The Best Episodes of I Love Lucy Season 1

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: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

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: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Having been bet by their husbands that they can't do without modern conveniences, Lucy and Ethel churn butter and bake bread from scratch-an eighteen foot loaf! But then Lucy demands that Ricky live as if it's the turn of the century for him, too.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Ricky is disgusted by Lucy's obsession with gossiping about other people. According to Ricky, Lucy acts as if it is her ""life's blood."" Fred, too, is disturbed by Ethel's love of gossiping. The two girls then point out that both Ricky and Fred have been known to gossip, also. The boys then challenge the girls to a bet: They will see who can go without gossiping the longest, and the winners will receive breakfast in bed for a month. The bet commences, and everything is going fine until Ricky comes up with a plan to cheat so that he and Fred can win.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Ricky puts Lucy on a rigid time schedule.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

After a big quarrel between the Ricardos and the Mertzes, Lucy and Ricky decide that they want to move out. Ricky and Lucy become the most undesirable tenants ever so that they can break that lease, while the Fred and Ethel resist.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Ricky asks for a raise, but his boss (Gale Gordon) turns him down, prompting Lucy to prove just how popular a performer he is. Her scheme involves making a lot of bogus reservations at the club on the night that somebody else is playing, then show up in various guises(including Fred in drag) feigning indignation that Ricky's not performing--and leave in a huff.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Fed up with Ricky's messiness, Lucy divides the Ricardo apartment in a clean part for her and a messy part for him.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Lucy learns that there is an opening in one of Ricky's acts for a ballet dancer as well as a burlesque comic.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Lucy becomes afraid that one of her new neighbors is threatening to kill her and convinces the others that the neighbors are trying to kill them...which gets them into big trouble.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Lucy secretly books Ricky on a radio quiz show.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Ricky fears that he is going bald, so Lucy takes it into her head to help him: she stages a "bald people's party" to show him that he's not so bad, after all. But when that doesn't work, she resorts to showing some new "hair treatments" (or "torture tactics" as Lucy calls them) to show Ricky how silly he's been.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

To her dismay, Lucy finds out that she's put on twenty-two pounds since marrying Ricky. When one of the girls in Ricky's new show quits, she tricks him into promising, she can be in the show if she fits into the dancer's size twelve costume.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

After becoming too involved in a murder mystery book, Lucy believes that Ricky is trying to murder her.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

When Lucy needs to balance her household accounts, she decides to go on quiz show. To win the $1,000 cash prize, she has to introduce her "long lost first husband" to Ricky.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Lucy tells an important talent agent that Ricky cannot appear in a show because of his horoscope. The agent is also interested in the occult. So Lucy arranges a séance.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Ricky returns home with expensive mink coat that he has rented for an act at the club. Lucy jumps to the conclusion that it's her anniversary present.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Lucy pretends to suffer from numerous psychological ailments so that Ricky will feel sorry for her and let her go into show business.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Fred and Ethel have been going at each others' throats for the past few days now, and aren't talking to each other any more. (Fred: She called my mother a weasel!)To get them back together, Lucy comes up with a plan: She will invite Ethel to dinner, while Ricky will invite Fred. Neither Mertz will know that the other is coming, Lucy hopes that she can bring the Mertzes together so they can talk out their issues. Lucy commences with her plan, but during dinner, she and Ricky start to bicker. By the end of supper, the Mertzes leave the Ricardos' apartment as happy as larks, but Lucy and Ricky are now at each others' throats. It's now up to the Mertzes to bring the Ricardos back together.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

When Ricky finds a closet full of valuables that Lucy has collected for a bazaar, he mistakenly thinks that she's become a kleptomaniac. He secretly calls in a doctor to hypnotize her, but Lucy is wise to his plan and feigns recalling a notorious past.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Thinking Ricky is losing interest in her, Lucy follows the advice of a book Ethel gave her and takes up Ricky's hobbies.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Lucy dislikes Ricky's new moustache. In order to take revenge, she glues a moustache and beard on to her face. Then, Ricky agrees to shave his moustache off, as long as Lucy gets rid of hers. Lucy tries to get the facial hair off, and is unsuccessful. They try to get a special substance to take the glue off, to find out that it is not made anymore.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

An argument ensues among the couples when Ethel wants to celebrate the Mertzes's anniversary at the Copacabana while Fred wants to attend the fights. Ethel and Lucy decide that they will go to the club with dates.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Lucy is jealous of one of Ricky's dancer at his nightclub after hearing about a gossip column item linking the two.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer

Lucy writes a play set in Cuba hoping to cast Ricky, But when he refuses, she has to settle for Fred and changes her setting to England.

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer