I Love Lucy: Season Four

SEASON FOUR

1 - Ricky is tired of Lucy spending all the money, and hires a business manager; Lucy finds him tighter than a drum, and tries to conspire to get her money anyway.

2 - Fred's old Vaudeville partner comes into town, and Fred bends over backward to impress him, even if it means dressing Lucy as a servant and exaggerating his lifestyle; Fred and the old partner do some great acts together!

3 - Lucy tests Ricky's love by pretending to fake emergencies to get him home; but when REAL robbers show up and tie her up, she finds that she has cried wolf once too often.

4 - Lucy tries to set up two of her friends together, but at dinner she gets in a huge fight with Ricky about how happy marriage is; despite the bad example, the couple does end up getting together, while Ricky and Lucy settle their differences.

5 - Ricky is given a TV show that will broadcast from his living room - but the producer insists that Lucy be included, to show a family environment; when Lucy finds this out (despite Ricky's spin on it), she sabotages the show beyond repair.

6 - A Hollywood scout comes to audition Ricky, but when Lucy and the Mertzes find out they all put on their own separate acts for him ... and Ricky is NOT happy. 

7 - Hollywood scout asks Ricky for a screen test, a scene from Don Juan, with Lucy in a bit part; except this is Lucy here, and the "bit part" becomes a "desperate attempt to be discovered, at any cost." 

8 - A great episode, Lucy meets her Cuban mother in law, who she is very intimidated by, so she gets a Spanish professor to translate for her while hiding in her kitchen, over a radio planted in her hat; everyone is impressed... until the professor has to leave suddenly and Ethel takes over.

9 - Ethel's birthday is here, and Fred asks Lucy to choose the gift; but Lucy gets a gift that LUCY would want, not Ethel, and Ethel blames Fred, who blames Lucy, who resents everyone saying she has horrible taste.

10 - Ricky is waiting by the phone for his call from Hollywood, can't sleep, can't work, is a total mess; Fred thinks if they tell him he got the part, he'll feel better, except things get out of hand very quickly and and Lucy and Mertzes have to undo the possible damage.

11 - The classic episode where the Ricardos and Mertzes get ready for California, and they entrust with buying the car; Fred gets an antique Cadillac from the 1920s, which no one but he is happy with.

12 - Lucy is determined to drive, but has very few skills and even worse judgement, and promptly wrecks the ancient Cadillac; Ricky must get another car, and this time ignores both Lucy AND Fred's advice. 

13 - Everyone is ready to drive to Hollywood when Lucy gets a letter saying that her mom is tagging along; Ricky is furious, but Lucy decides to take a stand; they fight and fight until Lucy's mom provides some surprise information - she gets carsick and won't go by car no matter what!

14 - In an episode that makes Ohio look horrible beyond belief, the Ricardos and Mertzes stop at a run down cafe/hotel near Cincinnati that is run by a corrupt redneck thief; this is the episode with the famous "traveling beds" sequence. 

15 - Lucy takes over driving in TN, and speeds through Bent Fork so fast she is arrested; this is where Tennessee Ernie Ford, her cousin, lives (see end of Season 3), and he shows up and hatches a plot to get Lucy out of jail that backfires hilariously.

16 - The couples reach ABQ, New Mexico, which is Ethel's hometown - and everyone but her gets sick to death of Ethel pretending to be a huge New York theater star, while simultaneously pretending Lucy, Ricky, and Fred are her lowly assistants, barely qualified to get her coffee; they plan her comeuppance in one of my favorite moments in all of Lucy!! (please see this youtube for details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9TlEigKMu4)

17 - This is one of the most famous episodes in the whole run - once they get to LA, Lucy, Ethel, and Fred all go to the Brown Derby, where Lucy has a memorable encounter with William Holden, dining at the next table; after embarassing herself terribly, Lucy is horrified when Holden shows up at the apartment to say hello to Ricky later that evening.

18 - Lucy is furious and envious when Ricky has to do a press kit with a bevy of beautiful starlets, and works very very hard to sabotage the whole shebang; then when that fails, she thinks he stayed out in an all-night orgy, due to a lot of misunderstanding. 

19 - Lucy gets her Big Break - she plays a Murdered Showgirl in a production - but when it turns out the part is like 4 seconds long and no one will see her face, she begins to plot how to change her role and expand it.

20 - Lucy wants a Don Loper gown while she is in fashionable California, and plots how to get one, as they are VERY expensive; she does finally obtain one, but at a very high personal cost - a SEVERE sunburn that she has to endure while participating in a Celebrity Wives fashion show!

21 - Ricky is tired of being ignored by Hedda Hopper, so he concocts a scheme to save Lucy from drowning in the hotel pool; meanwhile, it turns out Lucy's mom has befriended Hopper and is planning to bring her over to the apartment.

22 - Hollywood producer in charge of Ricky's show decides to cancel it, as its going nowhere, so Lucy (of course) decides to hatch a plan to get him interested in Ricky again - write 500 fan letters herself - that (of course) backfires terribly, so Lucy hires an actor to play a competing producer. (Ricky's real producer is played by Philip Ober, Vivian Vance's husband at the time, and best known as the UN Ambassador murdered by the knife in the back in North by Northwest. When divorcing Vance, Ober claimed extreme cruelty on her part, a very unusual claim in 1959). 

23 - Lucy worms her way into Ricky's Matador routine, envisioning herself as an entrancing senorita, while Ricky has other plans - she will wear a bull costume! Lucy gets the upper hand when she dresses as a very feminine cow and turns the routine upside down.

24 - Ricky forgets their wedding anniversary, fakes it for a while, but Lucy finds out the truth, and is BEYOND FURIOUS; Ricky must go to long lengths to get into her good graces again.

25 - Cornel Wilde, Big Hollywood Star, is staying in a secret penthouse to stay away from fans; Lucy finds out and concocts her usual insane schemes to meet him. 

26 - After the husbands and wives have a huge fight about things that drive each other crazy, the wives take off for Palm Springs, which Ricky and Fred enlist Rock Hudson to intercede on their behalf and fix everything. 

27 - When Lucy's friend Carolyn shows up from NYC, Lucy has to prove that she is really doing a dancing routine with Van Johnson - who obviously has never heard of Lucy, but when he sees how funny she is, casts her in a different sort of act.

28 - The classic Harpo Marx episode - When Lucy's friend Carolyn shows up from NYC, she expects to see all the celebrities Lucy has bragged about; Lucy fakes a few, but then the REAL Harpo Marx shows up, and Lucy - already dressed as Harpo - goes through the famous Mirror Routine from Duck Soup.

29 - Lucy gets Ricky fired when she tries to renegociate his contract and get him into another film ASAP; trying to undo the damage proves MUCH harder than she might have thought.

30 - The famous episode with Richard Widmark: after Lucy and Ethel are kicked off a celebrity tour bus (because Lucy is too mouthy), Lucy jumps the fence into Widmark's back yard, where she gets stuck and has to sneak out through the house; things get wild when Widmard and Ricky (having lunch together) show up and Lucy disguises herself as a bear rug!!!