I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy (1951)

175 mistakes

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Suggested correction: So he took it off while performing. I googled images of Desi and Lucy and you can see he wore a wedding band in real life. Therefore, taking it off while filming would have been a deliberate choice. It's only a mistake if the band appears and disappears within a scene.

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Suggested correction: There's nothing sudden about it. From the very start of this episode, the card table is at the center of the living room, with the couch pushed back toward the wall, and the desk is behind the couch (holding the telephone, etc), up against the wall where the piano usually is in other episodes. As the opening scene continues, Ethel asks Ricky about the sheet music on the piano, and he explains that he's been working on a musical number for the show at the Tropicana. So, for this episode's ongoing musical storyline, the positions of the piano and desk have been switched. The rearranging of furniture between episodes occurs often, and it's not a revealing mistake or a continuity error.

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

The Séance - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: After Lucy tells Mr. Merriweather that he's invited to the seance, when it cuts to Lucy unfolding the card table legs, note the couch behind her with one normal seat cushion on the left, but in the next wideshot there's an additional shorter cushion under the normal cushion. The small towel also repositions itself neatly on the couch. (00:11:55)

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio - S1-E32

Visible crew/equipment: At the start, after Fred and Ethel walk in, when Lucy and Ethel walk away from the kitchen shutters carrying things, the stage microphone and stand can be seen at the right side of the screen. (Later in the episode, when Lucy and Ricky appear in the quiz segment an identical microphone is on stage with them). (00:00:35)

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

The Star Upstairs - S4-E25

Continuity mistake: When Lucy's locked out on the penthouse balcony, Ethel places the broom handle through the small round finger hole of the scissors, with the large oval finger hole to the right of the round hole and the blades pointing out, then holds the scissors in place as she puts the broom over the balcony rail. When Lucy retrieves them from the broom, the scissors have flipped over. The blades are pointing out and the broom handle is still through the small round finger hole, but now the large oval hole is to the left of the round hole. (Impossible to do on its own. Try it). (00:19:05)

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Ricky's Movie Offer - S4-E6

Continuity mistake: After Fred secures the chain lock to the front door, with the chain mounted onto the frame of the door, Fred then slides the chain into the door's slide-catch to show Lucy the "burglarproof chain." When Ethel opens the door the chain itself is ripped off the frame, leaving the chain (and the piece that was screwed to the frame) dangling from the slide-catch attached to the door, but in Ethel's closeup the chain is still mounted to the door's frame. (00:01:40)

Super Grover

The Charm School - S3-E14

Visible crew/equipment: While Lucy and Ethel are at their charm school, when they're standing in front of Miss Emerson's desk, in the widehots a small tape mark is visible on the floor in front of Lucy's feet. Then, when Lucy and Ethel are in sweatpants there are two small tape marks on the floor, and when Ethel walks to the other side of the room to join Lucy, there's another tape mark which Vivian even looks down at to confirm her foot's position.

Super Grover

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Lucy's Showbiz Swan Song - S2-E17

Other mistake: While Lucy and Ethel are auditioning their act for Ricky at the club, just as Lucy spins around watch her hands as she very quickly pulls on the string at her waist, which causes her pantaloons to loosen and fall to the floor. (00:12:05)

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Lucy Raises Chickens - S6-E18

Visible crew/equipment: When the chicks are running loose in the living room, and Lucy, Little Ricky, Fred and Ethel are trying to corral them, you can see the chicken wire and braces set up to keep the chickens on the set. (00:20:20)

Ricky's Old Girlfriend - S3-E11

Continuity mistake: In Lucy's dream, when Carlota Romero comes to their apartment, Little Ricky is sitting in a highchair with a hat on his head. Although later in the scene, you see his hat fall off, the first close-up shot of Little Ricky shows him without the hat. Then immediately, when you see a wide-shot of the scene, his hat is back on his head again.

iluvlucyfan

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Lucy Wants New Furniture - S2-E28

Revealing mistake: When Ricky startles Lucy in the kitchen just as she's getting the salt, she climbs up through the kitchen/living room window, and in the shot from the living room when she and Ricky step down onto the chair, we can see the four long metal brackets which bolt the chair to the floor for safety. (00:13:15)

Super Grover

The Dancing Star - S4-E28

Revealing mistake: At the end of Lucy and Van Johnson's dance, Ricky and everyone else clap as Lucy walks through the curtain to head "backstage', and in the next shot just as Lucy walks through the curtain we catch a glimpse of Desi Arnaz standing there waiting for his cue. Then in a few moments Ricky, Ethel, Fred, and Caroline all rush in excitedly to congratulate Lucy. (00:24:55)

Super Grover

Tennessee Bound - S4-E15

Visible crew/equipment: At the start, when Lucy pulls into the "gas station" the thin cable pulling the Pontiac is visible in front of the car, and when Ethel walks in front of the car note that the actress quickly glances down and steps over it, just as she says they're lost. Additionally, the glass windshield and rearview mirror are gone.

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

First Stop - S4-E14

Visible crew/equipment: While Lucy and Ricky are lying in the sagging mattress "canoe", when the train passes and their bed rolls towards the bunk bed, the end of the set wall is visible at the right side of the screen. (00:17:30)

Super Grover

Ricky Ricardo: Fred, how often is Ethel's checking account overdrawn?
Fred Mertz: Never.
Ricky Ricardo: Never? How do you manage that?
Ethel Mertz: It's easy. I never had enough money at one time to open a checking account.
Fred Mertz: She spends money like I'm printing it in the basement.

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Show generally

Question: I know this show is from the time period when a lot of couples had two beds in their room. Just out of curiosity, when did it become acceptable to show a couple's bedroom with a single bed on TV?

Answer: According to Snopes.com, there is no definitive answer, but the mid-1960s is the most verifiable date with "The Munsters" being cited as the first, although others claim "The Brady Bunch" showed the first couple seen in a double bed. An early TV show from the late 1940s titled, "Mary Kay and Johnny" is also thought to have shown the married couple's bedroom as having a double bed, although probably not with them in it. However, this was when TV was aired live, and there are no surviving episodes, only anecdotal accounts.

raywest

Something that is funny is that in the movie "A Christmas Story," they show the parents having two twin beds in their bedroom. In a real situation, they should have shown them having a double bed. Lucy and Ricky had twin beds pushed together in an early episode, which would have been pushing television boundaries in that time.

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