(S2;E14 ~ January 5, 1953) Directed by William Asher. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll, Jr. It was filmed on October 31, 1952 at General Service Studios. This is the 49th episode of the series. Rating: 71.7/91
The original broadcast featured commercials for Philip-Morris cigarettes and a promo for CBS’s “My Little Margie.”
Synopsis ~ Ricky feels neglected during Lucy’s pregnancy so Fred throws a ‘daddy shower’ for him.
The episode opens with Ricky on the telephone inviting Fred, and his friends Jim and Maury, to come over to watch a game on television and drink beer. “Maury” is likely a reference to camera coordinator Maury Thompson and “Jim” probably refers to James Paisley, the show’s assistant director.
- RICKY: I’ll have the television getting warm and the beer getting cold.
In the early days, television sets frequently took a few minutes to “warm up” due to their use of a picture tube.
Fred announces that Lucy Ricardo’s ‘blessed event’ was mentioned in Walter Winchell’s column. In real life, Lucille Ball became pregnant in June 1950 while on tour and the lab doing the testing leaked the results to Winchell, who announced it immediately. Lucy and Desi heard it on the radio even before the doctor had time to call them. Sadly, Lucy miscarried the baby. Although Lucy and Desi were reluctant to hire Winchell, he was the narrator of their series “The Untouchables” and also did the same for “The Lucy Show’s” 1966 satire of the series “Lucy the Gun Moll” (TLS S4;E25).
The newspaper article says that Lucy is “infanticipating.” This is a portmanteau of “infant” and “anticipating” to avoid using the word “pregnant,” a word that CBS and Philip-Morris forbade in the scripts.
The episode gets unusually self-referential when Lucy is shown reading the January 1953 issue of McCall’s Magazine with “I Love Lucy” clearly on the cover! The article was written by Desi Arnaz himself.
At Lucy’s baby shower, a doll is prominently displayed on the sofa. Created by American Character Doll Company, the “I Love Lucy Baby Doll” was 16 inches long and included a drawer full of accessories. Because the gender of the Ricardo baby would not be announced until January 1953, the doll was not gender specific. Priced at $9.98, it turned out to be one of the best-selling toys of the 1952 Christmas season. The doll was introduced in “Pregnant Women are Unpredictable” (S2;E11), where Lucy uses it to practice diapering.
The doctor Lucy calls to examine Ricky is named Dr. Rabwin (Lou Merrill). Rabwin was the name of Lucy’s real-life friend and physician. When Ricky refuses to accept his diagnosis is psychosomatic, the doctor diagnosis him with ptomaine! Interestingly, in the 1950s doctors made house calls – and smoked cigarettes while they did them!
Ricky’s ‘Daddy Shower’ is held at the East 68th Street Athletic & Recreation Society.
Lucy’s shower guests include Hazel Pierce (who is uncredited), Lucy’s camera and lighting stand-in and a frequent extra on the show. The other women go un-credited. Jerry (Jerry Hauser), Ricky’s agent, attends the daddy shower, along with a half a dozen uncredited male actors who are members of the Desi Arnaz / Ricky Ricardo orchestra.
The corridor of the Society is decorated with an American Red Cross poster (next to the pay telephone), a frequent resource for the “I Love Lucy” set decorators.
The wild boar head on the wall turns up two years later on the wall of Richard Widmark’s home in “The Tour” (S4;E30).
Lucy and Ethel become curious and disguise themselves as newspaper reporters to see what is going on. Lucy goes by “Pete” and Ethel goes by “Sam.” They say the paper they are from is the uncommonly known New York Herald Times Tribune, a mash-up of several New York dailies.
- ETHEL: How did you see through my disguise?
- FRED: What disguise?
A decade later, Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance don male drag again in “Lucy and the Little League” (TLS S1;E28).
In the Ricardo’s headboard bookcase there is a copy of Bennett Cerf’s Try and Stop Me (1944), the first of a series of joke books compiled by Cerf, founder of Random House. It also shows up behind the sofa in “The Inferiority Complex” (S2;18). Cerf is mentioned by Lucy in the dialogue of “Lucy Writes a Novel” (S3;E24): “You had your chance, Bennett Cerf!” He was a frequent panelist on “What’s My Line?” on which Lucy guest starred four times between 1955 and 1965.
The episode ends with a tag scene where Lucy has some unusual cravings:
Pistachio ice cream, hot fudge with sardines on top!
Due to the intense heat of the studio lights, the ice cream was actually mashed potatoes and the hot fudge brown gravy. The sardines, however, were the real thing! Lucille Ball hated sardines, but she choked them down for the sake of the episode. As soon as the director yelled “cut,” Lucy ran off-stage and was sick.
Two of the cleverest scenes in this episode were often edited out when the show went into syndication – to make time for more commercials. One found a very pregnant Lucy sitting in a chair, but unable to stand up. She ultimately pulls the coffee table over for support. A very funny “real-life” moment.
The other scene finds Ricky preparing to watch a program on television, and Lucy unwittingly moves his chair.
“We always tried to open the show with little scenes that established what was happening in these people’s lives. Many times we worked on these longer than we did the big block comedy scenes. It makes you cry when some editor comes along and clips them out.” ~ Madelyn Pugh, writer
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