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Previous Episode: Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright           Next Episode: Visitor from Italy

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Synopsis[]

Ricky notices his son has incredible rhythm when he catches Little Ricky banging his spoon against his oatmeal bowl. Ricky tells Lucy that he thinks Little Ricky has real talent to become a drummer. Lucy says she wants her son to have a distinguished profession, like being a doctor. The two agree not to influence their son as to which profession to pursue, but, of course, neither listens. Ricky catches Little Ricky playing with a toy doctor's kit Lucy bought him and Lucy finds out that a delivery that looks like a hat is really a toy drum.

Little Ricky takes right to the toy drum, happily pounding out a steady beat on it. Even Lucy can't deny the potential talent her son has with drums. So, Lucy and Ricky let their son drum to his heart's content. The bad thing is that Little Ricky doesn't know when to QUIT drumming. He keeps making the same beat over and over again, until it's incredibly repetitive and annoying. Lucy finds that she begins making breakfast to the beat, and Ricky can't stop from tapping out the beat or chewing his food to its rhythm.

Meanwhile, over at the Mertzes', Fred and Ethel are about at their wit's end regarding the noise of Little Ricky's drumming. They go over to talk to the Ricardos about limiting Little Ricky's playing and the Ricardos agree. Just then, Little Ricky stops playing and Fred can't resist grouchily saying how he thought Little Ricky would never quit. This just fuels the fires of parental pride and Lucy and Ricky spitefully tell Little Ricky to play as long as he likes and Fred and Ethel leave.

A huge fight has now started between the Ricardos and the Mertzes. Lucy and Ricky try to make as much noise as they can, to combat Fred sneakily turning on and off the utilities. When the two couples start shouting at one another, they realize Little Ricky is missing! They find him sleeping on the Mertzes' couch, having run away from the intense noise. The two couples realize that Little Ricky is the most important and they patch things up, with Lucy vowing they will not be having any more fights.

Trivia[]

  • This is the last Ricardo-Mertz feud we get to see (though they do briefly feud in Lucy Does The Tango).
  • This is also the last time we see Mrs. Trumbull.
  • The range in Lucy's kitchen which was always electric is changed to gas for this episode to accomadate Fred turning off the gas. A couple episodes later it's back to electric.
  • There are still 97 years on the Ricardos' 99-year lease. But they seem to have gotten that lease FIVE years ago! Although they could have signed this lease in Face_to_Face when the Ricardos were last looking to move out.
  • Ricky says that the 99-year-lease was made two years ago when the Ricardos wanted to move, and that there are 97 years left on the lease. This lease HAS to be the one made in episode #18, and that was 4-5 years ago!
  • Desi, Jr. has long talked about the identity crisis he had growing up where everyone thought he was "Little Ricky." Desi, Jr. also reports that, when Keith Thibodeaux was hired for the sixth season, he tried so hard to be better than Keith at whatever he could. the reason Desi, Jr. got into music (drum playing, specifically) was part of his plan to beat Keith.

Quotes[]

  • Ricky: What's so bad about being a drummer?

Lucy: It's just not good enough for a son of mine.

Ricky: Well, it's good enough for a HUSBAND of yours!

Lucy: Well, that's different?

Ricky: How is it different?

Lucy: He's my flesh and blood. You're just a close relative...

  • Ricky: That's natural talent!

Lucy: Oh, natural talent, my foot! He's trying to get the oatmeal off his spoon.

  • Ethel: Would you stop NOT fighting for just a minute?
  • Lucy: Alright, what do you think [Little Ricky] should be? A wealthy, distinguished doctor or a crummy, out-of-work drummer?
  • Fred: (to Ricky) Stop hemmin' and hawin'! I'm not Lucy!
  • Ethel: A hat from Schirmer's Music Company?

Lucy: Well, well, well! Oh, it has a very good tone for a hat! (takes drum out of box) Well, now, I'm just gonna be the grandest lady in the Easter parade!

  • Ricky: Little Ricky has a great beat, but it's not so great for sleepin'!
  • Lucy; How many eggs, dear?

Ricky: Two.

Lucy: Two?

Ricky: (to Little Ricky's drum beat) Two, two, two!

  • Ethel: Fred? Fred! (to Little Ricky's drum beat) Fred, Fred, Fred!
  • Ethel: Let's go over there and ask them if they'd mind restricting Little Ricky's playing for just an hour or two a day.

Fred: An hour or two? How 'bout a MINUTE or two?

Ethel: Now, Fred, none of that, none of that! If we go over there, you have to be careful what you say. Parents get awful touchy when you're talking about their children.

  • Ricky: (annoyed with continuous beat) You know somethin'? Maybe he SHOULD be a doctor when he grows up!
  • Ethel: He has such a nice, steady beat.

Fred: Yeah, STEADY!

  • Fred: Well, now that you brought it up, we thought it might not be a bad idea if he cut down a little.

Ethel: Just a bit. Just to give his little hands a rest.

Fred: Yeah, we're only thinking of the child.

  • Ricky: He stopped [playing]!

Fred: What a relief! I thought he'd NEVER quit!

Lucy: What did you say?!

Ethel: Uh, nothing! He's just amazed at the child's stamina. He didn't think anybody could keep up that racket for four whole days!

  • Ricky: We were under the impression that it was rhythm and music.

Fred: Well, rhythm, it might be. Music, it a'int!

  • Fred: Oh, what's the use? It's just the same over in our place.

Lucy: Well, don't blame that on Little Ricky. Blame it on your cheap, thin walls!

  • Fred: Out you go, unless you put a muffler on that baby bongo beater!

Ricky: Just a minute! Just a cotton-pickin' minute!

  • Lucy: How did we ever choose them to be our son's godparents?

Ricky: I don't know!

Lucy: Maybe we can turn 'em in and get two new ones!

  • Ethel: And here is your moth-eaten fur!

Lucy: "Moth-eaten"?!

Ethel: I've trapped better-lookin' things than that underneath my kitchen sink!

Ricky: OUT! OUT! (to Little Ricky's beat) OUT, OUT, OUT!

  • Lucy: I'll bet this was the work of Freddie the Fritzer!
  • Lucy: (on phone) The gas and electricity are off. Now, I know you're mean and sneaky, but you wouldn't stoop that low, now would you?

(Fred laughs evilly into phone)

  • Lucy: The water's off in the basin, too. Phantom Freddie has struck again!
  • Lucy: We're gonna play a little well-known Latin American tune called "Nertz to the Mertz Mambo"!
  • Ricky: (to Fred) Listen- you lay a hand on me, and you'll have to use the telephone to call the hospital, buster!
  • Lucy: (finds Little Ricky asleep on Mertzes' couch) Aw, the poor little thing! He couldn't stand all that noise.

Ethel: The next time we fight, we'll fight more quietly.

  • Ethel: You let him play the drums as much as he wants to.

Fred: He can do half of his practicing at our place.

Ethel: Fred!

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