I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy (1951)

32 mistakes in season 2

(11 votes)

I Love Lucy mistake picture

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 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

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Never Do Business With Friends - S2-E32

Other mistake: When Lucy and Ethel are on the back porch fighting about the washing machine and also when Mrs. Trumble walks out, Lucy's back door is open and we can see the shutters between the kitchen and living room, with the kitchen counter/sink underneath, but the sink's faucet which should be seen has vanished. (00:14:45)

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Lucy Hires a Maid - S2-E23

Continuity mistake: While tired Lucy is trying to open the card table's legs, she lays her head down then falls asleep, and when it cuts to Ethel and Fred walking in on our sleeping Lucy, there's writing on the table's underside which wasn't in the previous shot. (By the markings on the table it also looks as if the table has been turned on its adjacent side). (00:06:10)

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Redecorating - S2-E8

Revealing mistake: At the end of the episode, when Ricky and Lucy walk into the bedroom to see the new wallpaper, look behind them when the bedroom door opens and you'll catch a glimpse of William Frawley - waiting for his cue - hiding behind a wall in the background before he ducks back out of sight.

Jeff Swanson

The Anniversary Present - S2-E1

Deliberate mistake: In this episode Lucy is trying to get Ricky to notice that their anniversary is on Monday the 19th by showing him a large calendar with the 19th circled. However, when they are in California and they celebrate their anniversary and Ricky asks for information to be wired to him, the telegram tells him that their anniversary is on the seventh.

I Love Lucy mistake picture

The Handcuffs - S2-E2

Continuity mistake: When Lucy handcuffs herself to Ricky we see the style of handcuffs as they phone the locksmith, but when they're both in the bedroom their handcuffs are entirely different, then their handcuffs revert to the original style when the locksmith shows up. Additionally, when Lucy cuffs Ricky's wrist note the direction of the locking bar around Ricky's wrist, but the next morning when the locksmith is with them, the locking bar is around Ricky's wrist the opposite way, which is quite impossible. (00:06:45)

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Never Do Business With Friends - S2-E32

Continuity mistake: In Lucy and Ricky's apartment there are six shutters between the kitchen and living room, a set of three open to the left and three open to the right, but after the washing machine falls off the porch, when Mrs. Trumble's nephew thinks they're all crazy he runs through the back door and we see a set of four shutters on one side. Also note the round knobs are at the bottom corners, when they should be higher up at the center. (The prop shutters that we see through the doorway during the porch's "exterior" shots are identical to the seven shutters that were in apartment 4A, before the Ricardos moved downstairs). (00:22:10 - 00:24:25)

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Season 2 generally

Deliberate mistake: In episode "Redecorating" Lucy wins new furniture, then in the next episode "Ricky Loses His Voice" the new furniture's delivered to the apartment, and the new couch has two normal and identical seat cushions. Starting in the next episode "Lucy is Enceinte" until the episode "Lucy Wants New Furniture", in some scenes the couch has the identical short cushions, however, in other scenes one of its seat cushions (depending on the episode, it's either left or right) is much higher than the other. For example, in "Lucy Hires a Maid" the higher seat cushion's on left side while Lucy waits for her lunch, then after Ethel urges Lucy to fire the maid the short cushion's on the left. The uneven cushions are usually seen in scenes with either Desi or another male actor, who sit on the side of the couch which has the higher seat cushion. There are even scenes where both of the seat cushions are the higher ones, such as in "Lucy's Last Birthday."

Super Grover

I Love Lucy mistake picture

Ricky's Life Story - S2-E30

Continuity mistake: At the end of Ricky's song "Lady of Spain" when he sings the verse "all that my eyes are revealing, Lady of Spain", in this wideshot we see Lucy in front of the balcony doors facing forward raising her arms, then in the next side closeup Lucy's still facing forward and a flag has suddenly appeared behind her on the balcony door. (00:21:50)

Super Grover

The Camping Trip - S2-E29

Revealing mistake: After Ricky and Lucy split up to go fishing Ricky yells that she should watch out for bears, and when Lucy stops at a tree and crouches down, the huge tree beside her jiggles when she leans on it. (00:13:40)

Super Grover

Lucy Changes Her Mind - S2-E14

Visible crew/equipment: When Ricky begins to talk to Ethel about the night they all went out to dinner, it cuts to the start of his flashback and it's a closeup of Ricky sitting on the couch calling out to Lucy, and as the camera pulls back into a wideshot we see the shadow of the moving camera/equipment. (00:01:15)

Super Grover

Lucy Wants New Furniture - S2-E28

Continuity mistake: At the start of the episode, when Lucy puts the baby in the crib there's only one bumper pad and it's on Lucy and Ricky's side of the crib rails, but in the baby's closeup there's a bumper pad at the rails behind him - which is the opposite side of the crib. (00:00:45)

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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