“Lucy Wants New Furniture”

(S2;E28 ~ June 1, 1953) Directed by William Asher. Written by

Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed May 1, 1953 at General Service Studios. Rating: 59.6/90

Synopsis ~ When Lucy buys a new sofa and coffee table without Ricky’s permission, he says she’ll have to pay for it out of her allowance. To save money, Lucy attempts to make her own clothes and gives herself a home perm.

The day after this episode first aired, Queen Elizabeth II was officially crowned. It was the first coronation to be televised but failed to match the ratings received by “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (S2;E16) which depicted the birth of Little Ricky just six months earlier. Two weeks later, Her Majesty was depicted on the

May 29, 1953

cover of TV Guide when “Ricky and Fred are TV Fans” (S2;E30, above).

The Ricardos will perform in front of the new monarch in “Lucy Meets the Queen” (S5;E15).

The day this episode was filmed (May 1, 1953) Lucille Ball’s former co-star and friend Eve Arden was on the cover of TV Guide. Arden do a cameo as herself on “I Love Lucy” in 1955. Adren starred in “Our Miss Brooks” a CBS television sitcom filmed by Desilu. The show also starred Gale Gordon, Lucy’s past radio and future television foil.

Lucy won a whole apartment full of new furniture from the home show only six months earlier in “Redecorating” (S2;E8).

Of course, this was before they swapped with the Bensons in “The Ricardos Change Apartments” (S2;E26). There was only one episode between that episode and this one, “Lucy is Matchmaker” (S2;E27), but much of that episode was set outside of the new apartment.

The episode opens with Lucy and Ricky putting Little Ricky (The Simmons Twins) to bed in his new nursery, a room that was introduced in the previous episode “Lucy is Matchmaker” (S2;E27).

The camera then tracks into their new bedroom, a room viewers are seeing for the first time after “The Ricardos Change Apartments” (S2;26) two weeks earlier. In the previous episode, the same set (re-dressed) was used as Eddie Grant’s hotel room.

As the camera pans into the living room, the fourth wall is broken for home viewers, who see edge of the set walls. As odd as this is, this sort of shot will be repeated in future episodes.

Blooper Alert #1 ~ As Lucy is about to show Ricky an ad for the new furniture, a camera shadow moves across the front of the desk.

Blooper Alert #2 ~ Immediately afterward, Lucy angrily snaps open the newspaper and the it rips in two along the fold!

Lucy replaces her “ratty old couch” and “nasty old coffee table” with a brand new sectional sofa and coffee table for just $299.

Changing the furniture had a practical side as well. It kept the mostly apartment-bound series visually interesting to viewers. Lucy once again gets impulsive when shopping for furniture in “Lucy Gets Chummy with the New Neighbors” (S6;E18) when she moves to Connecticut.

Ethel says that when Ricky finds out Lucy bought new furniture “there is going to be the best fight since Dempsey fought Willard.” In 1919, Jess Willard (1881-1968) lost the heavyweight title to Jack Dempsey (1895-1983) in one of the most severe beatings in a championship bout. Although a boxing reference is rare and somewhat out of character for Ethel, she doubtless picked up a lot about the sport from Fred, who was supposedly a Golden Gloves boxer in 1909 (despite that fact that it didn’t exist until 1923).

Lucy acts casual by pretending to read the latest issue of Women’s Home Companion (May 1953). Lucy read this same issue a month earlier in “Lucy Hires a Maid” (S2;E23). Another issue of the publication was in a hotel newsstand in “Lucy is Matchmaker” (S2;E27).

For More About the Magazines on “I Love Lucy” Click Here!

Blooper Alert #3 ~

When hiding the new furniture from Ricky by stowing it in the kitchen, Lucy must repeatedly run through the Mertz’s living room and through a door on the LEFT, which presumably leads to their kitchen and back porch. In all other episodes set in the Mertz apartment, the door to the kitchen is on the RIGHT and there is a window on the LEFT.

RICKY:
Where’s
the butter?
LUCY: Butter?

RICKY:

Yeah, butter.

LUCY:

What
do you wanna do with it?

RICKY:

I thought I’d put some on my bread.

LUCY:

Butter
on bread?!

RICKY:

Yeah!

LUCY:

I’ll
never get used to your strange Cuban dishes!

It’s easy to forget that Lucy and Desi were one of the first bi-cultural couples on television. Desi Arnaz was partly responsible for promoting the craze for all things Latin during the 1950s.

Ricky discovers that Lucy has hidden some new furniture in the kitchen, and corners her there to confront her about it. Her only escape is through the kitchen-to-living-room opening, and she has to climb down by stepping first on the desk, then on the chair to get to the floor.

When the camera pulls back to a wide shot, four brackets can be seen holding the chair to the floor to avoid tipping and falling as Lucy, followed by Ricky, quickly exit the kitchen by this unusual route.

Later, when Lucy goes to get Ricky the box of salt, the label is very clearly taped over to prevent the brand name from being on air.

Lucy reminds Ricky that the Carrolls are giving a big party at the club on Saturday night, hoping he’ll allow her one last trip to the beauty salon.

He doesn’t and Lucy is forced to give herself a home permanent. Coincidentally, later on one of the series’ main sponsors was Lilt Home Permanent, although unlike Philip Morris cigarettes, the product was only featured in isolated commercials and promotions, not during the actual show. “The Carrolls” is a reference to Bob Carroll, Jr., one of the “I Love Lucy” writers.

To pay Ricky back for the new furniture, Lucy serves an economical breakfast includes a shot glass of orange juice, a minuscule sausage, a tiny egg, and a piece of toast the size of a half dollar. In “The Matchmaker” (S4;E4) a cost conscious Lucy serves Ricky a similarly unsuitable breakfast consisting of a glass filled with orange seeds, a raw strip of bacon heated with a lit match, two raw eggs on a plate, and a cup of coffee made with hot water and potting soil. All of this is served up in specially lit close-ups of the Ricardos’ Franciscan Ivy dishes.

Lucy is supposed to be saving money but rents a sewing machine, despite not known how to thread a bobbin.

LUCY: (To Ethel) Do you know what the bobbin is? (Lucy activates the machine, points) Oh, that must be it, it’s bobbin’ up and down!

When Lucy models her homemade dress, Lucy says she made her dress with her own two hands

ETHEL: It looks like you made it with your own two feet!

The resulting fashion creation looks a bit like Lucy’s dress after she went through the laundry starch vat in “Bonus Bucks” (S3;E21). Lucy likens her over-permed hair to a chrysanthemum, and Fred calls her Little Orphan Annie. The Harold Gray comic strip character (1924-2010) was famous for her mass of curly red hair. Trying to read a soaking wet newspaper, Cornel Wilde (”The Star Upstairs”) says “I thought President Eisenhower was playing golf with Little Orphan Annie.” In a 1966 episode of “The Lucy Show” Mr. Mooney calls Lucy Carmichael an “over-aged Orphan Annie.”