MovieChat Forums > I Love Lucy (1951) Discussion > Rewatching Season One

Rewatching Season One

posted 2 years ago by Garyandfilm (556)
10 replies | jump to latest

Like many hard-core ILL fans, the first season isn't my overall fave. The scripts and cast were a bit green, particularly in the first half. By the time of "The Benefit", the series has, more or less, hit its stride.

Over the past few weeks, I have been enjoying eps I haven't watched in several (or even many) years, and it's been fun.

Treats such as "The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub", "The Diet", "Men are Messy", and "The Seance" are eps I've always liked, but now rarely watch, so it's been fun seeing them again.

Others I sort of forced myself to watch are "The Fur Coat", "Lucy's Fake Illness", "The Ballet" and "New Neighbors." I enjoyed all of the above because they seemed fresh to me and because in each, Ball's genius is evident throughout. Sure, some of these shows seem a tad creaky (compared to, say, eps produced in 1954), but we're talking about television that aired over 70 years ago.

Many of the latter part of season one are already among my faves ("Lucy Does a TV Commercial", the two with Gale Gordon as "Mr. Littlefield", "The Moustache", etc). Oh, and, yes, many of Ricky's solos at The Tropicana are lovely to watch and are hauntingly photographed.

Which turkeys did I spare myself from? "The Adagio", "Drafted", "Lucy Plays Cupid", "The Audition", and of course the pilot, in which Lucy believes Ricky is trying to murder her.

Side note: it's curious to me that I also don't love several eps from the first half of season six (an exception would be "Off to Florida"), and I felt the show hit a dull spot until the moving-to-the-country/Connecticut arc.

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

Great minds think alike! LOL I was watching some first seasons eps recently. It's been a long time since I've seen them.

The Fur Coat is rather bad. Funny in a corny way but nowhere near as good as season three. I do enjoy The New Neighbors if only for the bit of dialogue where Lucy tells the police officer that she overheard their plot to blow up the Capitol by "disguising myself as a chair". ha!

I also "spare myself" some of the same turkeys.

The episodes with Mr. Littlefield are pretty good though. I like when Ricky puts Lucy on a schedule and he asks her how much time she needs in the bathroom.
Lucy: To do WHAT?

Seems like a bit of double entendre when he remarks that he'll give her 10 minutes for this or 15 minutes for that.
Lucy: I'm going to need more than fifteen minutes for that!

[–] Garyandfilm (556) 2 years ago

I also enjoyed "Lucy Writes a Play" and "Jealous of Girl Singer" (decades later, Madeline Pugh remarked the titles were conceived only for indexing and had they'd all known the titles would be revealed in multiple books/videos, they would've come up with wittier ones).

"Fred and Ethel Fight" is one where I only like the first half (the second is too silly).

With "Drafted", the scene with the guests all twisted together in the closet IS funny. I also relate to Lucy's comment about disliking milk, as I, too, abhore the stuff, except over cereal. But what transpires before is too awful to sit through.

Curiously, my vote for the all-time worst episode is season two's "The Courtroom", where everything from the writing, direction, and even the performances are a misfire.

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

I'm surprised you haven't mentioned "The Young Fans" since I know it's a favorite of yours. Lucy has a great way with a line when Peggy says that Ricky must be "pushing 23".

Lucy: Yeah, he's pushed it all the way to 35.

I view season one as sort of a "shakedown cruise". The writers were finding what worked and they were still relying on some broad cornball humor.

"Lucy Fakes Illness" shows off Ball's talent for mimicry. She does a great Tallulah Bankhead although that would be lost on young audiences of today along with her reference to Noel (Coward, of course).

"The Ballet" is also one of the earliest efforts to show off Lucy's gift for physical comedy.

In the first season Desi's acting is a bit creaky and unpolished. But he wasn't known for acting. He learns rather quickly though.

Bill Frawley was an accomplished performer and he did a great job with whatever they gave him. And Vivian Vance as a stage actress could pull off almost anything.

The first season's main drawback was some downright corny and silly scripts.

[–] Garyandfilm (556) 2 years ago

I didn't mention "The Young Fans", as it's a given that I like it, despite the fact that Peggy and Arthur don't act like any teens I've ever known.

Last night, I watched "The Marriage License", another non-fave. Lucy is both childish and a total bitch to Ricky. A frustrating ep I won't watch again soon.

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

Yes, "The Marriage License" is not one of Lucy's finer moments. The one, albeit silly thing that bothers me is, HOW did Lucy manage to fit a wedding dress, veil and bouquet in that little suitcase? lol

Last night I gave "Fred and Ethel Fight" another viewing. It's been a while. It was funnier than I remembered. Their fight was so silly. But the part that always surprises me is Ethel's insult towards Fred's mother. You mean she was still alive and kicking?

From the extras on the DVD it says that this episode was inspired by a real Arnaz incident. Lucy and Desi had friends over for dinner and one couple was arguing. Lucy and Desi played peacemakers and ended up remembering one of their own fights and got mad at each other.

The Mertzes idea for getting them together was pretty silly stuff. Obviously even if Ricky "rescued" Lucy, she would've seen that their was no fire.

Lucy surely would not have been home in bed after being hit by a bus. A hospital would've notified Ricky if his wife was in an accident.

But the moment Lucy tries to rescue her clothes and henna rinse from the fire demonstrates Lucy's skill at the physical comedy

At the end, I don't understand why Ethel is mad at Fred. She had a scheme too. But she does "go home to her mother" which reminded me of my theory that the Potters were divorced and Ethel's mother moved back east to be near her family.

I don't see Fred allowing Ethel to buy a train or even a bus ticket across country. And Ethel also visits her mother in, I think, the Vitameatavegamin episode.
Ethel has relatives nearby such as Aunt Martha and Uncle Elmo mentioned in the post Hollywood episode. In "The Freezer" she tells Lucy that her Uncle Oscar has a freezer he'd be willing to give them.

I'm going to watch that one tonight.

[–] Garyandfilm (556) 2 years ago

My belief is that Ethel's mother had passed on before the Hollywood trip. Since none of these characters are real, we can each believe what we want.

Ethel refers to Fred's mother when Ricky's mother comes to visit in '54! She must've lived 100-plus years!

"The Freezer" is a classic, albeit ridiculously far-fetched. Lucy would've run out of oxygen long before she grew icicles (!) on her face!

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

Just one of my favorite ILL theories.

I've read that a lot of actors create a "backstory" for their character. It helps them in playing the role, motivation and all that. In my own mind I've created backstories for some of my beloved TV characters. I like to give them a history and "fill in the blanks".

As for Ethel visiting her mother, I can believe that Fred would tell her, "Warm up your thumb", lol. It doesn't seem in character for Fred to spring for a ticket to Albuquerque.

[–] Corryveckan45 (181) 2 years ago

Maybe Ethel's Mom sent her the bus/train fare?

I haven't seen most of these episodes for a long time, but from what I can remember of them, "Drafted" would probably get my vote as the worst ILL episode. There's not a single laugh in this miserable misfire, the women are incredibly whiny and the men unbelievably stupid. I don't think the star quartet has ever been more collectively grating.

While I wouldn't rate "The Courtroom" as ILL at its' best, it does have a couple of bits I recall liking, particularly Lucy's "ownrehearsed sponetaneus testIMonee" as coached by Ricky, and especially Ethel's version of the incident. I always laughed at the face Ethel makes when she re-enacts Ricky "hacking" the Mertzes TV with "the axe," and her subsequent description of "this Cuban maniac" forcing everyone into the Ricardos apartment and "picking up (Fred's) foot and PUSHING it through the glass!"

I also recall liking Moroni Olsen's performance as the Judge, especially when Lucy forgets the part of her testimony that flatters Olsen's judge and he says something like: "Don't worry about it, my dear. Just go back to that part about 'such a handsome, kind, intelligent and distinguished jurist." Lucy's testimony is immediately followed by Ethel's effort to mimic Lucy's skirt raising ploy only to have Fred yank her skirt back down and chastise her, "What are you trying to do, lose the case for us?!"

That said, as I've said before, I often have a hard time liking the "Lucy Ricardo" character, and her thoughtlessness in having the heavy, cumbersome TV set delivered to the Ricardo apartment, and then letting poor Ricky get it down the stairs to the Mertz apartment by putting it on his back and slowly and painfully going down each step while seated, is one of "Lucy's" most infuriating and selfish acts in the entire series. Not helped by her clueless comment: "Hey! We should have thought of this before!"

[–] Garyandfilm (556) 2 years ago

Watched "The Freezer" last night, and while it's an acknowledged classic and I've always enjoyed it, the absurdity of Lucy turning to ice, yet still breathing, strains credibility a bit too far, even for ILL.

Part of the issue is TIME. We're supposed to buy that Ricky sang enough songs, with Fred's frozen meat thawing in his lap, while Lucy grew icicles????

I think it would've been smarter if the writers had a neighbor bang on the door with a busted water pipe. The two men would've rushed to help, and even Ethel would've gotten distracted with this crisis. Showing the three return exhausted, Fred spying his defrosting meat, Ethel gasping at the thought of Lucy down there alone, would've made for stronger tension, but also a more believable delay for Lucy to "freeze."

Still it's a topnotch first season offering that wouldn't have worked in any of the later seasons due to its overall silliness.

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

"Drafted" is extremely silly on so many levels. I mean, Fred was a soldier in WWI for goodness sake.

Never cared for "The Courtroom" either. The Ricardos and Mertzes have many spats and arguments over the years. But this one is too over the top. Sure they fight at home, but the women's courtroom testimony was perjury plain and simple.

Yes, Ethel's mom could have sent her train fare. But I'm like a dog with a bone in regard to my theory. lol I think Mrs. Potter lived on the east coast.

Remember in the Hollywood arc when the Ricardos asked the Mertzes to come along?

Fred's first response is, "Those tickets cost money!"

Ethel says that she never gets to go anywhere and Fred reminded her of "the lovely trip you took to Minnesota". Ethel replies that she went to Mayo Brothers to have her gall stones out.

If she had visited her mother in Albuquerque, I think Fred would have reminded her that she made two trips out west in the last couple of years to visit her mother.

Just my theory.

"The Freezer" has some funny dialogue but the last part with Lucy covered in icicles was very silly. It was typical of early tv sitcoms. They did some funny sight gags that didn't make much sense.

I watched "Lucy Plays Cupid" the other night. I haven't watched it in years. I actually sort of enjoyed it. I do love Edward Everett Horton's voice. Takes me back to the cartoon voiceovers he used to do for "Fractured Fairy Tales".

I liked Bea Benaderet on Petticoat Junction. It's interesting to see her in this and how it was lucky that Lucille Ball didn't succeed in getting her to play Ethel. She had nowhere near the chemistry with Ball that Vivian Vance did. Of course, she was playing a very elderly woman.

It's not a bad episode but it isn't what I consider an ILL episode. Without Ethel and Fred, the series would've been a lot less funny. Interesting that this time Ricky didn't mind Lucy butting in and playing matchmaker.