Date Filmed: September 15, 1951

 Date Aired: October 15, 1951

 Rating: 38.7/56

 Songs: "Guadalajara"

 Sponsor: Philip Morris & Co.

 Producer: Jess Oppenheimer

 Director: Marc Daniels

 Writers: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll, Jr.

 Cast:

Lucille Ball...	Lucy Ricardo
Desi Arnaz...	Ricky Ricardo
Vivian Vance...	Ethel Mertz
William Frawley...	Fred Mertz

The Mertzes are celebrating their eighteenth wedding anniversary, and Fred wants to attend the fights. Ethel, of course, wants to go nightclubbing. The couple fight, and take their disagreement to the Ricardos, who take the same gender's sides. Ethel and Lucy decide they will go to the Copacabana -- with dates! The boys hastily say that's fine, but eventually regret it, and Ricky calls his friend Ginny Jones, a singer, to fix him and Fred up with dates. However, Lucy also calls Ginny, who informs the girls of the men's plan. The two tell Ginny they will arrive at the Ricardo home at the specified hour. What kind of wild costume will the two wear when they go to meet their husbands...?

Although this was the second I Love Lucy half-hour filmed, it was decided that "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her" was too uneven, and had too many technical problems to be the premiere episode.  This more polished episode premiered on the CBS network, Monday, October 15, 1951, at 9:00PM.

I Love Lucy premiered in the spot that had been occupied by Horace Heidt's Original Youth Opportunity show.  It faced competition from the Top Ten ranked Lights Out.

The cast spent the day of the premiere working on the upcoming "Seance" episode.  Late in the evening, someone realized that the show would premiere shortly.  Lucy and Desi realized that they wouldn't make it home to Chatsworth (thirty miles away) to catch the series that their careers depended on.  Emily Daniels, Marc Daniels (the director)'s wife, and the series' camera coordinator, invited the cast to watch the episode at their home.  In The I Love Lucy Book, Daniels recounted the story:
 

"We invited everyone to watch the show at our house at the end of Laurel Canyon in Horseshoe Canyon where we had just moved.  I remember because I made dinner and had the plates in the oven to keep them warm.  While we were watching the show, I forgot all about them, so when it was over we had to wait another ten or fifteen minutes for them to cool off before we could eat.  When we finished, it was eleven o'clock.

The only one who was laughing was Phil Ober because he hadn't seen it.  And he had this deep baritone laugh like 'HO HO HO.'  But the rest of us just sat ther emotionless staring at the set."

The series' first commercial featured John Stevenson (live from Desilu) a "handsome actor," by Bart Andrews' account, speaking from the Ricardo living room:
 

"In a moment we'll look in on Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz but before we do may I ask a very personal question?  The question is simply this--Do you inhale?  Well, I do.  And chances are you do too.  And because you inhale, you're better off--much better off--smoking Philip Morris and for good reason.  You see, Philip Morris is the one cigarette proved definitley less iritating, definitley mildler than any other leading brand.  That's why when you inhale, you're better off smoking Philip Morris. . . .And now, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in I Love Lucy."

Variety said this about the first episode:
 

"This initial teevee effort of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz should have carried the foreword: not to be taken seriously.  As story-line comedies go, it is the better part of appreciation not to ask yourself too many questions and just go along with what transpires on your screen.

The laughs were there and plentiful but not quite so raucous as the audience made them out to be. . . .The writing and plotting should be more inventive and less contrived for the sake of laughs."

"CBS and Philip Morris fell heir Monday night to one of the slickest TV entertainment shows to date.  It's costing P-M $30,000 a week (Exclusive of time) for the half-hour film series (without enjoying the benefits of residual rights, which revert back to the packagers), but on the basis of this week's preem installment, it should sell a lot of cigarettes.

Lucy's emergency as refreshing and big-time video is significant from various angles. It cannot help but strengthen the growing belief that video programming, to save face and sponsors, must of necessity detour into such avenues where the writing and the material, the human equations and comedy formulas inherent in well-produced situation comedies, will take TV out of its present rut of over-produced spectacles from which any element of anticipation has been dissipated.

...The new Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz show establishes film's secure place in video sweepstakes--when introduced into the medium under such handsome and professional auspices as applies to Lucy.  For here is a film that has all the Grade A qualities of major studio production, achieving a depth and visual values that pertain to theatre presentation, yet encompassing showmanship, for which much credit belongs to Karl Freund on the camera masterminding and Marc Daniels on the direction."