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Previous episode: Lucy Does the Tango           Next episode: Lucy's Night in Town

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/ConfettiViolin.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/WomanSmarter.jpg

Plot[]

Lucy promises to have Ricky and his orchestra perform for the PTA event coming up. Of course, Ricky wants no part of this. So, Lucy says that she'll just have Ricky Ricardo, JR. perform a musical number. To add some more instruments to Little Ricky's drum playing, Ethel, Fred, and Lucy decide to join in the band, playing the piano, violin, and saxophone, respectively. Little Ricky is the only one with any musical talent, and everyone starts complaining to Ricky, asking if he'll help improve their band. Lucy, Fred, and Ethel all think that THEY are good musicians, blaming the other two for playing so poorly.

Ricky doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by saying that, in reality, ONLY Little Ricky is doing well, so he tells the band that the world is not ready for their type of music yet. He agrees to do a number for the PTA event, with Little Ricky on bongos. To include the other three poor musicians and make them feel like they're participating somehow, he gives Lucy, Ethel, and Fred a very easy but very unusual instrument each to play minimally during the performance. They all perform "Woman Is Smarter," and it's a smash success.

Trivia[]

  • A huge continuity error is included in this episode. Ever since Lucy's saxophone playing was introduced in early season 2, she has been able to only play "Gloworm." But in this episode, she says she can only play "Sweet Sue"! Even worse, the "flubs" section on the DVD does not even include this error! They've included very small errors before, ones that don't even really matter, but how did they possibly miss this blatantly obvious flaw?!
  • This is the first time we learn that Fred has a history playing the violin.
  • Ethel supposedly has very minimal piano skills in this episode, but we've seen her play piano mutliple times since season 1.
  • When Ethel says that she only knows where middle "C" is on the piano, Lucy insists that she has to have an "A." Strangely, despite the huge "Gloworm"/"Sweet Sue" continuity error, the much smaller detail of an "A" note fits with how Lucy played "the craziest 'A' you've ever heard" at her saxophone audition in episode #40.
  • Before the part where Fred shakes out the violin confetti, you can see little bits of the confetti fall out whenever he tries to play.
  • We learn that Lucy is a member of the PTA, and that Lucy, Betty, and Grace Munson are all members of the Westport Historical Society.
  • At the performance, the "rhythm section" consisted of Little Ricky on the bongos, Lucy on the cuica, Ethel on the cencerros, and Fred on the quijada.

Quotes[]

  • Ethel: Uh-oh! Fred struck out again. He's sso vain he won't wear his glasses, and he can't see the ball without 'em.
  • Lucy: Well, everyone was volunteering their husbands, and I jumped up and said Ricky and his band would play for the show.

Ethel: You volunteered Ricky?!

Lucy: Well, he's the only husband I've got!

  • Lucy: When he gets home, I'll have a delicious dinner waiting for him. I'll put him down on the divan. I'll give him the evening paper and his slippers, and I'll get him in a very good mood. How's that sound?

Ethel: Great, as long as you don't tell him.

  • Ethel: Well, how'd you do, Babe Ruth?

Fred: Oh, they threw me out of the game, too!

  • Lucy: Smell that? What does it smell like?

Ricky: It smells like you want me and the band for that show.

  • Lucy: And I spent two hours over a hot stove cooking chicken and rice [and fried bananas]!

Ricky: Well, don't worry about that, honey. I'll eat it!

Lucy: But, Ricky, just tell me why [you won't be in show]!

Ricky: Because I love chicken and rice.

  • Ethel: Look at the size of that [egg]!

Lucy: That's nothing compared to the one I just laid with Ricky.

Ethel: Uh-oh! What happened to your buttering-up plan?

Lucy: Well, Betty Ramsey spilled the whole thing before I even got my churn started.

Ethel: Well, I hate to say, "I told you so", but I-

Lucy: Well, don't, then!

  • Ethel: Wait'll they hear the bad news. They'll have to change their name to the "Westport Hysterical Society."
  • Ethel: Oh, Lucy, I gotta hand it to you. You get caught in a jam, and you're able to produce another Ricky Ricardo!

Lucy: Well, I believe in having a spare [Little Ricky].

  • Lucy: Does [Fred] still have his fiddle?

Ethel: Yeah, but the last time he played it was three chins ago.

Lucy: Don't worry. I'm sure if he practices, he'll play just like he used to.

Ethel: Oh, then, Lucy, whatever you do, don't let him practice!

  • Fred: Think what [Ethel] would have sounded like UNlimbered!
  • Fred: (shakes confetti out of violin) The last time I played this [violin], was at a Roosevelt rally.

Ethel: (to Lucy) He means Teddy!

Fred: She knows who I mean!

  • Fred: Ethel plays by ear. The trouble is we have to listen by ear!
  • Fred: (to Little Ricky) So, you had to go and find the "A"!

Lucy: Let's hear YOUR "A," Jascha.

(Fred plays horrible sound on violin)

Lucy: Sounds more like a "Z"!

  • Ethel: All I can play [on the piano] is "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain."

Lucy: Oh, Ethel, can't you play "Sweet Sue"?

Ethel: Why?

Lucy: Because that's all that I can play [on the saxophone]!

Ethel: Well, I'll try, but don't be surprised if it sounds like "Sweet Sue Is Comin' 'Round the Mountain"!

  • Lucy: We had our first rehearsal today. Aren't you gonna ask me how it went?

Ricky: Alright. How'd it go?

Lucy: Don't ask!

  • Lucy: Fred's violin sounds like he's breaking in a new pair of shoes. And what Ethel does to those ivories is enough to make an elephant wanna take back its tusks!
  • Ethel: Lucy playing the saxophone sounds like a wounded moose callin' to its mate.

Ricky: And Fred's violin?

Ethel: Oh, I make better music when I file my nails.

  • Fred: The way that Ethel hits those piano keys- I wouldn't blame 'em if they hit her back! And Lucy with that saxophone- it's a wonder every hog in Westport didn't answer the call!
  • Ricky: You remember what happened to you yesterday when you were playing baseball with those kids and they didn't want you to play with them anymore?

Little Ricky: But I play baseball better than they play music!

  • Ricky: You play so far ahead of your time! The public is not ready for your type of music.

Lucy: Really?

Ricky: Take my word for it as a musician. They are not ready!

  • Lucy: (singing) Wife want husband to be in show. She beg and plead, but he still say, "No." Husband here with calypso band, which proves that woman smarter than man!
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