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Plot[]

After seeing an Italian movie, Lucy longs to get one of the new chic Italian haircuts. Ricky forbids this, saying that women are meant to have long hair, and that he doesn't want Little Ricky to get confused by having a mother with short hair. When Lucy goes to her next hair appointment, she tells her hairdresser about the fight she had with Ricky about the Italian haircut. Her hairdresser lets her try on a wig styled like an Italian haircut, and Lucy looks so different that she decides to test to see if Ricky would flirt with a pretty girl if he didn't recognize her.

Ricky is tipped off to Lucy's plan by Doug, the hair salon owner. So, he pretends to heavily flirt with Black Wig Lucy, and he makes a "date" with her. Lucy is furious, of course, and her tale makes Ethel want to try the same trick, to have something to "hold over Fred's head." Fred recognizes Ethel in the wig, so they plan to have Ricky bring along Fred on the date to test him again with Ethel in a new disguise. Unfortunately, the only disguise Ethel can find at such short notice is a multi-ethnic disguise that looks preposterous.

At the restaurant, Lucy and Ethel both wait for Ricky and Fred in their disguises. But Ricky and Fred have told the restaurant owner to say that the husbands already had run off with a beautiful blonde and redhead. Lucy and Ethel are hysterical, thinking they lost their husbands for good because of their silly scheme. When Ricky and Fred come out from hiding in the back of the restaurant and reveal that this was all a joke, Lucy and Ethel prepare to storm out in anger. But they are so happy to have their husbands back that they run into their arms and make up with them.

Trivia[]

  • The name of Lucy's hairdresser is Roberta, named after the real-life I Love Lucy hairdresser, Bert French.
  • Ricky's pretend flirting had him say that he'd teach Black Wig Lucy how rumba, because that was the pick-up line Desi used on Lucy in real life the first time he started romancing her back in 1940.
  • Interestingly, Lucy never gives Ricky an alias to call her by while wearing the wig. They plan to meet up, but we never even hear Ricky learn her name!
  • Lucy and Ethel make their fake date for 2 am. They go to a midnight movie to pass the time.
  • The Italian restaurant where Ethnic Ethel and Black Wig Lucy go to meet their husbands late at night is called Tony's.

Quotes[]

  • Fred: But I couldn't understand what the picture was all about.

Ethel: If it isn't Donald Duck, it's over his head!

  • Lucy: [Italian actresses] are so sultry and exciting. They're so, so ITALIAN!
  • Ethel: Oh, what I wouldn't give if I looked like one of [those Italian actresses]!

Fred: What I wouldn't give if you looked like one of 'em!

  • Lucy: I'd have the new Italian look except for a certain Cuban look.
  • Ricky: (looking at bald mannequin head) Is THIS what we have to look forward to next season?
  • Doug: Well, I just wanted to be sure you'd recognize [Lucy in the wig].

Ricky: What do you mean "recognize her"? I'm not gonna recognize her.

Doug: Huh?

Ricky: Look, as long as she's in the driver's seat, it would be a shame not to take her for a little ride!

  • Black Wig Lucy: Oh, you're married!

Ricky: Well, everybody makes a mistake once in a while.

  • Ethel: I honestly didn't know you.

Lucy: You're not the only one.

Ethel: Who else?

Lucy: A certain Cuban with big brown eyes that are soon to be black!

  • Lucy: He leered at me and called me "honey" in a tone that I haven't heard since the day before we got married!
  • Ethel: Well, it's a terrible thing to say about anybody, but I guess Ricky's just a man.
  • Lucy: I'll leave him! No, that's probably what he wants.

Ethel: Yeah, stay married to him. That'll teach him!

  • Lucy: Look out- that's how I got into trouble.

Ethel: That's the kind of trouble I want [Fred not recognizing me in the wig]. I want something to hold over his head!

  • Ethel: Have you got a dress that'll fit me?

Lucy: You think [Fred]'ll recognize yours?

Ethel: I think so, considering I only have one!

  • Ethel: It's a wig!

Fred: We've been married for 25 years, and now she tells me she wears a wig.

  • Fred: Ethel, why don't you take off that silly-looking toupee?

Ethel: This is that new Italian haircut.

Fred: Well, on you, it looks like Life with Luigi!

  • Ricky: What happened to this rest that you've been getting for years?

Fred: (referring to "date") Well, what do you think I've been restin' up for?

  • Ethel: Fred's getting ready.

Lucy: Good! Then he fell for it.

Ethel: Oh, he says he has to sit up tonight with a sick friend!

  • Lucy: (about Ethel's Native American/Eskimo/geisha girl get-up) you look like an ad for a trip around the world!
  • Lucy: Well, one [man we're looking for] is tall, dark, and handsome and speaks with an accent, and the other is, uh... The other is, um...

Ethel: There's only one way to say it- short, fat, and bald!

  • Lucy: You know what? I wish I was dead.

Ethel: You know what? I wish you was dead, too!

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