Satirical commentary of I Love Lucy every Friday! Here’s the info to watch ahead, plus all the WTFacts for this week. 

This Week’s Episode:

“Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her”

Original Air Date: 

November 5, 1951

This Week’s WTFacts:

You want to prepare for this week’s episode? Watch The Jinx on HBO. It, too, discusses a woman who fears her husband will murder her. And while, OK yeah, it’s a documentary about some horrifying events and so technically a liiiiiiiittle different in tone than a classic TV sitcom, it’s also some of the most compelling television I’ve ever seen. 

• This is actually the very first episode filmed for I Love Lucy, but it aired late because of issues in post-production. And considering how both Ricky and especially Fred behave this week, I’m SO glad it wasn’t our first introduction to their characters. That would have been a pretty dark start.

• There’s a moment at the beginning when Lucy is so engrossed in her book she dips her cracker in cold cream. The resulting audience laughter was the very first laugh ever recorded for the show.

• The crew was still getting the hang of things. You might notice the camera pans out too far at times and shows equipment or other parts of the set.

• You also might notice Lucy dresses in layers. The crew was so new to filming in front of a live audience, they worried the spectators would get bored during the costume changes. They decided to try to film it like a play, with nearly no breaks. They gave up on that after this episode, so from then on Desi’s orchestra would entertain the crowd while the rest of the team reset for the next scene.

–
See you Friday!

Follow WTF Lucy on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and tell your friends!