Lucy is Enciente – I Love Lucy episode 50, season 2, originally aired 12/8/1952
Lucy is Enciente is one of the most heart-warming episodes of the entire I Love Lucy series. The big event begins – Lucy goes to her doctor since she’s feeling low. “Dauncy” is the word Lucy uses, and he tells her that she and Ricky are going to have a baby!
After several attempts at telling Ricky, Lucy goes to the Tropicana club. She leaves an anonymous note for Ricky to sing “We’re Having a Baby, My Baby and Me.” While singing, he goes from table to table in the nightclub to find the happy couple. Only he realizes that it’s Lucy and himself!
A wonderful, tearful ending to a wonderful episode.
Lucy is Enceinte is available as part of the season 2 I Love Lucy DVD collection.
Quotes from I Love Lucy – Lucy is Enceinte
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): It’s me!
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): I’d like you to meet my mother. I mean my wife! My wife!
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Lucy what do you sit on when I’m not home?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): You think you know how tough my job is, but believe me, if you traded places with me, you’d be surprised.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Believe me, if I traded places with you, you’d be surprised.
Trivia for I Love Lucy – Lucy is Enceinte
- The Reverend Clifton Moore, Rabbi Alfred Wolfe, and Monsignor Joseph Devlin were chosen to read the ‘pregnancy’ scripts in order to filter out any objectionable material. None of the three changed a single word.
- Desilu Productions received just over 200 letters criticizing the Ricardo’s on-screen pregnancy, but Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball received over 30,000 congratulatory letters upon the birth of their son.
- The original ending for this episode is not the one that aired. It called for Ricky Ricardo to jump up and down, but during the filming Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball were overwhelmed with emotion, creating the tearful ending that we’ve seen. The original script ending was shot, but they determined that the tearful ending could not be improved upon.
- Dauncy is a word writer Bob Carroll Jr.’s mom used to describe how she felt.
- If you look carefully at the beginning of the episode, Lucy is reading McCall’s Magazine. I Love Lucy is on the cover.
- Music performed on this episode included The Lady in Red, Rock-a-Bye Baby, and We’re Having a Baby.
- At the time in 1952, the network censors wouldn’t allow the writers to use the word “pregnant” in any of the episodes. Therefore, the I Love Lucy crew had to substitute the word with the phrase “having a baby,” or “expecting,” allowing the writers to make use of Ricky’s accent, pronouncing it as “‘spectin”.