Lucy Becomes an Astronaut

S1;E6 ~ November 5, 1962

Synopsis

Lucy
and Viv successfully spend 24 hours in a simulated space ship as part
of a “Women in Space” experiment. Lucy’s ego swells
from the publicity so Viv and Harry decide to deflate it by convincing Lucy
that she’s been chosen to be the first woman astronaut.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Jimmy Garrett
(Jerry Carmichael), Ralph Hart (Sherman Bagley), Candy Moore (Chris
Carmichael), Dick
Martin (Harry Connors)

Guest
Cast

Nancy
Kulp (Jane
Corey) played
the cockney hotel maid who teaches Lucy how to curtsy in “Lucy
Meets the Queen” (ILL S5;E15). Born in Harrisburg, PA, Kulp will
always be remembered as Miss Jane Hathaway, the upright secretary of
banker Drysdale on “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1962-1971) which
premiered just five days before “The Lucy Show.” The role of
Miss Hathaway earned Kulp an Emmy nomination in 1967.
She
made
an unsuccessful run for Pennsylvania congress in 1984, after which
she retired and taught acting. Kulp died of cancer in 1991.

The
episode also employs a dozen middle-aged women as extras in the
“Women in Space” program luncheon. Several sources claim Alix
Talton
was among them. A former Miss Georgia, Talton acted
in a handful of films and TV shows in a career that spanned several
decades, including seven episodes of “My Favorite Husband,” which
was the television version of Lucille Ball’s radio show of the same
name.

Lucy
and Viv were ensigns in the WAVES
(Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service),
which was the World
War II
women’s
branch of the U.S.
Naval Reserve.
It was established in 1942 in order to release officers and men for
sea duty and replace them with women in shore establishments. By
September 1946, the last of the WAVES had been discharged. The
WAVE sponsored “Women in Space” program depicted in the episode
is fictional.

Lucy jokingly says that she served with Admiral Dewey at
Manilla. George
Dewey (1837–1917) was Admiral
of the U.S. Navy.
He was best known for his victory at the Battle
of Manila Bay
during
the Spanish–American
War in May 1898.

Lucy
just calls it “the space program,” but Chris knows that it is
actually called NASA
– the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. President
Eisenhower
established
NASA in 1958. Alan Shepard became the first American in space in May
1961. In February 1962 U.S. Colonel John
Glenn made
three orbits around the Earth. In this episode, Viv sarcastically
calls Lucy ‘Colonel
Glenn’ Carmichael.

There
is a reference to a long distance call from Cape Canaveral, Florida,
the home of NASA and a location that has became synonymous with the
U.S. space program. After John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963,
the name was changed to Cape Kennedy. It reverted to Cape Canaveral
a decade later, although the NASA facilities are still known as the
Kennedy Space Center.

Just
eight months after this episode aired, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina
Tereshkova became the first woman in space in June 1963. It would
take the U.S. twenty more years to equal that achievement when Sally
Ride went into space in June 1983.

During
the isolation experiment, Viv gets claustrophobic. In real life it
was Lucille Ball who suffered from claustrophobia, not Vivian Vance.

An
unenthusiastic Viv says that by participating in the isolation
experiment she is missing a big party with lots of Broadway
celebrities that Eddie invited her to. Eddie Collins, Viv’s sometimes
boyfriend, hasn’t been seen since “Lucy Digs Up a Date” (S1;E2).

On
the telephone with what she thinks is NASA, Lucy nervously says: “Off
in the ‘wild blue’ what sir?” This
is a reference to the “Air Force Song,” the first line of which
is “Off we go, into the wild blue
yonder.”

Lucy
quotes John F. Kennedy’s iconic inauguration speech of January 20,
1961:

“Ask not what your country
can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Later, fearing the dangers of space travel, Lucy tearfully regrets
her enthusiasm:

“I collect for the
Red Cross. I buy savings bonds. I was with the WAVES. How much does
that man in the White House want from me?”

When
hearing about a splash down, Lucy says she can’t swim.

We see that the local newspaper is The Danfield Tribune.

“The
Lucy Show” wasn’t the only TV show to use the space program as the
basis for storylines. Three months later “Dennis the Menace”
aired “Junior Astronaut,” where Dennis
and his classmates participate in the ‘Junior Astronaut’ savings-stamp
program. The one who buys the most stamps wins a trip to Cape
Canaveral to meet an astronaut. This episode starred Gale Godon, who
would join “The Lucy Show” cast in season two. It also boasted
John ‘Shorty’ Powers, who was a real-life NASA officer at the time.
Star Jay North did a short promotional film for the real-life
savings-stamp program to support NASA.

Also
in January 1963, “McKeever & the Colonel,” a one-season
sitcom that premiered on NBC a week before “The Lucy Show”,
explored the topic in “McKeever’s
Astronaut,” where a visiting astronaut turns out to be a chimp.
Although not in the cast of this particular episode, Charles Lane
(Lucy Carmichael’s banker Mr. Barnsdahl) was featured on the series in November
1962. Shirley Mitchell (Lucy Ricardo’s friend Marion Strong) was in
the series premiere.

The most famous example of the space program on television is the sitcom
“I Dream of Jeannie,” which premiered in 1965. It not only
featured astronauts as the central characters, it was set in Cape
Canaveral, Florida. Jeannie was played by Barbara Eden, who made her
sitcom debut on a 1957 episode of “I Love Lucy.”

“Here’s
Lucy” also featured a NASA-themed episode titled “Lucy and the
Astronauts” (HL S4;E5) in 1971. The episode also features an ‘isolation’
element when space
nut Lucy must go through decontamination with astronauts when she accidentally makes physical contact with them just after landing.
This episode was commercially released on View-Master slides!

In
June 1963 Gold Key published their first issue of “The Lucy Show”
comic books. Although the main photo was from “Lucy Puts Up an
Antenna” (S1;E9), there was a small colorized inset photo from this
episode of Lucy, Viv and the kids looking at the newspapers reporting about Lucy and Viv’s experiment.

Callbacks!

In
“Lucy’s Club Dance” (ILL S3;E25) the
headline of the New York Gazette reads “Bond Issue Defeated.” The
same exact prop newspaper was used in “Ricky’s
Old Girlfriend” (ILL S3;E12).
Here, eight years later, a headline in The Danfield Tribune is “City Bond Issue Approved”!

The
paper also has a smaller headline: “Plane
Lost a Year Ago in Andes Still Untraced.“
This article actually appeared in The
New York Times on
July
20, 1933.
It reported the continuing mystery of the 1932
disappearance
of a Pan American Airlines flight from Santiago, Chile to Buenos
Aires, Argentina. Eight months after the article, the plane was found
four miles south of Puente
Del Inca,
Argentina. Coincidentally, the very same side headline appeared on a
newspaper used on a January 1961 episode of CBS’s “Perry
Mason.”

Blooper
Alerts!

Cut the Cord! After
Lucy hangs up the phone while in the space suit, one of the cords
dangling from the suit get’s snagged on the telephone cord. Lucy quickly
untangles it without missing a beat.