A DATE FOR LUCY

S1;E19
~ February 10, 1969

Directed
by Jack Donohue ~ Written by Fred S. Fox and Seaman Jacobs

Synopsis

Lucy
can’t find a date to a fancy soiree until Kim and Craig suggest a
debonair older man named Tony Rivera (Cesar Romero).  At the party,
Lucy discovers her date is actually a jewel thief!

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Cesar Romero (Tony Rivera) was born in 1907 in New York City to Cuban parents, something he had in common with the Arnaz children. Despite earning more than 200 screen credits, Romero is perhaps best remembered for playing the Joker on TV’s “Batman” (1966-68) and in a Batman film in 1966.  He played Ricky Ricardo’s buddy Carlos when “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana” (LDCH 1957), the very first hour-long episode of “I Love Lucy” set in Cuba in 1940.  He died on New Year’s Day 1994 at age 86.

Mary
Jane Croft (Mary
Jane Lewis) This is the first series appearance for Croft, who played
Betty Ramsey during season six of “I Love Lucy. ” She also played
Cynthia Harcourt in “Lucy
is Envious” (ILL S3;E23) and
Evelyn Bigsby in “Return
Home from Europe” (ILL S5;E26).
She played Audrey Simmons on “The Lucy Show” but when Lucy
Carmichael moved to California, she played Mary Jane Lewis, the
actor’s married name and the same one she uses on all 31 of her
episodes of “Here’s Lucy.  Her final acting credit was playing
Midge Bowser on “Lucy Meets the President” (1977). She died in
1999 at the age of 83.  

Mary
Jane is an unmarried secretary who works in Lucy’s building.

Barbara
Morrison
(Lady Agatha Warren) was seen in “Lucy’s Working Daughter”
(S1;E10) and also played an irate shopper in “Lucy
Bags a Bargain” (TLS S4;E17).
Morrison was an English-born actress who will make one more
appearance on “Here’s Lucy.”

Lady
Agatha is Harry’s date for the soiree.  

Dick
Winslow
(Harvey) appeared in the films Thousands
Cheer (1940)
and Easy
To Wed (1943)
with Lucille Ball. This is the first of his two appearances on the
series. He also did two episodes of “The Lucy Show.”  

The
Soiree Guests (all uncredited):

• Don
  Anderson
  was seen in the last  two
  episodes
  of “The Lucy Show.” This is the last of his three appearances on
  “Here’s Lucy.”
• Robert
  Hitchcock appeared
  as a bar / club patron on many TV series’ including on “Bewitched”
  and ”That Girl.”  He was seen in “Lucy and Phil Harris” (TLS
  S6;E20) at the piano bar.  This is the first of his four episodes of
  “Here’s Lucy.”

• Kathryn Janssen began doing background work in 1966. She was spotted on both “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.”  

• Monty
  O’Grady
  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 more than a dozen appearances on “The Lucy Show” and a
  half dozen more on “Here’s Lucy.”
• Ervin
  Richardson
  made four uncredited appearances on “The Lucy Show.” This is the
  first of his two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
• Clark
  Ross
  makes the last of his three appearances on “Here’s Lucy.” He is
  also in the 1974 Lucille Ball film Mame.
• Norman
  Stevans
  was in the audience of “Over The Teacups” during “Ethel’s
  Birthday” (ILL S4;E8) and
  at the airport when “The
  Ricardo’s Go To Japan,” a
  1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”  Like Clark Ross,
  this is his final time on “Here’s Lucy” but will appear in the
  1974 Lucille Ball film Mame.

Other
soiree guests, musicians and servants are played by uncredited
background performers.

The
script for this episode was dated October 17, 1968.  

The
second half of the episode takes place at the Stanley Llewellyn’s Annual
Soiree. It is never specified who (or what) Stanley Llewellyn is.  

Talking
about dreams dates for the soiree, Lucy and Mary Jane fantasize about
Rock
Hudson, Gregory Peck
and Richard
Burton,
except Elizabeth
Taylor
wouldn’t approve. These were three of Hollywood’s most handsome
leading men. Rock Hudson and Richard Burton were both mentioned in
another dating-themed episode “Lucy the Matchmaker” (S1;E12).
Lucille Ball appeared with Hudson in “In
Palm Springs” (ILL S4;E26) in
1955. Ball and Peck never shared the screen, but he was
mentioned on a couple of episodes of “I Love Lucy.” Richard
Burton and Elizabeth Taylor will play themselves on “Here’s Lucy”
in 1970 (above).  

Lucy
drops hints that she doesn’t have a date yet. Harry says “When
you do, be sure to notify Huntley and Brinkley.”
Chet
Huntley and David Brinkley
were a team of newscasters who were paired on NBC from 1956 to 1970.

Lucy
tells Harry that in high school she was voted the fun girl of her
group. Harry wonders if the group was the prohibitionists or the
suffragettes.  This is a dig at Lucy’s age since
prohibitionists (who
supported the ban on alcohol) and suffragettes
(who fought for women’s rights) during the 1920s and early ‘30s.  

Kim
mentions that she met Tony Rivera when she and Craig entertained at
the Donaldson party. Craig says Tony even plays the drum. Lucy
replies “That’s
just what I need – another drum player.”  This
same line could have been spoken by Lucy Ricardo to Little Ricky!  

Tony
compares Lucy to the beautiful women in New York, London, Paris and
Rome.  Lucy says she would have settled for Ananheim,
Asuza, and Cucamonga.
On Jack
Benny’s radio program announcer Mel Blanc would call out: “Train
leaving on track five for Anaheim, Azusa and
Cu-camonga!”  Blanc later used the same line (and variations) as Daffy Duck and
Bugs Bunny in the Warner Bothers cartoons. “The
Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga Sewing Circle Book Review and Timing
Association” was the title of a song on Jan and Dean’s 1964 album
“Little Old Lady from Pasadena.”  

Lucille
Ball gets exit applause from the studio audience after her first
scene with Cesar Romero.

When
Lucy is about to tell Lucy that Rivera is a jewel thief, Harry says
“This
is no time to play ‘What’s My Line.’  “What’s
My Line” was
a TV quiz show aired on CBS from 1950 to 1967. Lucille Ball and
Cesar Romero both appeared on the show 6 times.  

After
Tony Rivera is knocked out cold, Lady Warren discovers she’s been
robbed. When Lucy tells her who it was, she can’t believe it. “He’s
so charming! He’s so handsome!  He looks just like Cesar Romero!”

Lucy
responds with the final line of the episode “I
came to bury Caesar, not to praise him!”
and conks Rivera on the head with a champagne bottle. This is a
famous quote from William Shakespeare’s play Julius
Caesar.

Lucy
Carter hunting through her address book for a date and calling former
boyfriends on the telephone also was done by Lucy Ricardo in “The
Girls Want to Go To A Nightclub” (ILL S1;E1). 

• On “Here’s Lucy”
  the men are named Dixon Graff (he’s married) and Paul Wilcox (he’s a
  grandfather). 
• On “I Love Lucy” the men are named Sam
  Zabalione (he’s married) and Howard
  Thompson (he’s a grandfather).  

Cesar
Romero played Carlos Garcia, Ricky Ricardo’s friend and business
partner in the very first “Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” titled “Lucy
Takes a Cruise to Havana” (1957), which detailed how Lucy and Ricky
first met in Cuba in 1940. While Lucy gets fixed up with Ricky,
Carlos is matched with her private secretary friend Susie MacNamara
(Ann Sothern).  

Lucy Ricardo also foiled the plans of a jewel thief (Paul Bartell, above) in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5). 

Where The Floor Ends! When
the camera pulls out too far in the living room, the soundstage floor
is visible.  This is a typical goof on “Lucy” sitcoms.

Fractured Foley! When
Lucy hits Rivera with a champagne bottle at the end of the episode,
the sound effect of the breaking glass comes a few seconds before the
bottle actually hits his head!

“A Date for Lucy” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

This
episode is by far the most grounded and ‘realistic’ of the undercover
spy plots on the series. Lucy doesn’t overplay the comedy and seems genuinely engaged in the outcome.