Watching the show for first time since I was a kid and wow the Ricardo's and Mertz are truly horrible towards each other. They always make up in the end but holy crap the stuff they accuse themselves of doing. They have episodes where they think Lucy and Ethel are the black widow apt thief , Ricky has a chance to rent the apt for a few months and make some money and Fred and Ethel get mad, and so on and so on. With friends like these for needs enemies .
shareYep, they were all horrible human beings, especially Lucy. She was a lying, conniving bitch that made life miserable for all those around her. That's why the series was so beloved!
shareYeah the two couples pulled some horrible tricks on each other. But it's one of the basic rules of comedy or drama. There has to be some kind of tension. If the characters just got along and smiled at each other it would not have been very entertaining.
When the show began it was indicated that the Ricardos and Mertzes had been friends for a decade. They were like family. It's been my experience that you often behave at your WORST around family because they love you and will forgive you for all your CRAP. LOL And that's what the two couples did. They accused each other of some awful things but they always kissed and made up.
Lucy and Ethel each thought the other was Madam X in the cat burglar episode but that was only because of some silly coincidences.
In the episode when Ricky said they could make money on the sublease I do think Fred and Ethel were being greedy. They WERE getting their rent money, so why should they care if the Ricardos made a little money on the deal? I think most people charge a bit extra when they sublet their apartment anyway. I always wished that Ricky would have just shut up about the extra money they were making and just told the Mertzes that they found a temporary tenant. He didn't HAVE to brag about making extra money.
Of course in the end, the Mertzes came through. Ricky didn't get the summer gig with his band and the Ricardos ended up staying with the Mertzes. Of course that had its problems too!
When they bought a diner together I always thought that Ricky and Lucy were very unfair in refusing to share in the work. I know Fred had the "know how" and Ricky had "the name" but in all fairness, both couples should have been sharing the work of making a go of the business. In real life, not a sitcom, those problems would have been ironed out beforehand. But even with all the fighting, they remained friends.
The theme over and over seemed to be that no matter how much the two couples fought or argued over money, they always remained friends.
Give me a break - there is HUGE difference between "Seinfeld" and "I Love Lucy."
As brilliant as "Seinfeld" is, those characters are undoubtedly sociopaths.
Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel are merely human. Granted, the characters and
situations are done for comic effect, but there is emotion, feeling, bonding,
and loyalty involved. They're sort of like the Peanuts characters, only in
reverse - children in adult bodies.
The characters on ILL had great flaws, but there was also great charm. There isn't
a SHRED of charm in Jerry, Elaine, and co. Big difference.
Well, yeah, I exaggerate.
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I just saw the avalanche episode and Fred admitted to charging the Ricardo's $10 more a month in rent then everyone else in the building , Haha like wtf . Of course Ethel knew about it and would always refund the Ricardo's but that's beside the point.
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It's hard to believe Fred would really do that. He was a tightwad but not dishonest!
I think the writers made a mistake in giving him that line. They were all baring their souls but they should have given Fred a different secret.
In the switching apartments episode Lucy hinted about getting the larger apartment for the same rent. Fred said that it wouldn't be fair to the other tenants. He was cheap, but he did have some character!
That was such an "out of character" thing for Fred to do to his friends. He was cheap but not a cheater.
At least Ethel's second confession in that scene revealed that each month she had been giving the Ricardos back the extra ten dollars, which leads me to believe the Recardos, or Lucy at very least, have been aware Fred was doing that for some time. They probably had long ago decided to laugh it off as Fred just being Fred.
That, or Ethel would return the ten dollars to Lucy and Lucy would just keep it. No need for Ricky to be bothered with such details, after all. ;)