Previous episode: Desert Island Next episode: Little Ricky's School Pageant
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/TioAlberto.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/LongCigar.jpg
Plot[]
After their trip to Florida, since Cuba is so close, everybody's flying
down to Ricky's home country to meet his family. Ricky warns Lucy that the only one who is important to impress is Uncle Alberto. But Lucy makes a mess of things, including ruining Uncle Alberto's hat and his expensive cigars, as well as calling him a big fat pig in Spanish! When Little Ricky performs "Babalu" alonside his father, however, Uncle Alberto accepts Lucy, saying that any mother of a boy like Little Ricky is welcome in the family.
Cast[]
- Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo
- Jorge Trevino as Uncle Alberto
Trivia[]
- For a long time, due to Cuba becoming Communist during the Cold War and the strife between Cuba and the US from the Cuban Missile Crisis, this episode was not shown in syndication.
- Keith Thibodeaux said that "Babalu" was in the wrong key for him to sing in this episode, so he had to squeak really high to keep up with the notes.
- Lucy reveals in this episode that she took Spanish in high school.
- Ricky has a HUGE family. Besides Uncle Alberto, who is the head of the family, he has Uncle Eduardo (a Cuban judge), Uncle Pedro, Aunt Rosa, Uncle Rafael, Aunt Silvia, Aunt Maria Pepa, Uncle Jorge, Uncle Guillermito Menendez, Nandine, Manuel, Amberta, Amparo, Pepe, Enrique, Josefina, and a pair of unnamed twins in his family!
- Uncle Alberto wanted Ricky to marry a Cuban girl, so Lucy already had quite a bit to do to impress Alberto. Her messing up so badly certainly didn't help things!
- Instead of saying "muchas gracias," Lucy says "macho grasa" to Uncle Alberto. This literally means "fat male" NOT "fat pig." "Cerdo gordo" would be the literal translation of "fat pig."
- Uncle Alberto wears straw hats so much that it's possible that Ricky adopted his frequent straw hat wearing from his uncle.
- For the flight from Miami to Cuba, the gang once again flies Pan Am.
- Corona Grande is Alberto's choice of cigar brands.
- Lucy saying Ricky has "a memory like an elephant" probably was a reference to Desi's phenomenal memory capabilities.
- In the conga drumming scene, Uncle Alberto is seen pounding on the table and accidentally ripping his straw hat. Moments later, when he is talking to Lucy, the straw hat is untouched.
Quotes[]
- Lucy: well, weren't you [scared] when you met Fred's family for the first time?
Ethel: After marrying Fred, nothing could scare me!
- Ethel: What are they gonna do [if they don't like you]? Start another Spanish-American War?
- Ethel: Sometimes, I wish I'd married a Cuban.
Fred: That makes two of us!
- Lucy: I don't think that's very nice, making fun of my Spanish!
Ricky: Well, you've been making fun of my English for 15 years.
Lucy: Well, that's different. Spanish is a foreign language.
Ricky: Well, English is a foreign language to ME!
Lucy: Well, the way you speak it, it is to me, too!
- Lucy: (after hearing all the members of Ricky's huge family) If you asked me, you did not leave the island of Cuba voluntarily. You were squeezed off!
- Lucy: (to Ricky) I might not be able to undertand what you say when you say it, but before you say it, I can understand what you're going to say perfectly!
- Ricky: Well, you took [Spanish] in high school, didn't you? Don't you remember anythin'?
Lucy: I remember I flunked!
- Uncle Alberto: And where did you get that beautiful red hair?
Lucy: Oh, I get it every two weeks.
- Lucy: Why don't you tell [Uncle Alberto] it's an old American custom?
Ricky: What?
Lucy: Well, when you like somebody, you break their hat!
- Lucy: well, I ruined his straw hat, spilled punch on his clothes, crushed his cigars, and called him a "big, fat pig" in Spanish.
Fred: Well, that's pretty bad, even for YOU!
Lucy: After what I did last night, Cuba might cut off America's sugar supply.
- Lucy: Well, if the first time I met you I said awful things, spilled stuff all over you, and acted like a first-class nincompoop, what would you have done?
Ricky: Just what I did- wait for my clothes to come back from the cleaners, and then marry you.
Lucy: Oh, he's got a memory like an elephant!
- Lucy: Oh, look at me- brown purse, blue shoes.
Fred: Heavens to Betsy!
Lucy: I'll only be a second. I wanna get my other purse.
Fred: I'm gonna get my other wallet. I left my money in this one!
- Ethel: Oh, I just wanna buy a pair of those maracas.
Fred: Swell. Then we can mambo all the way tot he poor house!