The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour: Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana
Episode score
8.0
Great
Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana
- 1.
- Season: 1
- Episode: 1
- First Aired: 11/6/1957
Newspaper columnist Hedda Hopper comes to the Ricardos' home in Connecticut to interview them about how they met. They then weave the tale about how Lucy and her best friend, Susie MacNamara, went on a cruise to Havana and Ricky and Rudy Vallee caught their eye. After much adventure, Lucy and Susie must figure out a way to get Ricky and Rudy to America. Read full recap »
- Director:
- Jerry Thorpe
- Stars:
- Lucille Ball (Lucy Ricardo)
- Desi Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo)
- Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz)
- William Frawley (Fred Mertz)
- Keith Thibodeaux (Little Ricky Ricardo)
- Guest Star:
- Ann Sothern (Susie MacNamara)
- Cesar Romero (Carlos Garcia)
- Rudy Vallee (Himself)
- Hedda Hopper (Herself)
- Frank Nelson (Cruise Director)
- George Trevino (Judge)
- Nestor Paiva (Jailor)
- Joaquin del Rio (Trustee)
- Vincent Padula (Nightclub Owner)
- Louis A. Nicoletti (Waiter)
- When greeting her, Little Ricky refers to Hedda Hopper as "Miss Hepper." edit »
- Throughout the run of the Lucy series, there has always been a discrepancy regarding the number of years the Mertzes have been married. In the first season of I Love Lucy, the Mertzes were married for 18 years ("The Girls Want to Go to A Nightclub"). In the second season, it was revealed that they have been married for 25 years (22 according to Ethel in "Vacation From Marriage"). In this episode, it would appear they've been married for 29 years, but in the last episode of the last season of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour ("Lucy Meets the Moustache"), Ethel remarks that the two have been married 25 years. edit »
- This Hedda Hopper's second appearance in the "I Love Lucy" series. She guest-starred in I Love Lucy's season four episode, "The Hedda Hopper Story." edit »
- Frank Nelson appears in this episode as the cruise director (and a totally different character). Yet he played the Ricardos' next door neighbor in Westport, Connecticut--Ralph Ramsey in "Lucy Gets Chummy With the Neighbors" and "Country Club Dance." He also played Freddie Fillmore in "The Quiz Show," "Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio," and "Ricky's Hawaiian Vacation," Ben Benjamin in "Ricky's Movie Offer" and the train conductor in "The Great Train Robbery." edit »
- This is the first television show to produce an episode with crossover characters from another television show. edit »
- For the entire series, the Ricardo's beloved dog, "Fred" would not appear. In fact, there was no mention of Fred whatsoever. edit »
- For the entire series, Keith Thibodeaux would never be credited using his real name, he was solely credited as "Little Ricky." edit »
- This episode originally aired with Desi Arnaz welcoming the audience to his and Lucy's "new show." Lucy then pokes her hand from behind the curtain and tells him it is time to begin! edit »
- When this episode was first filmed, it ran seventy-five minutes. After viewing a rough cut, executive producer Desi Arnaz decided the show's length couldn't be changed without a major effect on the show's plot. CBS, however, balked at the idea of a seventy-five minute show. So Desi called the producers of The United States Steel Hour, the show that immediatley followed the first Comedy Hour, and asked if they would be willing to give up the first fifteen minutes of their show. He promised that with the Lucy-Desi special as a lead-in, the Steel Hour would get it's highest rating ever. They agreed, and "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" was TV's first hour-long show that ran seventy-five minutes. In 1962, however, when CBS decided to start showing reruns of the series as a summer program, they didn't want to have to cut the first fifteen minutes of the next show, and so they cut Hedda Hopper's intro and parts of the rest of the show. The seventy-five minute version hasn't been shown on television since, although it was shown in a special screening in March 1998. edit »
- Guest star Ann Sothern crosses over her character, Susie McNamara, from her own TV series, "My Private Secretary." edit »
- (Lucy tells Ethel about Ricky and Carlos being paid to take her and Susie out)
Ethel: Did you have a good time yesterday? We saw you leaving with those two handsome Latins. I was hoping one of them would turn out to be Mr. Right.
Lucy: They're just a couple of gigolos. They were paid to take us out.
Ethel: Oh! Isn't that terrible? Imagine being paid to take a girl out. How do you like that, Fred?
Fred: I'd like that fine. edit » - Susie: Lucy, why don't we stay down here and get jobs?
Lucy: Oh, I couldn't do that.
Susie: Well why not?
Lucy: Well, what would I do? I don't know how to write shorthand in Spanish.
Susie: Well, you don't know how to write it in English either.
Lucy: Look who's talking. The Queen of the Coffee Breaks! edit » - Susie(after Lucy loses the coin toss and ends up with Ricky as her date): Now, Lucy, don't be so fussy. You're only going on a sightseeing tour. You're not gonna marry the guy. edit »
- (Susie and Lucy have no luck finding any single men on board.)
Susie: I hate to tell you, Lucy, we're traveling on a floating YWCA.
Lucy: They weren't kidding when they said this ship was on it's maiden voyage. edit » - (On deck as Lucy and Susie hit Fred up for a date to the dance and Ethel approaches)
Susie: You know, there's a dance on board tonight, but I suppose a man like you already has a date.
Ethel: Yes, he has.
Lucy: Get away, girl, we saw him first.
Ethel: Oh, I wish you had, but unfortunately I did.
edit »
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Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana
The Bottom Line: "A very special episode"04/19/07 12:46pm | report abuseWhen Hedda Hopper comes over to interview the Ricardos, Lucy tells the story of how she and Ricky first met 17 years ago when Lucy and her friend Susie (Ann Sothern) took a cruise to Havana. ...Continue »
Show Score
8.0
great
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