LUCY AND THE GOLD RUSH

S1;E13
~ December 30, 1968

Directed
by Jack Donohue ~ Written by Howard Harris and Ben Gershman

Synopsis

When
Kim and Craig dig up rock specimens for a school Geology project, one of
them turns out to be gold. This inspires Lucy and Harry to go
prospecting to make their fortune.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carter), Gale
Gordon (Harrison
Otis Carter), Lucie
Arnaz (Kim
Carter), Desi
Arnaz Jr. (Craig
Carter)

Guest
Cast

Rhodes Reason (Jeff Simpson) appeared on “Lucy and Carol Burnett: Part One” (TLS S6;E14) and here marks the second of his five episodes of “Here’s Lucy” having just been seen in the previous episode, “Lucy, the Matchmaker” (S1;E12). He also appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1974 TV movie Happy Anniversary and Goodbye.

Philip
Bruns (J.
Calvin Coolidge Tompkins) is probably best remembered as Mary
Hartman’s dad George on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” (1976-77).
This is his only appearance opposite Lucille Ball.

This is the final episode of the 1968 calendar year; a year that saw the end of “The Lucy Show,” the birth of “Here’s Lucy,” and the first full year of Paramount owning the former Desilu Studios.

There
was no new episode on Monday, December 23rd although CBS did air new episodes of “Gunsmoke,” “Family
Affair,” and “Mayberry R.F.D.” that evening. Instead, they reran the first episode of the season / series “Mod, Mod Lucy” (S1;E1).

This
is the only collaboration between writers Howard Harris and Ben
Gershman and also their only time writing for Lucille Ball.

For
the first time on “Here’s Lucy,” we hear Gale Gordon’s unusual
pronunciation of “Los Angeles” using a hard ‘g’.

Harry wants to dictate a letter to Consolidated Machinery (before a rock falls on his foot and Lucy runs out of steno pads).

Harry says the gold in their rock could be worth as much as $14 a ton! Unfortunately, they later find out it will cost $35 a ton to mine it!

Jeff
Simpson says he is staying at the Explorer’s Club. This may be a nod
to Los Angeles’s famous Adventurers’ Club, a private male-only
organization formed in 1922.

Under
pressure from Uncle Harry, Lucie finally remembers where they found
the gold rock: they took the freeway to the Calabasas turnoff, took
the Old Tapanga Canyon Road, and walked 3 miles.

Lucy
references the Grand Canyon while digging for gold. Although the
Ricardos and the Mertzes all wanted to see the Grand Canyon on their road
trip to California, no episode was devoted to it.

J.C.C.
Tompkins is named for President Calvin
Coolidge
who was inaugurated in 1925, the same year the silent movie The
Gold Rush premiered starring Charlie Chaplin.

Calvin Coolidge spent the summer of
1927 in the Black Hills, South Dakota and was photographed panning
for gold with his wife.

After
selling his land to Harry for $1,000, J.C.C. Tompkins goes off singing “I’m
in the money!”
The song “We’re
in the Money”
(aka “The
Gold Diggers’ Song”) is
from the 1933 film Gold
Diggers of 1933 and was written
by Al
Dubin and
Harry
Warren.
It
is now part of the stage musical 42nd Street.

This
episode allows Gale Gordon to do much of the physical humor normally
done by Lucille Ball. He barricades himself in his office with a
Rube Goldberg-like method and then tries to break open the gold rock,
unsuccessfully but humorously. At the end of the episode, he falls
down a mine shaft.

This episode was loosely remade in season 6 as “Harry Catches Gold Fever” (S6;E12). In that episode, Kim and Craig are not present and Harry pans for gold rather than mines for it.

Lucy
Ricardo and the gang went prospecting for the 1950’s version of gold
– uranium – in “Lucy Hunts Uranium,” a 1958 episode of “The
Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” that also starred Fred MacMurray. While
that episode was shot on location in the California desert (standing
in for Nevada), this one is shot entirely on the soundstage at
Paramount.

A Matter of Class! Kim
and Craig are in the same Geology class, despite Kim being two years
ahead of Craig in school.

Menu Mistakes! When
Harry pays a surprise visit with a 14-pound roast turkey (at 29 cents
a pound), Lucy says she was having leftovers for dinner, but
instantly produces a fancy tray of hors
d’oeuvres
from the kitchen. She also coincidentally has cranberry sauce
already on the table.

Where the Floor Ends! The wide shot reveals where the wall-to-wall carpeting meets the concrete stage floor, a frequent error on all “Lucy” sitcoms.

Hot Set! In
that same scene, Gale Gordon is sweating profusely. Despite having a
handkerchief in his pocket, the actor resists the temptation to mop
his dripping brow. He is also sweating in the gold mining scene. Gordon may have been ill or reacting to the heat in the studio – or both!