Readers keepers, losers go look at television!
(S2;E20 ~ March 9, 1953) Directed by William Asher. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed September 15, 1952 at General Service Studios. Rating: 67.5/92
The script is based on “The Misunderstanding of the Black Eye,” episode #118 of Lucille Ball’s radio show “My Favorite Husband” aired on February 10, 1951.
This was the last episode filmed before Lucille Ball went on maternity leave. It would be aired with a flashback intro in which Ricky makes reference to the ‘kid’ sleeping in the next room. Ethel comes over looking for Lucy and accidentally opens the door on Fred, bumping his nose! When Ricky warns it may cause a black eye, they recall when they were in a similar predicament.
This was not Lucille Ball’s first on-screen shiner. When she met Desi Arnaz for the very first time she’d been filming a fight scene for the film Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) and sported a black eye.
Nobody ever believes the real story of a black eye!
Synopsis ~ Lucy gets the first shiner when Ricky tosses a book to her, although Fred and Ethel overhear Lucy and Ricky reading the torrid book (above) aloud to one another and won’t believe Lucy’s story. Fred decides the best way for the Ricardos to patch things up is for Ricky to send Lucy flowers, but when Ricky refuses, Fred sends them anyway but in his haste, he signs the card with his own name instead of Ricky’s! Ethel is present when Lucy opens the flowers and then finds Fred hiding in the closet, causing jealous Ethel to hit Fred with the flower box – black eye number two! Fred slugs Ricky n anger – resulting in black eye number three! In the final scene, Ethel arrives to complete the black-eyed foursome confirming that you can indeed get a black-eye from a tossed book!
Although the novel read aloud in the episode was made up by the writers, the prop book is actually The D.A. Takes a Chance by Erle Stanley Gardner, who is also the author of the Perry Mason novels.
The hard cover of Lucy’s book looks like the 1st edition from 1948 without its dust jacket.
In this episode, the Evans Cornucopia Lighter and Cigarette Server is displayed on the Ricardo’s coffee table.
Highly collectible today, these items were endorsed by actress Jane Wyman in print ads during the 1950s.
The upright vacuum Lucy uses in this episode was not a Handy Dandy product but a Hoover model 62. The cleaner was reproduced by Vandor as collectible ceramic salt and pepper shakers.
In order to patch things up between Lucy and Ricky (who he believes are feuding) Fred orders Lucy some flowers from Ricky with the help of Pete the florist played by Bennett Green, Desi’s camera and lighting stand-in.
Hazel Pierce, Lucille Ball’s camera and lighting stand-in, does a quick walk by on the the street in front of the florist shop.
Oops! Before shutting the box and hastily scribbling the card, Fred tells Pete to put in some gladiolas, too. (An incongruous combination that sounds like an ad-lib by William Frawley.) When Lucy later opens the box, however, the gladdies are nowhere to be seen!
Lucy reads the card aloud, signed “Eternally yours, Fred.”
LUCY: “Oh, now, Ethel, you certainly don’t think that these are from Fred Mertz, do you?”
ETHEL: “Well, this card certainly wasn’t written by Fred MacMurray.”
Fred MacMurray and William Frawley had starred together in a 1935 police drama called Car 99. In 1958, MacMurray would guest star on “Lucy Hunts Uranium” (above) an episode of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.” Starting in 1960 Frawley would co-star with MacMurray on the family sitcom “My Three Sons” as Uncle Bub, playing the role for five years, until declining health forced his replacement by another William, William Demarest.
In the radio script that this episode is closely based upon, the character equivalent of Fred was named Rudolph. So when the box of flowers is opened Iris (Ethel’s equivalent) says, “Well, it isn’t Rudolph Valentino!”
ETHEL: “Boy, that rat really gave you a mouse!”
The comedy trope of putting a raw steak on a black eye dates back to before home freezers, when raw meet had to be kept cold thus they were as good a cold pack to keep swelling down. In modern times another grocery item – a bag of frozen peas – has supplanted the raw steak. From steak and peas to….
Bananas!
This is one of many episodes where Ethel / Vivian Vance enjoys her favorite fruit: the banana!
Was this subliminal sexual imagery or is Ethel subconsciously manifesting her untapped passions due to her love-less marriage to Fred?
Vance’s proclivity for bananas continued on “The Lucy Show” where she played Vivian Bagley – a divorcee. Here she enjoys a banana in bed. Draw your own conclusions!
FAST FORWARD
The end of “Fan Magazine Interview” (S3;E17) finds Ricky with a black eye from a punch thrown by Joe, Minnie Finch’s jealous husband!
Black eyes are also a major part of “Lucy Goes To Sun Valley”, a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” where both Ricky and guest star Fernando Lamas end up with black eyes.
Lucy Carmichael’s son Jerry (Jimmy Garret) got a shiner on a 1963 episode of “The Lucy Show.”
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