I Love Lucy
Episode #1

Air Date: November 5, 1951

The Plot of this episode was based on My Favorite Husband #80 (Lucy's old radio show).


Plot

Ethel reads Lucy's fortune and predicts imminent death. Lucy has already been reading a murder mystery novel and this fortune serves to push her over the edge. She listens in to hear part of a telephone call between Ricky and his agent. "I'll probably miss her some... but in a couple of weeks I can get a new one." He was actually talking about dogs for a nightclub act. But Lucy takes this as a sign that he plans to kill her and find a new wife. So she starts to interpret everything as an attempt on her life. When she tells Fred about it he just laughs and says, "Every wife thinks her husband wants to kill her, she's usually right". Lucy eventually goes down to the Tropicana to confront Ricky (armed and ready). This is when she discovers her big mistake.

Trivia

This was the first episode filmed, but it was the fourth episode aired. The producers didn't feel it was strong enough to start a new series with.

Lucille Ball had given birth to her daughter Lucie by caesarean section not long before this episode was shot.

This was the only episode to be shot with four cameras, all of the others used three.

This episode has a hurried, unprofessional look to it, because it was filmed almost straight through without a break. After this they tried actually stopping to rearrange props, wardrobe, etc. This makes all episodes after this one have a much less primitive look.

The furnishings in the apartment were wildly different in this episode as compared to all of the others.

Finally this is the only episode that Vivian Vance's makeup and hair were done so that she looked her actual age. This infuriated Lucille Ball, who didn't want anyone stealing her thunder. She made Vivian sign a contract to remain 20 lbs overweight and made sure her makeup was always done to make her appear older.

Sources:
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/6066/ill1.html
http://www.eaglerock-is.com/ilovelucy/ep.asp?e=4
http://www.angelfire.com/hi/crazyaboutlucy/ilovelucy.html
http://members.tripod.com/~bub25/lucyepisodes.html
http://www.qksrv.net/click-456925-1643272
http://classicsitcoms.com/shows/lucy1.html

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