Lucy and Sid Caesar

S6;E23
~ March 4, 1968

Synopsis

A
forger who looks like Sid Caesar is passing bad checks at the bank.
Lucy and Mr. Mooney try to figure out how to tell the real Sid Caesar
from the forger.

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 Lucy does mention
her ‘girlfriend,’ which probably refers to Mary Jane.

Guest
Cast

Sid
Caesar
(Himself / Frankie the Forger) is probably best remembered for “Your
Show of Shows” which aired on NBC from 1950 to 1954. He was often
teamed with comedy partner Imogene Coca. Caesar was nominated for a
1963 Tony Award for appearing in the musical Little
Me.
He appeared with Lucille Ball (and Tim Herbert) in the 1967 film A
Guide for the Married Man.
He died in 2014 at the age of 91.

Jack
Collins
(Rocky) appeared with Sid Caesar on a 1953 episode of “Texaco Star
Theatre” starring Milton Berle. He will also appear in the next
(and final) “Lucy Show” as well as making six appearances on
“Here’s Lucy.”

Rocky
seems to be the manager of a restaurant but is also taking bets on
horses in his office in the back. Since he is also consorting with a
known forger, we can assume he is supposed to be a criminal.

Irwin
Charrone
(Security Guard) makes the last of his five appearances on “The
Lucy Show.” 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.

Tim
Herbert
(Waiter) was born Herbert Timberg in 1914. In 1944 he appeared on
Broadway in the Jackie Gleason revue Follow
the Girls.
This is the last of his three appearances on “The Lucy Show.” He
also did one episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1968. He appeared
with Lucille Ball and Sid Caesar in A
Guide for the Married Man
in 1967 and with Caesar in a 1985 episode of “Amazing Stories.”

Sid
Gould (Waiter)
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.

Carole
Cook
(Gladys) 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.”

Gladys
is a teller in the Westland Bank.

John
J. ‘Red’ Fox
(Policeman) was best known for playing policemen, which is what he
did on five of his eight appearances on “The Lucy Show” as well
as three of his five episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Ben
Gage
(Policeman) makes the second of his two appearances on the series.
Gage was once married to Hollywood swimming starlet Esther Williams.
His first screen appearance was as an uncredited swimmer in her 1954
film Dangerous
When Wet.
Their names were mentioned as attending Lucy and Ricky’s Mocambo
anniversary party in “Hollywood
Anniversary” (ILL S4;E23).

Remo
Pisani (Bank
Customer) was a stunt man and actor making the second of his two
appearances on the series. He was born in New Jersey in 1919 and died
there in 2004.

Although
Lucy says the customer’s last name, it is unintelligible over the
underscoring that opens the scene.

Don
Anderson
(Bank Customer) will also appear in the next (and final)
“Lucy Show” as well as making three appearances on “Here’s
Lucy.”

George
DeNormand (Bank
Extra, uncredited) 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.”

Monty
O’Grady
(Bank Extra, uncredited) was first seen with Lucille Ball in The
Long, Long Trailer (1953)
and played a passenger on the S.S. Constitution in “Second
Honeymoon” (ILL S5;E14).
He was a traveler at the airport when “The
Ricardos Go to Japan”(1959).
He made a dozen appearances on the series and a half dozen more on
“Here’s Lucy.”

James
Gonzales (Bank
Extra, 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.”

Renita Reachi (Bank Extra, undredited) was a costumer for “The Lucy Show” from 1966 to 1968. She was also Vivian Vance’s camera and lighting stand-in for “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.” She was a costumer and/or made crowd appearances on “Here’s Lucy” and the Lucille Ball films Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) and Mame (1974).

The
evening this episode first aired (March 4, 1968) Sid Caesar’s comedy
partner Imogene Coca appeared on “The Carol Burnett Show.”

Much
of the comedy in this episode is left to Sid Caesar. Unfortunately,
Caesar is no longer the superstar he once was. He is struggling with
alcoholism which he will eventually overcome in the 1970s.
Consequentially, the comedy feels sluggish and Caesar has little
success in differentiating the two characters except by their
wardrobe.

Lucy
mentions that she saw Sid Caesar in Little Me and convinces
him to sing “Real Live Girl” from the show. The song was written
by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, the same composers responsible for
Lucille Ball’s one and only Broadway musical Wildcat
(1960-61).

Striving
to stay thin to resemble Sid Caesar, Frankie the Forger wishes he
looked like Jackie Gleason instead. TV star comedian Jackie Gleason
was known for his corpulent frame. He will make a wordless cameo
appearance on “Here’s Lucy” in the fall of 1968.

Mr.
Mooney takes Lucy and ‘Sid Caesar’ to lunch at the Lafayette Men’s
Club.

After
turning himself in to the police via telephone, a starving Frankie
the Forger orders pork chops, a squab stuffed with oyster dressing, a
turkey, lasagna, black-eyed peas, candied yams, corn pone, Virginia
hams, hot bread, turnip beans, fat back, and Lima beans! He is paraphrasing the lyrics to the song
“That’s
What I Like About the South”
written by Andy Razlaf in 1942. The song was notably covered by Phil
Harris in 1947. Harris was a recent guest star on “The Lucy Show.”

Callbacks!

Celebrity
guests playing their own look-alikes was previously done in “Lucy
and Robert Goulet” (S6;E8) and “Lucy Dates Dean Martin”
(S4;E21) where both stars did double duty. Lucille Ball will play
herself and Lucy Carter in a 1974 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Blooper
Alerts!

Jane of All Trades! Lucy
is still doing double duty as Mr. Mooney’s secretary and a bank
teller. Lucy was also cashing checks in “Lucy Helps Ken Berry”
(S6;E21).

Out of Print! Because she fears doing math, Lucy
wants to cash Sid Caesar’s check by giving him a single $1,000 bill.
The
US stopped printing the $1,000 bill by 1946, but they continued in circulation until the Federal Reserve recalled them in 1969. It is
highly unlikely that a bank would be distributing them in 1968.

Counting Conundrum! In
this episode, Lucy suddenly cannot do simple math. Although Lucy’s education
is sketchy, we saw her at a college reunion and getting her high
school diploma (in that order!), so basic addition should not be all
that difficult. Lucy refuses to use the tabulator (aka adding machine)
because she fears being replaced by a machine.

Playbill Problem! Lucy
says the song “Real Live Girl” is from Act Two of Little Me,
but in fact the song is in Act One.