| "" episode | ||||
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| Season 3, Episode #6 #73 in Series | ||||
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| Air date: | November 16, 1953 | |||
| Written by: | Bob Carroll Jr. Madelyn Pugh Jess Oppenheimer | |||
| Directed by: | William Asher | |||
| Production code: | 3-6 / 073 | |||
| Episode guide | ||||
 IMDB
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The French Revue | |||
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| "Lucy Tells the Truth" | "Redecorating the Mertzes' Apartment" | |||
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/Uncouth.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/LucyWins.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/CanCanLucy.jpg
The French Revue was the 73rd episode of I Love Lucy, also the 6th episode of Season 3 of the series. The episode, was directed by William Asher, originally aired on CBS-TV on November 16, 1953.
Synopsis[]
After being embarrassed in a restaurant, Lucy takes French lessons. Then she does everything she can to get into Ricky's new French-themed show.
Plot[]
Lucy and Ethel are positively embarrassed when they go to a new French restaurant and can't read the menus that are written in French. They want to immediately recitfy this situation and become more cultured, so Lucy hires the waiter from the French restaurant, Robert DuBois, to tutor her and Ethel. In exchange for French lessons, Robert DuBois requests that Lucy introduce him to Ricky, as Robert is an aspiring entertainer. When Lucy tells Ricky the idea, she convinces him how great a French revue would be for the club. Ricky agrees and takes Lucy's idea, but he refuses to let her be in the show. She said that she just will find a way to sneak in, anyway, so Ricky bets her $50 that she won't be able to successfully sneak into the act. After several failed attempts in conspicuous disguises, Lucy merely dresses like a rich woman guest at the Tropicana, and she is led right into the club to her table. She takes off her coat, revealing the costume worn in the dance number, sneaks under the table, and proudly kicks Ricky during the Can-Can to have him notice her. He gives her the $50, and Lucy smugly tucks the money away in her corset top.
Trivia[]
- When Robert DuBois is counting "one potato, two potato" in French ("une pomme de terre, deux pommes de terre"), what he says in the end is "My mother told me to pick you" in French ("ma mere m'a dit de prende a vous")
- "La specialite de la maison" at the French restaurant is "un petit roti, des petits pois, et el quelque chose de pomme de terre frite," which translates into "roast meat, peas, and your choice of some kind of fried potatoes."
- Lucy clearly didn't continue with French lessons for very long. Either that, or she forgot all of her French by season 5. When preparing for the Europe trip, Lucy had to study French all over again.
- Ethel took French in high school, but she obviously forgot it all.
- The Ricardos expected Fred to know French he went to France during WWI. But Fred was only over in France for three weeks, so he turned out to be just as inept at the mastery of the language and the knowledge of French culture as Ethel, Lucy and Ricky.
- Ethel and Fred expected Ricky to know French because of the similarities between the Romance languages. There are many similarities between French and Spanish, but not enough for Ricky to have been able to decipher the menu cold.
- We don't know if Lucy and Ethel ever had another French lesson with Robert DuBois, but, at their first lesson, they learned "le crayon" means "pencil," "la plume" means "pen," "le chat" means "cat," "Le crayon est sur le table" means "The pencil is on the table," and "La maison est rouge" means "The house is red."
- Everybody was dressing up like Maurice Chevalier in this episode, and Ricky sang "Valentina" at the club. In episode six of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, "Lucy Goes to Mexico," Maurice Chevalier guest starred and sang "Valentina."
- Lucy said that a French revue at the club would be very popular, what with Moulin Rouge having been released in 1952 and Toulouse Lautrec paintings being all the rage at the time.
Starring[]
- Lucille Ball ... as Lucy Ricardo
- Desi Arnaz ... as Ricky Ricardo
- Vivian Vance ... as Ethel Mertz
- William Frawley ... as Fred Mertz
Guest starring[]
- Alberto Morin ... as Robert DuBois
- Fred Aldrich ... as Stagehand
- Joseph and Michael Mayer ... as Little Ricky Ricardo
- Richard Reeves ... as Stagehand
- Louis Nicoletti ... as Maitre'd