Ethel Mertz

The two female characters are close friends, habitually scheming together; Ethel is generally the voice of reason as a counterpart to Lucy's harebrained ideas.

Ethel went on to a career in music and acting, yet got her start at Albuquerque's Little Theater, singing her signature number "Shortnin' Bread".

In appearance blonde and supposedly a beauty in her youth, Ethel is unsentimental yet warm, proud, and extremely loyal, with her tendency to be sharp-tongued leading to moments of hilarity.

At times slightly vain, as in one episode when a concert in New Mexico goes to her head, she has a thicker skin than Lucy and seldom takes offense.

Fred and Ethel eventually move to Connecticut with the Ricardos and live in their guest house to help them raise chickens and sell their eggs for profit; they also appear regularly on The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.

In both sitcoms, Vance insisted her character's name also be Vivian, as she was reportedly tired of being identified as "Ethel" when spotted on the street.

When the Ricardos and Mertzes go to Japan in a 1959 episode of The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour , Lucy and Ethel dress as geishas to try to correct a mix-up between a strand of real pearls and fake pearls.