Lucy Becomes a Father

S3;E9 ~ November 16, 1964

Synopsis

When
Jerry is going on a father / son camping trip, Lucy insists on going
along. Mr. Mooney, however, has a plan to make it tough for Lucy so
she’ll go home.

Regular
Cast

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

Vivian
Vance (Vivian Bagley) and Ralph Hart (Sherman Bagley) do not appear
in this episode.

Guest
Cast

George
Niese (Mr. Carter) makes his first and only appearance on “The
Lucy Show.” He will also appear on a 1971 episode of “Here’s
Lucy.”

The surname Carter will belong to Lucy and Gale Gordon in “Here’s Lucy.”

Hal
Smith (Mr.
Wilson) is probably best remembered as Otis
Campbell, the town drunk, on “The Andy Griffith Show,” even
though in real life he never drank alcohol. He appeared with Lucille
Ball in the 1963 film Critic’s Choice. This is the first of his
three appearances on “The Lucy Show.” He also did one episode of
“Here’s Lucy” in 1972.

Cliff Norton (Mr. Bentley, below left) makes the first of two appearances on “The Lucy Show,” returning for “Lucy the Fight Manager” (S5;E20) as well as three episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Buster West (Tom, above right) was a vaudeville performer who was also in five Broadway musicals, the last of which as a replacement for Eddie Foy Jr. in the original production of The Pajama Game. This is his only appearance with Lucille Ball and his final screen credit.

John
‘Red’ Fox (George, right) was best known for playing policemen, which is
what he did on five of his eight appearances on “The Lucy Show”
as well as three of his five episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Five
uncredited boys play the other sons on the trip.

This
is the second of six episodes this season without Vivian Vance.

This
is one of several episodes where widow Lucy strives to be both mother
and father to Jerry by taking part in the activities normally done by
a father figure.

This
being a father / son camping trip, one of the boys among the other
five must be Mr. Mooney’s son, Arnold, but he is not singled out.
Arnold was formerly played by Barry Livingston.

Lucy
behaves very much like a Cub Scout Den Mother, as she did in “Lucy
and the Scout Trip” (S2;E26), although there is no mention that
this father / son camping trip is in any way affiliated with the
scouts.

Mis-hearing
the word ‘ante’ as ‘auntie’ Lucy jokingly says “Oh, she lives in
Milwaukee with my uncle!”

During
the poker game, Lucy mentions Audrey Simmons, who is her Bridge Club.
This is the fourth mention of Audrey Simmons this season. The
character was formerly played by Mary Jane Croft. Her last (and
final) appearance was in “Lucy Enters a Baking Contest” (S2;E27).

The
tame bear is named Brownie. According to one of the dad’s Brownie is
tame because he is the pet of an old trapper. He is played by an
actual trained bear! While Lucille Ball interacts with the bear on
screen, his trainer is just out of frame giving the bear commands.
Lucy calls him “Smokey”, a references to Smokey Bear, an
advertising icon used from 1940 to warn against the dangers of forest
fires. This is the third references to Smokey Bear in the series.

The
second bear in the scene is actually an actor in a bear suit, not a
real bear.

Lucy
has never been afraid to work with live animals. In addition to the
bear, thus far on the series, she has worked with numerous dogs,
dozens of sheep, an elephant, fish, and an imaginary butterfly.

The
episode ends with Lucy finally becoming ‘one of the fathers’ as the
men sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” to her.

Callbacks!

Mr.
Mooney’s scheme to make Lucy regret coming on the camping trip is the
same premise as “The Camping Trip” (ILL S2;E29) where Ricky does
the same thing.

Lucy
Ricardo also plays poker with the boys in “Be a Pal” (ILL S1;E2).
Like the one in this episode, that game also ended with Lucy unwittingly winning the entire pot.

Ricky
Ricardo and Howard Duff played cards in a lakeside cabin in “Lucy’s
Summer Vacation,” a 1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”
In that episode, however, Lucy did not play along, but stood by with
Ida Lupino, watching.

This episode is very similar to “Lucy and the Scout Trip” (S2;E26) aired eight months earlier, which had Lucy and Viv taking the place of a Den Dad on a camping trip in the woods.

Blooper
Alerts!

Memory Loss! At
first, Lucy says she doesn’t know how to play poker, but she played
poker with Mr. Mooney when they were captive in the bank vault in
“Lucy Gets Locked in the Vault” (S2;E4).