Lucy Hires a Maid - I Love Lucy | clown ministry

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Lucy Hires a Maid - I Love Lucy season 2, originally aired April 27, 1953

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Now that the baby has been born, Lucy is losing sleep as the baby cries through the night. She is utterly exhausted, and asks Ricky to help with the baby when Little Ricky wakes up in the middle of the night. Ricky demurs, since he has to get up refreshed in order to work and provide for his family—at least, that’s his story and he’s sticking to it! Lucy manages to wheedle a promise from him that, if the baby wakes up, whoever wakes up first will attend to the child. This leads to a ‘snoring contest’ later, as each tries to convince the other that they’re sleeping through the crying. Momma Lucy gives up first, and goes to tend to her crying child, bent over his crib—which is the same position that Ricky finds her in hours later when he wakes up. Ricky wants to cancel their card game with the Mertzes so that Lucy can try and catch up on some of her sleep, but she begs him not to—that’s the only fun she has with a newborn baby! However, that evening exhaustion wins as she falls asleep while unfolding the card table. Ricky’s soft hard and frugal personality fight, but Ricky’s love for Lucy wins out—and he decides to have her hire a maid.

The next morning, Lucy has ‘the agency’ send over someone, but Ricky warns her to interview the person first, and be firm. Ethel echoes the suggestion, which goes out the window when the maid, the stern Mrs. Porter arrives, who immediately begins interviewing Lucy! She takes the job, after issuing a list of her conditions and demands, and ensuring that Lucy will do everything for the baby. The end result is, Lucy is taking orders from the maid, and is more tired that before. Not only that, Mrs. Porter begins eating them out of house and home, making a peanut butter sandwich for Lucy’s lunch, after Mrs. Porter has finished off the pork roast, salad, and even the jar of jelly—a very funny moment. Lucy decides that she needs to fire Mrs. Porter, but is too timid. Will Ricky do it? No, he entrusted the hiring of the maid to Lucy, and he expects her to get rid of her. But how?

She tries talking very loudly with Ricky about her plans to fire the maid, hoping that Mrs. Porter will interfere—which fails. She asks Ethel to fire Mrs. Porter—which fails. Lucy eventually gets the idea of making an enormous mess of the apartment, so that Mrs. Porter will quit rather than having to clean up this mess every day. Ethel even goes as far as to mix a gooey mess which she smears all over the kitchen. Fred joins in with the idea of scattering feathers from pillows all over the apartment—how else?—with a pillowfight!

Ricky wants in on this madhouse, and asks what’s going on. Lucy tells him of their plan to get Mrs. Porter to quit, and poor Ricky has to tell Lucy that, since he felt so sorry for her, he fired Mrs. Porter for Lucy earlier in the day. Lucy Hires a Maid is a very funny episode, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Lucy Hires a Maid is available on the I Love Lucy season 2 DVD collection">Lucy Hires a Maid is available on the I Love Lucy season 2 DVD collection.

Funny quotes from Lucy Hires a Maid—I Love Lucy

Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): The father is supoosed to get his rest at night so he can get up refreshed in the morning and go out and earn a living for his family.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): You didn’t tell me the rules beforehand. And next time we have a baby I get to be the father!

Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Just say, “Hi, how do you do, you’re fired.”

Fred Mertz (William Frawley): You know, that might be a good idea for us, too.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Oh, Fred, are you thinking of getting me a maid?
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): No, I’m thinking of renting you out to the Ricardos.

Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): What’s your name?
Maid: Mrs. Porter.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): And what do I call you?
Maid: Mrs. Porter.