Lucy and Robert Goulet

S6;E8~
October 30,
1967

Synopsis

When
a trucker named Chuck Willis is turned down for a loan, Lucy notices
his remarkable resemblance to Robert Goulet. She is determined to
help him win a look-alike contest and enlists Mr. Mooney as her
photographer.

Regular
Cast

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

Roy
Roberts
(Harrison Winfield Cheever) and Mary
Jane Croft (Mary
Jane Lewis) do not appear in this episode, although Mary Jane is
mentioned.

Guest
Cast

Robert
Goulet (Chuck
Willis / Himself / Arthur Finster) was born in Massachusetts to a
French-Canadian family. His first big break was as Sir Lancelot in
the Broadway musical Camelot, introducing “If
Ever I Would Leave You” which became his signature song. Goulet
was on Broadway at the same time that Lucille Ball was appearing in her
one and only musical Wildcat.
Less than a year after this episode was filmed, Goulet appeared on
Broadway again in The
Happy Time,
for which he won a Tony Award. He was successful in films,
television, and recordings. This is his only appearance with Lucille
Ball. He died in 2007 at the age of 73.

Willis
owns a small trucking company consisting of one truck that is 21
years old.

Mary
Wickes (Miss
Hurlow) was
one of Lucille Ball’s closest friends and at one time, a neighbor.
She made a memorable appearances on “I Love Lucy” as ballet
mistress Madame Lamond in “The
Ballet” (ILL S1;E19).
In her initial “Lucy Show” appearances her characters name was
Frances, but she then made four more as a variety of characters.
Wickes also appeared in nine episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Their
final collaboration on screen was “Lucy Calls the President” in
1977.

Miss Hurlow is Robert Goulet’s assistant, in charge of sorting through submissions for his look-alike contest.

Lucie
Arnaz (Dotty)
was
the real life daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. She previously
appeared on “The Lucy Show” as Cynthia, a friend of Lucy’s
daughter Chris. She also did background appearances, most recently
with her brother Desi Jr. in “Lucy
at Marineland” (S5;E1).
This is her final appearance on “The Lucy Show” before becoming a
regular on “Here’s Lucy.”

Dotty
works at the studio with Mary Jane. Although called Dotty in
the dialogue, the end credits list her as Dorothy.

Vanda
Barra
(Waitress) makes the first of her six appearances on the series. She
was married to Sid Gould, so is Lucille Ball’s cousin-in-law. She
will also make 23 appearances on “Here’s Lucy” as well as
appearing in Ball’s two 1975 TV movies “Lucy Gets Lucky” (with
Dean Martin) and “Three for Two” (with Jackie Gleason).

Sid
Gould (Messenger)
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.

Diner
customers, bank employees, and bank customers are all played by
uncredited extras. The episode also includes a live horse, which
Lucy addresses as ‘Dobbin.’

This
is the only episode written by Douglas Morrow. Morrow was primarily
known as the screenwriter of Beyond
a Reasonable Doubt
(1956). The film featured frequent “Lucy Show” extras George
DeNormand, James Gonzales, Mike Lally, and Hal Taggart. The movie
was remade in 2009.

Nepotism
Alert! This
episode features three of Lucille Ball’s relatives (Lucie Arnaz,
Vanda Barra, and Sid Gould) and her old friend Mary Wickes. Gary
Morton, Ball’s husband, was executive producer and the show’s warm-up
act. All of them, with the addition of her son Desi Arnaz Jr., will
also be part of “Here’s Lucy.”

It
seems possible that Dotty’s dialogue was originally written for Mary
Jane, but that Croft was either ill or unavailable. This also seemed
to be the case in “Lucy Gets Her Diploma” (S6;E5) where Doris
Singleton took the best friend role with lines that could easily have
been spoken by Mary Jane. Of course, Lucille Ball might have also
have been trying to find work for old friend Singleton and her
daughter by reassigning previously written roles while Croft was on
salary as a contract performer.

The
date this episode first aired (October 30, 1967), actor Charles Trowbridge died. He had
appeared with Lucille Ball in Her
Husband’s Affairs
(1947) and A
Woman of Distinction
(1950), which also featured Gale Gordon. Trowbridge was a veteran of
25 Broadway plays.

The
look-alike contest is said to be tied in to Goulet’s new picture The
Long Ride of Marshall Burke. Although
this is not a real movie, it was not uncommon for actors’ appearances
to be tied to the release of their newest motion picture. For
example, on “I Love Lucy” John Wayne waived nearly all his salary
in return for promotional mention (and a large poster) of Blood
Alley
(1955).

The
waitress (Vanda Barra) sarcastically calls Lucy ‘Diamond Jane Brady’
after ordering just a bowl of hot water to save money. James
Buchanan Brady (1856-1917) aka Diamond Jim Brady, was a real-life millionaire and philanthropist who was fond of jewels
(hence the nickname).
Lucy adds ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, lemon, salt, pepper, and
crackers making a sort of tomato soup. Lucille Ball claimed that this
was something she actually did when she was a young model / actress
living in a boarding house in New York City.

Seeing Lucy’s odd
concoction, Dotty says “Congratulations.
You’re winning the war on poverty.” The
War on Poverty
is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by President
Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964.

Lucy
says she once entered an Elizabeth Taylor look-alike contest and
never even heard from them. Elizabeth Taylor was frequently
mentioned on “The Lucy Show.” Taylor will play herself in a 1970
episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Mr.
Mooney says that Lucy takes longer to eat lunch than Henry
the Eighth.
The English monarch (1491-1547) was famous for his girth and huge
appetite. Charles Laughton (above) played the gluttonous monarch in a 1933 British film.

We
finally learn the name of the movie studio that Mary Jane (and
Dotty) work for: Mammoth Studios. Mammoth Studios is the generic name used for fictional movie studios in movies, television, books and comic books. Mammoth Pictures Studios has appeared in movies such as Bombshell (1933), Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945), and Merton of the Movies (1947), as well as the television series “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1964-71), “The Monkees“ (1966-68) and “Bewitched” (1964-72).

Lucy
thinks a photo of the Grand
Canyon
is Mr. Mooney’s wife. Mr. Mooney agrees that is does look like Irma
with her mouth open. Ouch!

Trying
to flatter Mr. Mooney about his photography, Lucy calls him another
Leonardo
da Vinci.
The Renaissance painter and inventor (1452-1519) is considered one of
the greatest artists to have ever lived. He is probably most famous
for his painting of the Mona Lisa, which Lucy embodied in “Lucy Goes To Art Class” (S2;E15). Mr. Mooney’s ego knows no
bounds!

Looking
at the aging horse with the sagging back, Mr. Mooney asks “That’s
a horse?”
Lucy replies “What
did you expect for $3? Man o’ War?” Man
o’ War
(1917-47) is considered one of the greatest race horses of all time.
He
won 20 of 21 races and won nearly $250,000
in purses.
Live horses have been part of several “Lucy Show” episodes:
“Lucy Visits the White House” (S1;E25), “Kiddie Parties Inc.”
(S2;E2), “Lucy and Arthur Godfrey” (S3;E23), “Lucy and the
Countess Have a Horse Guest” (S4;E6), and “Lucy Discovers Wayne
Newton” (S4;E14).

When Mr. Mooney helps Chuck Willis get on a horse for his photo, he comments that there probably was not this much trouble making Gone with the Wind. Lucille Ball was considered for the lead role in Gone With the Wind (1939), which went to Vivian Leigh (right) instead.

Spoilers!
The winner of the Robert Goulet contest is Arthur Finster. Second
place went to Melvin Koppel, and Irving Schwartz came in third.
Finster is the only contestant who appears on camera.

To
show of his famous voice, Robert Goulet sings a song that he says he
wrote, accompanying himself on the piano.

When
Miss Hurlow says that Mr. Mooney’s photo of Chuck Willis does look a
bit like him, Robert Goulet says “that’s
the worst thing said about me since I forgot the words to ‘The Star
Spangled Banner’.” At
the 1965 Muhammad
Ali / Sonny Liston fight, Canadian Robert Goulet famously sang "the dawn’s early night”
instead of “the dawn’s early light,” leading some boxing fans
to conclude that Goulet was predicting Ali’s first-round
knockout of the former champ.

Robert
Goulet, Chuck Willis, and Arthur Finster are never seen on the set at
the same time, so it is possible (due to the configuration of the
doors) that Goulet did the quick changes in one take, without cutting.
Possible, but unlikely.

Callbacks!

Dean
Martin also had a look-alike on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy Dates
Dean Martin” (S4;E21). In “Lucy and the Plumber” (S3;E2) Harry
Tuttle is a ringer for comedian Jack Benny.

Lucy
Carter will enter a Lucille Ball look-alike contest in a 1974 episode of
“Here’s Lucy.”

Trouble
mounting a horse was also a source for comedy in “The Fox Hunt”
(ILL S5;E16) and “Lucy and Arthur Godfrey” (S3;E23).

Blooper
Alerts!

Logistics! To
accommodate the action of the episode, Mr. Mooney’s desk is in the
bank lobby instead of his private office.

Font of Inspiration! The
Desilu set decorators use the same lettering for the door marked
‘private’ in Goulet’s office as they used on the ‘private’ door
behind Mr. Mooney’s desk.

Purse Down! At
the bank, Lucy accidentally knocks her purse off the counter. Goulet
bends down and picks it up while she is writing down her address for
him and the scene continues uninterrupted.