I Love Lucy: The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub

I Love Lucy: The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub

Originally broadcast on CBS on Monday, October 15, 1951 at 9 PM ET.

Plot: Lucy and Ethel want to go to a nightclub for Fred and Ethel’s wedding anniversary, but the boys want to go to the fights instead.

Analysis: Let me admit to a bias right away before we even get started – I love Lucy. Honestly, I think it is one of the best things ever produced by television and rarely a time goes by when I watch an episode and wonder why some television sitcoms cannot be as funny as this one was. It speaks very well to how well the writers of the show and all the actors involved really got it right on the first shot.

Lucy technically got its start on radio as My Favorite Husband, starring Lucille Ball as Lucy. Running from 1948 into the spring of 1951, the show was popular enough and Lucy was so good in her performances that a jump to television was logical. But, Lucy wanted two things before agreeing to make the jump – the writers on My Favorite Husband had to go with the show and she wanted her real-life husband, Desi Arnez, to play the role of her husband in the show. Initially, CBS objected, feeling that no one could credibly believe an All-American type girl like Lucy would be married to a Cuban singer. Making a long story short, Desi and Lucy used a vaudeville run in the summer of 1951 and its success to prove CBS wrong.

There was really nothing quite like Lucy on the air in 1951 for a number of reasons. First, most television shows were done live on two cameras at most. Lucy broke ground by using three cameras to capture all the action and be in position for reaction shots for the jokes. Second, to make the show look cleaner, the producers opted to shoot the shows on film over a live shoot. It was far more expensive (to the tune of 35,000 dollars an episode) to produce, but is part of the reason why Lucy looked cleaner and also is the reason why it has ended up lasting so long, holding up to modern standards.

As to this particular episode, it really is fantastic to see the dynamic between the four principals, how they play off each other and how true the situation rings, especially with Lucy’s plan to keep an eye on their husbands. As I said earlier, they got it right early, keeping it funny and believable.

The Bottom Line: It’s I Love Lucy, so I’m pretty sure everyone and their mother has seen this at least once by now and don’t mind watching it again. I don’t think I need to sell too many people on the show, but if you have never seen I Love Lucy, this is not a bad place to start at all.

Something to know in advance is, in order to approximate the original 1951 broadcast, you will need two DVDs: the first disc from I Love Lucy: The First Season (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Lucy-Complete....94171617&sr=1-3) and I Love Lucy: The Movie (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Lucy-Movie-Ot....4171617&sr=1-10). The reason for this is the original opening for the show is an extra on the movie disc while the episode itself is in the first season collection. The original opening, featuring sponsor Philip Morris, was cut from rebroadcasts since the original sponsor no longer applied. This was true of all the openings for the first three seasons of Lucy, but those original openings are included on the season sets. If you really love Lucy and want to save some time, another option is to get I Love Lucy: The Complete Series (http://www.amazon.com/I-Love-Lucy-Comple....94171617&sr=1-1) since that has everything included.

Next time, more laughs with Lucy.