Lucy and Clint Walker

S4;E24
~ March 7, 1966

Synopsis

Lucy
wants to knit a sweater for her boyfriend for his birthday. After she
cleverly obtains his measurements, she finds out he hates the color
she has chosen.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney), Mary Jane
Croft (Mary Jane Lewis)

Guest
Cast

Clint
Walker
(Frank
Winslow) is probably best remembered as the title character in
“Cheyenne” (1955-62), TV’s first hour-long western.

In real
life, he had a twin sister named Lucille. Walker previously appeared
as Frank Winslow in “Lucy and the Sleeping Beauty” (S4;E9). He died just 9 days before his 90th birthday in 2018.

Frank
says he was born in Iowa and from a family of five sisters. As a
kid, he got second prize in a spelling bee winning a pair of roller
skates. He didn’t want the first prize, a red sled. He hates the
color red because the teacher circled his bad grades in red ink.

Sid
Gould
(Sid, Off Screen Voice) 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
appeared as Sam, another one of Frank’s construction workers, in
“Lucy and the Sleeping Beauty” (S4;E9).

Bennett
Green
(Bank Employee at the Picnic, uncredited) was Desi Arnaz’s stand-in during “I
Love Lucy.” He does frequent background work on “The Lucy Show.”

Bennett and a female partner are disqualified from the balloon race as the picnic scene opens.

Monty O’Grady (Bank Employee at the Picnic, uncredited) was first seen with Lucille Ball in The Long, Long Trailer (1953) and played a passenger on the S.S. Constitution in “Second Honeymoon” (ILL S5;E14). He was a traveler at the airport when “The Ricardos Go to Japan” (1959). He made a dozen appearances on the series and a half dozen more on “Here’s Lucy.”

Shirley Anthony (Bank Employee at the Picnic, uncredited) made a couple of appearances on “The Lucy Show” and was spotted more than a dozen times on “Here’s Lucy.” From 1994 to 1999 she played Sally on “The Rockford Files” TV movies.

Kathryn Janssen

(Bank Employee at the Picnic, uncredited) began doing background work in 1966. This is her first of at least 4 “Lucy Show” appearances. She went on to be spotted in three episodes of “Here’s Lucy”.

Lightning (Frank’s Basset Hound) who seems to have a propensity to fall asleep, much like his master did in “Lucy and the Sleeping Beauty” (S4;E9).

[From the seams on the fabric, the back of the directors chair Lightning sits on has been turned back-to-front, probably to hide the imprinted name of its on-set owner – Lucille Ball? Clint Walker?]

Other uncredited male and female background performers play the Bank Employees at the
Annual Picnic.

The
episode was filmed on February 3, 1966.

It was aired for the first time on March 7, 1966. That night, Lucy and Clint competed with powerhouse actors Charles Bronson on “The Legend of Jesse James” (ABC) and Jack Nicholson on “Dr. Kildare” (NBC).

The working title of this episode was “Lucy and the Sweater.” The script was revised on January 29, 1966.

Frank
is the owner of Winslow Construction. In this episode he is building
residential homes instead of a skyscraper, as he did in his previous appearance.

Lucy
reads a Columbia-Minerva catalog, a company that made yarn and
other knitting and millinery products. They were founded in 1902 and
today are known as Minerva Mills.

Frank’s
birthday is the same day as the Westland Bank’s Annual
Employee picnic.

When
Lucy oversleeps, Mr. Mooney says he has had one of the quietest
morning’s since Roosevelt closed the banks.

On March
6, 1933, after
a month-long run on banks, President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
proclaimed a Bank Holiday that shut down the American banking system.
When the banks reopened on March 13, depositors stood in line to
return their hoarded cash.

Frank
plays the harmonica at the picnic. Apparently the bank picnic is
open to more than just bank employees. Lucy brings along Frank, Mary
Jane, and her boyfriend Harold (who is not seen on camera). In an earlier scene, Lucy asks Frank if he likes a turkey sandwich. Frank says no – the whole turkey. So Lucy brings a whole roasted turkey to the picnic.

Lucy’s
transistor radio is seen at the picnic. This is a frequently used
prop on the show, even before Lucy moved to California.

For
winning the balloon race, Lucy and Frank win a Lawrence Welk album
complete with bubble pipe. Lawrence
Welk was
a hugely popular bandleader who would appear as himself on a 1970
episode of “Here’s Lucy.” Welk called his orchestra and
singers ‘The Champagne Music Makers’ so a soap bubble machine was
often used to imitate the bubbles from a glass of Champagne.

A KNIT / SWEATER YARN!

Inspired by “Lucy Writes a Play” (ILL S1;E17).

A blonde Lucille Ball struggles with the knitting needles alongside Patricia Wilder (left) and Anne Shirley, knitting behind the scenes at RKO in 1936.

Lucille Ball knitting a sweater at home! From the February 1942 Photoplay / Movie Mirror magazine.

Sweater humor in “The Freezer” (ILL S1;E29). Does Uncle Oscar like the color red? Or just black and white?

A pink sweater, not red, was the cause of all the trouble crossing the border when “Lucy Goes To Mexico” (LDCH 1958).

Socks, not sweaters, are the reason to take up knitting when Ricky and Fred are “Drafted” (ILL S1;E11).

FRED: “When a woman cries for no reason, sits down and knits tiny little things, what else?”

“Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) opens with enceinte Lucy knitting, a common TV trope for expectant mothers.

Mrs. Rachel Revere also picked up the knitting needles for her man Paul in a 1964 “The Jack Benny Program” featuring Lucille Ball.

A department store sweater sale caused an angry fight between Lucy and an aggressive shopper in “Lucy Bags a Bargain” (S4;E17). Someone obviously got the last red sweater!

For his birthday, Kim Carter gives her brother Craig a turtle neck sweater she knit herself. It turns out to be short on turtle and long on neck in a 1969 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Flashbacks!

The August 1957 TV Star Parade cover featured Lucille Ball and Clint Walker. Coincidentally, Lawrence Welk is also on the cover, as well as being mentioned in this 1966 episode!

A year earlier, Walker also appeared as Frank Winslow in “Lucy and the Sleeping Beauty” (S4;E9). Their romance went to great heights! In “Lucy and Clint Walker,” however, there is no mention of this “sleeping beauty’s” violent reactions to being suddenly awoken! In this follow-up, it is his canine companion Lightning who is the real sleeping beauty! Lightning is nowhere to be found in the previous outing.

This
episode features a sleepy basset hound named Lightning. “Kiddie Parties
Inc.” (S2;E2) featured a sleepy blood hound named Thunderbolt.

Fast Forward!

Lawrence Welk appeared as himself (along with his bubbles) on a 1970 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Lucy Barker also dates the head of a construction company (Peter Graves) in “Love Among the Two-By-Fours” (LWL S1;E3) in 1986.

Blooper
Alerts!

Dating Game! Mary
Jane says she wishes she had a boyfriend as handsome and well built
as Frank. She says that her boyfriend Harold is short and skinny and
has a size 2 neck. In “Lucy and the Golden Greek” (S4;E2) her
boyfriend was named Jim (Robert Fortier, above) who was tall, handsome and
muscular, just like Frank.

Shut the Door! When
Lucy comes home with the bags of yarn, she does not shut the front
door. Mary Jane walks through it and also does not shut it. This is
typical of “The Lucy Show.”

Practicality Problem! The
idea to knit a fire engine red wool sweater to give to a macho construction
worker as a birthday gift at a warm-weather Southern California
picnic is a somewhat impractical idea. But it’s the thought that counts!

Tape Measure Trickery! When Lucy is trying to take Frank’s measurements without him noticing, he looks directly at her little green tape measure, which also makes a clicking noise as the tape is drawn out. Perhaps Frank is playing along so as not to spoil the surprise?

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