“Lucy is Enceinte”

(S2;E10 ~ December 8, 1952) Directed by William Asher. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed October 3, 1952 at General Service Studios. Rating: 67.7/87

Synopsis ~ Lucy feels strange and Ethel suggests she might be expecting! When Lucy comes back from a doctor’s visit and reveals that Ethel was right, she has to find the “perfect” moment to tell Ricky the good news. 

This is the first of the seven episodes surrounding Lucy’s pregnancy. It was filmed with Lucille Ball already six months pregnant.

Lucy and Desi both feared that the show would be canceled when she got pregnant in real life, but creator / producer Jess Oppenheimer convinced them to write it into the show. CBS and Philip Morris, the show’s sponsor, were against the idea, but eventually consented with the proviso that Lucy should not be shown smoking in any of the pregnancy episodes. They also requested that every script be reviewed by a priest, a minister, and a rabbi. The clergymen never requested anything be taken out. Instead, they praised the episodes for being upbeat and realistic. 

Lucy and Ricky Ricardo’s baby was already decided to be a boy when this episode aired.

Contrary to popular opinion, “I Love Lucy” was not the first show to feature a pregnancy plot on TV – that distinction actually belongs to TV’s first sitcom “Mary Kay and Johnny” in 1948 – but “Lucy” was the one that received the most attention due to the show’s overwhelming popularity. In 1948 very few Americans even owned a television set!

The original script used the word ‘pregnant’ a lot, but Philip Morris found the word distasteful and asked the writers to replace it with euphemisms like ‘expecting’ and ‘blessed event.’ The title of this episode uses the French word for ‘pregnant, ‘enceinte,’ although that word, too, was never spoken aloud. The religious advisers advocated for the use the word ‘pregnant,’ which they saw as harmless. Ironically, the word ‘pregnant’ does appear in the title of the following episode, “Pregnant Women Are Unpredictable.”

LUCY: “I’ve been feeling really dauncy.”
ETHEL: “Dauncy?”
LUCY: “That’s a word my grandmother made up for when you’re not really sick but you’re feeling lousy.”

Dauncy is a word writer Bob Carroll Jr.’s mother used to describe how she felt.

ETHEL: “You don’t suppose you’re gonna have a baby?”
LUCY: “A baby?”
ETHEL: “Yeah. That’s a word my grandmother made up for tiny little people.”

William Frawley was a die-hard Yankees fan, so it is natural that Fred gives Lucy a genuine NY Yankees cap, a glove, and a signed ball for his ‘godson’. When he tells Lucy to read out the signature, she at first says "Spalding,” the ball’s brand name, but then finds it is signed by Joe DiMaggio, a center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the Yankees. If Lucy saved the ball, it would fetch upwards of $2,000 on the collectibles market today. At this point, DiMaggio was still one year from marrying movie star Marilyn Monroe, who is frequently mentioned on the series.

At the club, Ricky is rehearsing "Granada.”  He calls upon his trumpet player Tony Terran to start with his solo. This is the second of three times Ricky sings the song, which was written by Agustin Lara in 1932. It was previously heard on the un-aired pilot and would be heard again in “Changing the Boys Wardrobe” (S3;E10), where it is also presented in ‘rehearsal mode’ with full orchestra.

William Hamel makes his first of three appearances as the Tropicana Maitre d’. He will appear again in “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (S2;E16) and “Lucy’s Last Birthday” (S2;E25). Richard Reeves makes his fourth of eight series appearances, this time as the lighting technician at the Tropicana.

At the evening show the scene opens with “The Lady in Red.” The song was originally featured in the 1935 film In Caliente starring Dolores del Río. This is its second performance on the series, having already been sung by Ricky in “Cuban Pals” (S1;E28).

"Rock-a-bye Baby” is a traditional English nursery rhyme and lullaby that dates back to 1765. Lucy croons a bit of the song again in “Return Home From Europe” (S5;E26) when pretending to coddle Chester, a cheese disguised as a baby!

Oops! You can tell Desi is already overcome with emotion because when singing “Rock-a-bye Baby” he mistakenly sings the "cradle will fall” lyric twice.

The woman who covers her face with her hands when Ricky is singing “Rock-a-bye Baby” is ‘Queen of the Extras’ Bess Flowers, who, by the end of her career, had appeared in more than 700 films and TV shows. She was featured in many “I Love Lucy” episodes, most noticeably directly behind Lucy and Ricky during the “Over The Teacups” scene in “Ethel’s Birthday” (S4;E8). She was seen in the background of 17 Lucille Ball films (more than any other actor) and also made five appearances on “The Lucy Show.”

In the original script when Lucy tells Ricky that she’s going to have a baby, Ricky nearly faints with Lucy catching him and then the baby song is played.

When it came time for Ricky to sing “We’re Having a Baby” to Lucy, the script called for the couple to be extremely happy. When the cameras rolled, however, Lucy and Desi were both overcome with emotion recalling the moment they found out they were pregnant with their second child and cried tears of happiness during the scene instead. They re-shot the scene the way it was originally written but when the happy version was compared with the emotional one, there was no question that the first take should be used. Lucille Ball remembers,

“When we did this scene before an audience, Desi was suddenly struck by all the emotion he’d felt when we discovered we were finally going to have Lucie. His eyes filled up and he couldn’t finish the song; I started to cry, too. Vivian started to sniffle; even the hardened stagehands wiped their eyes with the backs of their hands. The director wanted retakes at the end of the show, but the audience stood up and shouted, ‘No, no!’”

“We’re Having a Baby (My Baby and Me)” was written in 1941 for the Broadway musical Banjo Eyes by Vernon Duke with lyrics by Harold Adamson and John La Touche. It was originally performed by Eddie Cantor. A clip of this song was eventually used in the season 6 Christmas special. Part of the lyrics are “you’ll read it in Winchell that we’re adding a branch to our family tree.” Ironically, Lucy and Desi first found out about Lucy’s second pregnancy (which ended in a miscarriage) by listening to Walter Winchell. Somehow, the radio columnist had gotten the lab results of Lucy’s pregnancy test and reported it before the couple even had heard back from the doctor!

FAST FORWARD! 

Of the many letters that Lucy and Desi received regarding Lucy’s pregnancy being featured on the show, only about 200 responses were negative.

Parts of the emotional ending were used as flashbacks in the season 6 Christmas Special.

“Family Guy” produced an episode titled “Stewie is Enceinte” (S13;E12) in 2015. The title is an obvious nod to “I Love Lucy,” a series that often inspired the animated show’s comedy. 

A clip from this episode is included in the 1997 romantic comedy A Smile Like Yours. In the film, Greg Kinnear and Lauren Holly play a couple trying to conceive a child.