I LOVE LUCY

The Ricardos and Mertzes have decided that their marriages are in a rut. Lucy: "We've all let ourselves become four big, dull clumps. We are knee-deep in a pool of stagnation." A library book suggest a "week's vacation from marriage" as the solution.

Once separated, the girls miss their boys and vice versa. Ricky: "You know, I miss Lucy." Fred: "I can top that. I miss Ethel!" Refusing to swallow their pride, the girls dress to the hilt and appear at the Ricardo apartment, hoping to make the boys jealous. Ethel: "We've been to 21 four times this week, that's 84." The revelation doesn't sway the husbands, so Lucy and Ethel return to the Mertz apartment defeated.

When they later decide to check on their husbands, they find them missing from the Ricardo apartment. Forced to the roof because they hear their husbands approaching in the hall, they get locked outside and their efforts to elicit help from a neighbor, Mrs. Saunders, fail.

Finally Ricky and Fred discover the girls shivering on the roof and douse them with water from a handy hose. Lucy says finally: "I want to be in a rut with you," and embraces Ricky.

Special Notes: This is the one and only episode in the show's history to give us a glimpse of the Mertz's bedroom. Their bedroom has two beds, flower wallpaper and a sign hanging on the wall that says "Home Sweet Home." However in the episode "First Stop" Ethel states that her and Fred sleep in a double/queen bed. This episode is based on lucy's radio show, My Favorite Husband, Episode #104, "Vacation From Marriage".

Bloopers: When Ricky wakes-up from his morning coffee and walks towards the kitchen, Fred can be seen through the kitchen window walking between the sets to get backstage. When Lucy is supposedly standing on the roof throwing a rock across the alley to try to hit Ms. Sanders' window, the rock very clearly bounces on the ground, revealing that the set is only a few feet off the ground and not 5 stories up.