MovieChat Forums > I Love Lucy (1951) Discussion > Top Five You CANNOT/WILL NOT Watch

Top Five You CANNOT/WILL NOT Watch

posted 6 years ago by [email protected] (1732)
17 replies | jump to latest

I know we've discussed this topic many times on these boards, but I was thinking that there
are about five episodes I haven't watched in years, and simply can't sit through them because
I dislike them so much.

For me:

DRAFTED
The ADAGIO
The COURTROOM
THE BLACK EYE
THE RICARDOS VISIT CUBA

There a several other "ho-hum" episodes ("Ragtime Band"), but I can still sit through them.
And of course those undervalued gems ("Lucy is Envious"). But these are the five I
find offensive (shooting guns in the ceiling!; domestic violence made "funny"), or just plain
BAD ("The Ricardos Visit Cuba").

Anyone else have a different list?

[–] Culburn (3638) 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] (1732) 6 years ago

What does that response have to do with the thread???

[–] Culburn (3638) 6 years ago

Nothing. I'll delete it.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 6 years ago

You don't have to delete anything - you have as much right to post anything as anyone else. I was just curious
as to why you posted, and hoped you'd add something to the thread.

We're hoping "I Love Lucy" gets more fans to talk about their feelings on the show.

"Ya all come back now - ya HERE?!"

[–] Culburn (3638) 6 years ago

Ah, I did misunderstand, but, still I shouldn't (blurt) like that.

[–] smidget28 (781) 6 years ago

there are not too many I won't watch, and I don't know them by name.

Not thrilled about The Tennessee Ernie Ford visit to NYC except when they appear on the Chicken Pickers Show.

I don't find them offensive because it was the time period.....there are parts of history embedded in the things the show did/allowed/said.

[–] [email protected] (5534) 6 years ago

I don't hate any episodes. But there are definitely a few that I don't watch very often including The Courtroom and Drafted.

I like the first act of' The Courtroom' when Ricky tries to carry the TV on his back down the steps. Pretty funny as he yells "Aye!" when he hits every step while on his butt.
But the second act is totally ridiculous. The Mertzes and the Ricardos act so childish and silly.

I don't know what is the most ridiculous aspect of 'Drafted', Fred thinking that Ethel was expecting a baby or Ethel thinking that an over sixty Fred was actually drafted!

'The Adagio' is a silly episode too for many reasons. Why a man would pretend to fall in love with Lucy, why he'd shoot a gun into her bedroom ceiling, etc. Too ridiculous.

'Lucy Plays Cupid'. Without the Mertzes this episode just falls so flat. It's just another run of the mill sitcom. Just proves how important Ethel was as Lucy's second banana.

Never can sit through the entire 'Mertz and Kurtz' episode. The first half is funny with Lucy playing the Mertz's maid. But I turn it off when they get to the boring musical numbers in the Tropicana. So dated. Even back in the fifties those songs were out of date and corny.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 6 years ago

I don't like "Cupid" either, but I don't think Fred or Ethel could've saved it. Bea was a wonderful character actor, but
she was highly miscast and overplays her role. Edward Everett Horton is fine, though. I CAN sit through this one,
but only once in a blue, blue, BLUE moon.

I don't like "Mertz and Kurtz" either, but it's mainly because I loathe Charles Winniger (who hammed it up in
countless old movies).

I don't fault the songs. Certainly there were other corny numbers on I Love Lucy, some way worse than these
beach songs ("The Woman is Smart-ter" comes to mind).

I don't care for the Orson Welles episode, as it leaves me cold. But I CAN watch it. But "Drafted" and "The Black
Eye" are literally agony. How contrived that ALL four characters get a black eye, one due to INTENDED physical
violence at the end (haven't seen it in years, but doesn't Fred sock Ricky?). Truly awful.

[–] [email protected] (5534) 6 years ago

I don't think Ethel could have really saved the "Cupid" episode either. It's just that the few episodes where she isn't Lucy's sidekick aren't as funny (at least to me).

"The Woman is Smart-er" song is pretty painful too! I watched that episode recently. But I turned it off when that song came on.

I like the beginning of "The Black Eye" . It's so cozy the way Lucy and Ricky settle down to read a book together. Buy the episode really goes downhill when Ethel believes and is almost gleeful in thinking that Ricky hit Lucy! You'd think she knew her friends better than that.

Also the Mertzes were standing outside the door when they thought that they heard a fight. Instead of knocking on the door or walking in to come to Lucy's rescue, they just left. Ethel was planning to return the next day to hear "all the dirt" about what happened. Some friends! They think you are getting beaten up and they just walk away!

In those days people didn't take domestic violence very seriously. It was as if a husband could do whatever he wanted to his wife. She was just his property.

[–] Culburn (3638) 6 years ago

If they'd a let Desi have more air in the episodes, but, Lucy ate the lion's share of that oxygen. He had a steadying influence, but, sometimes he was too little/too late to save an episode & you were left with Lucy, Lucy, Lucy.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 6 years ago

Sorry, disagree. Desi, Viv and Bill gave a tremendous amount to the comedy, and bad episodes have zero to do with
how much Lucy does or doesn't do in an episode.

[–] Culburn (3638) 6 years ago

She's too rich, too dominant especially in the latter half of "I Love Lucy" right thru till the bitter end in the '80's machination. She was intractable in the method, the recipe.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 6 years ago

Lucille Ball was a comedic genius, and only Gleason, Carroll O'Connor and Bea Arthur can be mentioned in the
same sentence.

I agree that everything post "I Love Lucy" is pretty pathetic, but her great work on ILL, ESPECIALLY in the
middle to final years remain astonishing.

But we can put it another way: If you don't like her (and many don't) one wonders why you're trolling here.

[–] Culburn (3638) 6 years ago

I'm not trolling, gb. You don't care to hear any opinion that is different than your own? I enjoy reading your opine even though it's different than my own.

I've held these opinions for decades. I never had a place to express them with people who are steeped in knowledge about ILL till now.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 6 years ago

You ARE trolling. If you read my reply, I stated that not everyone "loves" Lucy (my parents and brother
do not, as well as several friends). There is NO celebrity that everyone likes.

But if you don't care for the celebrity, it's best not to go onto a board and trash them or their show when
others are trying to engage in a more even-handed discussion.

You are trolling. And you know it. Perhaps if you developed a hobby, or something. Nobody's good at
everything, but you strike me as someone who can mow the lawn real well. Tomorrow's Saturday, so...

[–] Culburn (3638) 6 years ago

You're wrong, but, there's no convincing you otherwise. I'll not engage in your thread further.

[–] AndrewHNPX (42) 6 years ago

I don't know if I can list five specifically that I won't watch, but I really dislike a majority of the first season episodes and have no desire to watch them again. Drafted of course is just putrid and it makes no sense when you take into account Fred's age and the fact that it was a clearly established fact on the show that he already served in the military during WWI.

A lot of the first season just has this odd, off-kilter quality that's hard for me to describe exactly, but I don't like it.

There are a few in subsequent seasons that I have no interest in seeing again though, mainly Mertz & Kurtz, Lucy Goes to a Rodeo and the Orson Welles one.