The Worst Episodes of I Love Lucy
Every episode of I Love Lucy ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst 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 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.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "I Love Lucy" is "Lucy Goes to Scotland", rated 7.3/10 from 391 user votes. It was directed by N/A and written by N/A. "Lucy Goes to Scotland" aired on 2/20/1956 and is rated 0.1 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "The Adagio".
7.3/10 391 votes#1 - Lucy Goes to Scotland
Season 5 Episode 17 - Aired 2/20/1956
The Ricardos and Mertzes are on their way to Paris, but first Lucy wants to go to Scotland to seek members of the McGillicuddy family into which she was born. In a classic dream sequence, Ricky appears as Scotty MacTavish MacDougal MacCardo.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.4/10 466 votes#2 - The Adagio
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/31/1951
Lucy thinks she is a perfect fit for Ricky's Parisian apache dance number. But her dance teacher has more than dancing on his mind.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.4/10 473 votes#3 - Lucy Plays Cupid
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/21/1952
The Ricardo's neighbor Miss Lewis wants Lucy to deliver a dinner invitation to her grocer. But he misunderstands and thinks the invitation is from Lucy herself.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.5/10 398 votes#4 - Cuban Pals
Season 1 Episode 28 - Aired 4/21/1952
Lucy burns with jealousy when she gets an eyeful of Ricky's dance parter Renita (Lita Baron) from the "old days" in Cuba. She was a child then, but no more! Determined to keep them apart, Lucy heads to the club in disguise, and finds herself in the clutches of a wild man named Ramon.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.5/10 288 votes#5 - Lucy Goes to a Rodeo
Season 5 Episode 8 - Aired 11/28/1955
Fred has a Western-themed show coming up at his lodge and he wants Ricky to perform in it. He can’t — but Lucy and Ethel volunteer (Lucy yodels “Home on the Range”). The reason Ricky can’t appear is that he has a “radio” show that night. Or is it a “rodeo” show?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.6/10 476 votes#6 - Drafted
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/24/1951
When Lucy opens Ricky's a telegram ordering him to appear at Fort Dix, she assumes that he has been drafted. Ethel suspects that Fred has been drafted as well when she hears, Fred is joining Ricky.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.6/10 457 votes#7 - The Amateur Hour
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/14/1952
Lucy spends too much money on a dress. So she tells Ricky that she will get a job babysitting in order to pay for it.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.6/10 450 votes#8 - The Young Fans
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 2/25/1952
A shy young teenager named Peggy has a major crush on Ricky. Ricky, however, is tired of all this "attention" that this girl is giving him, so asks Lucy to have a talk with her. During their conversation, Lucy asks Peggy to think of some other boys her own age that she might like to go out with instead. Peggy, it seems, also likes a boy named Arthur Morton. Unfortunately, Arthur is painfully shy and cannot dance, so Lucy volunteers to give him a dance lesson. But it is then that Arthur becomes infatuated with Lucy! To get the two off their backs, Lucy and Ricky come up with a solution: they will dress up and act like 90 year olds, and scare their "young fans" back to reality.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.6/10 333 votes#9 - 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
7.6/10 362 votes#10 - 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
7.7/10 366 votes#11 - 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.
7.7/10 322 votes#12 - The Fox Hunt
Season 5 Episode 16 - Aired 2/6/1956
Tally ho! In England, Lucy hounds a movie producer (Walter Kingsford) about her riding prowess and ends up on a fox hunt.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.7/10 289 votes#13 - Ragtime Band
Season 6 Episode 21 - Aired 3/18/1957
When Ricky refuses to bring his rumba band out to Westport to play for a Historical Society benefit, Lucy and the Mertzes put together a combo of their own, with Little Ricky on drums.
Director: William Asher
Writer: Bob Weiskopf, Bob Schiller
7.8/10 630 votes#14 - The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/15/1951
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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.8/10 477 votes#15 - The Audition
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/19/1951
Ricky lands a TV audition at the club. When Buffo the Clown injures himself and cannot make it, Lucy takes his place.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.8/10 440 votes#16 - Lucy is Jealous of Girl Singer
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 12/17/1951
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: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.8/10 427 votes#17 - The Benefit
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/7/1952
Ethel wants Ricky to a headline a benefit show for her women's club, but Lucy refuses to ask him, unless she can be on the bill too.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.8/10 412 votes#18 - The Marriage License
Season 1 Episode 26 - Aired 4/7/1952
Lucy thinks she and Ricky aren't legally married because his name was misspelled on their marriage license. So she wants them to renew their vows at the same place in Connecticut where Ricky first proposed to her. But they run out of gas getting there.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.8/10 395 votes#19 - The Publicity Agent
Season 1 Episode 31 - Aired 5/12/1952
Lucy poses as a princess for a publicity stunt.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr.
7.8/10 364 votes#20 - 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.
7.8/10 324 votes#21 - Ricky's 'Life' Story
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 10/5/1953
Lucy is upset because a 'Life' magazine feature on Ricky's home life didn't include a picture of her.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 312 votes#22 - The French Revue
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 11/16/1953
Ricky is planning a French revue for the club, and since Lucy is determined to be in it, she hires a Frenchman to coach her. When Ricky forbids her to come near the place, she tries various disguises, and finally succeeds as a chorus girl.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 351 votes#23 - Ricky's Old Girlfriend
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 12/21/1953
Ricky is jealous when Lucy comes up with a long list of ex-boyfriends, so he invents an old flame-who just happens to be in town. Her name? Carlotta Romero, with whom Ricky DID perform years before.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 339 votes#24 - Oil Wells
Season 3 Episode 18 - Aired 2/15/1954
The Ricardos and Mertzes as oil millionaires? Lucy and Ethel get a hot stock tip from their new neighbors from Texas. But Ricky and Fred say no. At first, anyhow. But are these neighbors swindlers? Lucy and the gang eventually think so, so they come up with a plan to find out.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 346 votes#25 - Tennessee Ernie Hangs On
Season 3 Episode 29 - Aired 5/10/1954
Lucy gets sick of an extensive visit by Tennessee Ernie, who claims he is her cousin. She tries to get rid of the likeable character by pleading poverty. The scheme backfires when Tennessee Ernie promotes a benefit hoedown to assist Lucy and Ricky. Look for "Ernie Ford and His Four Hot Chicken Pickers" in this episode.
Director: William Asher
Writer: N/A