“Lucy Wants to Move to the Country”

(S6;E15 ~ January 28, 1957) Directed by William Asher. Written by

Madelyn Martin, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed December 6, 1956 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 42.1/56

Synopsis ~ Fed up with city life, Lucy yearns to move to the country. For their anniversary, Ricky buys a house in suburban Connecticut. But when Lucy gets separation anxiety, she schemes to get out of the deal. 

Starting with this episode, the show begins a storyline about the move to Connecticut, although the exact town (Westport) won’t be revealed until “Lucy Misses the Mertzes” (S6;E17) two weeks later. They would live in Connecticut for the rest of the series as well as during the 13 episodes of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.”

Starting with this episode director William Asher returns to the series, replacing James V. Kern. He had directed seasons 2, 3 and 4. 

Little Ricky does not appear in this episode.

The house is an old colonial and sits on two acres of land, with a guest house and barn. The selling price is never mentioned, but Ricky placed a $500 deposit down on it. They have a 20 year mortgage that won’t be paid off until 1977!  Ricky says he’ll be 56, but stops short of saying how old Lucy would be. In reality, Lucille Ball would celebrate her 66th birthday in 1977.  

At the start of the episode, Lucy and Ricky have just returned from a weekend visiting their friends the Munsons, who (apparently) had already made the move to Connecticut. Grace was a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League. She is now making her own butter and jam, and has chickens who produce extra large eggs, foreshadowing the egg business that the Ricardos and Mertzes partner in once they relocate to Connecticut.

In the first draft of the script, the Munsons were referred to as the Johnsons!  Lucille Ball preferred to use names that were familiar to her, so likely had it changed from Helen Johnson to Grace Munson. The surname Johnson had already been used for the oil tycoons in “Oil Wells” (ILL S3;E18). 

Lucy tells Fred that a round-trip ticket is only $3.08. Today a round trip peak-fare ticket on Metro North from Grand Central to Westport is actually $36. In “Lucy Misses the Mertzes” (S6;E17) Fred again complains about the train fare.

Oops!  To give Ricky the impression that their apartment is cramped compared to living in the country, Lucy pushes the furniture into the center of the room. The camera pulls back and viewers catch a glimpse of where the wall-to-wall carpeting ends and the cement studio floor begins. 

LUCY: “The Empire State Building has better color than I do.” 

In “Lucy Is Envious” (S3;E23) that color was green! Lucy and Ethel climbed the outside observation deck of the Empire State Building dressed as women from Mars to make money to fulfill a charity pledge!  

The iconic skyscraper was also seen in the second unit helicopter footage used in “Bon Voyage” (S5;E13). 

While Lucy tries to convince Ricky how dirty city living is, several spots of dust or dirt suddenly appear on Ricky’s suit coat, near his right shoulder. Moments later, just before the Mertzes enter, the spots are gone. 

Lucy says that the Seven ‘City’ Dwarfs are: Sneezy, Dusty, Stuffy, Drafty, Sniffly, Noisy, and Pasty.

Ricky compares a weepy Lucy and Ethel to the Bobbsey Twins. The Bobbsey Twins are the principal characters of a long-running series of children’s novels written under the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope. There were a total of 72 books published from 1904 to 1979. The stories relate the adventures of the children of the upper-middle-class Bobbsey family, which included two sets of fraternal twins: Bert and Nan, and Flossie and Freddie. When this episode was filmed the newest book was “The Bobbsey Twins at Pilgrim Rock.” In 1953’s “The Camping Trip” (S2;E29) Ethel referred to Lucy and Ricky as the Bobbsey Twins. The books were also mentioned in a 1963 episode of “The Lucy Show.”

To get back their $500 deposit on the house, Lucy, Ricky, and Fred pretend to be ‘undesirable’ buyers – gangsters! Lucy had already pretended to be a gangster in “The Kleptomaniac” (S1;E27). These gangster are definitely something inspired by a Hollywood film – perhaps a script by Damon Runyon. 

Gangster Ethel carries the leopard print purse seen many times before, including when Lucy goes to visit her childhood friend Helen in “The Passports” (S5;E11). Ethel buys the same exact bag while shopping in “Lucy Gets a Paris Gown” (S5;E20). 

Also during this scene, there is a grandfather clock by the front door and there are plates on the fireplace mantel. When the Ricardos actually move in, the spot where the clock is empty, but a few episodes later, the same grandfather clock is back next to the front door, and the same plates are back up on the fireplace mantel. Perhaps the Spauldings decided to leave the items, and Lucy couldn’t decide whether she liked them or not!

When Mrs. Spaulding frisks Ricky for a gun, she says "He’s clean” and then claims “That’s what they say on ‘Lineup”! She is referring to “The Lineup,” a police drama which aired on CBS radio from 1950 to 1953 and on CBS television from 1954 to 1960. It aired concurrently with “I Love Lucy." 

She didn’t know it when she spoke the line, but Eleanor Audley (Mrs. Spaulding) would appear in an episode of "The Lineup” later in 1957. Two months later Frank Wilcox (Mr. Spaulding) would also appear on the series.

Eleanor and Gerald Spaulding have lived in the one hundred year old Connecticut house for 30 years but are moving to a smaller home now that their children are grown. They reason that they don’t need such a big house for only two people. Coincidentally, this is the same reason the Bensons vacated their apartment in “The Ricardos Change Apartments” (S2;E26) also making way for the Ricardo tenancy. 

Eleanor Audley (Eleanor Spaulding) was a New York born actress who performed in eight Broadway plays between 1926 and 1944. She specialized in snobbish society matron types, most notably as Eddie Albert’s mother on TV’s “Green Acres” (1965), despite being only a year older than Albert. She is probably best known, however, as the voice of two of Disney’s most memorable animated villainesses: Lady Tremaine, the wicked stepmother in Cinderella (1950); and the evil Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959). She portrayed Mother Cooper, Liz (Lucille Ball’s) domineering, smothering mother-in-law on the radio show "My Favorite Husband.” She returned to “I Love Lucy” to play one of the garden club judges in “Lucy Raises Tulips” (S6;E26). It isn’t overtly stated if the judge is actually Mrs. Spaulding or another character, but  the Spauldings moved “just down the road” and Eleanor could have maintained her membership in the garden club. 

Frank Wilcox (Gerald Spaulding) had appeared with Lucille Ball in the films Her Husband’s Affairs (1947) and The Fuller Brush Girl (1950). This is his only series appearance.

Audley and Wilcox both appeared in the 1950 films Three Secrets and Gambling House as well as appearing together on a 1958 episode of “Jane Wyman’s Fireside Theatre” and a 1962 episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies,” in which Wilcox was a recurring character. After this episode of “I Love Lucy” it seems they were fated to be mated. They would again play husband and wife in a 1964 episode of "The Cara Williams Show” and again in two episodes of "Pete and Gladys” (1961 and 1962) – but not as the same couple!