S4;E4 ~ October 11, 1965
Synopsis
Lucy’s
new neighbor Joan has a plan to fix her up with an eligible man who
lives in their apartment building. Finding out he is celebrating a
birthday, Lucy and Joan go out of their way to throw him a party and
bake him a birthday cake, which involves racing through a grocery
store to buy the ingredients.
Regular
Cast
Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael)
Gale
Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney) and Mary Jane Croft (Mary Jane Lewis) do
not appear in this episode.
Guest
Cast
Joan
Blondell (Joan
Brenner) was born into a family of vaudevillians in 1906. She
made her New York theatre debut with the Ziegfeld Follies and
appeared in several Broadway productions. She made her film debut in
1930. She was nominated for an Oscar for 1951’s The
Blue Veil.
In 1978 she had a small role in the film Grease.
Although she was active in Hollywood concurrently with Lucille Ball,
this is the first time she has appeared with her on screen. She will
do one more episode before the character was written out. She died of
leukemia in 1979.
Keith
Andes
(Brad Collins) was
born John Charles Andes in Ocean City, New Jersey, in 1920. He
appeared opposite Lucille Ball in her only Broadway musical Wildcat
in
1960. Back in Danfield, Andes played Lucy’s boyfriend Bill King in
“Lucy Goes Duck Hunting” (S2;E6) and “Lucy and the Winter
Sports” (S3;E3). Andes took his own life in 2005 after being
diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Brad
Collins is an airline pilot, just like Lucy’s boyfriend in Danfield,
Harry Connors (Dick Martin). Collins was also the surname of Viv’s
steady boyfriend, Eddie (Don Briggs), back in Danfield.
Bill
Dungan (Pete) makes his only appearance on the series. This is
just one of his seven screen credits.
Dick
Winslow (Card
Player) appeared
in the films Thousands
Cheer
(1940)
and Easy
To Wed (1943)
with Lucille Ball. This is the second of his two appearances on the
series. He also did two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Queenie
Smith (Mrs.
Collins) was seen in a dozen Broadway plays and musicals between 1919
and 1934. She
co-starred in
the 1936
film
version of Show
Boat,
playing
Ellie May Chipley, a role she did not do on Broadway. This is her
only series appearance. She worked up until a year before her death
in 1978.
Joel
Marston
(Grocery Clerk) was
an internationally
known dog breeder and proprietor of Starcrest Kennels in California.
This is the first of his three appearances on the series. He
retired to Jacksonville, Florida, where he became a water aerobics
instructor.
John
Perri
(Checker #1) was seen on Broadway in The
Boy Friend
(1954), the show that introduced Julie Andrews. This is the first of
his two appearances on “The Lucy Show.”
Bennett
Green (Checker
#2) was
Desi Arnaz’s stand-in during “I Love Lucy.” He does occasional
background work on “The Lucy Show.”
Sid
Gould
(Checker #3) 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.”
Judith
Woodbury
(Woman in Market with Mustard) makes
the sixth of her eight (mostly) uncredited appearances on “The Lucy
Show.” She also appeared in one episode of “Here’s Lucy.”
Dick
Cheney
(Market Customer) appeared in the Lucille Ball films The
Facts of Life
(1960) and Critic’s
Choice
(1963). This is his only series appearance.
Other
background performers play the neighbors and the shoppers.
“The
Lucy Show” was pre-empted the previous week (October 4, 1965) for
live coverage of Pope Paul VI’s visit to the United States, the first
ever by a Roman Catholic Pontiff.
Joan
Blondell
was
intended to be a recurring guest-star in the fourth season as Lucy’s
neighbor. But she and Lucille
Ball
did
not get along and had heated arguments backstage. After two episodes,
her character was written out.
Ironically, throughout the episode, Lucy Carmichael says to Joan
Brenner “We’re gonna get along great!”
Joan
Blondell’s sister, Gloria Blondell, played Grace Foster on “I Love
Lucy” in “The Anniversary Present” (ILL S2;E3).
This
episode continues the concept of keeping character names as close to
the actors’ name as possible.
- Joan
Blondell as Joan Brenner - Mel
Torme as Mel Tinker - Wally
Cox as Wally Tuttle - Roberta
Sherwood as Roberta Schaeffer
Joan
Blondell gets entrance applause from the studio audience.
Lucy
tells Joan that she has a daughter up north in college and a son in
military school.
This exposition has been repeated from the previous episodes in
season four.
Lucy
lives in apartment 2B.
Joan
has two tickets to the Screen Arts Charity Ball. Lucy says she read
about it in Hedda Hopper’s column. It will be attended by Dean
Martin, Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, and Cary Grant. Actress
turned gossip columnist Hedda Hopper starred in an episode of “I
Love Lucy” and was featured in the first episode of “The
Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” – both times playing herself. Of the stars
listed, only Dean Martin will ever co-star with Lucy on television.
Cary Grant was mentioned four times on “I Love Lucy” and Frank
Sinatra once.
Joan
says she’s been in pictures so long she saw Phil Harris take his
first drink. Phil Harris
was a bandleader who became a comic radio star as a Jack Benny
sidekick in the 1930’s and then enchanted new generations of fans as
the unlikely voice of Baloo the Bear in Walt Disney’s Jungle Book. Although
his fondness for bourbon was largely a creation of the Jack Benny
writers, Mr. Harris played the part to the hilt. In the past Lucy’s
drinking jokes were usually reserved for Dean Martin.
After Lucy regales Joan with tales of her home town, Joan
asks Lucy (with a knowing wink) how close Danfield is to Peyton
Place. Based on a 1956 novel, “Peyton
Place”
was a primetime soap opera that aired on ABC from 1964 to 1969. The
title has become synonymous with the personal problems and scandals
of small-town life.
Joan
gives Lucy a dress worn by Rita Hayworth (when she was a size 10).
Rita
Hayworth
(1918-1987) had an ucredited role in 1938’s There’s
Always a Woman
starring Joan Blondell.
On “Here’s Lucy,” Lucy
Carter also wreaks havoc in a supermarket in “Lucy the Shopping
Expert” in 1969.
Callbacks!
Among
the items in the grocery store is a box of Kiddie Cookies, a product
last seen as a sponsor of “The Talent Discoverers Show” in “Lucy
and the Plumber” (S3;E2).
Lucy
Ricardo also had trouble moving in a form-fitting dress in “Country Club Dance” (ILL S6;E25), the episode that introduced Barbra Eden.
During
the surpise party, everyone dances to “Do The Watusi” which was
also a dance that Lucy did in “Chris’s New Year’s Eve Party”
(S1;E14).
Blooper
Alert!
Very
few of the products on the grocery shelves have any labels at all.
When
Lucy tries to navigate her cart through the aisles, she bumps into
the shelf causing a can to loudly topple over. She turns back to it and
says “Shhhh!”
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