(S6;E14 ~ January 21, 1957) Directed by James V. Kern. Written by Madelyn Martin, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed November 8, 1956 at Ren-Mar Studios. It was the 167th episode filmed. Rating: 45.1/61
Synopsis ~ Every boy wants a dog. Even if he already has a frog, two turtles, two parakeets, two goldfish, and a lizard (who fell – or jumped – out the window). When Lucy and Ricky reluctantly agree to let their son have a dog, they face the wrath of Fred and the threat of eviction.
The episode opens with Lucy in the kitchen feeding Little Ricky’s pets when Ethel drops by.
LUCY: “I wonder if this is the way Osa Johnson started?”
Lucy is referring to a mostly forgotten female explorer who made several feature-length wildlife documentaries and books with her husband, Martin E. Johnson. She also hosted television’s first wildlife show,NBC’s “Big Game Hunt” (1952), ten years before “Wild Kingdom.”
Lucy catalogs Little Ricky’s pets for Ethel as she is feeding them. Their names apparently are mostly show-biz inside references.
- The birds are Alice and Phil, named after Alice Faye and her husband Phil Harris. Harris would later turn up on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.”
- The turtles are Tommy and Jimmy, named after Tommy Dorsey and his brother, Jimmy Dorsey, bandleaders.
- The names for the fish – Mildred and Charles – are not as easy to identify; Mildred may refer to Carole Cook’s birth name, which Lucille Ball suggested she change to that of her great friend Carole Lombard.
- The frog is named Hopalong, a reference to the very popular television and film character of the time, Hopalong Cassidy, played by William Boyd.
Trying to get Charles out of the fish bowl to change the water, Lucy and Ethel try all sorts of tricks, including using Ethel’s hairnet as a strainer.
ETHEL: “Gregory Peck had less trouble with Moby Dick.”
Ethel is talking about Peck’s role as Captain Ahab in the 1956 film adaptation of Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick. The film opened in July 1956 and featured the Arnaz’s sometimes house guest Orson Welles, who played himself on an episode of “I Love Lucy” that was filmed just two weeks before the film premiered.
Little Ricky’s ‘BFF’ Billy Palmer gives him a puppy to take home. Billy Palmer will remain an off-screen character.
Lucy immediately calls Billy’s mother (another unseen character) who is named Lillian.
But abandons her intention to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’ when she sees her son with the puppy. Lillian was the name originally given to the character of Carolyn Appleby.
Ricky tries to tell his son he can’t keep the dog – but he, too, weakens. Fred (Mertz) is quick to point out a ‘no pets’ clause in the Ricardo lease.
This, despite the fact that he himself had a dog named Butch in “The Diet” (S1;E3, above) and that in “The Business Manager” (S4;E1) Mrs. Trumbull asks Lucy to buy a can of ‘All Pet’ (which Ricky mistakenly thinks is a stock called Canadian Allied Petroleum) for her cat. Like the others, Fred gives in when he hears Little Ricky say that he’s named the dog Fred.
LITTLE RICKY: “I always name my pets after people I like.”
Fred the dog was played by a Cairn Terrier named was Danny. He was trained by Bob Blair and was owned by Frank Inn.
Danny also played Fremont, Mr. Wilson’s dog on “Dennis the Menace” (1959-63). In films, he was Snuffy in Pal Joey (1957), Muffy in Anatomy of Murder (1959), and Pepe in the final Three Stooges short Sappy Bullfighters (1959). Blair and his son later formed The Blair Bunch, training dogs for pet food commercials while Inn discovered a famous pooch named Benji.
Fred the dog would make the move to Connecticut with the Ricardos, but the last time we see the parakeets and the goldfish is in “Lucy Hates to Leave” (S6;E16), just two episodes later.
When Lucy sings “Rockabye Baby” to Fred to lull him to sleep, Fred howls at her less-than-adequate vocals:
LUCY: “Alright, I’m no Dinah Shore. But you’re no Lassie either.”
Although Lucy would never team with Lassie, Dinah Shore guest-starred as herself on a 1971 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” Ball would also be a guest star on several editions of Dinah Shore’s talk shows.
Lassie, a border collie, was the star of her own series on CBS from 1954 to 1971 after completing a series of films. Although a female on screen, Lassie was actually played by a male collie named Pal (and Pal’s male offspring). Lassie is mentioned by Ricky in “Lucy Writes A Play” (S1;E17) and again in “Hollywood Anniversary” (S4;E23).
Outside the apartment building, Lucy had memorable encounters with such dogs as Richard Widmark’s St. Bernard, Cap, in “The Tour” (S4;E30),
…and Rocky the Bloodhound aboard the S.S. Constitution in “Second Honeymoon” (S5;E14), among others.
Lucille Ball was a great animal lover who owned many dogs during her life.
Her first was a little Fox Terrier named Whoopee that she got when she was just a teenager.
During her marriage to Desi Arnaz, the couple owned many dogs. There are numerous photos of her roaming around the Desilu Ranch with her two beloved Cocker Spaniels, one of which was named Pinto.
A grouchy new tenant played named Mr. Stewart (John Emery) seems to be the only one standing in the way of Fred (the dog’s) happiness.
John Emery (1905-64) was in 22 Broadway shows between 1934 and 1960, including playing Benvolio to Basil Rathbone’s Romeo, Leates to John Gielgud’s Hamlet, Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra starring Tallulah Bankhead, and the John Barrymore-like Tony Cavendish in a 1951 revival of The Royal Family, where on opening night he stumbled coming down a stair, tore ligaments in his ankle, and still played the last two acts! Watch the episode closely and his theatrical voice and gestures belie his stage background. He had not been seen on “I Love Lucy” since season 1, when he played a Tramp on “The Quiz Show” (S1;E5). He was also seen as a doctor in Forever, Darling which premiered just prior to the filming of this episode. From 1961, Emery was romantically involved with actress Joan Bennett, who cared for him during his final illness.
The plot of this episode strongly parallels “No Children Allowed” (S2;E22, above), where Mrs. Trumbull finds Little Ricky’s incessant crying as annoying as Mr. Stewart finds Fred the dog’s yelping. In the same way Pepito the clown provided the off-screen baby cry for that episode, noted voice artist June Foray provided the dog bark for this one.
June Foray (born June Lucille Forer in 1917) is best known as the voice of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Cindy Lou Who, Witch Hazel in the Bugs Bunny cartoons, Granny in the Tweety Bird cartoons, and many, many others.
When the dog is hiding under a huge sombrero, Lucy lies and says she’s been taking hat dancing lessons from Arthur Murray. She demonstrates a few quick steps. Lucy is referring to the dance studio, not its founder. Arthur Murray (1895 – 1991) was an American ballroom dancer and businessman.
Murray taught dance and franchised his dancing schools starting in 1925. He even had a television program from 1950 to 1960 called “The Arthur Murray Party.” The song “Cuban Pete,” which Ricky sang in “The Diet” (S1;E4), includes the line "And Cuban Pete don’t teach you in a hurry, like Arthur Murray.”
In the show’s sentimental send-off, just as Fred (Mertz) made an exception for Little Ricky in season 2, he also ends up making an exception for his canine namesake and sends Mr. Stewart on his way – returning his $200 check. Fred faints and the episode fades out!
A CLOSER LOOK
Lucy keeps Mildred and Charles in an Anchor Hocking one gallon glass fishbowl.
The Hocking Glass Company was founded in 1905, named after the Hocking River in Ohio. In 1937 they merged with AnchorCap and became one of the biggest producers of depression glassware.
The Ricardos have a Telechron bedside clock, (hexagonal The Dorm model) which gets its own close-up, filmed after the studio audience departed. Telechron was one of the most popular manufacturers of electric clocks between 1925 and 1956. The company opened in 1912 and went out of business in 1992. You’ll notice that the electric cord is not visible in the above shot. That’s because Telechron had always been self-conscious about their clocks’ cords. At clock shows, demonstrators would remove the cords so they’d look nicer. Catalog photos would never, ever show the cords after the novelty of electric power had passed (about 1930).
The center photo shows the Mertz Hotel Room in Monte Carlo during their trip to Europe. The same framed cameos turn up in both the Ricardo and Mertz apartments after they get home! Did they take home a few extra souvenirs?
In this episode, when Ricky is awakened by Fred’s (Foray’s) bark, we see that he has read Lobagola, a pseudo-biography published by Knopf in 1933.
Bata Kindai Amgoza ibn LoBagola was an early 20th-century American entertainer who posed as a native of Africa, his real name being Joseph Howard Lee from Baltimore, Maryland.
Perhaps Ricky was reading this book for research on his African show at the club?
Fast Forward!
“Lucy’s Contact Lenses” (TLS S3;E10) ~ November 23, 1964
“Lucy and the Bogie Affair” (HL S2;E13) ~ December 15, 1969
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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