Lucy Plays Cupid – I Love Lucy episode 15, originally aired 1/21/1952
Miss Lewis (Bea Benaderet), Ricky and Lucy‘s spinster neighbor, is interested in Mr. Ritter (Edward Everett Horton), but is too shy to tell him so. Despite being warned by Ricky not to get involved, Lucy decides to play matchmaker. Unfortunately, Mr. Ritter misunderstands and thinks that it’s Lucy that is interested in him.
Despite Lucy’s protestations, Mr. Ritter is convinced that Lucy wants him, and so Lucy invites him to an “intimate” dinner, where she tries to dissuade him with horrendous cooking and her 31 children (borrowed from other people in the apartment building). But Mr. Ritter is unmoved, until Miss Lewis gets up her nerve to approach him herself.
I Love Lucy Quotes
- Ricky (Desi Arnaz): [to Lucy] I think marriage is wonderful. Why I think marriage is the greatest thing there is in the whole world. It’s the only way to live. But if the guy has been clever enough to ‘scape it this long, why louse him up now?
I Love Lucy Trivia
- Neither Fred Mertz/William Frawley nor Ethel/Vivian Vance appear in this episode.
- Bea Benaderet appeared with Lucille Ball on her successful radio series, My Favorite Husband, and was Lucy’s first choice to play the role of Ethel Mertz. Bea was unavailable, since she was already appearing on the George Burns and Gracie Allen show, and went on to appear on The Beverly Hillbilles as Cousin Pearl, and on both Green Acres and Petticoat Junction as Kate Bradley.
- Edward Everett Horton was best known for his roles in the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies, appeared in numerous movies and television shows, and oddly enough may be best remembered today as the narrator of the Fractured Fairy Tales on the Bullwinkle cartoons.