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The Best Episodes of I Love Lucy Season 3

Every episode of I Love Lucy Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of I Love Lucy Season 3!

Binge this in 10h 38m•Peaking at 8.8/10

Cuban Bandleader Ricky Ricardo would be happy if his wife Lucy would just be a housewife. Instead she tries constantly to perform at the Tropicana where he works, and make life comically frantic in the

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 1 - Ricky's 'Life' Story
    7.8/10(340 votes)

    #1 - Ricky's 'Life' Story

    S3:E1

    Lucy is upset because a 'Life' magazine feature on Ricky's home life didn't include a picture of her.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 2 - The Girls Go Into Business
    8.0/10(380 votes)

    #2 - The Girls Go Into Business

    S3:E2

    Lucy and Ethel are all set to go into business when they buy a new dress shop. But what to call it? Ethelu's? Lucyeth's? Unfortunately, naming the shop isn't their only problem when they are unable to sell any dresses and must sell the shop.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 3 - Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress
    8.3/10(375 votes)

    #3 - Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress

    S3:E3

    Lucy and Ethel buy the same dress for the upcoming talent show for the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League. True, they'll be doing a duet, and their number is Cole Porter's corny "Friendship" but wearing the same dress isn't exactly what they had in mind. Meanwhile, Lucy needs to persuade Ricky to host the show, so she decides to use a little reverse psychology.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 4 - Equal Rights
    8.5/10(399 votes)

    #4 - Equal Rights

    S3:E4

    Lucy and Ethel demand equal rights for women. Okay, say Ricky and Fred at the restaurant: separate checks for the four of them. Thus begins Lucy and Ethel's careers as restaurant dishwashers. So they plot revenge: they'll scare their husbands by claiming to have been robbed.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 5 - Baby Pictures
    7.8/10(336 votes)

    #5 - Baby Pictures

    S3:E5

    The Ricardos and the Applebys always brag to each other about their little sons. But when Lucy's and Caroline Appeby's exchanges turn hostile and sarcastic, Ricky worries that it will jeopardize a TV job that's been offered to him by Caroline's husband.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 6 - Lucy Tells the Truth
    8.8/10(435 votes)

    #6 - Lucy Tells the Truth

    S3:E6

    Ricky and the Mertzes bet Lucy that she can't go twenty-four hours without telling a lie. The outcome? Lucy insults all her friends and has to admit her real age, weight, and hair color. But she nearly gets a part on a TV show, by telling the truth, more or less.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 7 - The French Revue
    7.7/10(319 votes)

    #7 - The French Revue

    S3:E7

    Ricky is planning a French revue for the club, and since Lucy is determined to be in it, she hires a Frenchman to coach her. When Ricky forbids her to come near the place, she tries various disguises, and finally succeeds as a chorus girl.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 8 - Redecorating the Mertzes' Apartment
    8.2/10(353 votes)

    #8 - Redecorating the Mertzes' Apartment

    S3:E8

    It's redecorating time at the Mertzes', and Lucy and Ricky volunteer to help. But when Fred turns on a fan as Lucy is unstuffing a chair, the paint and feathers they were using go flying. Lucy feels responsible for the ruined furniture, so she gives Ethel her own living room furniture as a gift.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 9 - Too Many Crooks
    8.4/10(382 votes)

    #9 - Too Many Crooks

    S3:E9

    Lucy sneaks into the Mertzes' apartment to borrow one of Fred's suits so that she can order him a custom-made tweed suit for his birthday. This leads Ethel to think that Lucy is the notorious neighborhood burglar, "Madame X", and she goes spying on her friend to prove it.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 10 - Changing the Boys' Wardrobe
    8.1/10(330 votes)

    #10 - Changing the Boys' Wardrobe

    S3:E10

    Lucy and Ethel are disgusted by their husbands' old clothes, so they secretly give them away to a secondhand store. Unfortunately for them, the boys find out about their plan, and buy everything back. Later on, Ricky learns that a magazine has named Fred and him as two of the "Best-Dressed Men in New York City." He and Fred, dressed in tuxedos, invite the girls to meet them at the club for pictures. The girls arrive in their grubbiest attire.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 11 - Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined
    8.1/10(356 votes)

    #11 - Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined

    S3:E11

    Lucy finally gets her chance to be in show business, when she tricks Ricky into letting her do the "Jitterbug" in one of his shows. She's terrific during rehearsals, but problems occur when Lucy accompanies Ricky (who's been suffering from headaches) to the eye doctor just before the show. There, the doctor decides to examine Lucy's eyes, as well. He puts some eyedrops in Lucy's eyes which "relaxes" them, but Lucy's vision is blurry for the next twenty four hours. Naturally, this causes problems since Lucy has to perform that night.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 12 - Ricky's Old Girlfriend
    7.7/10(362 votes)

    #12 - Ricky's Old Girlfriend

    S3:E12

    Ricky is jealous when Lucy comes up with a long list of ex-boyfriends, so he invents an old flame-who just happens to be in town. Her name? Carlotta Romero, with whom Ricky DID perform years before.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 13 - The Million Dollar Idea
    8.5/10(395 votes)

    #13 - The Million Dollar Idea

    S3:E13

    The Ricardo household budget is in shambles (as usual) after Lucy decides to put her salad dressing on the market. Her plan? To market it on a TV morning show on the station her friend Caroline Appleby's husband runs. Home economist Mary Margaret McMertz (Ethel) will invite "an average housewife," (Lucy) to taste the dressing on the air.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 14 - Ricky Minds the Baby
    8.2/10(345 votes)

    #14 - Ricky Minds the Baby

    S3:E14

    Ricky agrees to watch his son, but while Daddy is engrossed in a football game, Little Ricky wanders off. Lucy finds him in the hallway, and calls Ricky to ask where the baby is. Panicking, Ricky searches everywhere, before Lucy walks in with his son.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 15 - The Charm School
    8.5/10(400 votes)

    #15 - The Charm School

    S3:E15

    It's time for charm school for Lucy and Ethel when their men eye a pretty woman at a party. But Ricky and Fred are anything but charmed by the results.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 16 - Sentimental Anniversary
    8.4/10(343 votes)

    #16 - Sentimental Anniversary

    S3:E16

    Lucy and Ricky want to spend their 13th wedding anniversary alone, but the Mertzes have another idea: a surprise party.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 17 - Fan Magazine Interview
    8.0/10(338 votes)

    #17 - Fan Magazine Interview

    S3:E17

    A reporter for a fan magazine, Eleanor Harris, spends an "average day" with the Ricardos. Of course, it's anything BUT average for the happily married couple. And they might not be one so happily married, thanks to a publicity stunt that Ricky's agent Jerry has cooked up.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 18 - Oil Wells
    7.7/10(341 votes)

    #18 - Oil Wells

    S3:E18

    The Ricardos and Mertzes as oil millionaires? Lucy and Ethel get a hot stock tip from their new neighbors from Texas. But Ricky and Fred say no. At first, anyhow. But are these neighbors swindlers? Lucy and the gang eventually think so, so they come up with a plan to find out.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 19 - Ricky Loses His Temper
    8.3/10(344 votes)

    #19 - Ricky Loses His Temper

    S3:E19

    Ricky explodes when Lucy buys an expensive hat. She offers to return it, and bets him he'll lose his cool over something else before she buys another hat. But no matter what she does to provoke him, the hot-tempered Cuban remains unruffled.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 20 - Home Movies
    8.3/10(362 votes)

    #20 - Home Movies

    S3:E20

    Ricky's home movies move the Mertzes to walk out, and prompt Lucy, Fred and Ethel to make a movie of their own, a "Western musical drama" shot in the Ricardo living room. But that's not to mixed up with a TV pilot Ricky's making, is it?

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 21 - Bonus Bucks
    8.3/10(351 votes)

    #21 - Bonus Bucks

    S3:E21

    A dollar bill takes a zany trip-with the Ricardos and Mertzes in hot pursuit. It's a winning bill (worth $300) in a newspaper contest. It belongs to Ricky, but he gallantly slips it into Lucy's purse. Gallant isn't necessarily smart: Lucy unthinkingly gives the bill to the grocery delivery boy-who gives it to Ethel in change. The wild ride has only begun!

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 22 - Ricky's Hawaiian Vacation
    8.0/10(310 votes)

    #22 - Ricky's Hawaiian Vacation

    S3:E22

    Ricky's band is to play in Hawaii-and guess who wants to go also? Lucy's plan: to go on a game show that gives away airline tickets. It calls for some trickery, and Lucy just might meet her match in the show's host, Freddie Fillmore, a prankster par excellence.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 23 - Lucy Is Envious
    8.2/10(368 votes)

    #23 - Lucy Is Envious

    S3:E23

    Lucy's past fibs to her rich and snotty ex-schoolmate are about to catch up with her when she unwittingly pledges $500 to a charity drive. In order to come up with the money, she and Ethel agree to a publicity stunt that puts them on top of the Empire State Building posing as women from Mars.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 24 - Lucy Writes a Novel
    8.2/10(340 votes)

    #24 - Lucy Writes a Novel

    S3:E24

    Lucy writes a novel in which the characters are thinly-veiled caricatures of Ricky, Fred and Ethel. Too thinly veiled, Ricky, Fred and Ethel think. So they burn it. But not before Lucy gets a copy to a publisher.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. I Love Lucy Season 3 Episode 25 - Lucy's Club Dance
    8.1/10(309 votes)

    #25 - Lucy's Club Dance

    S3:E25

    The Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League forms a quintet (with Lucy on sax) as a fundraiser. It's no way to raise money (Ethel likens Lucy's sound to a "moose with a head cold"). Maybe bandleader Ricky can whip them into shape--but first, Lucy has some persuading to do.

    Director:William Asher
    Writer:Unknown

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Season 3 Ratings Summary

"Ricky's 'Life' Story" is the best rated episode of "I Love Lucy" season 3. It scored 7.8/10 based on 340 votes. Directed by William Asher and written by Unknown, it aired on 10/5/1953. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "The Girls Go Into Business".