WAITING ON LUCY!

A tribute to the servers who’ve tried to please Lucy!

Alberto Morin plays Robert DuBois, a waiter turned French tutor, in “The French Revue” (ILL S3;E7) 1953. Not knowing French, Fred mistakenly orders an order of “Closed on Sundays!” 

Frank Nelson played nearsighted waiter Henry in “Lucy Changes Her Mind” (ILL S2;E21) in 1953. This was the third of Nelson’s 11 appearances on the series. “Pork chops, huh?”  

Lawrence Dobkin was the counter help of the corner café in

“Ricky and Fred Are TV Fans” (ILL S2;E30)

in 1953. Lucy gets caught with her hand in the till. 

Dobkin returned to play a waiter that Ricky jokingly called Xavier.  The girls end up washing dishes when they call for “Equal Rights” (ILL S3;E4) in 1953.  

Series regular Louis Nicoletti played the waiter at the Chop House where Lucy realizes she’s got tickets for the matinee, not the evening show of the Broadway musical The Most Happy Fella in “Lucy’s Night in Town” (ILL S6;E22) in 1956. Coincidentally, one of the leading characters of the musical was a waitress!  

Harry Bartell as Gus, the headwaiter at the Hollywood Brown Derby, where Lucy encounters William Holden in

“Hollywood at Last!” (ILL S4;E16) in 1955.  This was Bartell’s second of three appearances on the series. 

Jack Chefé

plays the waiter at the Café du Monde in “Lucy Meets Charles Boyer” (ILL S5;E19) in 1956. Of Chefé’s 358 film and television roles, 165 were as waiters!

Waiter Maurice Marsac deals with the chef (Rolfe Sedan) at Porte Montmartre Café

after Lucy has put catsup on his escargot in “Paris at Last” (ILL S5;E18) in 1956. Marsac had previously played the Tropicana Maitré d’ during season three in “Ricky Asks for a Raise.”

John Bleifer played the garcon (French for waiter) at Restaurant Le Plaisir in “Lucy Gets a Paris Gown” (ILL S5;E20) in 1956.  This is his only appearance in the series.  

Olin Howland plays waiter / owner / banjo player George Skinner at One Oak Café (and Cabins) in “First Stop” (ILL S4;E13) during the road trip to California in 1955. Entertainment tax is extra!

Probably the most famous face to serve Lucy and Ethel (and guest star Elsa Lanchester) was Strother Martin, as the waiter at a roadside café in “Off to Florida” (ILL S6;E6) in 1956. Martin popularized the line “What we have here is a failure to communicate” in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke.  

Hazel Pierce, Lucille Ball’s camera and lighting stand-in, played a waitress in several episodes of both “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”.  

When “The Ricardos Go To Japan” (1959), Lucy and Ethel go undercover as Geisha waitresses at a restaurant for men only to spy on Ricky, Fred, and guest star Bob Cummings.   

Lucy Carmichael gets a part-time job as a roller-skating car hop (a waitress on wheels) in “Lucy Gets Involved” (TLS S6;17) in 1968. Her short-tempered boss at Phil’s Fatboy Burgers is played by Jackie Coogan.    

Virginia Barbour (above) and Brenda Howard played waitresses serving afternoon tea to Lucy and Viv at a casino when “Lucy Goes To Las Vegas” (TLS S6;17) in 1965. On “I Love Lucy” Barbour played the mind-reader’s assistant in “Lucy’s Mother-in-Law”.

Lucie Arnaz played Kim Carter who waited tables on “Here’s Lucy” (left and right), and Susie on “The Lucy Show” (center), who worked with Chris Carmichael serving ice cream at the soda fountain. 

One of the most poignant portrayals of a waitress was in 1974′s “Lucy Fights the System” (HL S6;E24) when Mary Treen played Mary Winters, a career waitress fired from her job at Harvey’s Welcome Inn because of her age. The original script (by Bob O’Brien) described the character as “a woman who has seen many summers and the strain of years of hard work shows in her weary bearing.” Kim and Lucy plot to get her job back in what was intended to be the series finale, but ended up as the penultimate episode instead.  

The waiters at Lucy Carter’s favorite Chinese restaurant sing “Happy Birthday” to her – in Chinese – in 1968′s “Lucy’s Birthday” (HL S1;E8). 

The Waiters on “Here’s Lucy” set the ‘gold standard’ for service in their spiffy gold jackets and black bowties. The waiter on the bottom right was played by Sid Gould, Lucille Ball’s cousin-in-law, who appeared in nearly 100 episodes of “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy”  The waiter on the bottom left (played by Milton Frome) was named Henry, which was also the name of the nearsighted waiter played by Frank Nelson in “Lucy Changes Her Mind” (ILL S2;E21), which brings this blog full circle!  

Check, please!