Lucy Gets Caught Up in the Draft

S5;E9
~ November 14,
1966

Synopsis

Lucy
Carmichael gets an induction letter for a “Lou C” Carmichael
telling her to report for military duty. While Mr. Mooney is trying
to get it straightened out, a drill sergeant puts Lucy through the
paces rather than ignore protocol.

Regular
Cast

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

Mary
Jane Croft (Mary
Jane Lewis) does not appear in this episode, but Lucy does have a
telephone conversation with her.

Guest
Cast

Clark
Howat
(Army Lieutenant Howat) was
known for playing sobering law enforcement officials as well as
military, doctors and politicos. He was
a member of Jack
Webb’s
stock company and had a recurring role as Webb’s police captain on
“Dragnet.” This marks his only appearance with Lucille
Ball.

Although
the character’s surname is not spoken aloud, it is written on his
office door.

Herb
Vigran
(Major Cooper, the Doctor) played
Jule, Ricky Ricardo’s music agent on two episodes of “I Love
Lucy” in addition to playing movie publicist Hal Sparks in “Lucy
is Envious” (ILL S3;23).
He was seen in the Lucy-Desi film The
Long, Long Trailer.
This is the last of his six episodes of “The Lucy Show.” He
played doctors in four of them! A month after this episode, he made
his second of four appearances on “Gomer Pyle: USMC” with Jim
Nabors.

Although
the character’s surname and rank are not spoken aloud, it is written
on his office door.

Harry
Hickox (Marine Drill Sergeant) was best known for playing anvil
salesman Charlie Cowell in the 1962 film The Music Man. He
also played a Sergeant named King on “No Time for Sergeants”
(1964-65). When not playing sergeants, he specialized in sheriffs.
He will do three episodes of “Here’s Lucy,” all as policemen,
once as a sergeant!

Ben
Gage (Marine Lieutenant) was once married to Hollywood swimming starlet Esther Williams. His first screen appearance was as an
uncredited swimmer in her 1954 film Dangerous When Wet. Their
names were mentioned as attending Lucy and Ricky’s Mocambo
anniversary party in “Hollywood Anniversary” (ILL S4;E23, below).

They couple divorced in 1959. This is the first of Gage’s two “Lucy Show”
appearances. He will next play a policeman in “Lucy and Sid
Caesar” (S6;E23).

Jim
Nabors (“Gomer
Pyle”) was a square-jawed and amiable singer and actor born in 1930
in Alabama.
He started playing Gomer Pyle on “The Andy Griffith
Show” in 1962, which followed “The Lucy Show” on CBS prime time
and was filmed on the Desilu backlot. In 1964 his character was spun
off into his own series “Gomer Pyle: USMC” with Gomer enlisting
in the US Marines. The series
continued until 1969, although Nabors sometimes played the character
in TV specials and reunions. In 2013,
the 82-year-old Nabors married his life partner of 38 years, retired
firefighter Stan Cadwallader. He died in 2017 at age 87.

Nabors
enters at the very end of the episode, but does not state his name
nor is he listed in the final credits. The gag depends on the TV
viewing audience having seen “Gomer Pyle: USMC.”

Sid
Gould
(Joe, the Postman) 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.

Marine
Sergeant Pierce (who demonstrates the rifle drill) and eight male
background performers play the other recruits and are not listed in
the credits.

The
final draft of this script was dated June 15, 1966. The episode was filmed on August 11, 1966. It is
sometimes referred to by the title “Lucy Gets Caught in the Draft”
(no “Up”) which could infer she was feeling a “draft” from an
open door or window, not that she was conscripted into military
service.

From
1940 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men
were drafted
to fill vacancies in the United
States Armed Forces
that
could not be filled through voluntary means. The draft ended when the
US moved to an all-volunteer military
force.
However, the Selective
Service System
remains
in place as a contingency
plan;
all male civilians between the ages of 18 and 25 are required to
register so that a draft can be readily resumed if needed.
Women have never had to register for the US draft, although a 2016
bill came close to making it a requirement.

Lucy
Carmichael has already served her country, as a WAVE in the US Navy
during World War II. This fact was often mentioned back in Danfield,
but hasn’t been discussed at all in California.

Gale
Gordon gets some tepid entrance applause from the studio audience.

Mr.
Mooney buys Lucy a sandwich that costs thirty five cents (around
$2.80 in today, adjusting for inflation). Lucy’s manicure cost $2
plus a fifty cent tip! That would be nearly $20 today.

This
is the first mention of Lucy’s son since his appearance in “Lucy
the Choirmaster” (S4;E14), more than a year earlier. At the end of
the episode, Mr. Mooney notes that Lucy is exempt from the draft
because she has two children. Her daughter, Chris Carmichael,
however, has not been mentioned by name since season 4 when Lucy said
she was attending college in Northern California.

Mr.
Mooney brags that he was an officer in the last war. In “Lucy and
the Submarine” (S5;E2) he also brags about his military experience,
but we later learned that he was a Navy housing officer stationed
outside of Wichita.

Lucy
compares Mr. Mooney to Simon
Legree,
the tyrannical slave owner in the Harriet Beacher Stowe’s 1852 novel
Uncle
Tom’s Cabin.
The book was previously referenced in “Lucy and the Countess Lose
Weight” (S3;E21) and “Lucy
is Her Own Lawyer” (S2;E23).

Most
of the humor in the episode comes from Lucy being a female in a
male-oriented environment like the US military (circa 1966). When
the doctor first sees Lucy, he infers that she may be a man in a
dress, a tactic that some used in order to be classified as
homosexual or transvestite, which was then considered an instant
“4-F” (rejection) from military service. The best example of
this ploy (although he was not successful) was the character of
Klinger (played by Jamie Farr, above) on TV’s “M*A*S*H.” Farr had guest
starred on “Lucy, the Rain Goddess” (S4;E15).

In
the TV universe, this Gomer Pyle crossover brings the loop of shows
filmed at Desilu full circle:

Lucy
Ricardo would meet Danny Williams (Danny Thomas) and his TV family on
an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”;
Danny Williams drives
through Mayberry and meets Sheriff Taylor, which spawns “The Andy
Griffith Show”;
“The
Andy
Griffith Show” is where the Gomer Pyle (Jim Neighbors) character
began before getting his own show;
and now Gomer, although unnamed
and uncredited, turns up on “The Lucy Show,” although here she is
Lucy Carmichael, not Lucy Ricardo (even though both women share the
maiden name McGillacuddy).

The
upshot of all of this is that Lucy Ricardo and Lucy Carmichael both
exist in the same world.
Ponder that, fans!

Jim
Nabors’ cameo as Gomer Pyle is similar to the way “Here’s Lucy”
presents a cameo by Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden from “The
Honeymooners” in “Lucy Meets Jack Benny” (HL S1;E2):

Both
arrive at the end of the episode,
Do not give their names,
Play a
recognizable TV character dressed in their character’s costumes from
the show,
And get laughs based on viewers having watched their TV
shows!

Callbacks!

The
plot of this episode is similar to 1951’s “Drafted” (ILL S1;E11),
where Lucy Ricardo reads a letter from the Army that Ricky is to
report to Fort Dix. Lucy thinks he has been drafted, but he is
simply going there to entertain. Like many early episodes of “I
Love Lucy,” this plot is almost identical to “George Is Drafted,”
a January 1951 episode of Lucy’s radio show (co-starring Gale
Gordon) “My Favorite Husband.”

In
“Lucy Meets Orson Welles” (ILL S6;E3) Welles calls Lucy “the
Princess Loo Cee” during his magic act, another homonym of Lucy.

Lucy
Carmichael previously wore fatigues in “Lucy and the Military
Academy” (S2;E10) where she went undercover as a male soldier in
order to visit her son. She
also faced an obstacle course
consisting of a tire step, landing net climb, and a tunnel crawl.
Naturally, Lucy has trouble with every one of them
in both episodes.

In this episode, the tunnel crawl is made out of
wire and present on the course, but is not attempted by the recruits.
Coincidentally, both episodes begin with Sid Gould playing a mailman
delivering a letter from Lucy’s son in Military School.

Blooper
Alerts!

What’s In A Name? When
Lucy receives a letter from her son in the beginning of this episode,
she calls him ‘Jimmy’ instead of correctly calling him ‘Jerry.’
According to Geoffrey Mark Fidelman’s The
Lucy Book, when Lucille Ball was
handed the script for the first time, she complained that they had
used the wrong name. She was reminded that it was ‘Jimmy’ Garrett who
played ‘Jerry’ Carmichael. Ball still insisted that she was right and
(picking their battles, probably) the crew left the reference as
‘Jimmy.’ However it came about, it certainly is one of the biggest
mistakes of the series.

Hair & Make-Up! Although
Lucy was at first mistaken for a man during the episode, her hair
wasn’t cut nearly as short as the other recruits and she still wears
her thick eyelashes.

Period of Adjustment! In
clarifying the name error to the Doctor, Lucy says the letter was
meant for “Lou
period C period.”
Why would there be a period after “Lou”?

Say It Again! If
Lucille Ball thought another actor’s line was not heard due to loud
audience laughter, she would say “What
did you say?”
to cue them to repeat it, which is just what she does with Jim
Nabors’ only line.

His Reputation Precedes Him! When
Nabors announces he is Lucy Carmichael’s replacement, Lucy laughs and
says to the Drill Sergeant “Good luck, buddy!” and the
Sergeant rolls his eyes in dismay. They both seem to know
who the new soldier is and his reputation for being a screw-up. But how?