Lucy and the Good Skate

S3;E1 ~ September 21, 1964

Synopsis

When
Lucy fears she isn’t spending enough time with her kids, she takes up roller skating. At the sporting goods store to purchase the skates from a
handsome single clerk, her vanity prevents her from getting the
proper size. Her feet swell so much that she must go
to the formal country club dance on wheels!

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Gale Gordon
(Theodore J. Mooney), Candy
Moore (Chris Carmichael), Jimmy Garrett (Jerry Carmichael)

Ralph
Hart (Sherman Bagley) does not appear in this episode.

Guest
Cast

Charles
Drake (Walter
Kendricks) arrived
in Hollywood in the late 1930s after being discovered in a talent
contest sponsored by RKO Studios (which became Desilu).
Drake
started apprenticing in small, often unbilled roles in what would
become enduring WWII-era classics: The
Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1939),
The
Maltese Falcon
(1941),
The
Man Who Came to Dinner
(1942),
Now
Voyager
(1942)
and
Yankee Doodle Dandy
(1942).
This
is his only appearance opposite Lucille Ball.

Ray
Kellogg (Doorman)
played the loud, barking Assistant Director (“Roll
‘em!”)
in “Ricky’s Screen Test” (ILL S4;E6) and later appeared in
“Bullfight
Dance” (ILL S4;E22).
This is the first of his seven
episodes of “The Lucy Show.” He also did two episodes of “Here’s
Lucy.” Just as in his other screen credits, most most times he
played policemen.

Sid Gould
(Waiter) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all as
background characters. He also did 40 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by
marriage to Gary Morton. Gould was married to Vanda Barra, who also
appeared on “The Lucy Show” starting in 1967, as well as on
“Here’s Lucy.”

Glen Turnbull (Dancer) was a WWII veteran, a tennis player, actor and dancer who began his career on the musical stage and apprenticed for years in small, often unbilled roles in 1940s and 1950s. This is his only appearance opposite Lucille Ball.

The
Country Club Dance attendees are played by:

Paul
Bradley makes
the second of his six appearances on “The Lucy Show” in various
roles. He will also be seen in two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
George
DeNormand had
appeared in three films with Lucille Ball from 1937 to 1963. This is
the first of his many appearances on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s
Lucy.”
William
Meader had
appeared as an airport extra in “The
Ricardos Go to Japan,” a
1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” He made many
appearances on “The Lucy Show,” most times as a clerk in Mr.
Mooney’s bank.
Hal
Taggart makes
the third of five appearances on “The Lucy Show” after having
been seen in the Lucille Ball film The
Facts of Life (1960).
Hazel
Pierce was
Lucille Ball’s camera and lighting stand-in throughout “I Love
Lucy.” She also made frequent appearances on the show. Of her many
on-camera appearances on “The Lucy Show” only once was she given
a character name and credited, in “Lucy
Plays Cleopatra” (S1;E1).
She was also an uncredited extra in the film Forever
Darling (1956).
Renita Reachi was Vivian Vance’s camera and lighting stand-in for “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.” She was was a costumer and made occasional crowd background appearances in “The Lucy Show”, “Here’s Lucy” and the Lucille Ball films Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) and Mame (1974).
James
Gonzalez
was
a popular Hollywood extra who first acted with Lucille Ball in the
1953 film The
Long, Long Trailer.
He was previously seen on the series as Stan Williams in “Lucy
Digs Up a Date” (S1;E2).
He was seen in more than 20 episodes of “The Lucy Show” and 3
episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Sam
Harris
was
born in Australia in 1877 and did a dozen films with Lucille Ball
before appearing in the audience of Over
the Teacups
in
“Ethel’s
Birthday” (ILL S4;E8)
and
playing a subway passenger in “Lucy
and the Loving Cup” (ILL S6;E12).
In between he was a wedding guest in Lucy and Desi’s film Forever
Darling
(1956).
He was in the airport when “The
Ricardos Go to Japan”
in
1959. He went on to do several more episodes of “The Lucy Show,”
the last being “My Fair Lucy” (S3;E20), a parody of My
Fair Lady,
a film he had also been in as an extra!

At
the beginning of the 1964–65 season, “The
Lucy Show” went
through significant staff changes. Executive Producer Elliott Lewis
left the series and was replaced by Jack
Donohue,
who now served as producer and director. With the absence of writers
Carroll, Martin, Weiskopf, and Schiller, Ball hired veteran comedy
writer Milt
Josefsberg,
who had written for Jack
Benny,
as script consultant. Under Josefsberg’s supervision there were no
permanent writers for the series and different writers were employed
each week. Ball persuaded Weiskopf and Schiller to return and write
four episodes.

In front of the camera Vivian Vance reduced the number of episodes
she would appear in to spend more time at her Connecticut home with
her husband John Dodds. Candy Moore, Jimmy Garrett and Ralph Hart
will also be seen a lot less, with Hart only doing 6 of the season’s
26 episodes. For the second season in a row, the series was filmed
in color but broadcast in black and white.

While
still on Monday nights, the series was now aired at 9pm instead of
8:30pm. “The Lucy Show’s” competition on ABC was a one-season
sitcom called “Wendy & Me” starring Connie Stevens and George
Burns. It also featured J. Pat O’Malley, who had played Major
MacFarland in “Lucy Goes Into Politics” (S2;E25). “The Lucy
Show’s” lead-in on CBS was “The Andy Griffith Show” which also
had its season premiere on September 21, 1964. That episode
coincidentally featured Richard Keith (aka Keith Thibodeaux) as
Johnny Paul Jason. Keith had played Little Ricky Ricardo on season
six of “I Love Lucy” and all but one episode of “The Lucy-Desi
Comedy Hour.” “The Lucy Show” served as the lead-in for a new
sitcom called “Many Happy Returns” about the goings on in a
department store. It starred John McGiver, who had been seen on a
couple of “Lucy Shows” and only lasted one season.

There
is a new opening title sequence for season three featuring clips from
both the black-and-white and color episodes strung together. This
discrepancy doesn’t matter at this point, as the series is still
telecast in black and white.

This
episode and three others this season, including the last episode of
the season were written by Jerry Belson and Garry Marshall. At this
early point in their careers, the two were writing partners who
sold many scripts to shows such as “The
Dick Van Dyke Show”
(1961)
and Desilu Studios’ “Make Room for Daddy.” Their specialty was
writing slapstick and physical humor. By the end of his career,
Belson had won three Primetime Emmys. Marshall went on to create
some of television’s most memorable characters, including “Laverne
and Shirley,” “Mork and Mindy” and the Fonze on “Happy Days.”
He also branched out into film directing including the 1990 hit
Pretty
Woman.

The
country club doorman announces “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Maurer.”
Helen and Bob
Maurer,
were Gary Morton’s sister and brother-in-law, Lucille Ball’s new
in-laws.

Jerry
needs his mother to drive him to Sitting Bull Day for an activity
with the Indian Braves celebrating Sitting Bull’s Birthday. Sitting
Bull
was
a Lakotan
Native American
who led his people during years of resistance to United States
government policies. Earlier in life he had been with Buffalo Bill’s
Wild West Show. Although his birth year is believed to have been
around 1831, no one knows for certain the exact birth date. He was
killed in 1890 by Indian Agency police at Standing Rock during an
attempt to arrest him.

Chris
says that she broke up with her boyfriend Wendell, with whom she had
a three-day relationship. In “Chris Goes Steady” (S2;E16) she
was dating Mr. Mooney’s son, Ted Jr. Chris
formerly dated Chuck Gibbons and
Bob
Mooney (another of Mr. Mooney’s sons) in “Lucy
and the Bank Scandal” (S2;E7).

Viv says that “It’s
easier to keep track of the French presidents that a teenager’s
boyfriends.” In
point of fact, France only had three presidents between 1947 and
1964, one less than the USA in that same period. At the time of
broadcast, the French president was Charles de Gaulle and the US
president was Lyndon B. Johnson.

Danfield’s
Sporting Goods Store is run by 80 year-old Mr. Carlisle, who is not
there when Lucy and Viv arrive. Walter Kendricks is the clerk they encounter.

With
curlers in their hair in the presence of eligible bachelor Mr.
Kendricks, Viv says they both look like Yogi Berra. Lawrence
Peter
“Yogi”Berra
(1925– 2015) was a professional baseball
catcher,
manager,
and coach
who
played 19 seasons, all but the last for the New
York Yankees.
He was a tremendously popular personality and was a spokesman for
Yoo-Hoo, a chocolate flavored drink.

When
Lucy and Viv don the moose heads, Mr. Mooney mentions Smokey the Bear
and Bullwinkle. Smokey
Bear
is
an advertising mascot created in 1944 to educate the public about the
dangers of forest fires.
Mr. Mooney previously mentioned Smokey in “Lucy Decides to
Redecorate” (S2;E8). Bullwinkle
J. Moose
is a cartoon character from the 1959–1964
animated
TV series
“Rocky
and Bullwinkle.”
When
the show changed networks from ABC
to
NBC,
its name was changed to “The Bullwinkle Show,” reflecting the
immense popularity of Bullwinkle.

Viv
gets a telephone call from Audrey Simmons. Although the character
was played by Mary Jane Croft, Audrey appeared on screen for the last
time in “Lucy Enters a Baking Contest” (S2;E28). Viv says that
she’ll see Audrey later at the dance, but the character is not in the
scene.

Mr.
Mooney says the his wife could not attend the dance because she had
to attend her karate class. This continues the gag of Mr. Mooney’s
invisible spouse. In fact, Mrs. Mooney will never be seen on screen.
Lucy and Viv took a martial arts class in “Lucy and Viv Learn
Judo” (S1;E22).

While Mr. Mooney is joking about getting a karate
chop from his wife, newspaper headlines of the day (September 21,
1964) reported that Dallas
reporter Jim Koethe was killed by a lethal karate chop to the neck.
There was a conspiracy theory that Koethe was murdered in connection
to his interview with Jack Ruby, the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald,
president Kennedy’s assumed assassin.

The
(unseen) orchestra plays “The
Blue Danube,”
a waltz by Johann
Strauss II composed in 1866. The piece was prominently used in Stanley
Kubrick’s
1968 film
2001:
A Space Odyssey.

Season 3 the closing credits are now on a different background
featuring a line drawing of Lucy.

Callbacks!

Roller
Ball! Lucille Ball gets her skates on every decade or so. First
in 1954’s “The
Million Dollar Idea” (ILL S3;E13), this 1964 episode “Lucy and
the Good Skate, and finally in the 1974 motion picture musical Mame.

Lucy Ricardo visited the sporting goods section of Macy’s in “Lucy Meets Orson Welles” (ILL S6;E3) to buy scuba equipment for her trip to Florida.

Lucy Carmichael takes a job in the sporting goods department of Stacey’s Department Store in “Lucy Bags a Bargain” (S4;E17).

Blooper
Alerts!

When
Lucy goes skating out the country club’s garden doors and into the
off screen fishpond, a crowd huddles around to look. A young blonde in
a white dress is on the inside of the huddle but after a quick jump cut she
is now on the outside of the group.