I Love Lucy : Ethyl's Best Moments

Ethyl's Best Moments

I've always loved when she pulled the scissors from her purse and cut the spaghetti hanging from Lucy's mouth.

So many others, so please share!

"A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference." Eeyore

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

The "Ethel's Hometown" episode has a lot of my favorite Ethel moments.



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Ethel's hometown is one of my very favorite episodes. Watching it now.

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

The moment when she turns to see Ricky and Fred "hanging" from Lucy's mouth, and her singing gets hilariously shriller and more strident. It's subtle, but not. She doesn't object, the show must go on, after all, but she's clearly angry and her operatic soprano turns into a high-pitched scream.

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

I love her, she's my favorite character. All her moments are golden <3

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Singing "I am Lily of the Valley" in the "The Operetta" episode.

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Oh Freddy heh heh heh!
Would you like a piece of rock Mr Candy?
Let's let her get a load of us.

There are just so many. Ethel and Fred are my favorites.

Re: Ethel's Best Moments

just watched "Fred and Ethel Fight" and I especially love when Ethel says in a very matter of fact way that Fred's mother looks like a weasel

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

In the black wig episode, when she's dressed like an Eskimo geisha--Lucy says, "I wish I was dead." And Ethel says, "You know what? I wish you were dead too."

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments


In the black wig episode, when she's dressed like an Eskimo geisha--Lucy says, "I wish I was dead." And Ethel says, "You know what? I wish you were dead too."


LOL, that is very funny episode.

The moment when Ethel comes out in that outfit had me rolling on the floor.

**

From the Scotland episode (1956)

Lucy Ricardo: [Fred and Ethel drop by after a Scottish show, and Fred is twirling a toy on a stick] What is that?

Fred Mertz: It's a dragon. I bought it to take home to Little Ricky. I thought it was somthin' different.

Ricky Ricardo: Well, it's different, all right.

Lucy Ricardo: Well, I have never seen anything like this before.

Fred Mertz: Really? Well, when I was a kid they had toy dragons.

Ethel Mertz: When you were a kid, they had real dragons!

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

OK Someone help. The episode in the country where Lucy is friendly with Betty Ramsey and Ethel is jelaous. SHe said some hilarious stuff at lunch





A daffy woman constantly strives to become a star.

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

As momsabeach said, the luncheon was pure gold.

Ethel: I have sufficient

I love that line and her facial expression so much.

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Yes! This is the episode that first came to mind for me.

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

I don't have an Ethel response for you, DarthSil.

I just want to commend all the folks on this board for their responses to your question. Over half a dozen people have responded in the week plus since you posted. Not a one even mentioned that you misspelled Ethel's name.

I do it only to make a point. This IMDB board--all the ones for different series that I visit--is full of good people wanting to talk about series and movies they like and they don't get like some online forums I've seen where they can't wait to jump all over someone for making a simple spelling or grammatical mistake.

I misspelled "Aunt Bee" on Andy Griffth one time and nobody jumped on me at all.

I really like being able to have real discussions without all the nonsense that so often accompanies these anonymous Internet sites.

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

Don't kid yourself, FC.
There are plenty of trolls on the IMDb boards.
The difference is that we can report them to the "administrator", and their messages will eventually be deleted.
I wish the same could be done with the AOL News boards.

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

Now I'm embarrassed. I hadn't even noticed the misspelling. lol

Maybe the OP was paying tribute to the first season episode when Lucy and Ethel were running against each other for club president.

One of Ethel's signs read "You'll go farther with Ethyl", a nod to one of the gasoline ads of the day. Of course her other ad was a tad meaner "A vote for a redhead is a vote for a deadhead, or should I say dyed head."

All the Ethel lines quoted here make me laugh all over again.

I'll add one more. Lucy went to have it out with Minnie Finch, the "beautiful showgirl". Minnie and her elderly neighbors were all talking about receiving the same invitation from Ricky Ricardo.

Ethel asked, "You don't think Ricky would date THOSE three? Fred yes, Ricky no."

Even though Lucy excelled at physical comedy I think Vivian Vance was naturally more witty. In all the books I've read, Vivian's quotes were often funnier. She had a dry, self-depracating humor. LucilleBall often said that she didn't think funny and she couldn't even tell a joke.

If the women had done a more Golden Girls type comedyI could easily see Vivian handling the dry humor of Dorothy. Lucy seems to be at a lossif she can't do a lot of mugging and clowning and the physical stuff.

Didn't mean to turn this into a slap at Lucy. I love Lucy!

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

"Fancy-schmancy!" (Upon entering the Don Loper Salon)

"[You want me to] ride the SUBWAY? In my BLUE JEANS?" (Not intended to be as humorous as it is today, when blue jeans are comparatively conservative attire on MTA trains)

(At Fred's remembrance of a recent trip on which he'd sent Ethel to Minnesota) "Oh, that was a lot of fun. I went to Mayo Brothers to have my gallstones out."

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

I always enjoyed her singing. I think she had wonderful talent. I always felt she was kind of left in the background while Lucy stole the show. I wish we could have seen Ethel become a mother maybe even adopt a child.

~For beautiful eyes look for the good in others, for beautiful lips speak only words of kindness~

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Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

Yes it's true also that originally Ethel was just going to have a very small role, be in the background for Lucy to play off of. When they saw how great she was, her part got much bigger than originally planned. Originally she was only only going to pop by once per show for a small scene. Although the first show that aired, Ethel was already going along with Lucy in a crazy scheme wearing an old lady outfit (The girls want to go to a nightclub)

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I never read Ethel was meant for a very small part. They went to the LaJolla Theatre to see Vance in a play for consideration when casting the role

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when Ricky falls in the water and she asks him "are you wet?" In the fishing episode.

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When she says, "I was wondering what to wear to all those 'smart dinner parties' I give."

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i've heard a lot of things over the years about how great she is in the hollywood/cornel wilde episode and while i like it i don't see her standing out anymore than usual in that episode, my favorite ethel scene is probably when she gets a part in a italian movie first offered to lucy but because lucy is now blue/purple from grape stomping and fighting in a vat with a co-worker, the part is offered to ethel - who gleefully accepts it to lucys chagrin (censored) LOL :)

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"Oh just wait until Mickey Richardson hears about this!"

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Every time I watch an episode I think that Ethel and Fred have the best lines.

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Lucy to Ethel "You look like an ad for a trip around the world."

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For some reason I don't find it surprising that people interested in I Love Lucy are nicer than your average internet surfers. Fans of classic humor are more likely to have old fashioned manners. Take a look at a Marvel or DC superhero movie board - there's a rivalry there and fans of the two comic companies troll each other mercilessly.

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

Some favorite Ethel lines that come to mind:

To Lucy (about Fred) "Common sense has nothing to do with it. When I say he's wrong he's wrong!"

To Lucy "I am getting a little sick of being called a cow."




Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

I love the moment when William Holden turns the tables on Lucy and watches her eat. Self-conscious, Lucy anxiously twirls spaghetti around her fork and inhales a too-big bite. The spaghetti doesn't seem as if it will ever stop streaming into Lucy's mouth. Quick-thinking Ethel comes to the rescue by matter-of-factly producing a tiny pair of scissors from her purse and snipping the troublesome strings of spaghetti. It cracks me up every time!

Everybody wishes they had a friend as dependable as Ethel!

And you will know my name is The Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!

Re: Ethel's Best Moments

From the "Lucy is a Matchmaker" episode -




LUCY: Now, where can we find Syvia Collins a husband?

ETHEL: I'll make the sacrifice. She can have mine.


and



LUCY: Well, for a long time now Ethel and I have been sick and tired of being married to a stale bongo player and a fat old fuddy-duddy.

FRED (outraged): A fat old fuddy-duddy?

ETHEL (emphatic): A fat old fuddy-duddy.

LUCY: So when Eddie Grant came to town, we realized that that here was the chance of a lifetime.

ETHEL (intrigued): And then what happened? (Flustered, catching herself) Uh, and then what happened will amaze you!

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Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

Ethel's reaction to Lucy's choice of "hostess pants" was priceless.

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments


Ethel's reaction to Lucy's choice of "hostess pants" was priceless.
I think that this scene also contains one of my favorite lines from Ethel: "I wanted a toaster!"

Re: Ethyl's Best Moments

when she tells Lucy, "well, YOUR not exactly married to the horn of plenty!"

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The one where Lucy and Ethel get jealous of a glamour girl the husbands paid attention to so the tried (badly) to glamorize themselves. Ethyl wore a leopard print dress, which I think was supposed to look rediculous, but I though she looked beautiful, better than Lucy. It is a shame that Vivian wasn't allowed to shine more on the show. She was a great performer, and a beautiful woman.
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