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Previous episode: Off to Florida             Next episode: Desert Island

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/TunaTrouble.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/CaughtFishRicky.jpg

Plot[]

Lucy and Ethel have spent too much on beach clothes, and they need a way to get fast money. They say that they want to go deep-sea fishing with their husbands, and they bet their husbands $150 that they can catch a bigger fish. Neither team wants to lose the bet, so the husbands and the wives each secretly buy a 100-pound tuna to use for the winning "caught" fish. There's nowhere else to store the fish but in the hotel room bathtubs, so both sides have to continually move the fish back and forth between the Ricardos' room and the Mertzes' room. Finally, the husbands and wives catch each other when they both are moving the fish between rooms and bump into each other in the hallway. On the real fishing trip, the women end up winning the bet, because Lucy catches Ricky on her line, and Ricky had a fish inside his shirt.

Trivia[]

  • The tuna that were used were real fish. Originally, fake fish were going to be used so there wouldn't be a smelly mess, but the actors realized that they couldn't show the comedy or situation properly without using real fish. The tuna came from the famous Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, and they were sent to LA in ice-packed child-sized coffins!
  • Also, the tuna were bleeding profusely after they were delivered. To stop the bleeding, it is rumored that the prop department stuffed the insides of the tuna with Kotex sanitary napkins before filming!
  • The reason that there's no room in the hotel's refrigerator is that it's packed full with 2000 ice cream molds made in the form of a shriner's hat needed for a convention.
  • The gang is staying at the posh Eden Roc Hotel.
  • This episode had to have been inspired by Desi Arnaz's real-life passion for fishing. He loved to fish at his place in Del Mar.
  • The women make the bet worth $150, in order to pay for all their beach clothes. Lucy needs $68 for clothes, and Ethel needs $72, for a total of $140. So, they pick $150 for an even number, and the winners of the bet would get $75 a piece.
  • Ethel spends $4 more on clothes than Lucy, which is a switch, considering she usually buys very little while shopping to prevent Fred's anger!
  • The unrealistic part of this episode is that nobody ever mentions how both hotel rooms ever reek of fish! Perhaps this was planned by both sides so each could avoid having to mention their own hidden tuna, but still, you'd think it would have come up in conversation sometime.
  • Little Ricky's absence is explained by Lucy, he's at the playground however if Lucy and Ethel were out buying the fish and Ricky and Fred were taking publicity photos who was watching Little Ricky? Little Ricky went to the playground by himself at his age?

Quotes[]

  • Ricky: Well, the next time we go fishin', we'll take the girls with us.

Fred: Are you crazy? The fish aren't biting as it is. Why antagonize them further?

Ricky: Take your choice. You're either gonna take Ethel fishin' with you or you're gonna let her run wild in the shops.

Fred: Yeah...

Ricky: SShe might easily spend over $100.

Fred: Welcome aboard, Ethel!

  • Ethel: I walked in that store and I saw all of those beautiful things, and I just got drunk with power!

Lucy: I know. I got a little plastered myself.

  • Ethel: I spent $72!

Lucy: How many weeks' allowance is that for you?

Ethel: I should live so long!

  • Lucy: Hey- I think I"m getting an idea.

Ethel: Well, encourage it. I'm desperate!

  • Lucy: What do you think [about plan to go fishing with men]?

Ethel: In spite of what I think, let's do it!

  • Lucy: (to Ricky) Of course your boat isn't a "yinx"!
  • Ethel: You know how I get on water. I'll be hungry and thirsty and cranky.

Fred: What's your excuse on dry land?

  • Lucy: We won't lose a thing, Ethel.

I have a plan.

Ethel: I'm still recuperating from your last plan!

  • Lucy: I'd hate to have to explain this to [Little Ricky].

Ethel: Why would you have to explain it? Isn't he used to having tuna around the house every day?

  • Ethel: What if Ricky wants to take a shower [with the tuna in the bathtub]?

Lucy: One thing at a time! We'll worry about that when it happens.

  • Ricky: And you said the chef was gonna keep [the tuna] down in the refrigerator!

Fred: I still think he was givin' us a song and dance. Whoever heard of ice cream in the shape of a shriner's hat?

Ricky: Did you see the wild look he gave us?

Fred: Yeah, you'd think somebody came to him with a 100-pound tuna every five minutes!

  • Fred: Supposin' Ethel wants to take a bath?

Ricky: Listen- this was YOUR idea. You think of somethin'!

  • Lucy: (moving tuna to Mertzes' bathtub) Ethel, you've got a visitor!
  • Ricky: I couldn't find the [swimming] trunks [for Little Ricky].

Lucy: Oh. He's wearing 'em!

  • Ricky: (trying to keep Lucy from finding tuna in bathtub) The hot water faucet is broken [on the tub].

Lucy: So? I'll take a cold bath.

Ricky: It would be a terrible shock.

Fred: You can say that again!

  • Ethel: You can't take a bath in our tub with Tillie the Tuna in there!
  • Lucy: (confused after men move their tuna to Ricardos' bathtub) You don't suppose [the tuna] could have swum through the pipes from your tub back to ours, do you?
  • Fred: You must have misunderstood.

Ricky: Look, Fred, I may speak with an accent, but I don't listen with one!

  • Fred: Isn't Lucy in the tub?

Ricky: No, but guess who is.

Fred: Ethel?

Ricky: No, but you're getting warmer.

Fred: Quit playin' games with me! Who's in there?

Ricky: Is the tuna by any chance a flyin' fish?

  • Ricky: We'll just pick up [the tuna] and dump him in [the trash]. That way, our hands will be clean. Smelly, but clean!
  • Ethel: But what in the world are we gonna do with [the tuna]?

Lucy: I don't know. we'll get rid of it if we have to get it a room!

  • Ricky: I asked you first!

Lucy: Oh, yeah, so you did. Well, while I'm thinking of an answer, you tell me what you're doing with [your tuna].

  • Fred: The bet was the men against the women. We get credit for anything [Little Ricky] catches.

Ricky: That's right.

Ethel: (to Lucy) You couldn't have had a GIRL child! Oh, no, you had to go ahead and have a boy!

  • Ethel: (sees Fred's puny caught fish) Oh, you call that a fish?

Lucy: Yeah, your bait was bigger than that!

  • Ethel: (when Ricky climbs out of ocean) Are you wet?
  • Lucy: Now, now- it's your fault for getting all tangled up in my line.

Ricky: It's my fault for getting tangled up with you 15 years ago!

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