JOB SWITCHING, from the classic comedy series I Love Lucy, is one of the funniest episodes in television history. Originally airing in the series' second season in September 1952, four years before I was born, as with most of the episodes it stars the foursome of Lucille Ball (as Lucy Ricardo), Desi Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo), Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz) and William Frawley (Fred Mertz). The wives get into a spat of sorts with their husbands, each "side" putting down the difficulty of the other's roles...in this traditional setting, then, Ricky and Fred take their turn at housekeeping while Lucy and Ethel get paid jobs at a chocolate factory. It's the scene at the factory's conveyor belt where they're required to package every piece of chocolate candy whizzing by that is the most hilarious part of the show...see the above picture. Lucille Ball was brilliant at slapstick comedy, and it doesn't get any funnier than this. As a little kid I got to watch a lot of this series...after all, it was a favorite of my parents as well. I always thought...even from early on...that it was pretty cool for Ricky to be a singer in his Cuban band and that Cuba itself was a pretty cool place. Maybe this wasn't all that helpful, though, as there was a lot of disparity and corruption there at the time that would give rise to Castro's leftist revolution in the late 1950s...and more trouble afterwards. But it was Lucy with her brashness and penchant for getting into the worst, most embarrassing situations that stole the show and made it the great success it was during its run from 1951 to 1957, followed in the next three years by several hour-long specials and later by new series focusing on just Lucille Ball. If you haven't seen I Love Lucy before, you can't go wrong with the Job Switching episode...
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