Lucy and Tennessee Ernie Ford

S5;E21
~ February 27,
1967

Synopsis

Mr.
Mooney is in danger of losing his job if he doesn’t bring in some big
depositors. When Lucy hears that wealthy country music star Homer
Higgins (Tennessee Ernie Ford) is in town, she gives him a ‘down home’
welcome in order to get his business.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carmichael),
Gale Gordon
(Theodore ‘Josh’ Mooney), Roy
Roberts
(Mr. Cheever)

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

Guest
Cast

Tennessee
Ernie Ford
(Homer Higgins) was the first and only celebrity to make three guest star
appearances (playing a variation on himself) on “I Love Lucy.” A
popular country singer of the 1950s, this was his first credited
‘acting’ job, before his big hit with the song “Sixteen Tons”
in 1955. Ford was first mentioned on season 1 of “I Love Lucy”
in “Lucy
Writes a Play” (ILL S1;E17),
when playwright Lucy mistakenly dubs herself the next Tennessee
Ernie, instead of Tennessee Williams.

Ford
went on to make alliterative appearances on "Here’s Lucy”
(as Ernie Epperson), on "The Red Skelton Show” (as Loser
Lumpkin), and the Desilu-produced "Make Room For Daddy” (as
Kentucky Cal). He died in 1991.

Homer
Higgins is said to be the nation’s number one country singer. He has
moved to California and is staying at the Palm Garden Hotel. His
annual income exceeds five million dollars.

Carole
Cook (Effie
Higgins) played
Thelma Green on the series when it was set in Danfield. She was a
protege of Lucille Ball’s during the Desilu Playhouse years.
Although born as Mildred Cook, Ball suggested she take the name
Carole, in honor of Lucy’s great friend, Carole Lombard. Cook also
went on to appear in five episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Effie
is married to Homer.

Robert
Easton (Iffie)
was usually cast as the dopey country bumpkin. He was a popular actor
and dialogue coach in over 200 film and TV projects. This is his
only appearance with Lucille Ball.

Iffie
is Effie’s older brother, so named because “if he” was a girl,
they would have named him Effie.

William
O’Connell
(Hotel Manager) makes his only appearance with Lucille Ball.

Joan
Swift
(Dottie) makes
the third of her six appearances on the series. Swift also did two
episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Her final screen credit was 1975’s
“Lucy Gets Lucky” with Lucille Ball and Dean Martin.

Like
Lucy, Dottie is a secretary at the Westland Bank.

The
Back Porch Majority
(Themselves) was
a folk
music
group
founded by Randy
Sparks
in
1963. It was intended to be a rehearsal space for The
New Christy Minstrels,
another group Sparks had established in 1961, but it ended up
becoming successful on its own. The group released six albums and was
chosen to provide entertainment at the
White
House in
1965. The group returned to back up Ernie Ford on a 1969 episode of
“Here’s Lucy.”

Bert
May
(Solo Dancer) made his screen debut in Ziegfeld
Follies
(1945) which also starred Lucille Ball. He danced in such film
musicals as Kismet
(1955),
Li’l
Abner
(1959), The
Music Man
(1962), Bye
Bye Birdie
(1963), Finian’s
Rainbow
(1968), and Hello
Dolly
(1969).

May
makes a big entrance into the square dance through the bank’s double
doors.

Sid
Gould
(Bellboy, uncredited) 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.

Roy
Rowan
(Radio Announcer, uncredited) 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.

The
other square dancers at the bank hoedown are uncredited.

This is director Maury Thompson’s last time working with Lucille Ball, and the final episode filmed for season five. Thompson wanted a raise and when the word leaked out while he was on vacation, Lucille Ball decided to fire him. The season finale, “Lucy Meets Sheldon Leonard” (S5;E22) was filmed before this episode and aired out of sequence.

The very athletic dance sequence that ends the episode was staged by choreographer Jack Baker. Marl Young, who worked on both this series as well as “Here’s Lucy” wrote original square dance music especially for the show.

This episode, like all but one from season five, and eight others from other seasons, have fallen out of copyright protection and into public domain. The result is that they have been sold on low-cost and low-quality home videos.

On
the evening this episode first aired (February 27, 1967) Keith
Andes,
who had played Lucy’s boyfriend Bill King as well as appearing
opposite Lucille Ball on Broadway in Wildcat,
appeared on “The Andy Griffith Show” which followed “The Lucy
Show” on CBS and was filmed at Desilu Studios. This same night, “Lucy’s”
lead in “Mr. Terrific” aired an episode about boxing, which was
the subject of the previous week’s “Lucy Show.”

Lucy
passes Mr. Mooney off as ‘Josh’ a good old country boy and says that
back in Cedar Creek County, Mrs. Mooney was a champion hog caller, which is how she ‘won’ Mr. Mooney.

Homer
and his family are staying at the (fictional) Palm Garden Hotel penthouse. The
Manager says “On
a clear day you can see Catalina.” This
same claim was made about the Cucamonga high rise apartment in “Lucy
Helps the Countess” (S4;E8). It is highly unlikely (even on a
smog-free day) to be able to see Catalina from Hollywood, which is
nearly sixty miles away. Although there is currently a Palm Garden
Hotel in Thousand Oaks, California, it was not built until the 1970s.
The writers created the name to sound upscale.

Homer
describes Lucy (in song) as “a pink haired gal.” His
brother-in-law Iffie says she has hair the color of orange juice!

When
Homer and his family walk into the palatial penthouse, “The Lucy
Show” feels very much like an episode of “The Beverly
Hillbillies,” also seen on CBS.

Roy Roberts (Bank President Mr.
Cheever) did six episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies” as Bank President John
Cushing, a rival of banker Mr. Drysdale. It is very likely that “The
Lucy Show” cast Roberts as the much-anticipated Mr. Cheever after
seeing him play Cushing. Robert Easton (Iffie) appeared in both the TV series and
the 1993 film adaptation of “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

Homer
says “a clear
day in Los Angeles” is a pretty rare sight! This gets a loud round of applause from the
studio audience. The remarks refers to LA’s smog problem. In
January 1967, around the time this episode was filmed, Time Magazine
devoted its cover story to air pollution with a photo of a smoggy Los
Angeles front and center.

The song Homer sings at the bank hoe-down is titled “Ladies Auxiliary Barn Dance Saturday Night” which was released on the 1965 album “Meet the Back Porch Majority”.

Callbacks!

Lucy’s
trusty transistor radio, seen in several previous episodes, makes yet another appearance.

Passing
herself off as Mrs. Mooney, Lucy dresses as a ‘kissin’ cousin’ of the gap-toothed hillbilly she
played in the very first-aired episode of “I Love Lucy,” “The
Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub” (ILL S1;E1) back in 1951.

“Tennessee
Bound” (ILL S4;E14), the third appearance of ‘Cousin’ Ernie on “I
Love Lucy” also features a square dance with Ernie Ford as the
caller. This time around, Lucy is the caller.

Fast Forward!

In November 1968, Lucille Ball appeared on “The Tennessee Ernie Ford Special” where she also blacked out her teeth for comic effect.

Ernie Ford and The Back Porch Majority will also appear on “Here’s Lucy” in 1969.

An image from this episode was used in the photo montage on the restored DVD Season 5 box cover.

Blooper
Alerts!

Ground Plan! Lucy’s
desk now seems to be in the bank lobby instead of in Mr. Mooney’s
office. The lobby has been remodeled once again, doubtless to
accommodate the hoedown scene.

Where the Floor Ends / Shut the Door! In
a long shot of the penthouse, the camera reveals where the edge of
the wall-to-wall carpeting meets the cement soundstage floor. Ernie forgets to shut the front door completely after admitting Lucy and ‘Josh’ (Mr. Mooney). After the scene is over and Lucy and ‘Josh’ are about to leave, perfectionist Lucille Ball actually shuts the door first, before opening it to leave!

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