Lucy and Carol Burnett: Part 1

S6;E14
~ December 4, 1967

Synopsis

Lucy
trains to be a flight attendant but is teamed with a nervous partner
(Carol Burnett) who is afraid of heights. When the in-flight movie breaks down, they provide
some live entertainment for the passengers.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carmichael)

Gale
Gordon
(Theodore J. Mooney), Mary
Jane Croft (Mary
Jane Lewis), and Roy
Roberts
(Harrison Winfield Cheever) do not appear in this episode. Gale
Gordon’s co-starring credit and voice over is deleted from the title
sequence.

Guest
Cast

Carol
Burnett (Carol
Tilford) got
her first big break on “The Paul Winchell Show” in 1955.
A
years later she was a regular on “The Garry Moore Show.” In 1959
she made her Broadway debut in Once
Upon a Mattress,
which she also appeared in on television three times. From 1960 to
1965 she did a number of TV specials, and often appeared with Julie
Andrews. Her second Broadway musical was Fade
Out – Fade In which
ran for more than 270 performances. From 1967 to 1978 she hosted her
own highly successful variety show, “The Carol Burnett Show.”
Burnett had previously appeared in two episodes as Lucy’s roommate
Carol Bradford. In return, Lucille Ball made five appearances on
“The Carol Burnett Show.” Burnett also returned to star in three
episodes of “Here’s Lucy,” once playing herself. After Lucille
Ball’s passing, Burnett was hailed as the natural heir to Lucy’s
title of ‘The Queen of TV Comedy.’

Carol
Tilford is from North Platte, Nebraska.

She was formerly an usherette in a movie theatre but she had to quit
when she was afraid to go into the balcony due to her fear of
heights. In September 2016, Vicki Lawrence, Burnett’s co-star on her variety show, did a Town Hall talk in North Platte, Nebraska.

Rhodes
Reason (Mr. Brennan) made an appearance on “Vacation Playhouse”
(“The Lucy’s Show” summer replacement anthology series) in 1965 along with Sid
Gould. He will make five appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”

Mr.
Brennan is the Vice President of Personnel for Globe World
Airlines. He is unmarried.

Kasey
Rogers (Miss Cavanaugh) is probably best remembered for playing
Louise Tate on “Bewitched” from 1966 to 1972, including an
episode aired just five days before this installment of “The Lucy Show.” She will appear in two more episodes of the series.

Ernesto
Masias aka Eric Mason (Passenger Agent) was a Mexican-born
actor making his only appearance with Lucille Ball.

Sid
Gould (Workman)
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.

Jerry
Rush
(Pilot) makes
the seventh of his nine (mostly uncredited) appearances on the
series. He also did two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
Rush also played the Pilot in “Lucy Flies to London” (S5;E6).

Stewardess
trainees include Judy Daniels from Boston, Sally Fry from Chicago,
Mary Baker from Detroit, and Martha Bailey from Memphis. The
training team consists of Miss Gray and Miss Jackson. It is unclear
whether these are the actors’ actual names or they are scripted.
Other trainees and passengers are played by uncredited background
performers.

This
is the first of a two part episode. The second episode is rather
uncreatively titled “Lucy and Carol Burnett: Part 2” and also
features Kasey Rogers.

The
episode was filmed on October 26, 1967. That evening Kasey Rogers
was featured on a Halloween-themed episode of “Bewitched.”

Carol
Burnett first appeared on the series before the premiere of her own
TV variety show. This time she returns as a celebrity guest star,
with her name in the title.

The
date this episode first aired (December 4, 1967) actor Bert Lahr
(the Cowardly Lion in “The Wizard of Oz”) died at age 72. Lahr
had appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1944 film Meet the People.

At
10pm that evening “The Carol Burnett Show” featured Barbara Eden.
One of Eden’s first TV appearances was playing Diana Jordan on “Country Club Dance” (ILL S6;E25).

Lucy
explains that she took a leave of absence from the bank to train as a
flight attendant.

Lucy
says that stewardesses get to meet big executives, movie stars, and
sports celebrities. Lucy Carmichael has already met all these people
without leaving the ground!

Instead
of asking handsome Mr. Right (aka Mr. Brenner) if he would like
coffee, tea or milk, Lucy says “coffee,
tea or me”! Earlier in 1967
the book Coffee,
Tea or Me?
was
published. It was the alleged memoirs of two stewardess and their
romantic and sexual escapades in the air. The popularity of this book
may be the reason for this episode.

Frustrated
by Lucy and Carol’s bungling, Mr. Brenner says “Is this any way
to run an airline?” The line gets a huge reaction from the
studio audience. In 1963 a National Airlines TV commercial featured
a flight attendant asking “Is this any way to run an airline?
You bet it is!” In 1966, singer Tom Paxton wrote and recorded a
song with the same title.

The
episode uses establishing stock footage of the training building and
a jet taking off.

When
the in-flight movie malfunctions by spitting the film out of the
projector into Lucy’s face, Lucy and Carol present live entertainment
– a medley of songs – with the help of a group of musicians who are
(conveniently) also on board:

“Let
Me/Us Entertain You”
by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim from Gypsy
(1959).

“That’s
Entertainment” written
by
Arthur
Schwartz
and
Howard
Dietz
for the 1953
film
The
Band Wagon.

“The
Old Soft Shoe” written by Nancy Hamilton and Morgan Lewis in
1946 for the Ray Bolger musical Three To Make Ready.

Lucy
plays Charlie
Chaplin.
Lucy had done her Charlie Chaplin imitation twice before on the
show, in “Chris’s
New Year’s Eve Party“
(S1;E14)
and “Lucy and Mickey Rooney” (S4;E18).

Lucy
and Carol imitate Jimmy Durante as they sing “Start Out Each Day
with a Song” which was written by Durante in 1944. Lucy
Ricardo also imitated Durante (wearing a mask) to fool Carolyn
Appleby in “Lucy Meets Harpo Marx” (S4;E28).

Carol
imitates Ethel Merman singing “I
Got Rhythm”
by George and Ira Gershwin. Merman herself sang this song in “Lucy
Teaches Ethel Merman to Sing” (S2;E18) and “Ethel Merman and the
Boy Scout Show” (S2;E19). Merman first sang the song in the 1930
Gershwin musical Girl
Crazy.

Lucy sings “Yankee Doodle Dandy” while Carol waves flags.

For the big finish, Lucy and Carol sing “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Callbacks!

Although
this is her first time as a flight attendant, Lucy Carmichael was
seen on an airplane as a passenger in “Lucy Flies to London”
(S5;E6). The stewardess that had to contend with Lucy was Pat
Priest, better known for her role as Marilyn on “The Munsters” and the pilot was Jerry Rush.

Globe
World Airlines is a fictional carrier. In “Lucy Flies to London”
(S5;E6) Lucy flew fictional British Imperial Airways.

When she
arrives in “Lucy in London,” however, she is on now defunct Pan American (Pan Am).

Pan Am (PAA) clipper service also flew the Ricardos
to Cuba and home from Europe on “I Love Lucy.”

When “Lucy
Goes to Alaska” (1959) and “The Ricardos Go To Japan” (1959)
they fly United Airlines, which is still in business today.

Lucy and Carol get some comic mileage getting into the dorm’s bunk beds, just as Lucy and Viv did in “Lucy and Her Electric Mattress” (S1;E12).

Blooper
Alerts!

Sashay Away! Lucy
and Carol’s lip sync does not always perfectly match the soundtrack
during their medley.

Serious Sitcom Logic Alert! It
is somewhat silly to iterate out the complete lack of logic of this episode. From conception to conclusion it lacks
common sense or any sense of truth, something Lucy usually prized.
By this time “The Lucy Show” was in the ‘home stretch’ and was
mainly interested in entertainment, not character. Part
of this is due to the fact that Ball had recently sold Desilu to Gulf
& Western, which also owned Paramount Studios, located next door
to Desilu. Everyone involved is keenly aware that this is the final
season of a still popular series. Less attention is paid to
plots and details, and more effort is placed on guest stars and
musical numbers.