Lucy Bags a Bargain

S4;E17~
January 17, 1966

Synopsis

Lucy
wants to buy a new dinette set, but Mr. Mooney won’t give her the
money so she takes a job at the department store. She gets moved
around from department to department finally landing in sporting
goods, where she wreaks havoc.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney)

Mary
Jane Croft (Mary Jane Lewis) does not appear in this episode.

Guest
Cast

Jonathan
Hole (Mr. Collins, Stacey’s Manager)
was seen in eight Broadway plays between 1924 and 1934. His screen
career began in 1951. This is the first of his three appearances on
the series. He also did two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Barbara
Morrison (Mrs.
Walker)
was an English-born actress making the first of her two appearances
on “The Lucy Show.” She also plays an irate shopper in “Lucy’s
Working Daughter,” a 1968 episode of “Here’s Lucy,” in addition
to two other episodes.

Mrs.
Walker says she is a close friend of the store’s owner as well as
being a large stock holder. The character’s name may have been
influenced by the 1947 film Miracle
on 34th Street
in which a mother and daughter named Walker (Maureen O’Hara and
Natalie Wood) have an encounter with Santa Claus while working at
Macy’s Department Store. William Frawley (Fred Mertz) was also in
the film.

Donald
Foster (Vernon Walker) was a veteran
of 31 Broadway shows between 1917 and 1956. On TV he is probably
best remembered as Herbert Johnson on “Hazel” (1961-1964). This
is his only appearance with Lucille Ball.

Elvia
Allman (Hat Customer) is best
remembered as the barking Candy Factory foreman in “Job Switching”
(ILL S2;E1) although she also played four other characters as well.
She will make one more appearances on the series in “Lucy the
Babysitter” (S5;E16).

Amzie
Strickland (Hat Saleswoman) appeared
with Lucille Ball in three films before playing Don Loper’s salesgirl
in “The Fashion Show” (ILL S4;E9).

Natalie
Masters
(Miss Murray, Home Funishings Saleswoman) played
private eye “Candy Matson” on the radio series of the same
name, which ran on NBC from 1949 to 1951.
She will make one more appearance on “The Lucy Show.”

Bennett
Green
(Customer) was
Desi Arnaz’s stand-in during “I Love Lucy.” He does occasional
background work on “The Lucy Show.”

Renita Reachi (Customer)

Joel
Marston (Father)
previously appeared as the supermarket clerk in “Lucy and Joan”
(S4;E4). Marston was
an internationally known dog breeder and proprietor of Starcrest
Kennels in California. This is the second of his three appearances on
the series. He retired to Jacksonville, Florida, where he became a
water aerobics instructor.

Sid
Gould
(Wilcox) 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.”

Roy
Rowan
(Store Announcer) was
the off-camera announcer for every episode of radio’s “My Favorite Husband,” “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 made a couple of on screen appearances as well.

Barbara
Perry
(Customer with the Green Sweater) makes the second of her two appearances
on “The Lucy Show.” As of this writing she is still acting in TV
and film.

Coincidentally, in her previous appearance as a frenzied housewife, Perry wore an over-sized cardigan sweater.

Renita Reachi (Customer, uncredited) was a costumer for “The Lucy Show” from 1966 to 1968. She was also Vivian Vance’s camera and lighting stand-in for “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.” She was a costumer and/or made crowd appearances on “Here’s Lucy” and the Lucille Ball films Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) and Mame (1974).

Reachi is the customer holding a green sweater who tells Lucy that the crowd is because sweaters are on sale.

Paula
Ray (Customer, uncredited)
makes
third and final appearance on the series. She was first seen as a
member of the Danfield Art Society in “Lucy Gets Her Maid”
(S3;E11).

Louise Lane (Customer, uncredited) makes the third of her four background appearances on “The Lucy Show.”

Lovyss Bradley (Customer, uncredited) appeared several times on the Desilu series “The Untouchables”. This is her only appearances with Lucille Ball.

More
than two dozen uncredited female extras play the frenzied shoppers and store staff at the
bargain sale.

This
is the first and only episode written by Henry Taylor, who teamed
with Howard Ostroff, who penned two previous episodes in 1964.

The
episode was filmed on October 21, 1965.

While
working days for Mr. Mooney at the Westland Bank, Lucy
moonlights at Stacey’s Department Store in the Westland Shopping
Center.

The
dinette set that Lucy wants to buy is $99 plus tax but she looks at
the price tag upside down and thinks it is only $66.

Lucy
tells the customer shopping for a cocktail hat (Elvia Allman) that
the black pillbox seems made especially for her, or Elizabeth Taylor.
She then adds that if she ran into Richard Burton it would confuse
him! Elizabeth
Taylor and Richard Burton
were married in 1964. They will guest-star as themselves on a 1970
episode of “Here’s Lucy.” Pillbox hats were popularized in the 1960s by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Lucy
says that she can even do the Watusi on stilts, but Mr. Collins tells
her to leave the dancing to Fred Astaire. The Watusi
was heard on the radio in “Lucy, the Rain Goddess” (S4;E15) and
danced by Lucy, Viv and their sons in “Chris’s New Year’s Eve
Party” (S1;E14). Dancer Fred
Astaire
starred in four films with Lucille Ball and was mentioned in the
dialogue of “I Love Lucy.”

Walking
on stilts, Lucy says that they are marvelous in Los Angeles because
on a clear day you can see Catalina. Santa Catalina
Island is located 22 miles from downtown Los Angeles. During the
Ricardo’s and Mertz’s stay in Hollywood, they twice mention wanting
to go to Catalina, but never got there.

Mrs.
Walker calls Lucy Typhoid Mary. In “Lucy the Stock Holder”
(S3;E25) Mr. Mooney called Viv Typhoid Mary. Cook Mary
Mallon
(1869-1938) was an asymptomatic carrier of the typhoid virus. She is
said to have infected 22 people, three of whom died.

In
the course of her employment at Stacey’s, Lucy sells or demonstrates:
perfume, ladies’ hats, shoes, skin diving equipment, stilts, pogo
sticks, fishing poles, ping pong balls, basketballs, handballs, and a
motorized skateboard!

Callbacks!

Stacey’s
Department Store is undoubtedly named to sound like Macy’s Department
Store. Lucy Ricardo shopped in Macy’s in “Lucy and Orson Welles” (ILL
S6;E2).

Lucille Ball’s Mame Dennis roller skated through Macy’s in the movie Mame
(1974).

Lucy
also goes furniture shopping and mistakes the prices in “Lucy Gets
Chummy with the Neighbors” (ILL S6;E18).

Lucy
first walked on stilts in “Lucy and Her Electric Mattress”
(S1;E12). As usual, she gets a round of applause from the studio
audience for the stunt.

While
working for Stacey’s, Lucy is transferred from department to
department just as Lucy Ricardo was when working for Kramer’s Candy
Kitchen in “Job Switching” (ILL S2;E2). The episode also
featured Elvia Allman. In this episode Jonathan Hole (Mr. Collins)
functions in the same capacity as Elvia Allman did in 1953, even
repeating some of the same dialogue.

Lucy
Carmichael wore scuba gear in “Lucy the Chaperone” (S1;E27) while
Lucy Ricardo wore a skin diving mask in Macy’s sporting goods
department in “Lucy Meets Orson Welles” (ILL S6;E3).

Back
in Danfield, Lucy also had problems at a department store when she
broke into Bigelow’s, a store named after one found in Lucille Ball’s
hometown of Jamestown, New York.

Blooper
Alerts

Boom! As
Lucy is on stilts reaching for a hand ball for Mr. Mooney the camera
pans up and the shadow of the boom mic is visible.