Previous episode: Lucy Is Matchmaker Next episode: The Camping Trip
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/DullSteakKnives.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/EconomizedSausage.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/Chrysanthemum.jpg
Plot[]
For whatever crazy and illogical reason, Lucy wants new furniture again. She tries to sway Ricky into letting her buy new furniture by having her and Ethel both say, "That ratty old couch and that nasty old coffee table! They just don't belong in a room like this!" But Ricky sensibly declines Lucy's pleas. Lucy tells Ethel that she's in a jam, because she already bought the new furniture. She has to think up a way to get Ricky to say "yes" to new furniture before it's delivered the next day.
No such luck. Ricky still says "no" to new furniture by the time the new stuff arrives. What's worse, Lucy has to find a way to hide the new furniture and a reason why some of the old furniture, which was taken for the down payment, is now missing. She and Ethel push all of the new furniture into the kitchen, since Ricky doesn't go in there often. The kitchen door is able to be closed, but it's impossible to open because of how a piece of the new sectional couch is jammed against it. Lucy plans to have her and Ricky eat dinner in the living room that night, having already prepared everything in the kitchen long before he gets home.
When Ricky gets home, he enjoys Lucy's idea to eat dinner out in the living room. But he notices how barren the living room looks. Ricky thinks that selling the old furniture is a scheme Lucy is trying out to get Ricky to agree to new furniture. Little does he know that Lucy has done far worse than he suspects.
Throughout dinner, Ricky keeps needing items that Lucy forgot to put on the table prior to Ricky coming home. To gain access to her kitchen, she lies and says she has to borrow the missing items from Ethel, and she keeps running through the Mertzes' apartment to the kitchen back door before running back through the Mertzes' apartment and back to her living room. During one of these runs, Ricky notices while Lucy's gone that they also need more salt, so he goes in the kitchen to get it himself. He soon discovers the new furniture. When Lucy returns, he smugly asks for salt, and he hides in the kitchen until Lucy runs in from the Mertzes', scaring her silly.
Angry Ricky takes all of the new furniture down to the club until Lucy can pay him for it. But to earn the money for the furniture, Lucy needs to start economizing. Lucy's first economization attempt is a way to get back at Ricky by feeding him a very meager breakfast and fooling him into thinking that she ruined one of his new suits (it was really an old suit) by washing it in the sink. Ricky is so furious at Lucy's little game that he raises the price of the furniture, until Lucy promises to show a serious attempt at economizing by making a new dress herself and giving herself a home permanent for an upcoming party.
Lucy tries her best to make the dress and do the perm, but both end up disastrously. The dress is horribly uneven, and she leaves her perm on too long, which results in wildly curly hair. Lucy's so upset from her failure that Ricky agrees to bring home the new furniture to cheer her up. Lucy asks if all is forgiven, and Ricky says, "Yes." Knowing Ricky is no longer mad, Lucy then reveals that she ruined part of the rug while cutting out the pattern for her homemade dress.
Trivia[]
- It's impossible not to side with Ricky on the issue of not buying Lucy new furniture. She got a whole apartment full of new furniture from the home show only 20 episodes ago! The home show wasn't even the previous season! Furthermore, the home show furniture she trades in was far prettier than the new furniture she buys. Although the Lucy writers often forgot small details they wrote, making lots of continuity errors occur throughout the series, even they seem to know that it's ridiculous to have Lucy wanting new furniture already. This is shown through Fred's sarcastic "price tag" remark, which is written below in the quotes section. However since she likes to shop, it isn't unreasonable that she wants new furniture.
- In real life, getting new furniture in the living room was not for plot purposes. In the new 3B apartment set, the home show furniture doesn't fit all that well.
- For some unknown reason, Lucy buys a sectional couch. What point is there to a couch being two separate parts? This is probably because the third piece of the sectional is made to be a single seat, instead of the middle section of the couch. Thus making the living room look fuller.
- Lucy's permanent was supposed to be on for only 20 minutes. She left it on for five hours.
- This is the first dress Lucy has ever made. She has never made clothes before. Ethel hasn't made a dress either.
- We learn in this episode that the Ricardo's new apartment, the one they switched with the Benson's for only two episodes prior, must be right next door to the Mertz's apartment. How else could Lucy run from inside the Mertz's apartment to quickly get into her own kitchen?
- Lucy runs through the Mertz's apartment and out their "kitchen" door....where the window normally is and would be again after this episode.
- An angry Ricky says "You now owe me 399 dollars. Would you like to try for 400?" Why would Ricky only raise the cost by a dollar? He should have said "Would you like to try for 499?"
- The location of the kitchen and the bedroom in the Mertz's apartment is not constant.
Quotes[]
- Ethel: (sees Fred looking under old coffee table) What are you looking for?
Fred: The price tag! It's brand-new, isn't it?
- Ethel: You're just gonna leave this great big hole in the room?
Lucy: Well, it's better than having a great big hole in my head!
- Lucy: (pretends to find missing furniture) Here, couch! Here, coffee table! Here, coffee table! (whistles)
- Ricky: Where's the butter?
Lucy: Butter?
Ricky: Yeah, butter.
Lucy: What do you wanna do with it?
Ricky: I thought I'd put some on my bread.
Lucy: Butter on bread?!
Ricky: Yeah!
Lucy: I'll never get used to your strange Cuban dishes!
- Lucy: Oh, here, I'll cut [the meat] for you.
Ricky: No, thank you, Mother! Just get me a steak knife, huh?
- Ricky: You deliberately went out and bought that furniture after I told you not to.
Lucy: No, I didn't! I bought it BEFORE you told me not to!
- Lucy: I'll be an old lady before I save that much money [to bring the furniture home].
Ricky: Well, at least you know that you're gonna have a nice sectional couch to rest on in your old age.
- Lucy: (looking at sewing machine) Oh, that must be [the bobbin]. It's bobbin' up and down!
- Lucy: After all, I made [the dress] with my own two hands.
Ethel: It looks like you made it with your own two feet.
- Fred: (about Lucy's bad perm) Well, Little Orphan Annie!
- Lucy: (about bad perm) It's alright. I've always wanted to look like a chrysanthemum!
Ricky: Don't cry, sweetheart, don't cry. There must be something you can do.
Fred: She can always enter her head in the flower show!