I Love Lucy
Lucy Fakes Illness
Season 1, Episode 16 · Aired 1952-01-28
Synopsis
After all this time, Lucy has finally found what she believes to be the perfect solution for getting into show business. After Ethel gives her a book about diseases, Lucy decides that she will pretend that she is suffering from numerous psychological ailments so that Ricky will feel sorry for her and let her go into show business. To convince Ricky that she is really "ill," Lucy pretends that she doesn't know who she is, and at one point "thinks" that she is Tallulah Bankhead! When Ricky eventually gets wind of Lucy's trick, he hires a phony doctor to scare Lucy back to health.
In the series
This episode is part of I Love Lucy (1951–1957) on CBS.
The template for multi-cam chaos, physical comedy gold, and a star marriage the public thought it owned.
Key cast
- Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo
- Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo
- Vivian Vance as Ethel Mertz
- William Frawley as Fred Mertz