especially at wrapping chocolates-due to a speeding conveyor belt that has them stuffing chocolates in their mouths, blouses, and hats.
Director: William Asher
Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer
9.2/10515 votesLoading...#4 - The Great Train Robbery
Season 5 Episode 5 - Aired 10/31/1955
Lucy gets mixed up with a jewel thief on a cross-country rail trip that marks the end of the series' Hollywood sojourn. That's not the only reason it's a bumpy ride. Another is that Lucy keeps pulling the emergency-brake cord.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.1/10528 votesLoading...#5 - Harpo Marx
Season 4 Episode 28 - Aired 5/9/1955
Lucy promised Carolyn Appleby she'd produce some real Hollywood celebrities. Now she's got to deliver. Dressing up as Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and other celebrities, she manages to fool the near-sighted Carolyn. However, the real Harpo Marx shows up only to discover Lucy dressed up as him.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
9.1/10500 votesLoading...#6 - Lucy and John Wayne
Season 5 Episode 2 - Aired 10/10/1955
Lucy is spotted while attempting to "collect" a cement block with John Wayne's footprints from Grauman's Chinese Theater. To avoid publicity and keep Lucy out of jail, Ricky enlists John Wayne's help in replacing the block. One mishap leads to another, and the plot thickens -- as does the cement. John Wayne guest-stars.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.1/10544 votesLoading...#7 - Lucy's Italian Movie
Season 5 Episode 23 - Aired 4/16/1956
En route to Rome by train, Lucy is spotted by a famous Italian cinema director and chosen to play a part in his new movie "Bitter Grapes." Lucy sets out to immerse herself in the role. When 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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
9.0/10562 votesLoading...#8 - The Freezer
Season 1 Episode 29 - Aired 4/28/1952
Where's the beef? It's in Lucy and Ethel's new walk-in freezer (according to Lucy, the "human popsicle"). Of course, Ricky and Fred have a beef with their wives, because they paid $483 for it. The meat company won't take it back, and they can't sell it to customers waiting in the local butcher shop, so they're stuck with it. And speaking of stuck, Lucy gets herself locked in the freezer!
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
9.0/10381 votesLoading...#9 - Return Home from Europe
Season 5 Episode 26 - Aired 5/14/1956
The Ricardos and Mertzes need to return to the U.S. by plane instead of ship. The 60-pound-per-person baggage limit taxes Lucy's ingenuity: she has bought lots of clothes and souvenirs, including a 30-pound cheese. She boards the plane wearing all the clothes at once and carrying the cheese as a "baby."
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.9/10510 votesLoading...#10 - Lucy Is Enceinte
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 12/8/1952
Lucy is delighted to learn she is pregnant-but how to tell Ricky? At lunch, he's too preoccupied with work to listen to her, then it's off to the club-where Lucy finds the right moment and just the right way to tell him.
Director: William Asher
Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer
8.9/10455 votesLoading...#11 - First Stop
Season 4 Episode 13 - Aired 1/17/1955
The Ricardos and Mertzes have a hard time finding accommodations that will please everyone on their trip to California. They finally hit a greasy restaurant where stale cheese sandwiches cost them a dollar apiece. Hoping to find something better elsewhere, Ricky pays the check. The couples leave -- only to return several hours later, fooled by some purposely misleading road signs.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
8.8/10431 votesLoading...#12 - Lucy Tells the Truth
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 11/9/1953
Ricky and the Mertzes bet Lucy that she can't go twenty-four hours without telling a lie. The outcome? Lucy insults all her friends and has to admit her real age, weight, and hair color. But she nearly gets a part on a TV show, by telling the truth, more or less.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
8.8/10449 votesLoading...#13 - Ethel's Home Town
Season 4 Episode 15 - Aired 1/31/1955
The Ricardos and the Mertzes stop at Ethel's hometown: Albuquerque, New Mexico (Vivian Vance's real-life hometown). Under the impression that Ethel has been called to Hollywood and not Ricky, the townsfolk accord her a monumental ovation. When Ethel refuses to disillusion them -- and even goes so far as to put on a "celebrity act" -- Lucy takes matters into her own hands.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
8.8/10378 votesLoading...#14 - Lucy Gets a Paris Gown
Season 5 Episode 20 - Aired 3/19/1956
Lucy decides to go on a hunger strike until Ricky agrees to buy her a designer dress. The plan works perfectly (even though Ethel has been smuggling food to Lucy) and Ricky finally gives in and buys her an expensive outfit. But when Ricky discovers what Lucy has been up to, he puts together a crazy outfit made of burlap and passes it off as a Paris original.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.8/10488 votesLoading...#15 - Lucy and Superman
Season 6 Episode 13 - Aired 1/14/1957
When Stevie Appleby, Caroline's son, has a birthday party the same day as Little Ricky's, Lucy looks for unusual entertainment to lure the children. Ricky remembers that Superman is in town, and he invites him. But when Ricky is unable to corral Superman, Lucy is left with no choice but to dress as the Man of Steel herself. George Reeves makes a special guest-star appearance in this episode.
Director: James V. Kern
Writer: Bob Weiskopf, Bob Schiller, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.8/10370 votesLoading...#16 - Building a B.B.Q.
Season 6 Episode 24 - Aired 4/8/1957
Lucy has a problem deciding what to do to get her vacationing husband, Ricky, out of her hair so she can do her housework. She and Ethel solve the problem by putting their husbands to work building a barbecue.
Director: William Asher
Writer: Bob Weiskopf, Bob Schiller
8.7/10485 votesLoading...#17 - Lucy Goes to the Hospital
Season 2 Episode 16 - Aired 1/19/1953
Ricky and the Mertzes rehearse for pregnant Lucy's trip to the hospital. It turns out to be predictably chaotic, but Lucy does deliver Little Ricky.
Director: William Asher
Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer
8.7/10389 votesLoading...#18 - The Camping Trip
Season 2 Episode 29 - Aired 6/8/1953
Lucy fears that she and Ricky don't have enough in common, so she decides to pursue one of his interests: camping. Ricky and Fred don't want her (or Ethel, for that matter,) horning in on their summer retreat, so Ricky decides to take Lucy on a "trial run" in the woods and make her life miserable. But Lucy is wise to his plan, and guess whose life is made miserable in the end?
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
8.7/10414 votesLoading...#19 - Ricky and Fred are TV Fans
Season 2 Episode 30 - Aired 6/22/1953
With Ricky and Fred glued to a TV fight, their wives go to the local cafe, where service is so slow that Lucy makes change for herself at the cash register and the girls are arrested. They finally prove their innocence and get home to husbands who didn't know they were gone.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
8.7/10354 votesLoading...#20 - The Business Manager
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 10/4/1954
Ricky hires a business manager, and Lucy finds him tighter with money than Ricky.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
8.7/10381 votesLoading...#21 - Ethel's Birthday
Season 4 Episode 8 - Aired 11/29/1954
Despite Ricky's qualms, Lucy decides to help Fred pick out a birthday present for Ethel. The present turns out to be toreador pants, which Ethel decides are not only unflattering but "unfitting." Relations between the two women become strained almost to the shattering point.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
8.7/10371 votesLoading...#22 - Lucy Learns to Drive
Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 1/3/1955
Ricky makes the mistake of teaching Lucy to drive his brand new car. It's only after showing Ethel how the car works that she crashes into another car and has to get them unhooked and fixed in time.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
8.7/10385 votesLoading...#23 - California, Here We Come!
Season 4 Episode 12 - Aired 1/10/1955
The Ricardos and Mertzes head for California. But first, of coures, there are complications. The chief one: Lucy's mother, who shows up and wants to accompany them. Ricky objects (to put it mildly), and when Fred and Ethel overhear him complaining about too many people on the trip, they take it personally. And when the dust from that blowup finally settles, there's packing to do.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
8.7/10398 votesLoading...#24 - Lucy Visits Grauman's
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 10/3/1955
With only a week left in Hollywood, Lucy weeps about her lack of souvenirs. Her collection already includes a tin can run over by Cary Grant's rear tire, a napkin boasting Lana Turner's lip-prints, and a few other goodies. But when Lucy discovers that John Wayne's concrete block at Grauman's Chinese Theatre is loose, she decides to take home a souvenir to end all souvenirs.
Director: James V. Kern
Writer: N/A
8.7/10340 votesLoading...#25 - Staten Island Ferry
Season 5 Episode 12 - Aired 1/2/1956
Fred's fear of becoming seasick threatens the Mertzes and Ricardos' plans for Ricky's European band tour. To prove that Fred won't get seasick, Ricky takes him down to the ship, which is anchored in the harbor. But Fred turns green and becomes more firm about his not going. Lucy and Ethel test some new, improved seasickness remedies on the Staten Island Ferry. The trial run leads to unexpected complications when Lucy gets seasick.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of I Love Lucy
Every episode of I Love Lucy ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of I Love Lucy!
Cuban Bandleader Ricky Ricardo would be happy if his wife Lucy would just be a housewife. Instead she tries constantly to perform at the Tropicana...
Genres:ComedyFamily
Network:CBS
Best Episodes Summary
"Lucy Does a TV Commercial" is the best rated episode of "I Love Lucy". It scored 9.5/10 based on 1092 votes. Directed by Marc Daniels and written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr., it aired on 5/5/1952. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "L.A. at Last".