I Love Lucy (TV Series)

Lucy Learns to Drive (1955)

Vivian Vance: Ethel Mertz

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ethel Mertz : [Ricky wanders away in a daze after he and Lucy return from her first driving lesson]  What's the matter with him?

  Lucy Ricardo : Oh, he got mad at me while I was driving through the Holland Tunnel.

  Ethel Mertz : Ricky let you drive through the Holland Tunnel?

  Lucy Ricardo : Well, he didn't mean to. I got caught in stream of traffic and I couldn't stop.

  Ethel Mertz : But you drove all the way through the Holland Tunnel!

  Lucy Ricardo : Halfway through.

  Ethel Mertz : What do you mean, halfway?

  Lucy Ricardo : Well, Ricky was late for rehearsal, and I saw an opportunity t'... How was I supposed to know there wasn't room to make a U-turn?

  Ethel Mertz : [astonished]  You made a U-turn in the Holland Tunnel? Oh, brother, that must-a been somethin'.

  Lucy Ricardo : Yeah. The policeman said the cars were backed up all the way to East Orange, New Jersey.

• Lucy Ricardo : [after the cars get stuck together, Lucy gets into the driver's seat of the Cadillac]  Do you think if I drove this car to the garage, that one would follow?

  Ethel Mertz : Do you know how to drive this?

  Lucy Ricardo : Oh, sure. I learned to drive in a car like this. Nothin' to it, see: this is the gear shift, and this is the brake, and this is the clutch. Or is this the brake, and this the clutch?

  Ethel Mertz : Don't you know?

  Lucy Ricardo : Well, I'll find out soon as I get goin', you know.

  Ethel Mertz : How?

  Lucy Ricardo : Well, if I step on the brake and it doesn't stop, it was the clutch.

• Ethel Mertz : [Lucy wrecks the new Pontiac they're about to take to Hollywood, and explains the ordeal to Ethel]  What are you gonna say to Ricky?

  Lucy Ricardo : How 'bout, 'Goodbye'? No, Ethel, our only chance is to pretend complete innocence.

  Ethel Mertz : Oh, we'll never get away with it.

  Lucy Ricardo : Well, we better get away with it, or Ricky and Fred will be planting their footprints somewhere, and it won't be Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

  Lucy Ricardo : [practising what she'll say when Ricky sees the cars]  Ethel, I wonder how those two cars got that way?

  Ethel Mertz : What cars?

  [Lucy gives Ethel a congratulatory wink, and they go inside]