Heartwarming / I Love Lucy

• While performing at the club one evening, Ricky receives an anonymous note asking him to perform "We're Having a Baby" in order to help a woman properly inform her husband of her pregnancy. In response, he decides to search the audience and celebrate with the couple in person. Eventually, he passes Lucy, then does a double-take as she confirms their upcoming blessing with nothing but a smile. As Ricky sings of the joyful anticipation they now share together, he and a tearful Lucy promenade through the crowd and share a kiss.
  Ricky: [stands up and hollers to the crowd] It's me! It's my wife!
  • Even sweeter, both Lucy and Desi got so wrapped up in the moment, that the director can be heard yelling for Desi to sing the baby song.
  • It gets followed up in "Lucy Goes to the Hospital", when Ricky gets the call in the middle of a number. He rushes off stage, takes the call, then steps back out only long enough to give the club the news.
    Ricky: [To the band] Play something! [To everyone] I'm a father! I'm a father!
• Similarly, one could also count when Lucy's friends threw her a surprise birthday party at the Tropicana, and Ricky serenaded Lucy with their show's theme song.
  • That whole episode was heartwarming: Even lonely old Mrs. Trumble throwing Lucy a party all on her own after no one showed up to Lucy's. And, after Lucy left in tears, Mrs. Trumble called Ricky at the club to give him a What the Hell, Hero? moment, only to find out about the surprise party plans and instantly forgive him while staying behind to babysit Little Ricky.
• A minor moment in "Ricardos Visit Cuba". In spite of her best efforts, Lucy has messed up in front of Ricky's family and is near tears.
  Lucy: What would you do if the first time I met you, I said awful things, spilled stuff all over you, and acted like a first-class nincompoop, what would you do?
  Ricky: [completely serious] Just what I did! Wait for my clothes to come back from the cleaners and then marry you!
  • Also noteworthy that during said messing up, Ricky's uncle Alberto (who Lucy had the most trouble with) asked him in Spanish why Ricky didn't marry a Cuban girl like he suggested. He replies - in English, presumably so Lucy could understand.
    Ricky: But I wasn't in love with a Cuban girl!
  • At the end of the episode, Ricky and his son take the stage together to play Babalu together, with the whole extended family cheering on. Bonus points for the orchestra immediately and unanimously joining in when Little Ricky's voice can't be heard over the drums.
  • Uncle Alberto after being charmed by Little Ricky's performance, finally conceding Lucy really is a wonderful person to have raised a son like him.
    (Uncle Alberto cheering so hard for Little Ricky, he destroys his hat, who simply laughs with Lucy)
    Uncle Alberto: Anyone who's mother to a boy like that, is alright by me.
    (He kisses her on the cheek, and the two continue their raucous cheering for Ricky and Little Ricky)
• Lucy plays matchmaker for the elderly old lady who lives in their building, simply because the old lady is just so nice. It goes awry, of course, but she tries!
• When Lucy accidentally sneaks into Richard Widmark's house, she (obviously) eventually gets found out by Ricky and Mr. Widmark.
  Ricky: You know, Richard, some people have health problems, some people have financial problems. Me? [gestures to Lucy] That's my problem. And I love her.
• Pretty much every scene that has Little Ricky in it - when kids in sitcoms are used as a source of comedy or tension and treated as mobile furniture otherwise, it's obvious that all four main characters unreservedly adore the little guy. On multiple occasions a fight between the couples will immediately cease the moment something with Little Ricky comes up.
  • In "Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright," he gets stage fright before his first drum recital. Ricky, Lucy, Ethel, and Fred all worry about how to ease the kid's nerves after he basically turns his back on the drums afterwards. Lucy hits on the idea to get the kiddy band a performance at Ricky's club, and Ricky immediately agrees - but on the night of the event, the ukulele player gets sick, and Little Ricky doesn't want to play without a ukulele. Lucy puts on the kid's uniform and kneels so she looks the same height as the rest to fill in.
  • Mrs. Trumble was initially characterized as rather crusty and bitter, complaining about Little Ricky's crying at all hours and threatening to move out. When she finally sees him (as Lucy and Ricky and Ethel and Fred are arguing loudly over this exact issue), she immediately starts cooing over him and after lambasting them for leaving Little Ricky alone, always acts as his babysitter.
• In-universe, Ricky speaks with George Reeve's manager to have him appear as Superman at Little Ricky's birthday party, only George was about to fly out to California. However, after George learns that it was for a birthday party, he shows up so as not to disappoint the kids.(Reportedly a Truth in Television about the actor's commitment to his youngest fans).
  • While Reeve himself is properly credited, in the episode, all the characters only refer to him as "Superman". Desi Arnaz insisted on this so he wouldn't ruin the illusion for little kids watching the show.
• Lucy and Ricky each get one in "Be a Pal." Lucy fears that her marriage to Ricky is going bad, so she tries desperately to seduce him, learn his interests by playing poker, and later transforming the entire apartment into a recreation of a Cuban home to remind him of his childhood (which is hilarious). When Ricky finally gets fed up with Lucy's craziness and demands to know what's going on, she admits that only wanted him to be happy, and thought that if she reminded him of Cuba, he'd be more cheerful. Ricky then gets his own moment by assuring her that he loves Lucy for who she is, and in fact likes that she's so wacky and zany.
• On the cruise ship over to Europe, Lucy is feeling abandoned since Ricky has been busy basically every waking moment playing so they can travel for free. She eventually plans to kidnap him just so they can spend some time together - only to find out he's arranged for the night off so they can spend some time together.
• It's 2:30 AM. You've just spent several hours dismantling a freshly-constructed brick-and-cement barbecue so you can help your best friend find her missing wedding ring, with no luck. Your friend is now trying tearfully to put it back together. What do you do? Well, if you're Ethel Mertz, you sit down, grab a trowel, and help her.
• In "Equal Rights", the girls get back at the boys for leaving them to pay for their end of the check (by Working Off the Debt) by convincing them they're being held up by a pair of robbers. Ricky and Fred immediately go into a panic and rush down to the restaurant, convinced they're going up against two armed criminals, to protect their wives.
• For all of her boasting and bragging that she did and would give up a career in show business for her family, when actually offered a film contract by Ricky's studio in "Lucy and the Dummy," after the studio heads found her performance gone awry so funny, she has a fantasy sequence of becoming a successful Hollywood Actress, but one in which she must leave Little Ricky behind. So struck by guilt at even considering abandoning her son, she immediately turns down the offer and chooses to return to New York with her husband and child.
• "Return Home from Europe" has this line from Ricky, after Lucy's scheme to smuggle a piece of cheese on a flight by posing it as a baby backfires.
  Ricky: (after laughing incredulously) You know, Lucy, being married to you isn't easy. But it sure is a lot of fun. (they kiss)
• From "Lucy Gets Homesick in Italy", after becoming rather depressed that she will be missing Little Ricky's birthday, she takes a liking to a little Italian Shoeshine Boy, and she, Ethel and Fred decide to throw a birthday party for him and his friends after they all claim its their birthdays as well, even knowing that all of them are lying. After buying them all presents, a nice pair of shoes for each of them, they all feeling guilty decide to return the gifts to Lucy, until one of the little girls actually admits to it being her actual birthday. Lucy touched by the gesture lets all of them keep their gifts, and to repay her kindness, when finally being able to talk with Little Ricky on the phone, all the little boys and girls sing "Happy Birthday" for Little Ricky in Italian.
• "Little Ricky Gets a Dog":
  • Everyone looked the other way when Little Ricky brought home assorted pets, but the adults acknowledge how a puppy would be a big violation of the lease and thus a no go. And yet, no one has the heart to actually tell the kid that to his face; they only manage to sheepishly suggest getting a box out of the basement for the dog. Fred is about to settle this himself when Little Ricky announces he picked a name for the dog: Fred.
    Lucy: Well, how did you ever happen to name him that?
    Little Ricky: I always name my pets after people I like.
    [Fred starts to leave the room]
    Ethel: Fred, where you going?
    Fred: Down in the basement to get the box!
  • Naturally, the dog ends up barking like crazy on a regular basis. Fred is at risk of losing a new tenant (Mr. Stewart) over this, so he tells them to get rid of it. Lucy's still incapable of disappointing Little Ricky and ends up trying to hide the dog from Fred and Mr. Stewart. When the truth comes out, Mr. Stewart delivers an ultimatum: get rid of the dog, or he moves out and takes his $250 rent checks with him. Fred (to his later total shock) does the only thing he can do.
    Fred: I'd rather live with a little dog than a big grouch!