(S3;E6 ~ November 9, 1953) Directed by William Asher. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed October 8, 1953 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 61.4/84
Synopsis ~ When Ricky and the Mertzes bet Lucy she can’t go a day without fibbing, everyone feels more than a bit stung by her brutal honesty.
This episode is based on Lucy’s “My Favorite Husband” radio show titled “The Absolute Truth” (#29) broadcast January 29, 1949.
Jess Oppenheimer’s original script lists a character named Harriet, who was eventually replaced by Marion Strong. Originally, the final scene was Ricky being interrogated by a tax official (Mr. Miller) and not Lucy at the audition. Desi Arnaz refused to perform the scene, necessitating the re-writes.
The episode opens with Ricky and the Mertzes talking about their past in show business. In yet another of the series’ Rodgers & Hammerstein references, Lucy fibs that she was the star of Oklahoma!
ETHEL: “What was your maiden name, Alfred Drake?”
LUCY: “Well, maybe I wasn’t exactly the star, but would you believe I was a featured player? (no reply) Chorus girl? (no reply) Ticket taker?”
Alfred Drake (1914-92) originated the leading role of Curly when the musical Oklahoma! premiered in 1943. A month after this episode first aired he opened on Broadway in the musical Kismet. Meanwhile, Oklahoma! had just closed it’s second New York City revival at City Center starring Florence Henderson (”The Brady Bunch”). The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals South Pacific had been a punch line in “No Children Allowed” (S2;E22) and The King and I will be mentioned in “The Celebrity Next Door” (LDCH 1957).
Lucy is forced to admit that the closest she’s been to Oklahoma! is spending two weeks in Tulsa. Fred says “Molly McGee should have such a fibber,” making a pun on the title of the long-running radio show “Fibber McGee and Molly” (1935-59). Their most memorable gag was the overstuffed closet, a joke included in all of Lucille Ball’s sitcoms. The show moved to NBC television in 1959, with one episode inspired by the Lucy / Desi film The Long, Long Trailer, and also featuring Charles Lane!
Flowers are delivered for Ricky from Jim and Dorothy Wynn, wishing him a speedy recovery during his sprained ankle – another Lucy lie to get out of a dinner invitation. In “Lucy’s Club Dance” (S3;E25) the women of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League are gossiping about how Jim gave Dorothy a black eye! The flower delivery man goes uncredited and his face is not seen close-up, but he is probably played by Bennett Green, Desi’s camera and lighting stand-by and frequent series extra.
This is the first of five times that movie star Cary Grant is mentioned on “I Love Lucy”. Although he never appeared on the series, he attended the “All-Star Party for Lucille Ball” in 1984.
After making the bet, Lucy realizes that she is supposed to play cards with Caroline the next day, and starts to telephone her to tell her she is sick. When she realizes that playing sick would be a lie and she’d lose the bet, Lucy does her famous “Ewww” spider face.
As the scene opens in Caroline’s apartment, she is taking a pack of cigarettes out of a Philip Morris carton in her chest of drawers. It seems everyone Lucy knows smokes the sponsor’s product!
At the weekly bridge game, Lucy tells Caroline (sometimes spelled ‘Carolyn’) Appleby (Doris Singleton) her new Chinese modern furniture is “like a bad dream you’d have after eating too much Chinese food.” Caroline has obviously been very busy decorating since the previous episode, “Baby Pictures,” when her apartment was all early American.
Lucy slams Marion Strong (Shirley Mitchell) for her “silly” feathered hat and inane cackling.
LUCY: “I’ve been waiting ten years for you to lay that egg.”
Forced to be honest about herself, Lucy reveals that she is 33 years old, weighs 129 pounds, and her natural hair color is mousy brown. In real life, Lucille Ball’s natural hair color was indeed brown. When this episode was filmed, Lucille Ball was really 42 years old. Lucy Ricardo was consistently 10 years younger than Lucille Ball’s real age. Lucy still weighs as much as she did in the "The Diet” (S1;E3).
The Mayer Twins play Little Ricky. Ricky and Fred try to get him to wave goodbye, but the child isn’t cooperative.
LUCY: (looking at the messy coffee table) “It looks like you fed a whole nursery full of babies.”
On the table in front of Fred is Mr. Squawker, a rubber duck squeeze toy manufactured by Rempel Manufacturing of Akron, Ohio.
When Lucy and Ricky are at the audition, Lucy says Mrs. Trumbull is babysitting, although she does not appear on camera. Because it was known to the TV audience that Lucille Ball was a mother in real life as well, the writers were careful to account for the baby’s well-being while his parents were off solving their comic predicaments.
Ricky arranges for Lucy to audition for a casting director, knowing she’ll probably embroider her experience to get the part and he’ll win the bet. Veteran character actor Charles Lane plays the casting director. This was Lane’s second of four appearances on the show, having already played Mr. Stanley, the expectant father in “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (S2;E16).
LUCY (trying not to lie): “I was in 3D.”
LANE: “So you were in third dimension?”
LUCY: “No, sir.”
LANE: “Well, what’s 3D if it isn’t third dimension?”
LUCY: “It’s the number on our apartment.”
Although after the Ricardos switched apartments their new apartment number was 3B, starting with this episode it was changed to 3D to make this joke pay off. The early 1950’s was considered the ‘golden era’ of 3D with House of Wax (1953) perhaps one of the most successful films of the genre, released just months before this episode aired.
The same year this episode aired, “I Love Lucy” got on the bandwagon by issuing a 3D photo book, complete with glasses. The idea resurfaced years later when “I Love Lucy Comics” published a 3D edition.
At the audition, Dorothy Lloyd plays Mercedes Minch, the woman who sings like a chicken. Lloyd often contributed animal voices to children’s recordings for Columbia Records, a division of CBS. Sadly, her hysterical song is generally cut in syndication.
Mario Siletti played the knife-throwing Professor Falconi. The actor would return to the show as the Italian farmer who gives the gang shelter in his barn in “The Bicycle Trip” (S5;E24). Lucy has great fun pretending to understand the Professor’s verbose Italian.
The episode breaks the cardinal rule of magic when Ricky explains that the knives actually come from the back and are not thrown.
The original script ended with Lucy finding out that Ricky lied on his tax return and the Ricardos finding out that they will have to undergo an audit.
In the lost un-filmed scene we learn that Ricky went to Kentucky to play with the band, and won some money at the Kentucky Derby, which he failed to report.
It is likely that Charles Lane was scheduled to play Mr. Miller, but when the scene was re-written, the actor was cast as the unnamed casting director at the audition. A smug tax official is certainly the kind of role Lane specialized in and is very similar to his role of Mr. Hickox in “The Business Manager” (S4;E1, above) and banker Barnsdahl on “The Lucy Show”.
Desi Arnaz was very proud of his nationalized status as an American citizen and didn’t want Ricky to lie to the government. The tax scene was scrapped and the knife-throwing scene was written instead. The original ending is reprinted in writer Jess Oppenheimer’s book Laughs, Luck…and Lucy.
FAST FORWARD!
Lucy Carter also was also a knife thrower’s target in a 1969 episode of “Here’s Lucy” when Paul Winchell played a Frenchman named the Great Pierre!
“LUCY SELLS THE TRUTH”
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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