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* ContinuityNod: In the episode in which Ricky and Lucy decide to buy the house in Connecticut, Fred mentions and produces the "99-year lease" the Ricardos signed at the end of the episode "Breaking the Lease". Later on in the same episode, Lucy and Ethel remind each other of past events happening in the apartment, such as Lucy wallpapering Ethel into the wall. [[note]] this also kinda doubles as a continuity error as that particular memory happened in their old, smaller apartment upstairs. [[/note]]

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* ContinuityNod: ContinuityNod:
** "Ricky Loses His Voice" opens by briefly continuing on the previous week's episode, "Redecorating", by showing the furniture Lucy won in that episode being brought in at the start (and explaining the switch to viewers who missed the last one).
** "Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress" on Season 3 keeps to the fact that Lucy and Ethel were elected co-presidents of their women's club back in Season 2's "The Club Election", with Lucy reminding Ethel (eager to lead the meeting) that it's ''her'' turn to he president and later handing leadership to Ethel when she dissents with the meeting and wants to speak her mind "as a citizen".
**
In the episode in which Ricky and Lucy decide to buy the house in Connecticut, Fred mentions and produces the "99-year lease" the Ricardos signed at the end of the episode "Breaking the Lease". Later on in the same episode, Lucy and Ethel remind each other of past events happening in the apartment, such as Lucy wallpapering Ethel into the wall. [[note]] this also kinda doubles as a continuity error as that particular memory happened in their old, smaller apartment upstairs. [[/note]]

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* AbsentAnimalCompanion: One episode shows that Ethel and Fred have a dog. It never appears or gets mentioned again.
* AbuseMistake: The episode "The Black Eye" revolves around Lucy getting a black eye after Ricky tried to toss her a book, but it ended up hitting her in the face. Fred and Ethel are both convinced that they got into a fight and he slugged her, refusing to believe them when they say it was just an accident.
* AccidentalMisnaming: Lucy's mother constantly calls Ricky "Mickey" (and, on at least one occasion, "[[UnknownRival Xavier]]")[[note]]Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-born, Cuban-raised bandleader of the era[[/note]]. At one point, she tells her daughter she couldn't find her in the phone book. She was looking under "Richardson."
** Though it might actually be MaliciousMisnaming, since she correctly calls their son "Little Ricky". Lampshaded with Ricky saying: "How do you like that? He's Little Ricky and I'm Big Mickey."

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* AbsentAnimalCompanion: One episode "The Séance" in Season 1 shows that Ethel and Fred have a dog. It never appears or gets mentioned again.
again in the series.
* AbuseMistake: The episode "The Black Eye" revolves around Lucy getting a black eye after Ricky tried to toss her a book, thriller book they were acting out, but it ended up hitting her in the face. Fred and Ethel are both convinced convinced, hearing the lurid performancen of the book, that they got into a fight and he slugged her, refusing to believe them when they say it was just an accident.
accident. Things get resolved when the same accident befalls the Mertzes.
* AccidentalMisnaming: Lucy's mother constantly calls Ricky "Mickey" (and, on at least one occasion, "[[UnknownRival Xavier]]")[[note]]Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-born, Cuban-raised bandleader of the era[[/note]]. At one point, she tells her daughter she couldn't find her in the phone book. She was looking under "Richardson."
** Though it
" It might actually be MaliciousMisnaming, MaliciousMisnaming, though, since she correctly calls their son "Little Ricky". Lampshaded with Ricky saying: "How do you like that? He's Little Ricky and I'm Big Mickey."



* AfterShow: ''The'' ''Series/LucyDesiComedyHour''
* AgeInsecurity: In one episode, Lucy can't find her birth certificate to get her passport, so she tracks down her childhood babysitter to vouch for her age while getting some forms signed. The other woman's husband happens to be a notary, but as soon as he sees the age Lucy is, he refuses to sign the forms. It then becomes clear the woman has been lying about her age, as according to her husband, she's younger than Lucy and therefore could not have been her babysitter and he cannot sign off on a lie. Lucy is understandably upset when the woman continues to lie about her age.

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* AfterShow: ''The'' ''Series/LucyDesiComedyHour''
''Series/LucyDesiComedyHour'' was produced afterward and served as the final ''I Love Lucy'' stories.
* AgeInsecurity: Lucy generally skirts around her age in conversation. In one episode, Lucy can't find her birth certificate to get her passport, so she tracks down her childhood babysitter to vouch for her age while getting some forms signed. The other woman's husband happens to be a notary, but as soon as he sees the age Lucy is, he refuses to sign the forms. It then becomes clear the woman has been lying about her age, as according to her husband, she's younger than Lucy and therefore could not have been her babysitter and he cannot sign off on a lie. Lucy is understandably upset when the woman continues to lie about her age.



* ApologyGift: Fred tries to play peacemaker between a quarreling Lucy and Ricky, by having a bouquet of roses and a box of candy delivered to Lucy on Ricky's behalf.

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* ApologyGift: ApologyGift:
** In "The Black Eye",
Fred tries to play peacemaker between a quarreling Lucy and Ricky, by having a bouquet of roses and a box of candy delivered to Lucy on Ricky's behalf. He accidentally sends the romantic note with his own name, earning Ricky's ire when he sees the note.



* AssemblyLineFastForward: The TropeCodifier, from the famous chocolate factory scene.

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* AssemblyLineFastForward: The TropeCodifier, from the famous chocolate factory scene. When working wrapping candies, Lucy and Ethel already struggle and fail to keep pace with the belt, and, due to mishaps at their last stations, have been threatened with termination if even a single candy pases through to the next room unwrapped. This results in the girls pulling candies off the belt and stuffing them into their jackets, hats, and mouths. Then the forewoman comes back in, thinks they're doing a great job, and orders the belt to speed up...



* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Fred and Ethel have a number of these moments, for all their bickering and back-and-forth nagging. In fact, it reaches hilarious proportions in one episode, where Ricky is entertaining on a cruise ship; in earlier episodes with scenes set near large bodies of water, Fred mentions his seasickness (and once even got woozy on a ship that was tied off at the dock). However, Fred suddenly does a 180-degree turn and actually becomes a ''romantic''. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Ethel is actually concerned about Fred's unusual behavior at first]], but is eventually entranced at the idea of her and Fred having a second honeymoon, and they spend the rest of the episode enjoying various activities on the ship in a lovey-dovey manner.
** Ethel more so in general. Any slight indication that Fred may be spending time with another woman and she starts sobbing at the prospect of losing her "beautiful, fat, old goat Fred."
** Averted in real life, as Vance and Frawley's working relationship could more accurately be called "Oh, Wow! They Really Do Hate Each Other."
* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: In "The Amateur Hour," Lucy is in need of money. She finds a babysitting job that pays five dollars an hour (a large sum in the 1950s). Suspicious, she asks why she is being paid so much but is only told that she'll be taking care of a little boy. When he arrives, Lucy is confused and begins to doubt her sanity when it seems like the boy is able to be in two places at once. As it turns out, there are in fact ''two'' boys, twin brothers. They prove extremely difficult to deal with, constantly kicking her and at one point they even attempt to burn her at the stake while playing CowboysAndIndians.

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* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Fred and Ethel have a number of these moments, for all their bickering and back-and-forth nagging. In fact, it reaches hilarious proportions in one episode, where Ricky is entertaining on a cruise ship; in earlier episodes with scenes set near large bodies of water, Fred mentions his seasickness (and once even got woozy on a ship that was tied off at the dock). However, Fred suddenly does a 180-degree turn and actually becomes a ''romantic''. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Ethel is actually concerned about Fred's unusual behavior at first]], but is eventually entranced at the idea of her and Fred having a second honeymoon, and they spend the rest of the episode enjoying various activities on the ship in a lovey-dovey manner.
** Ethel
manner. Their actors, however, are well-known to have truly disliked each other behind the scenes, making the Mertzes' constant jibes more so authentic in general. Any slight indication that Fred may be spending time with another woman and she starts sobbing at the prospect of losing her "beautiful, fat, old goat Fred."
** Averted in real life, as Vance and Frawley's working relationship could more accurately be called "Oh, Wow! They Really Do Hate Each Other."
truth than their romance.
* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: In "The Amateur Hour," Lucy is in need of money. She finds a babysitting job that pays five dollars an hour (a large sum in the 1950s). Suspicious, she asks why she is being paid so much but is only told that she'll be taking care of a little boy. When he arrives, Lucy is confused and begins to doubt her sanity when it seems like the boy is able to be in two places at once. As it turns out, completely contradicting moments previously and not remembering things Lucy just did. The audience is alerted earlier than Lucy that there are in fact ''two'' boys, twin brothers.brothers who the mother sneaks in under the guise there's one boy because she knows no babysitter would take both. They prove extremely difficult to deal with, constantly kicking her and at one point they even attempt to burn her at the stake while playing CowboysAndIndians.



* BedsheetLadder: In "Fred and Ethel Fight," Lucy uses one to escape from a staged fire that Ricky and Fred set up. Unfortunately, she fails to tie it to anything and falls out the window.
* BickeringCouplePeacefulCouple: The Mertzes (bickering) and Ricardos (peaceful).

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* BedsheetLadder: In "Fred and Ethel Fight," Lucy uses one to escape from a staged (unbeknownst to her, falsified) fire that Ricky and Fred set up. up to stage a heroic rescue that couldnend their fight. Unfortunately, she fails to tie it to anything and falls out the window.
window. This is also while wearing body casts she put on during her own scheme to fake a bus accident in her own plan to stage a scenario to end the fight!
* BickeringCouplePeacefulCouple: The Mertzes (bickering) and Ricardos (peaceful). The intention was to show two phases of marriage--young and love (Ricardos) and older and tired of it (Mertzes).
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* ArtisticLicenseGeography: In "Lucy's Club Dance", Lucy attempts to steal all the newspapers from their local newsstand before Ricky can read an inaccurate article about himself. The Roseland Ballroom can be seen on the canvas flat behind the newsstand. In actuality, Roseland Ballroom was located on the west side of Manhattan, all the way across town from where the Ricardos lived on the east side.
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General clarification on work content


* ForeignCussWord: Ricky's Spanish tirades when Lucy pushes him beyond the brink are often thought to be these... but in actuality, he's usually saying something to the effect of "What am I going to do with this crazy redheaded girl?" In one particular episode, he and Fred get into a shouting match and he calls him something in Spanish. After they make up, Fred asks him what it meant.

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* ForeignCussWord: Ricky's Spanish tirades when Lucy pushes him beyond the brink are often thought to be these... but in actuality, he's usually saying something to the effect of "What am I going to do with this crazy redheaded girl?" In one particular "Fred and Ethel Fight", Lucy snarks at him about his command of English, and he goes off on a towering rant about how he studied English for years, even took classes at university. In another episode, he and Fred get into a shouting match and he calls him something in Spanish. After they make up, Fred asks him what it meant.
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* ContinuityNod: In the episode in which Ricky and Lucy decide to buy the house in Connecticut, Fred mentions and produces the "99-year lease" the Ricardos signed at the end of the episode "Breaking the Lease". Later on in the same episode, Lucy and Ethel remind each other of past events happening in the apartment, such as Lucy wallpapering Ethel into the wall.

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* ContinuityNod: In the episode in which Ricky and Lucy decide to buy the house in Connecticut, Fred mentions and produces the "99-year lease" the Ricardos signed at the end of the episode "Breaking the Lease". Later on in the same episode, Lucy and Ethel remind each other of past events happening in the apartment, such as Lucy wallpapering Ethel into the wall. [[note]] this also kinda doubles as a continuity error as that particular memory happened in their old, smaller apartment upstairs. [[/note]]
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Meant for trivia page.


* PopCultureUrbanLegends: For years, it was reported that both Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., appeared in the crowd scene at the end of “The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue.” Lucie Arnaz later confirmed that while Desi Jr. does appear, the little girl standing next to him is NOT her (though even she believed the story for years, as syndication reruns tended to remove that shot).

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* PostKissCatatonia: One that affected both parties in "Lucy is Jealous of the Girl Singer," when Ricky is planted one on Lucy to convince her that he's not fooling around with a new dancer at the club.

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* PopCultureUrbanLegends: For years, it was reported that both Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., appeared in the crowd scene at the end of “The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue.” Lucie Arnaz later confirmed that while Desi Jr. does appear, the little girl standing next to him is NOT her (though even she believed the story for years, as syndication reruns tended to remove that shot).
* PostKissCatatonia: One that affected both parties in "Lucy is Jealous of the Girl Singer," when Ricky is planted one on Lucy to convince her that he's not fooling around with a new dancer at the club.

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** In, "Lucy Goes to Scotland," Lucy has a near-entire episode [[ImagineSpot dream sequence]], in which being the last of the [=McGillicuddy=] Clan, she's to be fed to a cantankerous two-headed dragon (Fred and Ethel) that awakens every thirty years and eats only [=McGillicuddy's=]. At one point in the dream, she meets Scott [=McTavish=] [=McDougal=] [=McCardo=] (Ricky), who falls in love with her, and vows to prevent the dragon from eating her, even if it means sacrificing his own life... but when the dragon is brought to the village for its meal, Scotty chickens out at the last minute, and Lucy is thrown to the dragon. Lucy then wakes up, and proceeds to hit Ricky with her pillow in a fit of rage, despite Ricky not knowing why she's upset with him.

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** In, "Lucy Goes to Scotland," Lucy has a near-entire episode [[ImagineSpot dream sequence]], in which being the last of the [=McGillicuddy=] Clan, she's to be fed to a cantankerous two-headed dragon (Fred and Ethel) that awakens every thirty years and eats only [=McGillicuddy's=].[=McGillicuddys=]. At one point in the dream, she meets Scott [=McTavish=] [=McDougal=] [=McCardo=] (Ricky), who falls in love with her, and vows to prevent the dragon from eating her, even if it means sacrificing his own life... but when the dragon is brought to the village for its meal, Scotty chickens out at the last minute, and Lucy is thrown to the dragon. Lucy then wakes up, and proceeds to hit Ricky with her pillow in a fit of rage, despite Ricky not knowing why she's upset with him.


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* PaperThinDisguise: Occasionally, Lucy's [[ZanyScheme various schemes]] required putting on a different look. Whether or not they succeeded was a case of DependingOnTheWriter.
** Lucy tries to get rid of Tennessee Ernie Ford by dressing up as a "wicked city woman" and playing AbhorrentAdmirer. Her disguise consists of nothing more than a black wig, yet Ford is tricked.
** In "Ricky Asks for a Raise," Ricky's fired after he [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin asks for a raise]] at the Tropicana. To help, Lucy, Fred, and Ethel call the club and book reservations for every table in the place, then dress up as various customers to claim the reservations and storm out in disgust upon hearing that Ricky won't be performing. An old vaudeville friend of Fred's lends him a quick-change cabinet to help with the rapid swaps, and the disguises consist of various wigs, hats, and different styles of clothing--including Fred [[DisguisedInDrag wearing drag]] at one point--but do nothing to conceal or alter their facial appearances. That, plus the silly accents the trio puts on, is enough to convince the club owner that he has to rehire Ricky immediately to save the club.
** In "The Young Fans," Lucy and Ricky have to shake off Peggy and Arthur, a pair of teenagers who develop [[PrecociousCrush Precocious Crushes]] on them. They decide to pretend to be "too old" for the teens by donning grandparent-esque clothing, coloring their hair (or, in Lucy's case, wearing a wig), putting on age makeup, and speaking in exaggerated elderly voices. Despite the kids seeing Lucy and Ricky completely youthful ''the day before'', they somehow fall for the ruse, although to Peggy's credit, she is a little bit suspicious.
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** “The Quiz Show”, the fifth episode produced, shows a number of liquor bottles in the Ricardo’s apartment. No other episode indicates they’re heavy drinkers, only showing them having champagne on special occasions.
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** Doris Singleton's role as "Lillian Appleby" was changed to "Carolyn Appleby" for all subsequent appearances - except for one occasion in Hollywood where Ricky referred to her as Lillian.

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** Doris Singleton's role as "Lillian Appleby" was changed to "Carolyn Appleby" for all subsequent appearances - except for one occasion in Hollywood where Ricky referred to her as Lillian.[[note]]The prop postcard used in this scene eventually turned up at auction, and revealed that Ball actually had written the name Lillian by mistake.[[/note]]
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** The unaired pilot noticeably differs from the series proper in many ways. It was kinescoped instead of filmed, Lucy and Ricky live in a very different looking apartment, Fred and Ethel do not exist, and Ricky’s agent, Jerry, is set up as a regular character.

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Per wick cleanup.


%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.



* RuleOfThree: In the episode involving the jewel thief on the train, the Mertzes go to the dining car three times. All three times [[spoiler: Lucy pulls the emergency brake, splattering them with food.]] Subverted: [[spoiler: The fourth time they go, they wear rain slickers, anticipating an emergency brake pull by Lucy. It happens.]]

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* RuleOfThree: In the episode involving the jewel thief on the train, the Mertzes go to the dining car three times. All three times [[spoiler: Lucy [[spoiler:Lucy pulls the emergency brake, splattering them with food.]] Subverted: [[spoiler: The [[spoiler:The fourth time they go, they wear rain slickers, anticipating an emergency brake pull by Lucy. It happens.]]
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* ReCut: During season 2 after it was discovered that Lucille Ball was pregnant, several episode that had been shot before hand were recut as flashbacks, with a new intro in which Ricky, Ethel and Fred while commenting on Lucy and the baby and how a current situation reminds them all of a previous similar event involving Lucy. This was done so that Lucy could take her maternity leave, without it affecting the program scheduling.
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* AbuseMistake: The episode, "The Black Eye" revolves around Lucy getting a black eye after Ricky tried to toss her a book, but it ended up hitting her in the face. Fred and Ethel are both convinced that they got into a fight and he slugged her, refusing to believe them when they say it was just an accident.

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* AbuseMistake: The episode, episode "The Black Eye" revolves around Lucy getting a black eye after Ricky tried to toss her a book, but it ended up hitting her in the face. Fred and Ethel are both convinced that they got into a fight and he slugged her, refusing to believe them when they say it was just an accident.
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** The Ricardo’s bedroom set in their second apartment originally had a window on the right-side wall. When the set was reassembled following the Europe arc, the window was accidentally omitted.
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** The Ricardo’s second apartment was originally 3B, but was changed to 3D for “Lucy Tells the Truth” onwards to accomodate a joke about them living in the third dimension.

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