Lucy Gets Mooney Fired

S6;E9
~ November 6,
1967

Synopsis

When
there’s a shortage of forty eight cents at the bank, Lucy pulls the
change out of her own pocket to solve the crisis. As a result, Mr.
Cheever fires Mr. Mooney. A guilt-ridden Lucy schemes to get Mr. Mooney his job
back by ‘gaslighting’ Mr. Cheever.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carmichael),
Gale Gordon
(Theodore J. Mooney), Roy
Roberts
(Harrison Winfield Cheever), Mary
Jane Croft (Mary
Jane Lewis)

Guest
Cast

Joan
Swift (Joan
Cosgrove) makes
the fifth 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.

This
is the third time Joan Swift has played a bank secretary, each with
different names. They all, however, dress in pink. Cosgrove is the
surname of Milton Berle’s real-life wife Ruth and was also the
surname of a character played by Doris Singleton in “Lucy and Art
Linkletter” (S4;E16). However, her last name is not spoken in the
dialogue.

Vanda
Barra
(Vanda Wilson) makes the second of her six appearances on the series.
She was married to Sid Gould (who appeared in more than 45
episodes), 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).

Irwin
Charone
(Henry) makes
the second of his five appearances on “The Lucy Show.” This is
the first time he has been seen since 1963. The expressive character
actor also did an equal number of “Here’s Lucy” episodes. He
died in January 2016 in Maplewood, New Jersey, at the age of 93.

William
Meader
(Bank
Clerk, uncredited) had appeared as an airport extra in “The
Ricardos Go to Japan,”
a
1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” He made many
appearances on “The Lucy Show,” most times as a clerk in Mr.
Mooney’s bank.

James
Gonzales (Bank
Clerk, uncredited) was a popular Hollywood extra who first acted with
Lucille Ball in the 1953 film The
Long, Long Trailer.
He was previously seen on the series as Stan Williams in “Lucy
Digs Up a Date” (S1;E2).
He was seen in more than 20 episodes of “The Lucy Show” and 3
episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Judith
Woodbury (Bank
Clerk, uncredited)
makes
the last of her eight (mostly) uncredited appearances on “The Lucy
Show.” She also appeared in one episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Freda
Jones (Bank
Clerk, uncredited) was
born in 1897 as Margaret Malloy. This is one of 25 screen credits.
She was 70 years old when she made her only appearance on the series.

Other bank clerks are played by uncredited background performers.

This
episode was filmed on September 21, 1967.

Lucy
and Mary Jane watch Gaslight (1944)
on TV. Lucy sums up the plot for Mary Jane: “Charles
Boyer tries to convince Ingrid Bergman that she is seeing things that
aren’t there.” This inspires Lucy to try to make Mr. Cheever think
that he is going crazy, much like the plot of the film.

The movie was based on Patrick
Hamilton’s 1938 play Gas
Light (known
in the United States as Angel
Street).
It inspired a 1940 British film before the 1944 Hollywood version.

This
is the first time we have seen the study of Mr. Mooney’s California
home. The first time we saw inside his home it was his living room
in “Lucy the Robot” (S4;E23).

In that episode a portrait of Mr.
Mooney hung above the fireplace. Lucy (as Major Fun Fun) and Mr. Mooney’s nephew Wendell threw eggs at it.

Although we are now in a different
room of the house, the same portrait (in color now), is hanging over
the study fireplace.

The
first poem Mr. Mooney ever wrote in the third grade hinted at his
future career in banking. In
college Mr. Mooney was voted ‘the man most likely to foreclose.’ His
first puppy was named Escrow.

Here
are a few ways the wily Lucy tries to ‘gaslight’ Mr. Cheever:

She
hides Mr. Cheever’s lit cigarette and ashtray in his drawer.
Mr.
Cheever asks for the Montgomery file and Lucy hands him the Bradshaw
file telling him that is what he asked for.
She
asks Mr. Cheever to sign a letter, then, after switching it with an
unsigned letter, gives it to him and tells him he forgot to sign it.
Mr.
Mooney makes a delivery disguised as a messenger, but Lucy claims it
was a delivery boy.
Mr.
Mooney returns as a window washer. When Mr. Cheever asks Lucy if
the man looked like Mr. Mooney to her, she replies “What man?”
Lucy
reads back the letter Mr. Cheever just dictated but when she does so
it is a letter to his mother about his guilt over firing Mr. Mooney.

For
the big finish, Lucy puts a cold compress over Mr. Cheever’s eyes and
gives him earplugs so he can rest. Meanwhile, Lucy transforms the
office:

She

turns the walls psychedelic, and

replaces the small fern with a huge one;

She replaces George
Washington’s portrait with a similar one featuring Mr. Mooney as George Washington;

And she dresses as a rabbit!

Mr. Mooney enters as
Mrs. Callucci, an old Italian cleaning lady singing “O Solo Mio!”
Mr. Mooney does one of his famous cartwheels as he exits in full
drag. Overwhelmed, Mr. Cheever finally relents and re-hires Mr. Mooney to save
his sanity.

The
underscoring throughout the ‘gaslighting’ makes extensive use of the
Theremin, an instrument that was frequently used in sci-fi and
fantasy films.

Callbacks!

“Lucy
and the Dummy” (ILL S5;E3) also made extensive use of the Theremin
in the underscoring. During
Lucy Ricardo’s imaginings of Hollywood fame at the expense of her
family life, a Theremin was heard, giving the sequence a dreamy,
surreal quality.
Over
the final credits, the announcer says: “Theremin
effects by Dr. Samuel Hoffman.“
At
the time, Hoffman was the ‘go-to’ man for this sort of thing. He
went on to play Theremin in dozens of Hollywood films like Hitchcock’s Spellbound, as well as for
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope’s 1950 comedy Fancy
Pants.
Sadly his career on the instrument ended with the invention of an
electronic Theremin in 1959, which is likely what was used here.

The
stars of Gaslight
(1944) were Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Charles Boyer
memorably met Lucy Ricardo in Paris in “Lucy Meets Charles Boyer”
(ILL S5;E19). Bergman won an Oscar for her role and Boyer was
nominated but lost to Barry Fitzgerald in Going
My Way.

Blooper
Alerts!

Portrait Placement! The
portrait of George Washington has returned to the wall behind Mr.
Mooney’s desk for plot purposes. It was last seen in “Lucy Gets
Trapped” (S6;E2). The skyline painting was back the next week.

Where The Floor Ends! The
camera pulls back too far when Lucy is hopping across the office and
we can see where the office carpet meets the cement soundstage floor.
This is a frequent occurrence on “The Lucy Show.”

Gravity Wins! When
Lucy rips off her blue skirt to and puts it on the side table, it
immediately slides off onto the floor.