I Love Lucy: Lucy is Enceinte

I've been asked by people from Instagram, Twitter and blog about my favorite episode of I Love Lucy. It used to be Lucy Does a TV Commercial (the vitameatavegamin episode), but after having tears in my eyes for the umpteenth time whenever I watch Lucy is Enceinte, it finally dawned on me that this is my all-time favorite episode!

Everything's so... homey, like what a wife would usually do to break a wonderful news to a husband. In this episode, Lucille does it naturally with flair and humor, and Desi acts like a "stupid husband" so convincingly that he helps Lucille bring out the best of her comedic abilities.

I especially love the part in the nightclub, where Lucy Ricardo finally breaks the news to Ricky Ricardo in such a sweet and special way, a way more awesome than her original plan. Initially, when I first watched this episode, I didn't know what made me cry. After falling in love with this sitcom, I did more research and eventually realized that this part was completely ab-libbed! It was the best blooper ever! The ending wasn't supposed to be this way... not all sentimental and sweet and all. Ricky was supposed to scream with excitement and Lucy was supposed to do that right along with him!

However, Desi Arnaz started crying and screwing up the lyrics of Rockabye Baby. He had recalled his emotions when his wife was pregnant and when his daughter, Lucie Arnaz was born. Anyway, they continued filming because the emotions were charged and the crew, cast and audience could all feel it.

You can hear distinctively that Desi's orchestra member saved the film by saying "sing the baby song!"

Lucille saw how emotional Desi was and started crying too.

When the filming finally ceased, director William Asher wanted a retake, one that would stick with the original filming. Desi and Lucille agreed because they were extremely embarrassed for displaying so much emotion, what's more in front of the cameras. Everyone- the crew, cast, audience, men and women, Vivian Vance and even William Frawley- objected to it and eventually, the three were convinced that this version was better. And thankfully so, because I love this episode so much!

I've told this story a million times but I'm never get bored of doing it!

I Love Lucy:Lucy is Enceinte

I love every single bit of this episode, and my all-time favorite scene was when Lucy Ricardo broke the news to Ricky Ricardo in his Tropicana Nightclub.

When Desi Arnaz got emotional, messed up the lyrics for Rockabye baby and started crying, and when Lucille Ball started crying too, I cried too. After waiting for 10 years, they finally got what they wanted: two beautiful children and the opportunity to star in a show.

We're Having a Baby, My Baby and Me is the sweetest song, ever.

The Most Beautiful Face on Earth

In my opinion, this face is the most beautiful on earth. I've never seen another one yet this natural, this simple, this unassuming, this moving, this happy, this blissful, this pleased.

The reflection of light from Lucille Ball Arnaz's eyes shows that she was crying, with elation of course. She was going to be a mother yet again, after 12 long years of marriage, it would seem like a miracle to her and Desi Arnaz. The tears weren't script, and the ending of Lucy is Enceinte from I Love Lucy sure as hell wasn't scripted. Desi started crying, and Lucy did too. They thought that they had loused up the film with their emotional outburst, but little did they know that this unscripted poignant version turned out to be so appealing, so human, so touching!

That's the expression of a loving wife, a loving mother, a mother-to-be, and a unsurpassable comedian!


Lucille Ball also happens to be the first pregnant woman shown on television.

My First Experience of I Love Lucy

I never would have known about I Love Lucy, and it would be my great loss, if not for taking a module on American History. My university instructor played the episode Lucy is Enceinte for us.

Being labelled as a Generation Y gal, I would never have in a million years, watched a black-and-white sitcom. Nobody my age in my country (Singapore) would have known about I Love Lucy. People today are exposed to movies and television shows of sex, vulgarities, glamor, drugs, alcohol and violence. None of us would appreciate pure comedy devoid of these "values" ingrained in us. The media makes us think what it wants us to think. Therefore, if I have never been introduced to the world's funniest sitcom, I wouldn't have known it existed.

My experience was tainted with disdain at first. I remember thinking "black-and-white tv show? Oh, brother!" Something then caught my attention, "what was the audience laughing about?" And "hey, the laughter's too real to be a laughing track- they had live audience!"

It was when I really paid attention to the jokes. I didn't get a few of the jokes because of the difference in cultures and the generation gap. But most of the jokes are timeless- you could have laughed at them 50 years ago, and you can laugh at them today and 50 years down the road!

I remember laughing hysterically when Lucy played out her fantasy on breaking her news to her husband that she was expecting. In those conservative days, the censorship board banned the use of the word "pregnant". It had to be replaced with "expecting", "having a baby", "infanticipating" and the writers even used the word "enceinte" which means pregnant in French! I was taken aback!

While clutching my aching stomach while aching for air, a rational, sane voice in me suddenly echoed "when was the last time you actually laughed this hard, so hard that for a moment, all your worries have magically vanished?" I was hooked.

I recall being slightly taken aback upon hearing Ricky Ricardo's (Desi Arnaz's) accent the first time. I also recollect the poignant scene where Lucy finally broke the wonderful news to her husband in a poignant and touching manner. While watching Ricky sing while hugging his on-screen wife, it suddenly occurred to me that the way they held each other, they way they looked at each other, they way they cried, and the way they kissed were all too intimate to be an act! Indeed, my instructor told the class that they were a real married couple.

For the first time in my life, I was convinced that a pure and heartwarming sitcom was head and shoulders above others that depict sex, vulgarities, glamor, drugs, alcohol and violence. I Love Lucy is a great sitcom for reruns- a grim reminder to the society with depreciating morals and values that there are intangible things from the past that should be brought forward to the present times.