Lucy and Phil Harris

S6;E20 ~ February 5, 1968

Synopsis

When
Lucy and Mr. Mooney go to a piano bar for dinner, Lucy decides to
bring a drunken lounge singer (Phil Harris) home and encourage him to
finish a song she hopes will be a big hit.

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.

Guest
Cast

Phil
Harris
(Phil Stanley) was
a bandleader who became a comic radio star as a Jack Benny sidekick
in the 1930s. Although his fondness for booze was largely a creation
of the Benny’s writers, Harris played the part to the hilt.
Harris was mentioned in “Lucy Gets Jack Benny’s Account” (S6;E6)
when Benny made a
reference to Harris’ persona as a lush. In “Lucy
and Joan” (S4;E4)
Joan
(Joan Blondell) says she’s been in pictures so long she saw Phil
Harris take his first drink. Harris plays himself again on a 1974
episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Phil
Stanley was a celebrated song writer of the 1940s.

Lew
Parker
(Jack Murray) is
probably best remembered as the restaurateur father of Ann Marie,
Marlo Thomas’ character on TV’s “That Girl” (1966-71). This
is the fourth of his five appearances on “The Lucy Show” and he
will return for two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Jack
Murray is a music publisher.

Kasey
Rogers
(Miss Carroll) is
best remembered for playing Louise Tate on “Bewitched” from 1966
to 1972. She previously played Miss Cavanaugh in “Lucy and Carol
Burnett: Part 1 (S6;E14) and “Lucy and Carol Burnett: Part 2”
(S6;E15). This is her last appearance on the series.

Miss
Carroll works with Jack Murray. Phil Stanley affectionately nicknamed her ‘BB’ for
blue blood because she went to a fancy finishing school.

Gerald
Mohr
(Ruby) has played the Psychiatrist in “The Inferiority Complex”
(ILL S2;E18). This is his last appearance with Lucille Ball.

Ruby
is the proprietor of Ruby’s Restaurant and Piano Bar.

Tim
Herbert
(Mario, Headwaiter) was
born Herbert Timberg in 1914. In 1944 he appeared on Broadway in the
Jackie Gleason revue Follow
the Girls.
This is the second of his three appearances on “The Lucy Show.”
He also did one episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1968.

Vanda
Barra
(Agnes, Waitress) 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).
This is her final appearance on the series, which she began by also
playing a waitress.

Sid
Gould (Piano
Delivery Man, 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. Gould and Vanda Barra were married in real life.

The
Delivery Man has a partner who has no lines and leaves before Gould.
He is uncredited and unidentified.

Ruby’s
Piano Bar Patrons (all uncredited) are played by:

Carole
Cook
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.”

George
DeNormand (with Cook above) appeared
in three films with Lucille Ball from 1937 to 1963. This is the just
one of his many appearances on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s
Lucy.”

Perhaps
in deference to Cook’s history with the show, the camera cuts to a
reaction shot of Cook and DeNormand during Phil Stanley’s act.
Neither have any dialogue.

James
Gonzales 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.”

Robert
Hitchcock appeared
as a bar / club patron on many TV series’ including on “Bewitched”
with Kasey Rogers and ”That Girl” with Lew Parker. This is
his only “Lucy Show” appearance but he will do four episodes of
“Here’s Lucy.”

Jerry
Rush
makes
the last of his nine (mostly uncredited) appearances on the series.
He also did two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Jerry Rush’s date goes unnamed and uncredited.

Other
Piano Bar patrons and Mr. Murray’s receptionist go uncredited.

“Lucy
Show” script consultant Milt Josefsberg was a writer for “The
Jack Benny Program” and was probably the reason that Harris was
recruited as a guest star. The series had already featured guest
appearances by Benny and Dennis Day.

Lucy
revives her bad singing voice shtick, although she was able to sing
on key in several previous episodes.

At
the piano, Phil Stanley opens with “Cabaret”
written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, the title song of the 1966
Broadway musical of the same name.
The show won the 1967 Tony for Best Musical and it was also honored
for Best Score.

Phil Stanley next performs “But
Beautiful”
written by Johnny Burke and James Van Heusen for the film Road
to Rio
(1947).

He winds up with “Is
It True What They Say About Dixie?”
written
by Irving
Caesar,
Sammy
Lerner, and
Gerald
Marks in 1936.

Lucy
tries to get Phil Stanley to perform “Night
and Day”
written by Cole Porter for the 1932 Broadway musical Gay
Divorce.
Lucy mistakenly says the song is called “You Are the One.” She
then sings a bar of “In
Other Words”
(aka “Fly Me to the Moon”)
written
in 1954 by Bart
Howard for Kaye Ballard.

The
song that Phil Stanley is trying to write throughout the episode is
called “I
Loved Her,”
and was really written by Gordon Jenkins. After being introduced by
Harris in this episode, was recorded by Jack Jones and Frank Sinatra.
During the final performance of the song Phil Harris actually seems
to shed a tear.

After
hearing Lucy’s strained sing-along, Mr. Mooney longs for Kate Smith.
Kathryn
Elizabeth Smith
(1907–86),
was
a singer
best
known for her rendition of Irving
Berlin’s
“God
Bless America.”
She
had a radio,
television,
and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its
pinnacle in the 1940s.

Callbacks!

Lucy
Carmichael also played talent agent for musicians like Wayne Newton (above),
Tommy Cheever (Frankie Avalon), and her neighbor Mel Tinker (Mel
Torme).

Blooper
Alerts!

Playback Problems! When
Phil Stanley finally sits down at the piano to perform “I Loved
Her” for Mr. Murray and Miss Carroll, the soundtrack swells with a
full orchestra and a lot of studio echo making the lip sync very
unconvincing.