The Girls Want to Go to a Night Club – I Love Lucy episode 02, season 1, originally aired 10/15/1951
In The Girls Want to Go to a Night Club, Fred and Ethel’s eighteenth anniversary is approaching. Ethel wants to celebrate by going to a club one time during her married life. She asks Lucy to have Ricky help her convince Fred, but Lucy explains that Ricky doesn’t like going out to clubs, even though he works at one. While the girls are talking in the kitchen, Fred and Ricky are discussing the upcoming anniversary in the living room – and Fred wants to celebrate by going to the fights!
Both groups decide to be affectionate toward the other, in hopes of sweet-talking them into going to the club/fights. After a few minutes of this, Ricky and Lucy begin representing Fred and Ethel’s positions to each other, ending with Lucy declaring, “Ethel wants a divorce!” Ethel blurts out, “No I don’t!” Divorce isn’t in the air, but battle lines have been drawn, and Lucy and Ethel declare that they are going to the club, and will be escorted by a pair of young men. Ricky and Fred decide to reciprocate, and contact a friend of Ricky’s about getting them some escorts, so they can keep an eye on the girls at the club.
Lucy and Ethel find out about the boys’ plans, and decide to use it against them, by disguising themselves as country bumpkins and being their ‘surprise’ dates. It’s a hilarious routine, as the girls are chasing their husbands, while the husbands are trying to evade their clutches … until Ricky realizes what’s going on, and turns the tables on the girls! Eventually, all is revealed, and Ricky tells the girls to get changed so they can all go out and celebrate the Mertzes anniversary! Which they do – the boys in tuxedos, and the girls in their finery … at the fights.
The Girls Want to Go to a Night Club is available as part of the season 1 I Love Lucy DVD collection.
Funny quotes from The Girls Want to Go to a Night Club – I Love Lucy season 1
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Since we said “I do,” there are so many things that we don’t
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Everybody know you can get around a lady with a little sweet talk.
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): That may work for Lucy, but it’s a longer trip around Ethel.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Ethel and I are going dancing at the Copacobana.
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): I hope one of you knows how to lead.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): It’s our anniversary.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Yours and Fred’s?
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): No, mine and Gregory Peck’s.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): (on the phone) They didn’t? They did! (pause) They didn’t? They did! (pause) They didn’t? They did!
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Well, did they or didn’t they?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): They just called Jeanie to have her set them up with dates!
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): They didn’t!
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): They did!
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Who are you calling? Who? Who? Who?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): You sound like an owl.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): [about Fred] This smart aleck is trying to unbutton my high top shoes.
[Lucy and Ethel are disguised as country bumpkins.]
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): (in disguise) We be looking for a pair of fellows named Ricky and Fred. Be you they?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): We be Simon and Elmer. See you! [closes the door on Ethel and Lucy]
[The girls, acting as country bumpkins, find out Ricky is a singer.]
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): (in disguise) Are you and actor feller?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): No.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Are you a dancer feller?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): No, I’m a singer feller.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Sing for us!
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): No, I can’t …
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Okay, let’s neck!
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): I’ll sing!
[Lucy and Ethel can’t find dates.]
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): We can always call the zoo and order a couple of dancing bears.
[Ricky mentions what Lucy and Ethel’s night might be like and Fred replies]
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): Yeah with all that champagne, even Ethel might look good.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): We must know two men who are single and attractive. [Lucy and Ethel pause to think] Two men who are single. [pause to think], Two men. [pause to think] A boy and a dog.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Maybe we should settle for Little Boy Blue and Peter Cottontail.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Lucy, what were those names you whispered to me?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): What’d they sound like?
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): They sounded like Little Boy Blue and Peter Cottontail.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): That’s who it was.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Ethel and I are going dancing at the Copa.
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): I hope one of you knows how to lead.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): I think a tuxedo is the best looking thing a man can wear.
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): Unless he’s wearing boxing trunks.
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Everybody knows you can get around a lady with a little sweet talk.
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): That’s alright for Lucy, but it’s a little longer trip around Ethel.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Ricky hates nightclubs.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): But he works in one.
[Fred talking to Ricky about his anniversary]
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): I’d like you to join me in commemoration of an eighteen year-old tragedy.
[Lucy and Ethel are washing dishes.]
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Here, you missed something on this one.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): That’s the design.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): It is?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Sure, can’t you see. Flowers against a background of [scratches plate with nail] gravy.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): I’m Euncie this here is my ma.
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): That’s your mother?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): It is? Oh! It is, it is! I know that!
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): Where’s your little black book?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): I burned it.
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): Burned it?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Yeah, I hadn’t been in this country very long, and Lucy told me that it was part of the American wedding ceremony.
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): That’s criminal. You could have sold that for a lot of money.
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): The ‘A’s were worth 100 dollars.
I Love Lucy Trivia
- Although this was the second episode that was filmed, it was actually aired first, since it was much more ‘polished’ than the first episode.
- Ricky serenades Lucy (in her hillbilly disguise) with “Guadalajara”