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The Best Episodes of I Love Lucy Season 2

Every episode of I Love Lucy Season 2 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of I Love Lucy Season 2!

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

Season 2 Ratings Summary

"Job Switching" is the best rated episode of "I Love Lucy" season 2. It scored 9.4/10 based on 819 votes. Directed by William Asher and written by Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh, Jess Oppenheimer, it aired on 9/15/1952. This episode is rated 1.3 points higher than the second-best, "The Saxophone".

  • Job Switching
    9.4/10819 votes

    #1 - 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

  • The Saxophone
    8.1/10385 votes

    #2 - The Saxophone

    Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/22/1952

    When Lucy fails her saxophone audition for Ricky's band, she tries to stop him from going on the road by pretending there's another man in her life. Ricky gets back at her by hiring several "lovers," and hiding them in Lucy's closet. But Lucy gets the last laugh in the end!

    Director: William Asher

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

  • The Anniversary Present
    8.2/10376 votes

    #3 - The Anniversary Present

    Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 9/29/1952

    Lucy thinks that Ricky is pitching woo with a sophisticated neighbor. The woman is actually a jeweler who Ricky has commissioned to fashion a pearl necklace to surprise Lucy with on their anniversary. Lucy takes to spying before the deal can go down and almost loses out on her big surprise.

    Director: Marc Daniels

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

  • The Handcuffs
    8.6/10424 votes

    #4 - The Handcuffs

    Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 10/6/1952

    After Lucy snaps a pair of antique handcuffs on herself and Ricky, they realize there's no key. A locksmith is found, but not before the Ricardos go to bed handcuffed together, and Ricky has to do a TV show with his "attached" wife trying to upstage him.

    Director: Marc Daniels

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

  • The Operetta
    8.2/10476 votes

    #5 - The Operetta

    Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/13/1952

    Lucy's women's club wants to stage an operetta, but they're completely broke. (Lucy, the treasurer, seems to have spent it all to pay her own bills.) Thus, Lucy and Ethel write and star in the musical, but when their postdated check bounces for the costumes and scenery, the rental company repossesses everything in midperformance.

    Director: Marc Daniels

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

  • Vacation from Marriage
    8.2/10401 votes

    #6 - Vacation from Marriage

    Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 10/27/1952

    The Ricardos and the Mertzes take a week off from their in-a-rut marriages. But each spouse misses the other too much, and despite a last-ditch attempt to make each other jealous, they all decide that they'd rather be in a rut with their mates.

    Director: William Asher

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

  • The Courtroom
    8.2/10404 votes

    #7 - The Courtroom

    Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/10/1952

    The Ricardos give the Mertzes a television set for their anniversary, but Ricky's zealous tuning causes it to blow up. Fred retaliates by breaking the Ricardos' set (by kicking it!) The foursome end up in court, where they manage to destroy the judge's TV, too!

    Director: William Asher

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

  • Redecorating
    8.4/10412 votes

    #8 - Redecorating

    Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 11/24/1952

    Waiting to find out if she has won a home furnishing contest, Lucy won't leave the house, much to Ricky's annoyance. He tells Fred to call her and say that she's won. In her joy, Lucy sells all the old furniture, leaving Ricky with the job of buying it back.

    Director: William Asher

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

  • Ricky Loses His Voice
    7.9/10374 votes

    #9 - Ricky Loses His Voice

    Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 12/1/1952

    Ricky's laryngitis makes it impossible for him to perform in a big reopening show for the Tropicana. So Lucy substitutes herself, the ex-vaudivillian Mertzes, and a chorus line of middle-aged showgirls from the Flapper Follies of 1927. Look for Barbara Pepper as one of the showgirls.

    Director: William Asher

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

  • Lucy Is Enceinte
    8.9/10505 votes

    #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

  • Pregnant Women are Unpredictable
    7.8/10367 votes

    #11 - Pregnant Women are Unpredictable

    Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 12/15/1952

    Lucy thinks Ricky cares more about the baby they're having than about her, especially after he buys her presents like bonnets and rattles. But when he takes her out for a night on the town, she thinks he's lost interest in the baby.

    Director: William Asher

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

  • Lucy's Showbiz Swan Song
    7.7/10370 votes

    #12 - Lucy's Showbiz Swan Song

    Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 12/22/1952

    Despite her pregnancy, Lucy wants to appear in Ricky's Gay Nineties revue at the Tropicana. After a disastrous audition, Lucy disguises herself and sneaks into the barbershop quartet number, and then proceeds to ruin it.

    Director: William Asher

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

  • Lucy Hires an English Tutor
    8.0/10397 votes

    #13 - Lucy Hires an English Tutor

    Season 2 Episode 13 - Aired 12/29/1952

    Lucy hires an English tutor so that Ricky won't give their yet-to-be-born baby bad speaking habits. The lessons are free, but Lucy does promise the tutor a payback: he'll get to sing at the Tropicana. Of course, Lucy neglects to tell Ricky this.

    Director: William Asher

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

  • Ricky Has Labor Pains
    7.8/10366 votes

    #14 - Ricky Has Labor Pains

    Season 2 Episode 14 - Aired 1/5/1953

    Ricky develops "labor pains" because he is jealous of the attention being lavished on the expectant Lucy. So she decides to throw him a "daddy shower," which Fred turns into a "stag party," which Lucy and Ethel crash.

    Director: William Asher

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

  • Lucy Becomes a Sculptress
    8.3/10380 votes

    #15 - Lucy Becomes a Sculptress

    Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 1/12/1953

    Lucy decides to explore her artistic side and takes up sculpting.

    Director: William Asher

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

  • Lucy Goes to the Hospital
    8.7/10481 votes

    #16 - 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

  • Sales Resistance
    8.3/10394 votes

    #17 - Sales Resistance

    Season 2 Episode 17 - Aired 1/26/1953

    Convinced his wife is a sucker for a sales pitch, Ricky demands that she return the vacuum cleaner she bought from a door-to-door salesman. Instead, she tries (unsuccessfully) to sell it. Ricky insists that he'll return it-and ends up buying a refrigerator.

    Director: William Asher

    Writer: N/A

  • The Inferiority Complex
    7.6/10336 votes

    #18 - The Inferiority Complex

    Season 2 Episode 18 - Aired 2/2/1953

    When no one laughs at her jokes or wants her to be their bridge partner, Lucy comes to the conclusion that she is inferior to everyone else. Worried by Lucy's behavior, Ricky goes to the psychiatrist (or "fizz-a-key-a-tryst" as Ricky pronounces it,) to find the remedy. But it turns out that this doctor's "remedy" isn't exactly what Ricky had in mind.

    Director: William Asher

    Writer: N/A

  • The Club Election
    8.1/10340 votes

    #19 - The Club Election

    Season 2 Episode 19 - Aired 2/16/1953

    Because they both want to be president of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League, Lucy and Ethel both engage in cut-throat competition. Prior to the elections, Lucy and Ethel independently engage in a little "spywork." It seems that half the club plans on voting for Lucy and the other half plans to vote for Ethel. But there is one undecided vote--that of the new member, Ruth Knickerbocker. So Lucy and Ethel both go to extremes to sway Knickerbocker's vote.

    Director: William Asher

    Writer: N/A

  • The Black Eye
    8.4/10378 votes

    #20 - The Black Eye

    Season 2 Episode 20 - Aired 3/9/1953

    Lucy misses catching a book tossed to her by Ricky, and winds up with a black eye that Fred and Ethel are convinced was intentional. Trying to patch things up for the Ricardos, Fred sends Lucy flowers, but inadvertently uses his own name instead of Ricky's.

    Director: William Asher

    Writer: N/A

  • Lucy Changes Her Mind
    8.5/10376 votes

    #21 - Lucy Changes Her Mind

    Season 2 Episode 21 - Aired 3/30/1953

    Whether it's getting dressed or ordering dinner at a restaurant, Lucy seems unable to finish anything without changing her mind. Ricky loses his temper, so Lucy tries to play a trick with an old, unfinished love letter to a beau from high school. Fred warns Ricky of Lucy's plot, and Lucy is soon in over her head.

    Director: William Asher

    Writer: N/A

  • No Children Allowed
    8.4/10366 votes

    #22 - No Children Allowed

    Season 2 Episode 22 - Aired 4/20/1953

    When a cranky tenant (Elizabeth Patterson, in her first appearance as Mrs. Trumble,) threatens to move because of Little Ricky's loud crying, Ethel makes it clear that her friendship with Lucy is more important than a rental agreement. But Ethel doesn't let the Ricardos forget her loyalty.

    Director: William Asher

    Writer: N/A

  • Lucy Hires a Maid
    8.0/10357 votes

    #23 - Lucy Hires a Maid

    Season 2 Episode 23 - Aired 4/27/1953

    Lucy's sleepless nights with the new baby are exhausting, so the Ricardos hire a maid. Unfortunately, this new maid turns out to be a terrible shrew, who takes better care of herself than of Lucy or the apartment. Unable to get the gumption to fire her, Lucy wrecks the apartment, hoping it will make the maid quit.

    Director: William Asher

    Writer: N/A

  • The Indian Show
    7.6/10366 votes

    #24 - The Indian Show

    Season 2 Episode 24 - Aired 5/4/1953

    Even the arrival of the baby hasn't dampened Lucy's showbiz aspirations. Wanting to get into the new Indian act at the Tropicana, Lucy pays off one of the performers and appears herself, carrying Little Ricky papoose-style on her back.

    Director: William Asher

    Writer: N/A

  • Lucy's Last Birthday
    8.1/10376 votes

    #25 - Lucy's Last Birthday

    Season 2 Episode 25 - Aired 5/11/1953

    Convinced everyone has forgotten her birthday, a forlorn Lucy sits on a park bench and meets up with a group of musical "lost souls." To embarrass Ricky, she brings them to the Tropicana, only to discover that a surprise birthday party awaits her.

    Director: William Asher

    Writer: N/A