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Plot[]
Lucy is reading a murder mystery. After a misunderstanding, Lucy thinks that Ricky is going to kill her. Ethel learns how to tell fortunes from playing cards, and when she tells Lucy's fortune, death comes up for the future. Lucy overhears Ricky talk with his agent about "getting rid of" someone, and Lucy finds a prop gun in the drawer. This convinces Lucy that her death is imminent.
Lucy prepares for a battle, and Ricky doesn't understand why Lucy is acting this way. When Fred comes in to check on the situation, Fred convinces Ricky to drug Lucy so that she can calm down. The drugged Lucy ends up at Ricky's show. At the show, it becomes clear that Ricky wasn't going to kill her. Lucy is happy that Ricky only put sleeping powder in her drink and not poison.
Trivia[]
- The title of the book Lucy is reading in this episode is The Mockingbird Murder Mystery.
- It sounds like Ricky is just scheduled to be the Tropicana performer for four weeks. He said that they might get to stay "another four weeks." Clearly, his appearance there started out tentatively. His popularity is what allowed him to stay there permanently.
- Lucy mistakes her jar of cheese dip for the jar of cold cream while intensely reading. She dips her cracker in the cold cream and gets a nasty-tasting surprise. The reaction from this gag was the first laugh ever recorded on the show.
- When Ethel read her fortune, Lucy was represented by the Queen of Hearts. Her card was beside the Ace of Spades, which represents death.
- Since this was the first episode ever filmed, the cast and crew didn't know exactly how to work out costume changes yet. They originally wanted to run through the episode like a play, with no long breaks. So, this is why Lucy wears layers of clothes throughout the episode. After this episode was filmed, everyone agreed that this "no breaks" method wasn't going to work, but they still were afraid of the 300-person audience getting bored while the actors changed costumes and got sets ready for the next scene. This problem was solved by having Desi's orchestra play for the audience during intermission times.
- The scene where Lucy confronts Ricky, and he chases her into the living room, you can see Lucille Ball reaching inside her housecoat with her hand and untying the pan, causing it to fall.
- During the scene with the switching of the glasses, if you watch closely, Ricky actually ends up with the glass containing the sleeping pill.
- The end scene with Lucy having a string to retrieve her book after it goes out the window is cut from the syndication version.
- This episode was rerun during Lucy's maternity leave in season 2. The new "flashback" beginning has Lucy telling Ricky about the great new murder mysteries she just bought that they can read instead of watching TV: Murder at Midnight, The Blood-Stained Stiletto and Gore. Ricky tells her she shouldn't be reading this kind of book, and he reminds her about what happened in this episode.
- This episode was shot with four cameras, instead of three. This was part of the "no breaks" method used only for this first episode. The fourth camera was abandoned for the following episode.
- The title of the show reportedly was picked so Desi could have top billing, since he is supposed to be the "I" in I Love Lucy.
- Lucy and Ricky share a queen-sized bed, in contrast to later episodes in which they have twin beds.
Quotes[]
- Lucy: No wonder they call it the Mockingbird Murder Mystery. Every time I get that book in my hand, it flies out the window!
- Fred: Crazy for Lucy, or crazy for ordinary people?
- Lucy: I got a mickey from Ricky!
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