S4;E22
~ February 21, 1966
Synopsis
Actor Bob
Crane opens a new account at the bank and asks Lucy out to dinner.
When his new war film needs a stuntman, Mr. Mooney volunteers Iron
Man Carmichael. Although she wants to appear demur to Crane, she
takes the job.
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
Bob
Crane
(Himself) was born in 1928 in Waterbury, Connecticut. After being a
disc jockey for many years, he turned to acting at the age of 33. He
is best known as the clever Colonel Hogan in the CBS POW camp sitcom
“Hogan’s Heroes” (1965-1971) which was filmed at Desilu Studios.
In 1975 he starred in “The Bob Crane Show” which lasted only 13
episodes. In 1978 Crane
was brutally murdered in a Scottsdale hotel room. His murder remains
a mystery to this day.
Crane’s
life and death were the subject of the 2002 film Auto
Focus starring
Greg
Kinnear
as
Crane.
This episode was Crane’s only screen credit alongside Lucille Ball.
John
Banner
(Sergeant Schultz) was born in Vienna in 1910. He achieved
television immortality for his portrayal of the Luftwaffe POW camp
guard Sergeant Schultz in the TV series “Hogan’s
Heroes.”
Ironically, Banner was a Jew and had been in a German concentration
camp himself. Like Crane, he was in all 168 episodes of the series,
the only two cast members to have that distinction. He also played
the character in a sketch titled “Freddie’s Heroes” on “The Red
Skelton Hour” with Crane as Hogan. His catchphrase as
Schultz was “I
know nothing!”
which he repeats in this episode of “The Lucy Show.” He died in
his home city Vienna in 1973.
Oscar
Beregi
(Wolfgang Schmidt the Director) was a Hungarian-born actor who made a
career out of playing foreign bad guys. He is most recognized for
playing Eva Gabor’s father on “Green Acres” despite being only a
year older than her. Beregi did two episodes of “Hogan’s Heroes”
with Crane and Banner, in 1966 and 1970. This is his only appearance
with Lucille Ball.
Beregi was probably cast for his resemblance to Werner Klemperer, who played Colonel Klink on “Hogan’s Heroes.” He also wore a monocle.
Larry
Dean
(Assistant Director) was
a mime who specialized in playing a robot. He also did this on
episodes of “Lost in Space” and “Bewitched.” He previously
played the mechanical butler in Bigelow’s store window in “Lucy
and the Ceramic Cat” (S3;E17).
He returns to “The Lucy Show” in the next episode “Lucy and the
Robot” (S4;E23).
Sid
Gould
(Sid, the 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.
Dale
Van Sickel
(German Soldier) was
a Hollywood stunt man and actor whose career began in 1933. He
appeared with Lucille Ball in the films Roberta
(1935)
and There
Goes My Man
(1937).
He appeared in all three of the ‘Iron Man Carmichael’ episodes of
“The Lucy Show.”
Other
background performers play the bank customers, the diners at the
restaurant, and the German soldiers.
This
is the last episode of six written by Edmund Beloin and Henry Garson.
This is also the last of the three ‘Iron Man Carmichael’ episodes they penned.
The previous two were “Lucy the Stunt Man” (S4;E5) and “Lucy
and the Return of Iron Man” (S4;E11).
The
script was dated January 4, 1966, and was originally titled “There’s
No Business Like the Iron Man Business.” The action described in
the above page varies significantly from the final edit.
“Hogan’s
Heroes” was filmed at Desilu Studios. Interiors were done at
Desilu Culver City and exteriors at what was known as ’40 Acre Lot.’
During its six year run, “Lucy Show” cast that appeared on
“Hogan’s Heroes” included Doris Singleton, Parley Baer, Kathleen
Freeman, Lou Krugman, Hans Conreid, and George DeNormand.
Both
Lucille Ball and Bob Crane were nominated for 1966 Emmy Awards. She
lost to Mary Tyler Moore (“The Dick Van Dyke Show”) and he lost
to Dick Van Dyke. “Hogan’s Heroes” was nominated for Best Comedy
Series (“The Lucy Show” was not) but again lost to “The Dick
Van Dyke Show.”
Lucy
has a new responsibility at the bank running a huge, loud punch-card
driven computer. After the computer sprays shredded paper in Mr.
Mooney’s face, Lucy is re-assigned to ‘new accounts’ and must move her
things from one desk in the lobby to another. Previously, Lucy’s
desk was in Mr. Mooney’s office.
Instead
of entrance applause, Crane gets applause when Lucy recognizes him
and says his name.
Although
Crane was essentially playing himself on this episode, for the
purposes of creating a flirtation with Lucy, Crane is single. In
reality he was married to Anne Terezian, with whom he had three
children. They divorced in 1970.
Lucy
says Crane is his favorite solider since Captain Kangaroo. “Captain
Kangaroo”
was
a children’s television series that aired weekday mornings on CBS
from October 1955 to December 1984. Captain Kangaroo was previously
mentioned in “Chris’s
New Year’s Eve Party” (S1;E14)
and “Lucy Teaches Ethel Merman to Sing” (S2;E18).
Bob
Crane knows the work of Iron Man Carmichael, having seen him in the
movie Bad
Day at Laredo. This
is a direct reference to “Lucy the Stunt Man” (S4;E5) although
the cowboy movie had no title during the episode. Mr. Mooney
references Lucy as Iron Man being shot out of a canon, a direct
reference to the big stunt Lucy did in “Lucy and the Return of
Iron Man” (S4;E11), a pirate movie that was also untitled.
Lucy:
“If a man like Bob Crane thinks I’m shy and demur, then I’m going
to be just as shy and demur as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”Mr.
Mooney:
“Rebecca
of Sunnybrook Farm? You are more like The Unthinkable Molly Brown!”
Mr.
Mooney is making a pun on the 1960 stage musical and the 1964 film
The
Unsinkable Molly Brown,
about Margaret Brown who survived the sinking of the Titanic. The
Broadway production ran at the same time as Wildcat
starring Lucille Ball. Rebecca
of Sunnybrook Farm
is
the title of a 1903 children’s novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that
tells the story of Rebecca Randall and her two stern aunts in a
village in Maine. The hallmark of Rebecca’s character was her
cheerful optimism in the face of adversity. Mr. Mooney previously
mentioned the book / character in “Lucy and the Winter Sports”
(S3;E3).
Lucy
lives at the Glenhall Apartments.
This is the first time in 22 episodes that the complex has been
named. Crane says he owns a home on 993 Elm in Beverly Hills. This
would be about a mile from where Lucille Ball actually lived on
Roxbury Drive.
New
depositors to the bank get a calendar, a piggy bank, a pen wiper, a pencil sharpener, and a little speedy electric shoe polisher!
When
Mr. Mooney asks Schmidt if he has ever heard of Iron Man Carmichael,
Schmidt replies “Has
Huntley ever heard of Brinkley?”
Newscasters Chet
Huntley
(1911-1974) and David
Brinkley
(1920-2003) were co-hosts of the NBC evening news show “The
Huntley-Brinkley Report” from 1956 to 1970.
In
return for getting Iron Man Carmichael for Crane’s new film, Mr.
Mooney is given the part of General Van Plump. The movie is a
World War One epic with Crane playing the lead as an American
aviator. John Banner’s cameo as Sergeant Schultz is handled by Crane
saying: “Schultz!
You’re in the wrong war!”
For
their dinner date, Lucy wears a powder blue garden party dress,
matching gloves, and wide-brimmed hat. She resembles Little Bo Peep
more than Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She says her perfume is called
‘Breath of Daisy Dew.’
As
Iron Man Carmichael Lucy crashes through the ceiling hanging from her parachute
strings. Lucille Ball will repeat this stunt in “Lucy, the
Skydiver,” a 1970 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”
With
Lucy / Iron Man hanging in the air and Bob Crane is turning on a wheel,
Mr. Mooney / General Von Plump and the German soldiers do a bit of
the “Schnitzelbank,” a German call and repeat song or chant (Mr.
Mooney speaks it). It is similar in structure to the American song
“Must Be Santa” by Mitch Miller. William
Frawley
(Fred Mertz) performed
an English version of this song in the 1942 World War II propaganda
musical The
Yankee Doodler.
A version without lyrics was played by the Swiss Band that rescued
the Ricardos and the Mertzes from the avalanche in “Lucy in the
Swiss Alps” (ILL S5;E21).
Callbacks!
Playing
a German solider give Lucy the chance to be the misfit who does the
opposite of the formation and what the commander says. She first did
this in “Lucy and the Military Academy” (S2;E10) and then again
as one of the doormen in “Lucy Goes to a Hollywood Premiere”
(S4;E20).
Lucy
hanging in air with the broom is visually reminiscent of when Lucy
Ricardo played the Witch in “Little Ricky’s School Pageant” (ILL
S6;E10).
Blooper
Alerts
The
nautical restaurant is really Lucy’s apartment re-dressed with
different walls. This is obvious from the two steps up in the back
and the green wall-to-wall carpet, identical to those found in Lucy’s
flat at the Glenhall Apartments.
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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