S4;E19~
January 31, 1966
Synopsis
The
star of Lucy’s favorite soap opera lives in her building and tells
her that his character’s fate is in question. Curious Lucy
disguises herself in a number of outrageous get-ups to gain access to
the show’s reclusive writer and learn how the show will turn out.
Regular
Cast
Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney), Mary Jane
Croft (Mary Jane Lewis)
Guest
Cast
Jan
Murray
(Peter Shannon) was a stand-up comedian who got his start on the
“borscht belt” circuit. He was a favorite guest on TV variety
and talk shows. This is his only appearance with Lucille Ball.
John
Howard
(Mr. Vernon) was seen in such Hollywood hits as The
Philadelphia Story (1940)
and Lost
Horizon
(1937). This is his only appearance opposite Lucille Ball.
The
character is given no first name and only addressed as Mr. Vernon.
John
Alvin
(Director of “Camden Cove”) was a character actor who appeared as
Harry Barth on several episodes of “The Beverley Hillbillies”,
among his more than 170 other screen credits. This is his only
appearance opposite Lucille Ball.
Bennett
Green (‘Jury
Foreman’) was
Desi Arnaz’s stand-in during “I Love Lucy.” He does occasional
background work on “The Lucy Show.”
Jane
Kean
(Pussycat) is
probably best remembered for her association with Jackie Gleason,
assuming the role of Trixie Norton when “The Honeymooners” was
revived in 1966. This was her only appearance with Lucille Ball.
Sid
Gould
(‘Judge’) 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.”
George
Bruggeman
(‘Juror’, uncredited) was a passenger on the S.S. Constitution when Lucy and Ricky
Ricardo has their “Second Honeymoon” (ILL S5;E14) in 1956.
Fellow Juror Bennett Green was also in that episode. He was also an
extra in the Lucille Ball / Bob Hope film The
Facts of Life
(1960).
Roy
Rowan
(“Camden Cove” 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 made a couple of on screen appearances as well.
Paul Power (Clerk, uncredited) was seen in two films with Lucille Ball, two episodes of “I Love Lucy,” and three episodes of “The Lucy Show.”
Other
background performers play the other jurors and “Camden Cove”
production crew.
This
episode was filmed on December 9, 1965. On that date CBS aired “A
Charlie Brown Christmas” for the first time. It has since become a
holiday staple.
The
date this episode first aired (January 31, 1966) Mickey Rooney’s
fifth wife was found dead, the victim of a murder / suicide with her
boyfriend, just ten days after she separated from Rooney. Just one
week earlier, Rooney guest starred on “The Lucy Show” making
jokes about his alimony payments.
Less than 24 hours later, comic
actor Buster Keaton died at age 70. One of his last live
appearances was a TV tribute to Stan Laurel where he shared the stage
with Lucille Ball. Lucy and Keaton appeared together in the 1946
film Easy
to Wed.
The
“Camden Cove” cast of characters:
- Roger Gregory – a banker
accused of embezzlement - Cynthia
– Roger’s daughter - Victoria
Carruthers – Roger’s sister-in-law, a librarian - Mr.
Camden – the town patriarch - Agnes
Forsythe – a waitress at the Camden Cove Tea Room who got amnesia - Mrs.
Thompson – whose only son was court-martialed and has eight months to
live - Dr.
Ingmar – who lost his glasses when he performed an appendectomy on
Victoria Carruthers
Marty
is the producer of “Camden Cove.”
Camden
Cove is described at “The Typical American Town” so it was
probably inspired by “Peyton Place,” a prime-time
soap
opera
which
aired on ABC
from
1964 to 1969. Like “Camden Cove,” it aired three nights a week
and dealt with the tangled relationships found in a small American
town. Danfield was compared to Peyton
Place
in “Lucy and Joan” (S4;E4).
Gale
Gordon gets entrance and exits applause from the studio audience in
the opening scene. He even gets a smattering of entrance applause in
his second scene. Lucy gets entrance applause when she comes into
the courtroom, indicating that this final scene may have been filmed
first for logistical reasons, although Lucille Ball preferred not to
film out of sequence.
Mr.
Vernon says “Camden Cove” is his best work since playing the
voice of Oink-Oink in the “Piggy Pete” cartoons. Lucy compares
his talent to that of Richard Burton. Richard
Burton’s
name was last dropped in “Lucy Bags a Bargain” (S4;E17). He will
guest star with his wife Elizabeth Taylor on a 1970 episode of
“Here’s Lucy.”
Lucy
says she was never too happy with the way Shakespeare handled Romeo
and Juliet; those crazy mixed up kids. She wanted them to live
happily ever after.
To
find out the fate of ‘Roger Gregory’, Lucy disguises herself as a
male Japanese gardener from the Los Angeles Garden Club sent to
exterminate Japanese beetles. He says they are much worse than the
Beatles from England. This is a play on the homonyms ‘beetles’ and
‘Beatles,’ the tremendously popular rock and roll group from Great
Britain.
Many
viewers cite this as one of their least favorite episodes, due mainly
to the stereotypical portrayal of the Japanese gardener in both
appearance and speech. Although this sort of thing would be
unthinkable today, in 1961 Caucasian actor Mickey Rooney (guest star
of last week’s episode of “The Lucy Show”) played Mr. Yunioshi in
Breakfast
at Tiffany’s.
Despite the controversy, the film is still well regarded, just as
Lucille Ball’s reputation does not seem to have been marred by
creating yellow face (and previously red face) caricatures for the
sake of comedy.
Mr.
Mooney says that Peter Shannon, the writer of “Camden Cove,”
works from his rustic hideaway cabin atop Coldwater Canyon. In 1942,
Lucille Ball reported that while driving through Coldwater
Canyon
her temporary fillings started to pick up vibrations that sounded
like music. Buster Keaton was the one to alert Lucy that it might be
from radio transmission. The FBI tracked the source to the shack of
a Japanese gardener, who may or may not have been a spy. This
possibly apocryphal story (which Ball herself told on countless talk
shows) is doubtless the reason Shannon’s hideaway is located in
Coldwater Canyon and that Lucy disguises herself as a Japanese
gardener.
The
gardener says he has a family of 97 with cousins in Pasadena,
Glendale, Rodondo Beach, Cucamonga, and ‘Horrywood’ (“a little
suburb between Anaheim and Azusa”). Later, disguised a the little
old lady, she repeats the same list of cities. Then, as herself, Lucy
repeats it as she leaves the courtroom. Cucamonga
was the location of the ultra-modern apartment that Lucy and Rosie
try to sell Mr. Mooney in “Lucy Helps the Countess” (S4;E8).
Lucille Ball’s final resting place was originally Forest Lawn cemetery in
Glendale, but she was later exhumed and moved to Jamestown, New York, her birthplace.
Azusa
is the location of Aldolino Italian Restaurant, whose founder Aldo
Formica served as Lucille Ball’s instructor for throwing pizza dough
in the air in “Visitor from Italy” (ILL S6;E5) as well as
appearing in the episode himself.
As
usual with “The Lucy Show” Lucy seems to have no control over the
hose spraying the insecticide, drenching Mr. Mooney.
A
hospitalized Peter Shannon says “I’m
only 39 and I’m on Medicare!” President
Johnson signed the
Medicare bill
into
law on July 30, 1965, just a few months before this episode was
filmed. Jan Murray (Shannon) was actually 49 at the time.
When
addressing the ‘jury’ Lucy concludes by saying:
“The
quality of mercy is not strain’d, it
droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.”
This
is a quote
from Act IV, scene one of Shakespeare’s The
Merchant of Venice,
a play which also features a legal action and a female attorney.
Callbacks!
Lucy
manipulates Peter Shannon’s hospital bed so that he is sandwiched in,
just as she did to Mr. Mooney in “Lucy Plays Florence Nightingale”
(S2;E14).
Blooper
Alerts
Wardrobe Repeat! As
the little old lady from the HHH (Happy Hospital Helpers) Lucy wears
the very same dress and wig that she wore as the little old lady from
Cucamonga in “Lucy Helps the Countess” (S4;E8).
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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