No More Double Dates

S1;E21
~ February 18, 1963

Synopsis

When
Lucy and Viv double date, there’s an argument about where to go and
what to do. Lucy and Harry decide they’d like to spend a Saturday
night alone, so they make up a story about having tickets to see a
Broadway show. After being caught doubling back at the trains
station, they go to a new restaurant where they naturally run into
Viv and Eddie.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Candy Moore
(Chris Carmichael), Dick
Martin (Harry Connors)

Jimmy
Garrett (Jerry Carmichael), Ralph Hart (Sherman Bagley) do not appear
in this episode.

Guest
Cast

Donald
Briggs
(Eddie Collins) makes
the sixth of his seven appearances as Viv’s on-again / off-again
boyfriend.

Leon
Belasco
(Violinist) was born in Russia in 1902. He was in three films with
Lucille Ball before playing the art store clerk in “Lucy Becomes a
Sculptress” (ILL S2;E15). He will also play the violin in “Lucy
Conducts the Symphony” (S2;E13) and a Maitre d’ when “Lucy Meets
Danny Kaye” (S3;E15).

Rolfe
Sedan
(Headwaiter) first worked with Lucille Ball in the 1934 film Kid
Millions. Coincidentally, he played a cruise ship passenger
alongside episode extra Bess Flowers. When Lucy Ricardo ate
snails in “Paris at Last” (ILL S5;E18), Sedan played the Chef who
was outraged that Lucy wants to put ketchup on his food! He is
probably best remembered as Mr. Beasley the mailman on “The George
Burns and Gracie Allen Show.”

Louis
A. Nicoletti
(Waiter) was an integral member of the Desilu family, having been a
frequent extra on “I Love Lucy.” He made two more appearances on
screen in “The Lucy Show” before taking over as Assistant
Director in 1966. He performed the same chores for 26 episodes of
“Here’s Lucy.”

Allan
Ray
(Harry, a man in the Danfield train station) was seen on “I Love
Lucy” as the clapstick boy at “Ricky’s
Screen Test” (ILL S4;E6),
a Brown Derby waiter in “Hollywood
at Last” (ILL S4;E16),
and a male nurse in “Nursery
School” (ILL S5;E9).
This is the second of his three appearances on “The Lucy Show.”
He also played a hotel doorman in the 1963 Lucille Ball / Bob Hope
film Critic’s
Choice.
In 1950 Ray and Gale Gordon were in the film A
Woman of Distinction in
which Lucille Ball played herself in a cameo.

The Pink
Pheasant Restaurant patrons (uncredited) are played by:

Bess
Flowers (above) was dubbed ‘Queen of the Extras’ in Hollywood and is credited
with more than 700 film and TV appearances from 1923 to 1964. She was
seen in the audience of Over
the Teacups in
“Ethel’s
Birthday” (ILL S4;E8) and
The
Most Happy Fella during
“Lucy’s
Night in Town” (ILL S6;E22).
This is the second of her five uncredited appearances on “The Lucy
Show.” Not surprisingly, Flowers was a founding member of SEG, the
Screen Extras Guild (now part of SAG) in 1945.

Herschel
Graham
makes his second and final appearance on the series after being seen
at the Cavalier Restaurant in “Lucy is a Kangaroo for a Day”
(S1;E7). He was reported to be the highest earning male extra of
1937! Ten years later, he appeared in the film Lured
with
Lucille Ball. He played a passenger on the S.S. Constitution in “Bon
Voyage” (ILL S5:E13) and
was a bullfight spectator when “Lucy
Goes to Mexico,” a
1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” He was an extra in
Lucy’s 1960 film The
Facts of Life.

Bernard
Sell is
an English-born background player making his first of three
appearances on the series. He was also an extra with Lucille Ball
and Bob Hope in their films The
Facts of Life
(1960) and Critic’s
Choice (1963).
He later turns up on a 1971 two-part episode of “Here’s Lucy”
taking place on a cruise ship headed to Hawaii.

Other train station passengers and diners are played by uncredited and unidentified background performers.

The night this episode first aired (February 18, 1963) Lucy’s good friend and co-star Ann Sothern appeared on “I’ve Got A Secret”, which was the CBS lead-in for “The Lucy Show.”

Eddie
says that while waiting for Viv he’s read the first two volumes of
the
Bobbsey Twins.
These
were children’s novels which related the adventures of two sets of
twins:
Nan and Bert and Flossie and Freddie.
There were 72 books in all, the first appearing in 1904 and the last
in 1979. Edward Stretemeyer wrote the first two books under the
pseudonym Laura Lee Hope. In 1953’s “The Camping Trip” (ILL
S2;E29) Vivian Vance had a line of dialogue that referred to Lucy and
Ricky as the Bobbsey Twins.

DOUBLE DATE DILEMMA: WHAT TO SEE?

Searching
for possible movies to see, Eddie prefers Ben-Hur
(1959)
at the Ritz over Two
for the Seesaw
(1962), because you get more actors for your money. Ben-Hur famously
had a cast of 30,000. The movie was previously mentioned in “Lucy’s
Sister Pays a Visit” (S1;E15). Ralph Hart (Viv’s son Sherman) was
an extra in Two
for the Seesaw.
Viv
wants to see What Ever
Happened to Baby Jane (1962),
but Lucy thinks it will be too scary. The film starred Bette Davis
and Joan Crawford, who will make a guest appearance on “The Lucy
Show” in “Lucy and the Lost Star” (S6;E22). Lucy says she
wants to see “the
Cary Grant picture at the Danfield Theatre.”
She is probably referring to That
Touch of Mink
(1962). Herschel Graham, an extra in this episode, is also an extra
in that film. Cary Grant was mentioned several times on “I Love Lucy.”

Lucy
notes that movie tickets are $1.50.

On another date, Viv suggests “a
good movie at the Bijou”
but Eddie wants to see a western at the Danfield. Lucy chimes in that
she heard “that new Doris Day picture is cute.” This is probably
another reference to That
Touch of Mink,
since Cary Grant’s co-star was Doris Day. Day will be mentioned
again on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy is a Soda Jerk” (S1;E23) and “Lucy Goes to a Hollywood Premiere”
(S4;20). Although there were half a dozen westerns released in 1962, the most popular of those were The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance starring “I Love Lucy” guest star John Wayne, or Lonely Are the Brave starring Kirk Douglas, who will do a cameo in “Lucy Goes To A Hollywood Premiere” (S4;E20).

For movie times, Viv consults The Danfield Tribune. Lucy and Viv were on the front page of the newspaper in “Lucy Becomes an Astronaut” (S1;E6) and Lucy worked there part-time in “Lucy Becomes Reporter” (S1;E17). One of the headlines says ‘Hospital Fund Reaches Goal Building To Start Next Month’. Could this be the children’s hospital Viv’s women’s club was raising money for in “Lucy the Music Lover” (S1;E8)?

DOUBLE DATE DILEMMA: WHERE TO EAT?

For
dinner, Harry suggests going to Tony DiBello’s for Italian food.
DiBello’s will be featured in “Lucy Meets a Millionaire”
(S2;E24). Viv suggests The Country Kitchen in Ridgebury. Eddie wants
to dine where George Washington slept – the 300 year-old Colonial
Inn. In season two, when “Lucy and Viv Open a Restaurant”
(S2;E24), they transform a run-down cafe into what they name the
Colonial Inn, even going so far as to dress like George and Martha
Washington to attract diners. Lucy makes one more suggestion: The Café Tambourine, which is probably a gypsy tea room.

Despite all those suggestions and objections,
all
four end up at a new restaurant named The Pink Pheasant.

Lucy asks the Pink Pheasant violinist to play “Dark Eyes,” which is is the world’s most recognizable Russian romance song. It was first published in 1843.

DOUBLE DATE DILEMMA: DEPOT DRAMA!

When
Lucy and Harry lie about missing their train, Eddie notes that the
next one only makes one stop – in New Rochelle. The real-life New
York town has already been mentioned several times in the series,
establishing that Danfield (and nearby Ridgebury) are similar
commuter suburbs of Manhattan. New Rochelle was also the home of Rob and Laura Petrie on “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, which was running on CBS concurrently with “The Lucy Show”. Meanwhile, nightly on Broadway, New Rochelle was being sung about as a housewife’s paradise in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

The ‘call a cab’ box in the Danfield Station turned up again on “Hazel” (1961-66) starring Shirley Booth, a Screen Gems television show. The word ‘Danfield’ was covered up, but it is the same prop.

The top rack of the train station news agent displays a paperback copy of Tender is the Night. The 1934 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald was made into a hit movie in 1962. There is also a copy of the 1934 Civil War novel Arouse and Beware by MacKinlay Kantor. The book was filmed as The Man from Dakota in 1940. Kantor won a 1956 Pulitzer Prize for his novel Andersonville.

After
two round trips to New Rochelle, Lucy remarks that if they’d been
traveling in a straight line, they’d “be
in Miami Beach by now.” The Florida resort city was also mentioned in the previous episode,
“Lucy and Viv Become Tycoons” (S1;E20). Several episodes of “I Love Lucy” were set there in 1956.

Callbacks!

The Pink Pheasant restaurant is really just a re-dressed version of The Cavalier, a restaurant seen earlier in the season in “Lucy Is A Kangaroo for a Day” (S1;E7). They even use the same chairs!

Two couples barely missing each other at a suburban train depot was also the source of farcical comedy in “Lucy Misses the Mertzes” (ILL S6;E17) where the confusion took place at the Westport train station. Westport, like New Rochelle, was a real life commuter suburb for those employed in Manhattan and who took the train to work.

Two
couples indecisive about where to dine is how “Lucy Changes Her
Mind” (ILL S2;E21) starts off. In that episode, Ricky Ricardo orders “a
sirloin steak; thick and juicy.”
Here Lucy Carmichael tells the waiter at the Pink Pheasant to bring her roast beef “about
that thick and nice and juicy.” In
both episodes shrimp cocktails are ordered as appetizers. Throughout both series’ the writers were prone to describing meat as “thick and juicy.”

Men
waiting for the women to get dressed for an evening out is the way
that “Lucy’s Schedule” (ILL S1;E33) begins. Here, Harry and
Eddie bring along books to read while waiting.

HARRY: “If
you’re going to ask me to elope again, it’s a bad night for it. My
ladder’s broken.”

This
may be a reference to “Lucy Puts Up a TV Antenna” (S1;E9), in
which Lucy and Viv borrow Harry’s ladder to get to the roof and then
break it in half.

Eloping by leaning a ladder to a girl’s second story window was a common romcom trope. It will be seen again when Lucy and Mr. Mooney suspect his son Ted is going to elope with Lucy’s daughter, Chris!

A
hungry Lucy hiding under a table is instantly reminiscent of “The Diet”
(ILL S1;E3) – without the dog, of course.

Blooper
Alerts!

Character Count? About
Two for the Seesaw,
Harry says “there are only
two actors in the entire picture”.
Although this was true of the 1958 play version by William Gibson, the film expanded the
cast to include four other characters only talked about in the play.
There were also many other uncredited actors, including “The Lucy
Show’s” Ralph Hart, who is coincidentally absent from “No More Double Dates”!

Papermoon Loves Lucy