Mooney’s Other Wife

S6;E18
~ January 22, 1968

Synopsis

After
Mr. Mooney returns from a convention, he is pursued by a flirtatious
woman who is in love with him. To scare her off, Lucy pretends to be
Mr. Mooney’s wife and paints a very dire picture of him as a husband.

Regular
Cast

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

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

Guest
Cast

Edie
Adams
(Nanette Johnson) was
born Edith Elizabeth Enke in Pennsylvania, although her family
settled in Tenafly, New Jersey. She earned a vocal degree from
Juilliard, then graduated from the Columbia School of Drama. She made
her television debut with her future husband on 1951’s “Ernie in
Kovacsland.” They were married in 1954. Adams Won Broadway’s 1957
Tony Award as Best Supporting Actress in a Musical as Daisy Mae in
Li’l
Abner.
That
same year she played the Fairy Godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
TV musical “Cinderella” starring Julie Andrews. In April 1960
Adams appeared with Kovacs on “Lucy Meets the Mustache,” the
final installment of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” and the very
last time we see the Ricardos and the Mertzes. Appropriately, Adams
sang the song “That’s All” on the show. She died at the age of
cancer at the age of 81.

Nanette
is a member of the Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce.

Bennett
Green (Man
with Telegram, uncredited) was
Desi Arnaz’s stand-in during “I Love Lucy.” He does frequent
background work on “The Lucy Show.”

The
date this episode first aired (January 22, 1968) NBC premiered “Rowan
and Martin’s Laugh-In.” Dick Martin played Lucy’s boyfriend Harry
Conners during seasons 1 and 2 of “The Lucy Show.” Dan Rowan was
in two season 5 episodes as different characters. The second half
hour of the show ran at the same time as “The Lucy Show” so the
two programs were vying for the same viewers. The show ran for six
seasons.

Mr.
Mooney and Mr. Cheever went to a convention in Atlantic City, New
Jersey. It was a well known TV trope that
conventions were excuses for grown men to indulge in all sorts of
juvenile shenanigans and – sometimes – extra marital flirtations.

The
name ‘Nanette’ was doubtless chosen in honor of the Broadway musical
No,
No Nanette,
first produced in 1925 and filmed in 1930 and 1940. It was revived
on Broadway in 1971. The second and third acts of the musical take
place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the convention site that Mr.
Mooney and Mr. Cheever have just returned from at the start of the
episode. Curiously, the writers miss a golden opportunity to use the
line “no,
no, Nanette.”

Edie
Adams uses a high-pitched voice with a slight New York accent much
like the character of Adelaide in the musical Guys
and Dolls.
In 1964, Adams sang Adelaide’s song “Bushel and a Peck” from
Guys
and Dolls
on a compilation LP.

Mr.
Mooney says that Atlantic City has a world famous museum – but it
was closed – so they went to a discotheque and a pizza parlor.
Nanette and Mr. Mooney shared a kiss in the cab.

As
usual when scenes take place at the Mooney home, Mrs. Mooney is out
of town. The character has not and will never be seen on camera.

Callbacks!

In
“Mertz and Kurtz” (ILL S4;E2) Fred’s old vaudeville partner
Barney joins the Ricardos and the Mertzs in a Gay 90s revue at the
Tropicana that is set in Atlantic City. They refer to the Dairymen’s
Convention.

Lucille
Ball acted like a dog in several episodes of “I Love Lucy” with
the Ricardo family pet Fred.

Lucy
Ricardo also made herself into a frumpy housewife to discourage the
amorous advances of Mr. Ritter in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL
S1;E15). She tells Mr. Ritter she has 31 children, making Lucy
Carmichael’s claim of having just 12 seem pretty tame.

Blooper
Alerts!

Name Game! In
“Little Old Lucy” (S6;E7) we learned that Mr. Cheever’s first
name is Harrison. In “Lucy and the Starmaker” (S6;E4) Mr.
Cheever says his middle name is Winfield. Here, Mr. Mooney calls him
Winfield. Either the writers have forgotten about “Little Old
Lucy” or Mr. Cheever prefers to be referred to by his middle name.

Family Tree! In
order to scare her off, Lucy (as Mrs. Mooney) tells Nanette that Mr.
Mooney has twelve children. The Mooneys actually have four children:
Arnold, Ted Jr., Bob, and a daughter in Trenton, New Jersey. He is
also a grandfather. Mr. Mooney did not mention them to Nanette. It
is possible that, like Lucy’s two children, the writers would prefer
to ignore them.

Remember Me? During
their man and wife role play, Mr. Mooney and Lucy mention his dog
Duke. In previous episodes the Mooney’s dog was named Nelson (above). At
the end of the episode, Mr. Mooney says “We
don’t have a dog.”
Nelson’s last appearance was in “Lucy Discovers Wayne Newton”
(S4;E14) after the move to California. What happened to Nelson?

Door is Ajar! Lucy
(as Mrs. Mooney) fails to close the front door completely after Mr.
Mooney comes home. It is ajar for the remainder of the scene.

Butter Fingers! Just
as Nanette is about to grab the rolled up newspaper from Mr. Mooney,
Gale Gordon drops it. He manages to quickly scoop it up and the
scene continues.