The baby episodes in syndication...

[Ireneparalegal]

This has always confused me. I understand they filmed episodes with Lucy "not pregnant" so they could have some episodes to show while Lucy was recuperating from giving birth to Desi Jr. We see the "Handy Dandy Man" episode, Lucy changing her mind episode and so forth, as episodes that were meant to be shown AFTER Lucy gave birth in real life. However, for as long as I can remember, those episodes are shown BEFORE the character Lucy Ricardo even gives birth, why do they air them in that order?

[iamme]

now its kind of hard to tell which episode comes first and so forth since they always show them out of order

[Ireneparalegal]

I have a Lucy book that tells us which order they should be shown in, but I just never understood why in syndication they air those episodes BEFORE the character gives birth.

[iamme]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

I have a Lucy book that tells us which order they should be shown in, but I just never understood why in syndication they air those episodes BEFORE the character gives birth.

hmm...that is a mystery there

[Ireneparalegal]

BTW, welcome to the board!!!!

[iamme]

Thanks!

[Madame X]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

This has always confused me. I understand they filmed episodes with Lucy "not pregnant" so they could have some episodes to show while Lucy was recuperating from giving birth to Desi Jr. We see the "Handy Dandy Man" episode, Lucy changing her mind episode and so forth, as episodes that were meant to be shown AFTER Lucy gave birth in real life. However, for as long as I can remember, those episodes are shown BEFORE the character Lucy Ricardo even gives birth, why do they air them in that order?

I never noticed that before! The only explanation I can come up with is that they are airing the shows by production #, rather than airdate.

Here is the order by production #:

#43-Redecorating
#44-Ricky Loses His Voice
.....................................
#45-Sales Resistance
#46-The Inferiority Complex
#47-The Club Election
#48-The Black Eye
#49-Lucy Changes Her Mind
.....................................
#50-Lucy is Enceinte
#51-Pregnant Women Are Unpredictable
#52-Lucy's Showbiz Swan Song
#53-Lucy Hires an English Tutor
#54-Ricky Has Labor Pains
#55-Lucy Becomes a Sculptress
#56-Lucy Goes to the Hospital
#57-No Children Allowed

#45-49 actually aired between #56 and #57.

Does this makes sense?

[TeeVeeCloset]

I believe this is the answer, I don't know if it has been happening since TV Land aquired I Love Lucy, but I recently started watching it again and noticed that I believe they are running the never syndicated flashback episodes that ran during the summer of Lucy giving birth......Desi, Viv and Fred taped special "remember when lucy did the following, etc....." then the screen transitions to the old episode........these segments are bonus features on the dvd's but I never remember seeing them as part of the syndication package instead of the normal episodes....I should just watch the episodes on the dvd and compare, but I know when the episodes originally aired and while I was watching it in syndication over 30 years ago, those episodes mentioned never started with "remember when lucy did this?", I also have seen every episode 25 times or more since childhood and when I watch a flashback episode I never remember seeing it before...as I have not watched lucy in years since it has been on TV land.

[Ireneparalegal]

Good to hear from you TeeVeeCloset!!!!!! Miss you!!!!!


For as long as I can remember they have always shown the episodes of these special "baby episodes" before Lucy Ricardo gives birth IN FULL, INTACT, etc. I see ILL not only on TVland but I see it on two local channels. The one channel that has always shown ILL since I was small is KTTV/Fox Channel. When I was young I wondered why they were showing these episodes out of order. I then wondered, why are the characters talking abt "remember when Lucy..." and they are showing an infant when Lucy Ricardo hadn't even given birth yet. Then, when I bought the Bart Andrews book it talked abt those special episodes and how they filmed those so the audience would have something to watch while Lucille Ball was recuperating (on maternity leave) after giving birth in real life. That made sense of the actual episodes and the threesome reminiscing abt Lucy and so forth, but I never understood why stations aired them BEFORE Lucy Ricardo gave birth.

Stacey, thank you for posting the production #'s. I do know in that book we share it does list the episodes in order. That makes sense, but you would think the stations that air ILL can easily just put them in an order that would make sense storywise.

[NOVARick]

[quote=Madame X]I never noticed that before! The only explanation I can come up with is that they are airing the shows by production #, rather than airdate.

Yes, that's the reason. I always found that annoying, and equally annoying that we would see Little Ricky get stage fright (episode 156) BEFORE he even learned to play the drums (episode 157). Arrrgh! Thanks to Nick@Nite and TVLand for finally straightening that out.

[Ireneparalegal]

[quote=NOVARick]

Originally Posted by Madame X

I never noticed that before! The only explanation I can come up with is that they are airing the shows by production #, rather than airdate.

Yes, that's the reason. I always found that annoying, and equally annoying that we would see Little Ricky get stage fright (episode 156) BEFORE he even learned to play the drums (episode 157). Arrrgh! Thanks to Nick@Nite and TVLand for finally straightening that out.

OMG, I never noticed that abt Little Ricky playing the drums. Damn! after all these years of watching Lucy, I still am amazed at the things I learn. THANX RICK!