Lucy Takes Up Golf

S2;E17 ~ January 27, 1964

Synopsis

Lucy
lies to her new boyfriend about her ability to play golf. After just
six lessons she has a handicap of 36 and is a terrible golfer.
After Gary’s partner gets ill, Lucy ends up
playing in a tournament with professionals Jimmy Demaret and F.G. Bo
Wininger.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley)

Gale
Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney), Candy Moore (Chris Carmichael), Ralph
Hart (Sherman Bagley) and Jimmy Garrett (Jerry Carmichael) do not
appear in this episode.

Guest
Cast

Jimmy Demaret was the Tiger Woods of his day. He won the Masters Tournament in 1940, 1947 and 1950. Today he is mostly only remembered by golf aficionados. In 1954 he appeared as himself on “I Love Lucy” in “The Golf Game” (ILL S3;E30). That same year he came in 3 under par at the 1954 Open Championship. He died on December 28, 1983 and was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame.

Gary
Morton
(Gary Stewart) was a comedian who worked the famed ‘Borscht Belt’ in
the Catskills Mountains. He met Lucille Ball shortly after her
divorce from Desi Arnaz and they married in November 1961. At her
request, Morton gave up his nightclub career and became a producer of
“The Lucy Show.” Morton also served as a warm-up comic for the
show’s studio audience. In early episodes of the series, his loud
guffaw can often be heard on the laugh track. Frequent “Lucy Show”
extra Sid Gould was his cousin. He will make three more appearances
on the show as a variety of characters as well as three appearances
on “Here’s Lucy.” Morton passed away in 1999.

F.G. Bo
Wininger
was
an American professional
golfer
who
played on the PGA
Tour
in
the 1950s and 1960s.
This is his only screen credit. He died after a stroke in 1967 at
the age of 45.

Robert
J. Wilke
(Tom Carter) was a prolific character actor, primarily in Westerns.
He did over 300 film and television shows, often playing the ‘heavy’,
as in High
Noon
(1952).

The
character’s surname is the same one adopted by Lucille Ball in
“Here’s Lucy.”

Roy
Rowan (TV
Announcer / Tournament Announcer) was
the off-camera announcer for every episode of “I Love Lucy” as
well as “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” He was also the
voice heard when TV or radio programs were featured on the plot of
all three shows. He was heard announcing the TV football game in
“Lucy
is a Referee” (S1;E3).
This is his first on-camera appearance on the series.

Louis
Nicoletti
(Gallery, center)
was a veteran extra “I Love Lucy. He played the Tournament
Chairman in “The Golf Game” (ILL S3;E30), one of his 15
appearances on the series. From 1966 to 1968 he served as the
assistant director of “The Lucy Show.”

George Pierrone (Caddy) also played a caddy in 1954’s “The Golf Game” (ILL S3;E30).

Fifteen
men and women play the other members of the gallery.

In
real life, Gary Morton was an avid golfer. On the show, Lucy and Gary
are playing in the Fourth Annual Riverview Pro-Amateur Open Charity Tournament.

In real life, Riverside County is the location of Rancho
Mirage, a resort city in California where Lucy and Gary had a home
along the 17th fairway of the Thunderbird Country Club
Golf Course. Lucy and Desi Arnaz were founding members and charter
home owners. Morton, however, was not permitted to play there because
he was Jewish. Instead, he took out a membership at nearby Tamarisk
Golf Course.

Lucy
becomes Gary’s golf partner due to the illness of Duke Niles. In real life, Duke
Niles was the name of a music publisher friend of Gary Morton.

Viv
says that Lucy and Gary have been dating for three months. He is
the latest of Lucy’s boyfriends since the show’s start: Harry
Conners (Dick Martin), Henry Taylor (William Windom), and Bill King
(Keith Andes).

The
televised game Gary watches is in Las Vegas and features Arnold
Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Palmer wins the game by sinking a 30 foot
putt.

The
premise of this episode is very similar to “Lucy Goes Duck Hunting”
(S2;E6) where Lucy lies about her skill at duck hunting to spend more
time with a new boyfriend.

Gary
rattles off the names of tournaments Demaret has competed in:
National Open, PGA, Pebble Beach, the Masters, and Augusta.

At
the end of the episode, Gary says “Lucy, I love you.”
Despite this, the character is never heard from again. Lucille Ball’s
plans for the series did not include Lucy Carmichael being in a
relationship.

In
1973, Lucille Ball endorsed a Milton Bradley game called Pivot Golf
with her name and photo on the box. The year before, she had done
the same with their game Pivot Pool. Ball was a games enthusiast
known for her addiction to backgammon.

Callbacks!

Jimmy
Demaret also appeared as himself in a golf-themed episode of “I
Love Lucy” titled “The Golf Game” (ILL S3;E30) in 1954. Vivian
Vance, Louis Nicoletti, and George Pierrone were also part of that
episode.

Blooper
Alerts!

Time Warp! Gary
is watching the end of a Las Vegas golf game on television. Since the
scene takes place on a Saturday morning in New York, with the three
hour time difference and a two-hour average game, the timing is
unlikely. A live golf game telecast aired in New York would more
likely be finishing in the late afternoon.