The Kleptomaniac – I Love Lucy episode 27, season 1, originally aired 4/14/1952
When Ricky finds a closet filled with silver and other valuables, as well as $200 dollars American, he assumes that Lucy has become a kleptomaniac. In truth, Lucy is simply collecting for a charity bazaar, but decides to teach Ricky a lesson about his lack of trust. If he thinks that Lucy is a kleptomaniac, then she will be the queen of kleptomaniacs!
With Ethel’s help, she pulls a variety of pranks on Ricky to make him thinks that she’s a kleptomaniac, including “stealing” a baby elephant from the circus!
The Kleptomaniac is available as part of the season1 I Love Lucy DVD collection.
I Love Lucy Quotes
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): [sees pancakes on his plate] Hey! Tortillas!
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): [sarcastically] Yeah. I made them out of Aunt Jemima Tortilla Mix.
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Oh, I keep forgetting here in America you call them Flap Cakes.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Come again?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Hot Jacks?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball)Â: You were closer with tortillas. They are Hot Cakes!
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Oh! [tastes some] No, these are Cold Cakes.
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): You don’t think she’s a kleptomaniac do you?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): No, I think she just steals.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) [pretending, holding gun]: Did you get any of ’em?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) [pretending]: Yeah, I got two, a flat foot and a private eye. I got the eye in the foot and the foot in the eye.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Well it all started when I was a little girl. I was riding around on the streetcar and I looked up and there was a box and it said take one. So I took one.
Dr. Tom Robinson: Well there was nothing wrong with that.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Oh yes there waaaas. From then on, I took anything that came into my pretty hands, even though it didn’t say take one. I took a bright new penny, I took a bicycle, I took a little boy!
Dr. Tom Robinson: You took a little boy?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Yeah, but my mother made me give him back!
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): [Ricky finds blueprints] What is it?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): The Shashe National Bank!
Dr. Tom Robinson: Oh no. That’s where I keep my money! Oh, this is serious!
I Love Lucy Trivia
- Lucy “stole” a baby elephant from the Clyde-Beatty Circus
- Joseph Kearns, who plays a psychiatrist hired by Ricky to help Lucy, became better known as Mr. Wilson on Dennis the Menace, and was later replaced in that role by Gale Gordon who even later co-starred with Lucille Ball as Mr. Mooney on The Lucy Show.