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 where he works, and make life comically frantic in the apartment building they share with landlords Fred and Ethel Mertz, who also happen to be their best friends.
Season 2 Ratings Summary
The best episode of "I Love Lucy" season 2 is "Job Switching", rated 9.4/10 from 812 user votes. It was directed by William Asher and written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.. "Job Switching" aired on 9/15/1952 and is rated 1.2 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "The Saxophone".
9.4/10 812 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.2/10 382 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.3/10 372 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.6/10 420 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.3/10 472 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.2/10 398 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.2/10 402 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.4/10 409 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.9/10 372 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.9/10 499 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.8/10 364 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.7/10 366 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.0/10 394 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.9/10 364 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.3/10 376 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.7/10 477 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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
8.3/10 391 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
7.6/10 333 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
8.2/10 336 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
8.4/10 374 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
8.5/10 372 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
8.4/10 362 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
8.0/10 353 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
7.6/10 362 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
8.1/10 371 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