(S2;E1 ~ September 15, 1952) Directed by William Asher. Written by
Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed May 30, 1952 at General Service Studios. Rating: 64.4/60
Synopsis ~ Ricky and Fred think doing housework is much easier than earning money. So the boys try doing the housework while the girls attempt to hold down a job at a candy factory. Problems soon arise on both fronts.
This episode is based on Lucy’s radio show, “My Favorite Husband,” episodes #78 and #79 titled “Women’s Rights ~ Part Two.” The scenes in the chocolate factory is not part of the script!
This was one of five episodes filmed in May 1952 and held for broadcast the following season. It was the first episode of season 2 and the first to be directed by William Asher. Asher would direct 102 episodes of the 179 in the series, more than any other director.
Along with “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” (S1;E30 aka “Vitameatavegamin”) and “Lucy’s Italian Movie” (S5;E23 aka “Grape Stomping”) it is consistently rated one of the most popular episodes of the series and one of the most recognizable sitcom episodes in television history.
Desilu Studios considered it the epitome of their work and for many years screened it for all visiting dignitaries.
In 1996, TV Guide included this episode as part of its “100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History” ranking it # 2. The special “TV’s Funniest of the Funniest,” ranked it first among the 30 funniest moments in TV history. Not surprisingly, this is one of Lucille Ball’s favorite episodes.
As the episode opens, an angry Ricky reads aloud the note Lucy’s written on the back of her bounced check to the beauty parlor:
“Dear Teller, be a lamb and don’t put this through until next month.”
LUCY: “That’s why they call ‘em tellers. They go around blabbing everything they know.”
At the start of the first scene in the kitchen, Ricky is cooking while wearing Lucy’s heart-pocket apron. He seems to be whistling what sounds like “There’s a Brand New Baby at Our House,” although it is mostly covered by the orchestra’s scene intro music. This is a song he wrote in 1951 for his daughter Lucie Arnaz and introduced on the radio program “Your Tropical Trip” in 1951. This being the first episode of the second season, Desi knew that Lucille Ball’s real-life pregnancy would be worked into the plot of the show. Although it wouldn’t happen for nine more episodes, perhaps Desi is foreshadowing the blessed event for attentive fans?
Lucy reads the New York Herald Tribune, a real-life daily published between 1924 and 1966 after the merger of the New York Herald and the Tribune. In a true role reversal, Lucy sits in Ricky’s chair and also ignores him behind her newspaper.
The back page of the newspaper has ads for Johnnie Walker whiskey and Schaefer beer. In 1947, Lucille Ball did print ads for Schaefer beer. At the time, she was the star of the stage play Dream Girl.
The gag of launching toast out of the toaster is repeated here, except this time it is Ricky launching it to to Lucy foreshadowing their role reversal in the episode. The bit was first seen in “Be a Pal” (S1;E3) and then again in “Ricky Thinks He’s Going Bald” (S1;E34).
TOAST TRIVIA: Notice that in the above gif Lucy catches the toast and then her hand goes below the table. In the next moment, Lucy takes a bit out of the toast, but it is not the same piece that was launched from the toaster! The piece of toast that flies through the air is actually an inedible lightweight prop. Lucille Ball has an edible piece in her lap. She quickly makes the switch and takes a bite of her toast!
The drug store calls to tell Lucy that Ricky left his hat there when picking up the breakfast orders, essentially exposing his lie to Lucy that he easily made the breakfast himself. Although unknown today, drug stores generally ran modest food service counters, serving light inexpensive fare, in addition to their apothecary duties.
This is the third and final time that Lucy will be seen wearing her ‘Vitameatavegamin’ dress. Curiously, although she only wore the dress three times, all of the episodes are popular ones.
The employment office Lucy and Ethel go to is named the Acme Employment Agency. Their motto is ‘People We Place Stay Put.’
Lucy and Ethel are interviewed by its president, Mr. A. Snodgrass (Alvin Hurwitz). This is Hurwitz’s second of only three screen appearances. The year before he appeared on “Raquet Squad.”
Before candy makers, the job openings offered Lucy and Ethel were:
- stenographer, bookkeeper, comptometer operator, dental technician, insurance adjuster, and PBX operator
A comptometer was the first commercially key-driven mechanical calculator, patented in 1887. Essentially, it was an adding machine with added features.
A PBX [Private Branch Exchange] operator handles a commercial telephone switching system.
This is similar to a list of available jobs mentioned in in the newspaper during “The Amateur Hour” (S1;E19):
- stenographer, bookkeeper, cook, and lady wrestler
In that episode, Lucy ends up as babysitter to the unruly Hudson Twins.
Before Lucy and Ethel are interviewed by Mr. Snodgrass, the applicant in the hot seat is played by Hazel Pierce, Lucille Ball’s camera and lighting stand-in and frequent on-camera background player. As usual, she does not have any lines.
During the switch, even the boys’ wardrobe has been influenced. Ricky wears a frilly apron and Fred wears a scarf “to keep the dust out of his hair.”
Doing his best to promote the sponsor’s product, Desi has a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes tucked in his rolled-up sleeve. He makes sure his left arm faces the camera, even though it means turning away from William Frawley.
Fred refers to Ricky as ‘Ricky Margaret McBride’ after Ricky shows him how he has starched Lucy’s stockings. This is a reference to Mary Margaret McBride who was a successful radio personality and journalist who reached the height of her popularity from 1935 to 1955. McBride often gave household hints when advertising products. Ethel satirizes her as Mary Margaret McMertz when selling Lucy’s salad dressing on TV in “The Million Dollar Idea” (S3;E13).
Oops! In the mayhem that ensues after the pressure cooker explodes, Ricky and Fred scrub the chickens with brushes and cleanser! One of the chicken’s feet knocks the cleanser into the sink, where it stays.
This might have been prevented had Ricky cut the feet and heads off the chickens before cooking them! The can is redacted, so it is impossible to know what brand they are using. Also, when Desi turns on the water, their must be air in the line because it makes a humming sound he knows will be a problem in editing. He adjusts the water flow and the sound stops. Unusually, the curtains over the stove have been closed. This is likely to mask the mechanics of pumping the cooked rice through the pot.
Outside the back door is usually a backdrop of a cityscape. Here is has been replaced by a brick wall. This is likely also to hide the stagecraft.
Whoops! When Ricky slips on the rice for the first time it was accidental; not planned. Desi Arnaz got such a great reaction from the audience that he repeated the gag several more times. Unfortunately, in doing so he bruised his ribs.
This is one of the episodes where Lucille Ball had to learn a special skill so she hired someone who actually could teach her how to do it (in a week) and appear in the episode. Other times this happened:
- Jitterbug – Arthur ‘King Cat’ Walsh
- Toss Pizza Dough – Aldo Formica
- Karate / Judo – Louis Coppola and Ed Parker (”The Lucy Show”)
- Operate a Pottery Wheel – Roger Twedt (”Here’s Lucy”)
The calendar on the wall of the dipping room has the month redacted with tape, but the configuration of the days and dates means it can only be March 1952. The episode was filmed at the end of May 1952 and not aired until October.
Amanda Milligan (Candy Dipper) was a real candy dipper with See’s Candies in Los Angeles. Milligan not only said that the day she spent on the set was the most boring day of her life, she also later said that she had not even seen the program! She told Lucy that she usually watched wrestling Monday nights at 9pm.
Milligan originally had lines in her scene but these were cut because of she was uncomfortable talking on camera.
This is her only screen appearance.
The look of shock on Lucy’s face when the candy maker slaps Lucy was genuine. During rehearsals, Milligan didn’t slap Lucy hard enough for Lucy’s liking so desperate to get the proper reaction during filming, Lucy swatted the fly off Milligan’s nose very hard. In response, Milligan gave Lucy a real wallop – taking Lucy aback, just as she hoped.
Trivia! Although it looks like the slap with the chocolate occurs twice, it was actually the same slap from two different camera angles.
The dipping room and the wrapping room are actually the same set re-dressed. Even the sign of rules next to the door is the same in both rooms.
Elvia Allman played the strident forewoman of Kramer’s Kandy Kitchen. This was the first of three appearances on the series, although she had appeared with Lucille Ball on radio. She would return to the show as one of Minnie Finch’s neighbors in “Fan Magazine” (S3;E17) and as reporter Nancy Graham in “The Homecoming” (S5;E6). She made two appearances each on The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour“ and ”The Lucy Show.“
FAST FORWARD!
In the final scene of “The Matchmaker” (S4;E4) Ricky also apologetically returns home with a huge box of chocolates for Lucy.
Lucy also encounters some trouble with candy in “Face to Face” (S5;E7) when the TV lights for their home interview make a caramel chewier than she expected.
The episode was colorized and aired on CBS as the second half of the “The ‘I Love Lucy’ Christmas Special” on December 7, 2014.
Barbie honored the episode with collectible dolls representing Lucy and Ethel at Kramer’s Candy Kitchen.
“The Lucy Show” also featured an employment agency (left)
with a catchy slogan: ‘Odd Jobs for Odd People’ It inspired the Unique Employment Agency (right) where Lucy and Harry Carter work during “Here’s Lucy.” Their slogan is ‘Unusual Jobs for Unusual People.”
The gag of a hot iron scorching clothes was repeated a couple of times more on “Here’s Lucy.”
Lucy also had trouble keeping up with conveyor belts at the laundry in “Bonus Bucks” (S3;E21) and the post office in “Lucy and the Missing Stamp” (TLS S3;E14).
Then again at a toy factory in “Lucy and the Efficiency Expert” (TLS S5;E13) and LAX in “The Great Airport Chase” (HL S1;E18) filmed on location.
Lucy Carmichael got a face full of chocolate again in “Lucy and the Safe Cracker” (TLS S2;E5). Wally Cox plays an ex-con who owns Grandma’s Dandy Candy Shop.
CHOCOLATE INSPIRATION!
The famous conveyor belt scene is re-enacted in a 1969 episode of ”Bewitched“ when Uncle Arthur (Paul Lynde) and Serena (Elizabeth Montgomery) go to work in an ice cream shop.
William Asher (Montgomery’s husband) directed the episode, just as he did “Job Switching.”
While appearing on the talk show “Donahue” in March 1974 to promote Mame, one audience member says her favorite episode is the Candy Factory, which Lucy says is hers, too. The audience instantly knows that she is talking about “Job Switching”.
On a March 1977 episode of “Saturday Night Live” Gilda Radner played Lucy Ricardo in a sketch where she works the conveyor belt at a bomb factory!
In 2014, Kate McKinnon played Lucy in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch that mentioned this episode.
A clip from the episode is seen in the 1986 fantasy film Nothing Lasts Forever starring Zach Galligan (above), Bill Murray, and Dan Aykroyd.
A clip from the episodes is used in the 1986 movie musical Little Shop of Horrors, as Audrey (Ellen Greene) sings “Somewhere That’s Green,” imagining her home life with Seymour and their two children as they “snuggle watching Lucy” on their “big, enormous 12″ screen.”
The Fox animated series “Family Guy” parodied “Somewhere That’s Green”, including the family watching Lucy”, in a 2005 episode titled “The Courtship of Stewie’s Father” (S4;E16).
Jeff Daniels mentioned this episode as he recalled working in a Burger King when he was a guest on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” in 1986.
When a chocolate volcano explodes, this episode is mentioned on a 1990 episode of “Growing Pains” titled “The Home Show” (S5;E16).
In the 1997 episode "Oh What A Tangled Spell She Weaves” (S2;E11) of “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) gets a job at a pizza place with her best friend Valerie (Lindsay Sloane), who is soon promoted after Sabrina falls asleep on the job. During her nap, Sabrina has a dream where she’s falling behind on a fast-moving assembly line, just like Lucy.
On a June 1999 episode of “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” (S6;E137), a filmed intro to a sketch titled “A Couple of Mutts” features Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and O’Brien in a moment that satirizes the famous conveyor belt scene.
In a 2006 episode of the Nickelodeon series ”Drake And Josh” the title characters go to work at a sushi factory called Ball and Vance (a nod to Lucy and Vivian). The conveyor belt scene is re-enacted with sushi instead of chocolate.
A clip from “Job Switching” was included in the 1998 documentary TV show "California’s Gold” hosted by Huell Howser. He also tours See’s Candy (where Amanda Milligan worked) and gets an inside look of the assembly line that inspired this episode.
On a 2009 episode of “Jeopardy!” the episode is the subject of a $600 clue in the category ‘At the Candy Factory’.
In a 2012 episode of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” titled “The Last Roundup” (S2;E14), the ponies sort cherries on a conveyor belt and have trouble keeping up. The ponies wear the same sort of chef’s hats that Lucy and Ethel did at Kramer’s Candy Kitchen.
“Family Guy” satirized the conveyor belt scene – but instead of candy it was pills! The episode, titled
“Burning Down the Bayit”
(S10;E15), first aired on Fox on March 4, 2012.
In 2018, “Family Guy” satirized the episode again in “Pawtucket Pete” (S17;E9).
A cartoon still image from the episode is on one of the TV screens (top left) in “Family Guy Through The Years” (2018) which supposes that the series began in 1956.
On a 2017 episode of “The Simpsons” titled “Kamp Krustier” (S28;E15) Homer worked a conveyor belt of radioactive materials. To keep up, Like Lucy, he shoved some in his mouth!
A January 2015 episode of “Cutthroat Kitchen” titled “Alton’s Chocolate Factory” (S6;E13), featured a sabotage based on the conveyor belt scene. The affected chef had to stop cooking for five minutes to take chocolates off the conveyor belt and put them into boxes. Any chocolates that fell off the end of the belt resulted in a $100 fine per piece of chocolate.
On the 2015 episode “Taxed” (S7;E4) of “The Good Wife,” Judge Schakowsky (Christopher McDonald) compares his courtroom to Lucy in the candy factory!
The episode was glimpsed in two episodes of TV’s “Nostalgia Critic” in 2013 and 2014.
The famous speeding conveyor belt was even part of a now defunct Disney-MGM Studios attraction Super Star Television that allowed audience members to step in to Lucy and Ethel’s shoes in front of a live audience to recreate the scene.
Images from this episode have been seen on countless pieces of “I Love Lucy” collectible merchandise, including chocolates…
…and VHS tapes!
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