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Previous episode: Lucy's Night in Town            Next episode: Building a Barbecue

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Plot

Lucy doesn't like that Ethel finds Betty Ramsey snobby, so she invites them both to lunch one day, to try and get them to be good friends. Ethel is not into making friends with Betty, still upset that Betty didn't invite the Mertzes to her last party. But all this changes when it's mentioned that Ethel grew up in Albuquerque. It turns out that Betty also grew up in Albuquerque, and the two knew each other when they were little girls. This commonality between the women bonds them, and they become fast friends. Lucy becomes jealous of the budding friendship and feels left out. When Lucy overhears Ethel discussing housewarming gifts with Betty over the new house intercom, Lucy gets excited and thinks that Ethel and Betty are planning a surprise housewarming party for the Ricardos. Lucy and Ricky wait all night for the guests, dressed in their best, but nobody comes, of course. Ethel then hears Lucy crying about being unloved and friendless to Ricky over the intercom, and she wakes up Fred and quickly throws together a housewarming party for the Ricardos.

Trivia

  • One part of this episode that is really irritating and upsetting is when Lucy says that, because of Ethel and Betty's new friendship, she's lost her "two best friends." Pardon?! Since when is Betty Ramsey, resident snob, Lucy's BEST FRIEND?! Ethel has been loyal and devoted to Lucy for years, and now, suddenly, Betty is on the same level as Ethel?! This is an injustice and unfair to Ethel, who is the only one who possibly could qualify as Lucy's best friend. Lucy doesn't even like Betty all that much. There is a definite rivalry between them in episodes prior to this one and after this one. However this could be just a spontanian emotional reaction of Lucy, which she hasn't been thinking over.
  • In the rush to throw together a surprise housewarming party for the Ricardos, Ethel tells Fred to wrap up a silver candlestick she owns as a present. When Lucy opens the gift, she remarks how she gave Ethel the exact same candlestick. Ethel lies and says that they now both have one.
  • Betty's maiden name was Foster.
  • Vivian Vance ad-lib'd the line "I've had sufficient," but author Geoffrey Mark Fidelman notes that it wasn't a TRUE ad-lib, since it was a scripted line from season one.  One could argue that under the logic of this rather broad view of the definition of an ad-lib, that any previously used phrase again used in the series, however commonly used in contemporary every-day parlance, if not specifically scripted for any particular eposide, would not have qualified to Mr. Fidelman as a "true ad-lib".  The line "I've had sufficient", as a sarcastic retort, was certainly not original to the series and was used commonly then as it is often used today.
  • The Baileys are neighbors of the Ricardos and Ramseys. We don't ever learn her husband's name, but the woman is named Kay Bailey.
  • Lucy's couch has eggshell-colored cushions.
  • Once they're friends, Ethel asks Betty to redecorate the guest house for her.
  • In a rush to give the Ricardos a housewarming party, Ethel quickly wraps up a candlestick from the guest house. We never get to see what any of the other gifts were.
  • Betty is also friends with Bill and June Spear and the Parkers; she invited them all to her party.
  • Not only did Betty go to the same elementary school as Ethel, but her father, Leslie Foster, belonged to the same lodge as Ethel's dad, Will Potter.
  • Betty moved from Albuquerque when she was only 9, but she never says where she moved to. Maybe Connecticut, maybe not.
  • Lucy lived in Jamestown until she was 17.
  • Ethel grew up on a ranch in Albuquerque. This is contrary to her statement after she, Fred, Lucy, and Ricky had to spend the night in a barn in Italy, and Lucy asked Ethel if she knew how to milk a cow. Ethel said "I'm a city girl!"

Quotes

  • Fred: I'll have you know I'm the Thomas A. Edison of today!

Lucy: Yeah, but do you know what you're doing?

  • Little Ricky: Is [the intercom] better than a telephone?

Fred: It's cheaper.

Little Ricky: Oh, is that good?

Fred: "Is that good"?! I'll have to have a talk with this lad!

  • Ethel: (on intercom) It's just like a telephone, only we can talk to each other whenever we want to, and...

(Fred shuts off intercom)

Fred: That's the way to turn it off. That's the best part of it.

  • Ethel: (about Betty's party guest list) Oh, just the close [neighbors], huh?

Lucy: Yeah.

Ethel: The Baileys live four miles away, and we live four FEET away!

  • Ethel: People like the Ramseys don't hobknob much with us chicken pluckers!
  • Ethel: I wouldn't go to a party given by that snob [Betty] if she begged me!
  • Ethel: (to Lucy) Here are the eggs for your friend [Betty]. And I hope her cake falls!
  • Lucy: But the Mertzes don't have any friends in the country.

Fred: (over intercom) We didn't have any friends in the city, either!

  • Lucy: [Ethel] acted like she lost her best friend. Good grief! I guess she think she has!
  • Ethel: Now, don't tell me you've invited Betty Ramsey, the Elsa Maxwell of Westport, to lunch, too!
  • Lucy: You're the same way [about re-wearing dinner dresses], aren't you, dear?

Ethel: Oh, yes. Every night when Fred and I have dinner in front of our TV set, I wear the same old flannel bathrobe.

  • Lucy: (to Betty) You know, when you get to know Ethel better, you'll find that she's more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

Ethel: Monkeys that seldom get invited out of their barrel, that is.

  • Lucy: (to Betty) You know, we're in the egg business together, so half of those [eggs in you cake] belonged to Ethel. Isn't that right, dear?

Ethel: (snippily) Yes, the shells...

  • Ethel: (extra sarcastically) Oh, but we're booked up months ahead. There's the Hired Hands Convention and the Poultry Growers Annual Ball and the Babysitters Amalgamated...
  • Betty: I've loved parties since I was a little girl.

Lucy: So have I! So have you, haven't you, dear?

Ethel: I haven't been to a party since I was a little girl.

  • Betty: So, you're Ethel Potter!

Ethel: And you were Betty Foster!

Lucy: I was Lucy McGillicuddy!

  • Ethel: (to Betty) I should have known you were from Albuquerque. You're so warm and friendly!
  • Ethel: (starts chanting schoolyard rhyme) Strawberry shortcake...

(Betty joins in reciting rhyme with Ethel)

Betty and Ethel: ...gooseberry pie! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! Will we win...?

  • Ethel: We don't have a decent lamp to read by.

Fred: Listen, Ethel- if you wanna read, you can read by firelight. If it was good enough for Abraham Lincoln, it's good enough for you!

Ethel: Oh, don't drag in your boyhood pals, Fred!

  • Fred: Who's arguing? This is the way we always talk!
  • Lucy: Ever since [Betty and Ethel] had lunch here, they've been thick as thieves!
  • Lucy: What's so hot all of a sudden about being born in Albuquerque?!

Ricky: What?

Lucy: I could've been born there myself if my family hadn't lived in Jamestown!

  • Lucy: Now, honey, if I'm gonna be surprised, I'm goinna be surprised in my best dress.

Ricky: Won't they be suspicious? We never dress like this when we spend an evening alone.

Lucy: Well, how do they know? They're never with us when we spend an evening alone!

  • Lucy: Oh, honey, it's a surprise party, not a hold-up! Don't pop your eyes out like that.

Ricky: I can't help it. When I'm surprised, my eyes pop out.

Lucy: Well, not so far then. You look like you just stuck your finger in a light socket!

  • Lucy: That is not a look of surprise.

Ricky: Yes, it is. I'm surprised my ribs aren't broken!

  • Ethel: Those poor little things are sitting over there thinking they haven't got a friend in the world.

Fred: What time is it?

Ethel: 10 o'clock.

Fred: They haven't!

  • Lucy: (opens her housewarming gift) Hey, I gave you [a candlestick] just like that!

Ethel: Oh, well, now, that's funny. Well, now we've each got one!

  • Fred: (about wearing pajamas to the party) I thought you told me this was a slumber party!
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