Lucy’s Sister Pays a Visit

S1;E15 ~ January 7, 1963

Synopsis

Lucy’s
sister Marge shows up at her doorstep in the middle of the night
after having an argument with her new husband Hughie. Lucy is
convinced their marriage is rocky because they didn’t have a big
wedding. So Lucy and Viv throw her the wedding she never had, getting
drunk on spiked punch in the process.

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)

Dick
Martin appears but does not have any lines in this episode. This is
the second episode in a row that the actor hasn’t spoken after
playing the waiter in the silent movie sketch in “Chris’s New
Year’s Eve Party” (S1;E14). Martin was often away on the road with
his comedy partner Dan Rowan during filming, so not having to
memorize lines probably suited him fine.

Guest
Cast

Janet
Waldo (Marge)
was pregnant when
she played Ricky’s teenage fan Peggy
Dawson in “The Young Fans” (ILL S1;20). She went on to fame as
the voice of daughter Judy on the animated series “The Jetsons”
but she also voiced dozens of other cartoon characters including
Penelope Pitstop and Granny Sweet. She died in 2016 at the age of
96.

Lucy’s sister has not been mentioned before and is never again seen in any future episodes.

Peter
Marshall
(Hughie) was an actor before he became known as the host of “The
Hollywood Squares” for which he won four daytime Emmy Awards. He
was responsible for introducing Dick Martin to Dan Rowan. Marshall
twice appeared on “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” in 1972. He
appeared with Lucille Ball in “Happy Anniversary and Goodbye” a
1974 TV movie directed by Jack Donohue, who directs this episode of
“The Lucy Show.”

Fifteen
or so uncredited extras of various ages play the guests at the
wedding ceremony.

This is the last episode that Desi Arnaz is credited as Executive Producer. He resigned from Desilu Productions in November 1962.

There
is a lot of confusion about Marge’s letter but it has nothing to do
with the fact that on January 7, 1963, the day this episode first
aired, the cost of a first class postage stamp increased from four to five
cents.

The letter is found in Jerry’s lunchbox, a 1961 King
Seeley Thermos
tin lunchbox
featuring images from the television western “Lawman,” which ran
on ABC from 1958-1962. A “Lawman” lunchbox is now part of the
collection of the National Museum of American History at the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. “Vivian Sues Lucy” (S1;E10) featured Sherman’s lunchbox, a US Navy Submarine-themed metal
lunchbox.

Viv
sings and plays the traditional wedding song “Oh Promise Me,” an
1887 art song by
Reginald
de Koven
and
Clement
Scott.
It was interpolated into the 1912 Broadway operetta Robin Hood at
the New Amsterdam Theatre. It has been frequently heard on
television weddings, including four times on “Petticoat Junction”
and twice on “All in the Family.”

When the living room is transformed for the wedding ceremony, the piano seen in previous episodes has been replaced by an organ. This is the first time we see Vivian Vance wear her white plastic framed reading glasses. As Ethel Mertz, she wore glasses briefly in “Second Honeymoon” (ILL S5;14).

We
learn that Viv and her ex-husband Ralph had a big formal garden
wedding which did nothing to keep them together, despite Lucy’s
assertion that formal weddings are important to a marriage’s success.

Viv
says that Father
of the Bride
(1950) is showing on TV. Later, seeing the number of chairs set up
for the ceremony, Hughie
asks Lucy if she invited the cast of Ben
Hur
(1959) to the wedding. Possibly the pun is on the words “chairs”
and “chariots” but more likely the shear size of the film’s cast
of extras is what inspires the quip.

Lucy
mentions another sister Cleo and her husband Cecil. This is a
reference to Lucille Ball’s real-life cousin, Cleo
Morgan,
and her new husband, Cecil Smith. Lucy also mentions her brother
Fred and his wife Zo. This is a reference to Lucille’s real brother,
Fred
Ball and
his wife Zo. She also plans to invite Jack and Paula Carter, who she
tells Viv are not family but close friends. This comes from Lucille
Ball’s real life. Comedian Jack
Carter
and his wife Paula
Stewart
(Lucille Ball’s co-star in Broadway’s Wildcat, above)
introduced Lucy to fellow comic Gary Morton and was best man at their
wedding in 1961. Carter later appeared as Lucy’s lawyer in “Lucy
Sues Mooney” (S6;E12). Stewart was seen in a 1969 episode of
“Here’s Lucy.”

The
episode’s ending is rather anti-climatic, with Lucy announcing that
the bride and groom have eloped again. An orchestral sting attempts
to put a ‘button’ on the scene.

Callbacks!

Janet
Waldo is the first guest star who also guest starred on “I Love
Lucy.” The episode “The Young Fans” (ILL S1;E20) is
responsible for one of the most memorable (and unintentionally
salacious) lines of the series: “Keep
jiggling, Peggy!”

Lucy
Ricardo famously (and hilariously) got drunk from consuming too much booze in “Lucy
Does a TV Commercial” (ILL S1;E30) selling Vitameatavegamin, which
(unbeknownst to her) was made with 23% alcohol. Unusually, this was one of the
few episodes that did not feature Vivian Vance as Ethel Mertz. It
was rare for Lucille Ball to use drunkenness as a source of comedy,
but the character(s) did not purposely set out to get drunk. Lucy
Ricardo also took a sedative (sea sickness pill) and comically reeled
from the side effects in “Staten Island Ferry” (ILL S5;E12). As
with Lucy Carmichael, with Hughie’s tranquilizer, she was wary about
taking the drug and did not fully realize how it would affect her.

Marge’s
wedding ring accidentally getting lost in the punch bowl is similar to
when Lucy Ricardo’s wedding ring accidentally got lost while “Building a Bar-B-Que” (ILL S6;E24). The ring was first thought to have fallen in the wet
cement, but it turned out to have fallen into a bowl of hamburger meat.

Blooper
Alerts!

Keep The Cold In! Hughie
does not close the refrigerator door properly and it remains slightly
ajar through the rest of the scene. When Hughie returns to the
kitchen a moment later, the door is firmly closed.

Time Check! Lucy
enters the kitchen to announce that it is only 2 o’clock, but the
electric clock over the stove reads 1:05.