Breaking the Lease”, Season 1, Episode 18, Filmed 1/5/52, Aired 2/11/52

Laughter therapy is amazing, but it is exhausting! I spent the afternoon with two of the funniest people I’ve ever known, a Mr. David Singletary and Mr. Marti Cummings, and I was so tired I could barely make it to work! It’s such a wonderful feeling to have your stomach mussels ache from laughing. We are always the favorite table when we go out to eat, but I think they are always happy to see us leave.
The Ricardos and the Mertzes are having a night of hanging out by the piano singing. When Lucy brings up that it’s 2am and maybe they should stop singing, the other three blow it off and keep singing. When the Mertzes decide to go home, the Ricardos keep singing. The Ricardos soon get a phone call from the Mertzes telling them to be quiet. The more noise the Ricardos make by accident, the more the Mertzes complain. Through all the fighting, the Ricardos say they are going to move. The moving idea is fine with the Mertzes, however they expect the money for the 5 months left on their lease. Ricardos decided to be the worst tenants imaginable to break their lease, they even hold Ricky’s rehearsal in their apartment. After a rendition of the “Mexican Hat Dance” at 4am, the ceiling literally falls on the Mertzes and they wave their white flag. As the Ricardos are packing up their apartment, they realize they don’t want to go. The Mertzes feel the same way and write them up a new lease.
The idea of the “I Love Lucy” show, is loosely based on a job Lucille had before. She was on a radio show called “My Favorite Husband” that was written by the same people who ended up writing “I Love Lucy”. “My Favorite Husband” was sponsored by Jell-O and there was at least three plugs for Jello, like Lucy’s sign-on “Jell-O, everybody”. Another actor on “My Favorite Husband” was Gale Gordon, he was originally looked at to play Fred Mertzes. Gale Gordon would later on play Mr. Moony on “The Lucy Show”. Thank goodness we got William Frawley as Fred.