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The Benefit

Comedy

TV-G

26

Jan 6, 1952

Ethel wants Ricky to headline a benefit for her women's club. Lucy will only try to arrange it if she is on the bill as well. After hearing Lucy's terrible singing voice, Ethel is less than eager, but eventually agrees.

Season 1, 35 episodes

The Girls Want to Go to A Nightclub,

To celebrate the Mertzes' wedding anniversary, Fred and Ricky want to go to a prizefight, but the girls want to get dressed up and go to a nightclub. An argument ensues and Lucy threatens to find two other escorts if their husbands won't take them.

Lucy decides Ricky's love is growing cold so she takes Ethel's advice she learned from a book, How to Keep the Honeymoon from Ending. Her attempt to dress up for breakfast doesn't yield any response from Ricky.

One of the girls in Ricky's show quits, creating a vacancy which Lucy wants to fill. She goes down for an audition and can have the part provided she loses twelve ponds in four days to fit into the previous singer's size 12 outfit.

Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Murder Her,

Lucy is reading "The Mockingbird Murder Mystery" when Ethel reads her fortune and tells her death is near. Later she overhears a conversation between Ricky and his agent and she jumps to the wrong conclusion that he's trying to do away with her.

When Ricky cuts off Lucy's allowance and charge accounts because of her careless spending, Lucy finds herself short of funds. Ethel has tickets to a radio quiz show that has a cash prize of $1,000.

The Audition Show,

Network television scouts are going to check out Ricky's band and Lucy tries to "get into the act" in order to be discovered as well. Of course Ricky will not hear of it.

Lucy becomes interested in numerology and advises Ricky that it is a good day for him to make any deals he can. However, she soon realizes that she consulted the horoscope from yesterday's newspaper.

When Ricky leaves his clothes around the living room, Lucy gets angry and divides the room in half so Ricky can be as messy as he likes - on his side!

Ricky brings home a $3,500 mink coat to be used in his nightclub act, and Lucy assumes it's her anniversary present. Trying to get the coat away from her becomes a problem because Lucy not only wears it while she does housework, she even sleeps in it.

Jealous of the Girl Singer,

Ethel Mertz interprets a gossip column item to mean that Ricky is interested in one of the chorus girls in his nightclub. Ricky assures Lucy that it's just publicity.

Lucy Thinks Ricky has Been Drafted,

Lucy opens a telegram addressed to Ricky from the War Department ordering him to appear at the Army's Fort Dix. This letter plus the drills Ricky and Fred have been practicing in the living room convince the women that their husbands have been drafted.

Lucy learns that Ricky needs a dancer for his Parisian nightclub act and is determined to get the part. Fred offers to teach her how to dance but Ethel arranges instead to have the nephew of the woman who runs the French laundry to give pointers.

Ethel wants Ricky to headline a benefit for her women's club. Lucy will only try to arrange it if she is on the bill as well. After hearing Lucy's terrible singing voice, Ethel is less than eager, but eventually agrees.

The Amateur Hour,

Lucy buys a costly dress, and when Ricky tells her to take it back or pay for it herself, she decides to get a job. She answers an ad for a babysitter and finds herself in charge of high-spirited twin boys who are to appear in an amateur contest.

Lucy Plays Cupid,

Lucy's neighbor Miss Lewis has a crush on Mr. Ritter, the local grocer but istoo shy to invite him to dinner. Trying to play Cupid, Lucy invites him for her but he gets the idea that Lucy has fallen for him. Apparently Mr. Ritter is fond of Lucy as well.

Lucy Fakes Illness,

In a deception planned to convince Ricky that she ought to be in his new nightclub act, Lucy pretends to have a nervous breakdown. She consults a book on abnormal psychology that reveals three complexes she assumes.

Lucy Writes A Play,

Lucy decides to break into show business by writing a play about a Cuban tobacco picker and entering it in her women's club play competition. Of course she wants Ricky to star in it but he refuses.

Breaking The Lease,

The Mertzes enjoy an evening singing around the piano with the Ricardos in their apartment. When they retire for the night and Lucy and Ricky continue singing, Ethel phones them demanding quiet.

Ricky needs a ballet dancer and a burlesque comic for his club's new musical revue. Lucy wants the ballet gig and takes dance lessons from a strict instructor. Learning the disciplined art is much more difficult than she imagined.

Peggy, a teenage neighbor, breaks up with her boyfriend Arthur because she is infatuated with Ricky. Lucy tries to help the clumsy schoolboy learn how to dance in order to win back Peggy's affections. To complicate matters more, Arthur falls for Lucy.

Lucy and Ethel are eager to get a closer look at the belongings of the O'Briens, new neighbors in the building. They snoop around in their apartment while they are away and when they hear the O'Briens return, Lucy is trapped in the closet.

Fred and Ethel Fight,

After the Mertzes have a quarrel the Ricardos try their best to get them back together. Lucy invites each of them to dinner without the other knowing. The Mertzes finally reconcile but in the process, the Ricardos squabble.

Lucy hates the mustache that Ricky grows for a potential movie role and demands that he shave it off. When he refuses, Lucy gets a fake beard and glues it on her face. To teach Ricky a lesson, she kisses her husband with the beard on when he arrives home.

When Ricky forbids Lucy from gossiping, she tapes her mouth shut but reveals the latest rumor to Ethel through charades. However, it seems it's the proverbial black pot and kettle when Ricky shares with Fred a spicy tidbit about one of his band members.

Lucy and Ethel are tired of their dishpan hands and demand dishwashers from their husbands. They also don't think the Society Matrons League, a club they want to join, would approve. Their husbands believe they have it easy compared to the olden days.

The Marriage License,

A close inspection of her marriage license convinces Lucy that she and Ricky are not legally married. Because his name is misspelled on the certificate, Lucy insists Ricky go through the entire courtship and ultimately the marriage ceremony again.

The Kleptomaniac,

Ricky discovers a wad of cash in Lucy's purse and closet full of strange valuables and assumes they're all her ill-gotten gains. He doesn't realize Lucy has been legitimately collecting for her club's fundraising bazaar.

Lucy feels left out when Ricky's two Cuban friends visit and converse mainly in Spanish. When she learns that little Renita, someone Ricky once danced with, is coming to town, she insists they reunite for a number.

Lucy and Ethel acquire a walk-in meat freezer. In an attempt to save money, they order two sides of beef, not realizing this is a tremendous amount. Hundreds of pounds of meat and $483 later, they must figure out a way to unload the beef.

Lucy Does A TV Commercial,

Ricky is the emcee for a television variety show and Lucy wants to appear in one of its commercials. To prove to her husband that she has screen presence, she removes the inner parts of their TV set, gets into it, and does a commercial as he arrives home.

Publicity Agent,

As a publicity stunt to further Ricky's career, Lucy pretends she's an exotic princess from "Franistan" who has traveled halfway around the world to see Ricky perform. She books a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria and gets a lot of press attention.

Lucy's Schedule,

When Lucy screws up a dinner appointment with Ricky's new boss, Mr. Littlefield, and his wife because she is late, Ricky puts her on a strict time schedule. Later Ricky meets with Littlefield to discuss his possible promotion to manager of the club.

Lucy Gets Ricky On The Radio,

Ricky impresses Lucy and the Mertzes with all the answers to a radio quiz show they are enjoying. He doesn't let on that the reason he knows the answers is that he was present at the taping. Lucy is so impressed that she signs him up as a contestant.

Ricky Thinks He's Getting Bald,

Ricky begins wearing a hat around the apartment because he thinks he's going bald. Lucy thinks he's worrying needlessly but goes to a store that specializes in hair restoration in order to help Ricky feel better.

Ricky Asks For A Raise,

Ricky tries to get a raise from his boss Mr. Littlefield but he is denied. Littlefield hires another act for the Tropicana and Lucy, Ethel and Fred decide to make sure no one shows up for the opening.

Details

I Love Lucy

Comedy

TV-G

6

23

This classic sitcom centers around the hilarious adventures, and misadventures, of Lucy Ricardo and her bandleader husband Ricky Ricardo.

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