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[ILOVELUCY9]

Is Lucy crazy?

Brittany Cain
10/27/05
Period 4
Project 5
“I Love Lucy” season 4 “Lucy learns to drive”
The Five elements of this show were as follows:
Setting:
 Takes place mainly in Lucy and Ricky’s apartment and in front of it
 In this episode some of the story also takes place in Ricky’s new car
 The time period is the 1950’s
 It also most likely takes place on the East Coast since they are traveling across country to get to California
Character Development:
 Lucy- is the wife of Ricky, stays at home and is constantly getting into predicaments with Ethel, her best friend and she has a baby. Lucy is the protagonist of the show and is a round character. Lucy is a very emotional personal, but is hilarious at the same time. In this episode, she has to deal with the fact that women don not drive in the 50’s. Lucy is often portrayed as a klutz, who is represented through indirect presentation because the narrator of the story only shows you what Lucy acts like, they never flat out tell you. IN this episode Lucy crashes the car twice while believing that the car is uninsured and then tries to play innocent when Ricky asks what happened
 Ricky-is Lucy’s husband, wants to be in Hollywood, is Hispanic and often speaks in Spanish when he gets mad at Lucy. Recently bought a new car in the episode but it is currently uninsured. He is often portrayed as the antagonist of Lucy and Ethel. His character traits are portrayed through indirect presentation because you only see what Ricky’s like and have to form your ideas through that assumption.
 Ethel- is Lucy’s best friend, does not know how to drive a car, and wants to learn. Lucy crashes the car while Ethel is driving the first time. She is a round character because you see many different moods and expressions of Ethel.
 Fred-Fred is a foil in this story because he does not have a main story line and is there because he has to be in a certain spot, so that the story can continue.

Plot:
 The conflict of this story is that Lucy wants to learn how to drive and lies about having car insurance, and wants to teach Ethel how to drive.
 Complications are that Ricky drives a brand new Pontiac and Lucy has a tendency not to think about what she is doing. In addition, Ethel wants to learn how to drive and Lucy wants to teach her.
 Crisis- Lucy drives the car without letting Ricky knowing and lets Ethel start the car, which makes it crash into Fred’s car, Lucy ends up taking both cars to the mechanic and ends up crashing the cars again.
 Climax-Ricky sees the car and is furious at Lucy for taking the car and yells at her in Spanish
 Conclusion- Lucy kisses Ricky and everything is good once again.





Theme:
A theme in this episode is that:
 Never lie about accidents
 What comes around goes around
 Lucy is crazy and you should never let her drive
 Women were not allowed to do many things in the 1950’s

Point of View:
The point of view in this episode is 3rd person omniscient, because you can always tell what one character is thinking.

This episode contributed to the shows overall theme because it once again shows how much of a klutz Lucy is and how Ricky must deal with his accident-prone wife. In the end scene, Ricky starts yelling at Lucy for crashing the car and yells at her in Spanish, then they kiss and make-up, like every other Hollywood movie couple.

[Happipuppi]

In answer to your question,no Lucy is not crazy. She's at times a bit of an overgrown child. (Most men are like this so it should be no surprise that a woman could be as well.) This is one ingredient that made her character so popular.

The other ingredients are that she doesn't always follow the old-fashioned ideal that a woman must "obey" her husband. (A word long since removed from wedding vows,thank God). Lucy Ricardo demonstrates in her own way what the females of the 1950's (and before) had to put up with. A woman back then was expected to graduate high school,then college but usually end up wasting their education & talents for a husband and children.

Lucy loves her husband,no question,but what she and any woman did not love then was the idea that being a wife & mother was all that was expected of her and/or them. She wants to be in show biz too but as shown in the Hollwood episode,she finally decides to stay a wife & mother (after Ricky and Ethel & Fred basically "guilt trip" her into it!)

Yes,in 1950s sitcoms,it all works out in the end but that's just how TV was,even into the 1960s. Again,Lucy and Ethel aren't crazy,they just don't want to be treated like second class humans by men who think,"It's a man's world."

I'm male and I'd rather have someone that knows her own mind and is fun,than a "perfect" woman. Cheers to Lucy and also to Alice of The Honeymooners!

[operatortate]

What nite of the week did i love lucy not air?

[CrazyAboutTV]

The I Love Lucy TV series was moved to new nights and/or times on 7 different occurences during its 6 years on the air. The only night of the week that it did not air was Tuesday.

[rocky creek]

Whick episode of the I Love Lucy show had Ricky and Lucy driving across country in an Airstream camper. She was collecting rocks.

[CrazyAboutTV]

This isn't the series I'm most familiar with, by any sense of the word, but it seems like they only travelled cross-country once during the show's run. That was in epsisodes 110-112 when they were moving to Hollywood for Ricky's movie career.

My somewhat educated guess would be that it was one of those 3 episodes but I'm not even convinced that they made that trip in an airstream.

Anyone else?

[CrazyAboutTV]

Desi Arnaz was a guest and his wife, Lucille Ball was a guest panelist on the February 8, 1956 episode of the game show, "I've Got A Secret". We've put a short free video clip (1 min 3 seconds) at Google Video.

If you've got a broadband connection, check it out here

For a complete list of all of our free TV Videos, go to this page!

[Guest4]

What is Lucy's maiden name on the I Love Lucy Show?

[CrazyAboutTV]

[TVJunkie]

I belive this happened in a full length move between seasons I am almost positive. I know I've seen something and I think it was called the Long long tailer.

[CrazyAboutTV]

Lucy and Desi's movie, "The Long, Long Trailer" was released in U.S. theaters on February 18, 1954 in the middle of I Love Lucy's third season.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz did play a couple who got married in that movie but they did not play the same characters as they did on the TV series.

Lucille's name in the movie was Tacy Bolton (and Tacy Collini after the marriage). Desi Arnaz's name was Nicky Collini.

It was one funny movie though and Lucy/Desi fans experience a "ditsy wife"/"confused husband" syndrome similar to the relationship you've enjoyed on I Love Lucy.

You can read more about the Long, Long Trailer at Amazon.com.

[TVJunkie]

typos and left off info I knew they were "different" characters failed to mention that Thanks CAT for clearing that up for us

[cpslim]

Can anyone tell me which episode it was when Ricky and little Ricky play the Babalu song together and they're both playing the bongos?

[CrazyAboutTV]

That was an episode from the final (sixth) season titled, "The Ricardos Visit Cuba". I originally aired on December 3, 1956.

The Ricardos travelled to Ricky's home town in Cuba to visit his Uncle Alberto. Lucy was very nervous about making a good impression on him. One scene had Lucy in disguise working in a Cigar factory making cigars. Sound familiar?

Then Ricky and little Ricky played "Babalu" for Uncle Alberto.

[evetsmon]

I'm a funeral director and I'm serving a family whose loved one requested the theme song to I Love Lucy be played at her funeral.
any sugestions as to how I might locate such? Thanks for any assistance. Of course time is of the essence any replies must come in by May 13. Thanks again