“Lucy is Envious”

(S3;E23 ~ March 29, 1954) Directed by William Asher. Written by

Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed February 16, 1954 at Ren-Mar Studio. Rating: 59.5/83

Synopsis ~ When Lucy and Ethel unwittingly pledge $500 each to a charity, they take a job posing as Martians on top of the Empire State Building to earn the money!

The plot was most likely inspired by the 1953 film The War of the Worlds which is also about a Martian invasion. Two days before this episode aired, a British film called Devil Girl from Mars hit US cinemas.

Also hitting the big screen in 1953 was Invaders From Mars, which featured Hillary Brooke (Angela Randall in “The Fox Hunt”) and Richard Deacon (Tallulah Bankhead’s butler in “The Celebrity Next Door”), in his film debut. America had Martian madness! 

This was writer Jess Oppenheimer’s least favorite episode because he found it unrealistic.

While reading through the newspapers in bed, Lucy sees that her old school chum Cynthia Harcourt is in town. She has a penthouse at the Waldorf, the same hotel that Lucy and Ethel stayed at in “The Publicity Agent” (S1;E31) when pretending to be Franistan royalty. Cynthia puts the bite on Lucy for a donation, and both Lucy and Ethel pledge ‘five’, not realizing that Cynthia means five hundred, not five dollars! 

Cynthia is played by Mary Jane Croft (using a posh accent) in her first series appearance. She will return in season 5 as the woman sitting next to Lucy on a plane in “Return Home from Europe” (S5;26) before taking the role of Betty Ramsey in season 6. Croft became one of Lucy’s best friends in both “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy,” always playing a character named Mary Jane. Her last screen appearance was in “Lucy Calls the President” (1977).

Cynthia, whose husband is named Cyrus, tells Lucy that she’s already received pledges from Lucy’s old school chums Renita, Adele, and Hazel. These names come from real life. 

• Renita Reachi was Vivian Vance’s stand-in and later a wardrobe assistant on the show. Her first name was used as the name of a sexy dancer in “Cuban Pals” (S1;E28). 
• Adele Sliff was the “I Love Lucy” script supervisor. Her full name would be used again in by Rock Hudson “In Palm Springs” (S4;E26). 
• Hazel Pierce was Lucy’s stand-in and also a frequent extra on the show. Her first name would be the same as a drug store waitress in the Ricardo’s neighborhood. 

When Cynthia drops by unexpectedly, Lucy is in the middle of cleaning, and the apartment is in disarray.  The Handy Dandy vacuum cleaner Lucy purchased during “Sales Resistance” (S2;E17) is left out! 

The messy apartment also has some of Little Ricky’s toys strewn about. Little Ricky’s toy Telephone Bank is on the mantle. 

The toy rotary telephone savings bank is by Amerline of Chicago, IL, copyright 1945. It was designed to tech children how to use the phone as well as the value of saving money. When scouring the apartment for the money to pay her pledge, Lucy says she even broke into Little Ricky’s piggy bank, but only found a couple of IOUs from Ricky. Could this be what she is referring to? 

Looking through Billboard, Lucy spots a job for ‘two girls with courage’ and PR man Al Sparks comes over to hire the pair to help promote a new film called “Women from Mars.”  

The Billboard was founded in 1894 as a trade publication for bill posters but soon branched out to embrace all facets of the entertainment industry. They are famous for their “charts” tracking the sales of recordings and films.

Sparks is played by Herb Vigran, one of TV’s busiest character actors. He had already been seen as Joe, the washing machine repairman (and Mrs. Trumbull’s nephew) in “Never Do Business with Friends” (S2;E31) and as Jule, Ricky’s music agent. Of his more than 350 credits, he also made six appearances on “The Lucy Show.”

Opening the scene at the top of the Empire State Building are two tourists from Kansas, Henry and Martha, hell-bent on seeing Wichita through the observation binoculars. They are played by Dick Elliott and Kay Wiley. This is Kay Wiley’s fourth and final appearance on the show, most memorably as one of the customers in Hansen’s Dress Shop in “The Girls Go Into Business” (S3;E2). Dick Elliott was seen with Lucy in the films Next Time I Marry (1938) and Meet the People (1944) and would return as one of the spectators at Yankee stadium in “Lucy Meets Bob Hope” (S6;E1). 

Joan Carey (above right) was a frequent background player who later became Lucille Ball’s stand-in during “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.”

The elevator operator is played by Louis A. Nicoletti, a veteran of 15 episodes who later served as assistant director of “The Lucy Show,” The Long, Long Trailer and “Here’s Lucy.”

Little Ricky makes a brief appearance in his stroller. He is played by the Mayer Twins. 

Little Ricky is in a “Folda Rolla” toddler stroller manufactured by Peterson Baby Products during the 1950s. It was light-weight and ideal for apartment-dwellers like the Ricardos as it folded up for easy storage. 

The Empire State Building opened in 1931 at the height of the great Depression. The observation deck depicted in the show is on the 86th floor but there is also a smaller observation deck on the 102nd floor. The fence around the observatory terrace was put up in 1947 after five people tried to jump during a three-week span. The deck has been featured in such films as King Kong (1933), On the Town (1949), An Affair to Remember (1957), The Producers (1968), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Love Affair (1994), and many others.

Oops!  When Lucy and Ethel are scaling the fence of the observation deck, Vivian Vance drops her ray gun. For the rest of the scene it lays on the floor in the background. Ethel must share Lucy’s ray gun!

After their stunt, Lucy reads in the newspaper that “Hordes of invaders were also seen in New Jersey and Connecticut.”  Perhaps not so coincidentally, the 1939 radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds” placed the epicenter of their Martian invasion in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. Orson Welles, who produced the broadcast for his Mercury Theatre, was a friend and frequent house guest of the Arnazes. He will play himself at the start of season six. That same year the Ricardos and Mertzes will all move to Connecticut.

Oops!  When Lucy is swatting Ricky with her napkin at the end of the episode, the napkin flies out of her hand onto the floor.

It’s a moo-moo!

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FAST FORWARD

When not wondering about life on Mars, there was always the Moon!  

Second unit  footage of the Empire State Building was seen in “Bon Voyage” (S5;E13) as the helicopter carrying Lucy Ricardo toward the SS Constitution flies over Manhattan. A view of the Empire State Building starts the final scene of the first episode of “The Lucie Arnaz Show” (1985). 

Mattel made Lucy and Ethel Martian dolls, one of only two doll sets in the Lucy / Barbie series that were miniatures, made from Kelly Dolls.

Unacknowledged, a 2017 documentary about the cover-up of UFO findings, included a clip from this episode. 

In 2018, NASA landed an un-manned unit on Mars. Naturally, the internet (okay, me) had a field day with the idea.

Although it was indeed the 89th episode filmed, the title of the episode is not “Lucy From Mars”.  The word “Envious” in the title refers to Lucy’s envy of her old school chum Cynthia, but that fact is far upstaged by her antics dressed as a Martian, so “Lucy from Mars” is a much better title with instant recognition by viewers. 

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