Throwback Thursday: I Love Lucy, Season One

I recently spent a week rewatching the first season of I Love Lucy. I discovered the show the summer before going into seventh grade. The VCR was super-helpful back in the day. I recorded the episodes each night and watched them in the morning before heading off to school.

This time I watched courtesy of interlibrary loan.

I thought I would share my top ten list of episodes from that first season.

1. The Young Fans. I love, love, love this episode. In this episode, a teenage girl, Peggy, falls head over heels in love with Ricky while a teenage boy, Arthur, falls in love with Lucy. SIDESTEP, SIDESTEP, SIDESTEP. Keep jiggling, Peggy.

2. Lucy Fakes Illness. This is probably my Mom's favorite episode--at least from this season. Lucy's illness--turns out--are the go-bloots. The go-bloots can lead to a person needing to have part or all of their zorch removed via zorchectomy. But even if the doctors are able to save half of a person's zorch, the person will never be able to trummle again. Trummling is an involuntary internal process that much is unknown about.

3. Ricky Thinks He's Getting Bald. I'll be honest, this isn't *my* third favorite episode. But it is my Dad's favorite episode. He walked in while I was watching it, identified the episode right away, and started quoting whole bits of dialogue. Since this is so unlike him, I concluded it must be a favorite to make that big an impression.

4. Lucy Does a TV Commercial. This one may be the most famous. I do like it. It is quotable. But those people knew what they were doing--they knew the alcoholic content of the product they were advertising. They kept having her drink big spoonfuls so she'd be ready for the commercial. They had to see that she was getting very tipsy. But they did nothing.

5. The Marriage License. I love this one that has the couple getting remarried. They go to a small town where one man seems to wear all the hats--do all the jobs. But that isn't quite true, it turns out.

6. The Amateur Hour. In this one, Lucy accidentally finds herself babysitting twins. The mom did not tell her--warn her--that there were TWO boys. It takes a while for Lucy to figure it out. POOR Lucy, those boys are WILD. But they do help her win a talent show when she takes their mother's place in the routine.

7.  The Ballet. One word: Martha. That's not quite true. IN this attempt to get into the show, Lucy first tries ballet and then a burlesque routine. She learns "Slowly I Turned..."

8. Pioneer Women. Lucy and Ethel are determined to win a bet with Ricky and Fred. Who can survive the longest living as if it was the turn of the century?

9. Breaking the Lease. What lengths won't Ricky and Lucy go to when they're determined to get out of their lease agreement?

10. New Neighbors. There were so many that could go in this last spot. But I like this one where Lucy pretends to be a chair to "escape" her new "Russian" neighbors who are ought to take over the country.

© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews