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Episode guide

Essential I Love Lucy Episodes

CBS, 1951 to 1957

Our 4 character guides for I Love Lucy point to 19 key episodes across 6 seasons. Of those, 3 turn up in two or more guides, so they come first, followed by every episode in air order.

Season and episode numbers follow the original broadcast order.

The essentials(3)

Episodes that matter to more than one character, the most shared first.

  1. Season 2, Episode 1

    "Job Switching"

    In 3 guides
    • Lucy Ricardo: Lucy and Ethel take jobs at a candy factory and lose the battle with a speeding conveyor belt.
    • Ethel Mertz: Ethel and Lucy take jobs at a candy factory and cannot keep up with the conveyor belt.
    • Fred Mertz: Fred and Ricky try keeping house and wreck the Ricardos' kitchen.

  2. Season 1, Episode 1

    "The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub"

    In 2 guides
    • Ethel Mertz: Ethel and Lucy want to celebrate the Mertzes' anniversary at the Copacabana, not at the fights.
    • Fred Mertz: Fred wants to spend his anniversary at the fights, not at a nightclub with Ethel.

  3. Season 2, Episode 10

    "Lucy Is Enceinte"

    In 2 guides
    • Lucy Ricardo: Lucy learns she is pregnant and finally breaks the news to Ricky at his club.
    • Ricky Ricardo: Ricky realizes the expectant mother behind a song request at his club is his own wife.

Every key episode by season(19)

Season 1(3 episodes)

  1. Season 1, Episode 1

    "The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub"

    An essential, in the guides for Ethel Mertz and Fred Mertz. Read the notes

  2. Season 1, Episode 22

    "Fred and Ethel Fight"

    • Fred Mertz: The Mertzes' quarrel spills over into the Ricardos' marriage.

  3. Season 1, Episode 30

    "Lucy Does a TV Commercial"

    • Lucy Ricardo: Lucy talks her way into a commercial for Vitameatavegamin and gets drunker with every take.

Season 2(3 episodes)

  1. Season 2, Episode 1

    "Job Switching"

    An essential, in the guides for Lucy Ricardo, Ethel Mertz, and Fred Mertz. Read the notes

  2. Season 2, Episode 10

    "Lucy Is Enceinte"

    An essential, in the guides for Lucy Ricardo and Ricky Ricardo. Read the notes

  3. Season 2, Episode 16

    "Lucy Goes to the Hospital"

    • Ricky Ricardo: Ricky rushes to the hospital in full voodoo stage makeup for Little Ricky's birth.

Season 3(3 episodes)

  1. Season 3, Episode 1

    "Ricky's 'Life' Story"

    • Ricky Ricardo: Ricky tries to teach Lucy that show business is hard work, and she upstages his number in revenge.

  2. Season 3, Episode 3

    "Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress"

    • Ethel Mertz: Matching dresses for a TV appearance turn the best friends into rivals.

  3. Season 3, Episode 27

    "The Diner"

    • Fred Mertz: The Mertzes and Ricardos buy a diner together and soon split it in half.

Season 4(6 episodes)

  1. Season 4, Episode 2

    "Mertz and Kurtz"

    • Fred Mertz: Fred's old vaudeville partner visits, and the gang helps both men keep up appearances.

  2. Season 4, Episode 9

    "Ethel's Birthday"

    • Ethel Mertz: Ethel's dislike of Lucy's birthday gift sparks a feud the husbands have to end.

  3. Season 4, Episode 16

    "Ethel's Home Town"

    • Ethel Mertz: In Albuquerque, the town greets Ethel as a star because she told her father she was the one headed for Hollywood.

  4. Season 4, Episode 17

    "L.A. at Last"

    • Lucy Ricardo: Star-struck Lucy torments William Holden at the Brown Derby, then hides behind a putty nose that catches fire.

  5. Season 4, Episode 22

    "Don Juan Is Shelved"

    • Ricky Ricardo: Ricky's movie is shelved, but MGM decides to keep him under contract anyway.

  6. Season 4, Episode 28

    "Harpo Marx"

    • Lucy Ricardo: Lucy fakes a roomful of celebrities in masks, only for the real Harpo Marx to catch her dressed as him.

Season 5(1 episode)

  1. Season 5, Episode 23

    "Lucy's Italian Movie"

    • Lucy Ricardo: Researching a film role, Lucy stomps grapes in a vineyard and ends up in a fight in the vat.

Season 6(3 episodes)

  1. Season 6, Episode 1

    "Lucy and Bob Hope"

    • Ricky Ricardo: Ricky's club, now called Club Babalu, lands Bob Hope as a guest.

  2. Season 6, Episode 9

    "The Ricardos Visit Cuba"

    • Ricky Ricardo: Ricky brings Lucy home to Havana to meet his family.

  3. Season 6, Episode 19

    "Lucy Raises Chickens"

    • Fred Mertz: In Connecticut, the Mertzes help the Ricardos go into the egg business.

Seen them all? Test yourself with the I Love Lucy trivia quiz, or meet the I Love Lucy characters.

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