“Lucy Fakes Illness”

(S1;E16 ~ January 28, 1952) Directed by Marc Daniels.  Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed on December 18, 1951 at General Service Studios. It was the 16th episode filmed. Rating: 57.4/77

Synopsis ~ When Ricky is casting a new show and forbids Lucy to audition, she takes a tip from a book on Abnormal Psychology and pretends to be mentally ill – until Ricky turns the tables!  

This episode is based on Lucy’s radio show “My Favorite Husband” episode #111 titled “Liz Has the Flimjabs”
broadcast December 30, 1950.

A portion of the opening scene with Fred and Ethel showing Lucy the ad in Variety, was cut for syndication. The DVD restored the episode to its full length. 

In this scene, Fred and Ethel wear unusually dressy clothes. Ethel generally wears house dresses and William Frawley rarely wears such a fancy jacket.  While much of the cast’s wardrobe is repeated, these never are seen again. Later in the episode, Ricky wears a turtleneck sweater, something the character rarely does.  

The three complexes that Lucy adopts from the book are: 

• acting like a famous actress (Lucy chooses Tallulah Bankhead); 
• developing amnesia (or ‘magnesia’, as Ricky calls it); 
• and acting like a child. 

Lucy is referring to Noel Coward, the famous British playwright. Shortly before this show Bankhead had starred in a successful revival of his Private Lives on Broadway.

At the time of filming, Bankhead was in the midst of hosting “The Big Show” on NBC radio, which ended in April 1952. Lucy gets to do her Bankhead impersonation again at the very end of the season in “Ricky Asks For A Raise” (S1;E35). 

The real Tallulah Bankhead would guest star on “The Celebrity Next Door,” the second episode of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour” (1957, inset photo) when Bette Davis withdrew. 

Lucy

again reverts to childhood in “The Kleptomaniac” (S1;E27), where her baby voice is inspired by Ginger Rogers in the 1942 film The Major and the Minor.

At first Ricky calls Dr. Stevenson, but only reaches his answering service. The doctor’s surname may be a reference to noted costume designer Edward Stevenson, who designed gowns for Lucille Ball in more than a dozen RKO films and would eventually become costume designer of “I Love Lucy” after the departure of Elois Jenssen in 1955.

This is Hal March’s first appearance on the series, playing an actor friend of Ricky’s, also named Hal March. At the end of the show, announcer Johnny Jacobs says “The part of Hal March was played by Hal March.” 

In real life, March was indeed a friend of the Arnazes.

March returned to the show to play womanizing lingerie salesman Eddie Grant in “Lucy Is Matchmaker” (S2;E27). In 1966 he was seen on “The Lucy Show.”

For the television script, the ‘flimjabs’ was renamed the ‘gobloots’ – a rare tropical disease that carried into America on the hind legs of the ‘boo-shoo bird.’ It can necessitate a person having to undergo a ‘zorchectomy’ – total or partial removal of the ‘zorch.’ Even if doctors are able to save half a person’s ‘zorch,’ the patient will never be able to ‘trummle’ again. ‘Trummling’ is a mysterious involuntary internal process. Finally, if you turn green while suffering from the ‘gobloots’ you will be dead in 30 minutes!

Oops! When Ricky replaces Lucy’s bedside lamps with green bulbs to convince her she’s really ill, why doesn’t Ethel see that Ricky and Fred are also green?

Although we don’t hear the lyrics (or even the title), the song Ricky’s musicians play for Lucy at her ‘death bed,’ was “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead (You Rascal You)” written by Sam Heard in 1931. Lucy either recognizes this jazz standard, or is surprised by its upbeat tone, but she is visibly alarmed when it is played. Some “I Love Lucy” books and websites incorrectly list the song as “When the Saints Come Marching In.” 

This is the first appearance of the “I Love Lucy” teddy bear, nestled next to Lucy in her ‘sick bed.’ The bear will return in “Ricky Minds the Baby” (S3;E14) and a variation of the bear is seen in “Nursery School” (S5;E9) when Little Ricky has his tonsils out. It would later be made commercially available.

While playing cards in the living room, Ricky pulls a carton of Philip Morris cigarettes out of the desk. He gives Fred a pack and Fred pockets it. He then offers Fred a single cigarette from the pack, but William Frawley fails to take it, so Desi drops the pack on the desk. Frawley notices this and takes a cigarette out of the pack. Philip Morris was the show’s sponsor and they took any opportunity to show their product. During the height of the show’s popularity, Lucy and Desi’s image would be on the carton instead of Johnny the Bellboy, their living mascot. 

Oops!

Ricky says they have lived in their apartment for five years when earlier in the season it was only three. 

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This episode was rerun during season 2. A newly filmed intro has Fred faking his “yearly case of lumbago” to get out of cleaning the furnace. Ethel knows Fred is faking, and she proves it by pretending to have tickets to a show that night. Fred wants to go to the show, so he suddenly recovers from his lumbago. Fred asks, “Are the seats good?” Ethel replies with, “They sure are – right in front of the furnace!” Ricky then chides Fred for faking, saying how nobody ever falls for “that phony sick routine.” Fred and Ethel then remind Ricky of when he fell for Lucy’s phony psychological problems and the re-run begins as a flashback.

In “Lucy the Stockholder” (TLS S3;E25), Lucy Carmichael pretends to regress to childhood to convince a rich doctor to deposit money in Mr. Mooney’s bank!