History Series / ILoveLucy

** As the title suggests, “Ricky Sells the Car” has Ricky selling the Pontiac and purchasing train tickets for the journey home. Unfortunately, he’s so focused on saving money with a family plan package that he forgets to buy tickets for the Mertzes. They are so insulted that they recklessly buy a broken down motorcycle to drive back to New York. Though everything gets smoothed over in the end, with Ricky buying the tickets of course, the Mertzes show zero appreciation for the fact they received a free ride to California (Fred flatly refused to pay for any gas) and, presumably, a hotel room cover by Ricky’s studio for the last 10 months.

%%** In one episode Lucy and Ethel wallpaper the Ricardos' bedroom.
%%And? How does that fit this trope?

* SwappedRoles: "Job Switching"

** Fred and Ethel have a dog, Butch, in an early episode as part of a joke. Said dog is never seen or mentioned again, and Fred is downright hostile when Little Ricky gets Fred (the dog) later in the series and has to be talked into allowing it.a

** The two part episode featuring Creator/JohnWayne featured several references to his film Blood Alley, including working the film’s poster into a scene just to show it.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: This show is both one of the earliest and best-known examples of the trope. A good rule of thumb: If Lucy enters a scene wearing pants, you are about to see some fantastic physical hijinx. Another rule of thumb: whenever Lucy’s distinctive false eyelashes disappear, you know she’s going to get drenched in something.

''And Lucy (beat) loves me!"''

* UglyGuyHotWife: Fred and Ethel, due to Vivian Vance PlayingGertrude.

* PlayingGertrude: Ethel is supposed to be much older than Lucy, closer in age to her husband Fred, but Vivian Vance was actually a full ''22'' years younger than her on-screen husband (and only two years older than Lucille Ball). Vance was annoyed that she was paired with such an older man, which caused some RealLife animosity between the actors behind the scenes. Rumor has it that ''no one'' got along well with William Frawley, who played Fred Mertz. He was just generally difficult to work with. Vance especially hated him, and the feeling was mutual. The pair reportedly refused to speak to each other outside of tapings or rehearsals, and Hollywood legend has it that Vance, learning of Frawley's 1966 death while dining at a restaurant, promptly [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing ordered champagne for everyone in the place]].

* {{Corpsing}}: An occupational hazard of working with Lucille Ball, with Arnaz probably being the most frequent victim. Just look at him in the Vitameatavegamin scene.

* FacialDialogue: Perhaps the most famous and hilarious example of the trope is the Vitameatavegamin sketch, where at one moment, Lucy is happily promoting the titular multivitamin syrup and in the next, she cringes so hard after consuming one tablespoonful of the syrup that the other actors watching [[{{Corpsing}} were trying really hard not to laugh.]]

* NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp: The Ricardos could always depend on Mrs. Trumbull to watch Little Ricky at a moment's notice (it's even explicitly stated that she babysits for free). During the first half of the Hollywood arc and the entire Europe arc, Lucy's mother stayed with him in New York.

It has erroneously been called the first television sitcom to deal with the subject of pregnancy and delivery. This is incorrect, as ''Mary Kay and Johnny'', the first television sitcom in the United States, had tackled the subject four years earlier. Nonetheless, it was still a very sensitive topic at the time, and the MoralGuardians were horrified. ''Viewer'' reaction was actually quite positive, and the episode where Lucy gives birth broke the all-time viewer record up to that point. Because they couldn't actually say "pregnant" on air, they instead popularized the euphemism "expecting", while the episode title was a BilingualBonus ("Lucy Is Enceinte"). [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle And now you know.]]

* SecondBanana: Vivian Vance's Ethel to Lucille Ball's Lucy, most of the time.

A groundbreaking {{Sitcom}} from the husband-and-wife creative team of Creator/LucilleBall and Creator/DesiArnaz, under the auspices of their studio, [[Creator/DesiluStudios Desilu Productions]], running from 1951-1957. ''I Love Lucy'' followed a young married couple through a series of wacky misadventures.

* AccidentalMisnaming: Lucy's mother constantly calls Ricky "Mickey" (and, on at least one occasion, "[[UnknownRival Xavier]]"). At one point, she tells her daughter she couldn't find her in the phone book. She was looking under "Richardson."

The show is popularly credited with featuring the first "inter-racial" or "inter-ethnic" couple on American television. Mind you, it wasn't viewed that way at the time. Until [[TheSixties the late '60s]], Hispanics were not considered a separate racial group; they were just "foreigners", and a lot of humor between Lucy and Ricky was in their cultural dissonance or in Ricky's funny accent. By today's standards, however, Lucy and Ricky were the first inter-ethnic married couple on TV. [[note]]Hispanics were generally counted as part of the white population census, and unlike African- or Asian-Americans did not serve in segregated units in the armed forces. This is not to say Hispanics did not face discrimination; they did. But even white minorities such as the Irish, Poles, and Jews also faced discrimination.[[/note]]

* {{Retool}}: ''The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show'', retitled ''The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'' in syndication.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Often used by Ricky trying to say words in English - like one time he explained that a Mind Reading act at the club was achieved through "e-lec-tron-NEEKS".

A groundbreaking {{Sitcom}} from the husband-and-wife creative team of Creator/LucilleBall and Desi Arnaz, under the auspices of their studio, [[Creator/DesiluStudios Desilu Productions]], running from 1951-1957. ''I Love Lucy'' followed a young married couple through a series of wacky misadventures.

* SocietyMarchesOn: Besides the above, much of the show's plot is driven by Lucy's tries to be financially independent. Also, much is made of Ricky's bad English and most modern parenting experts would recommend he speak to Little Ricky in Spanish since infants can learn two languages as easily as one.

** Early first season episodes have a different, less polished look and feel to them. Not only are the scrips sillier and more unsophisticated, the lighting is harsher and the performances less refined. It wasn’t until towards the end of the first season that the show began to settle into its most recognisable form.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: This show is both one of the earliest and best-known examples of the trope. A good rule of thumb: If Lucy enters a scene wearing pants, you are about to see some fantastic physical hijinx.

** Doris Singleton's role as "Lillian Appleby" was changed to "Caroline Appleby" for all subsequent appearances - except for one occasion in Hollywood where Ricky referred to her as Lillian.