LUCY GOES TO THE AIR FORCE ACADEMY: PART 1

S2;E1
~ September 22, 1969

Directed
by George Marshall ~ Written by Gene Thompson

Synopsis

Delivering
a camper from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Lucy decides to take a
detour to Colorado to show Craig the Air Force Academy.

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Roy
Roberts
(Superintendent) was
born Roy Barnes Jones in Tampa, Florida in 1906. His early career
was on the Broadway stage, gracing such plays as Old
Man Murphy
(1931),
Twentieth
Century (1932),
The
Body Beautiful
(1935)
and My
Sister Eileen
(1942).
In Hollywood, the veteran character actor clocked over 900 screen
performances in his 40 year career, most of which were authority
figures. He and Lucille Ball appeared together in Miss
Grant Takes Richmond
(1949).
On “The Lucy Show” he first appeared as a Navy Admiral in “Lucy
and the Submarine” (S5;E2)
before
creating the role of Mr. Cheever,
a recurring
character he played through the end of the series. This is the first
of his 5 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Roberts died in 1975 at age
69.

Roy
Roberts will play the same character in “Lucy
Goes to the Air Force Academy: Part 2” (S2;E2).

Frank
Marth
(Registrar) was
a regular on “The
Honeymooners”
(1955)
playing police officers, photographers, newsmen, and various
neighbors and passersby. This is his only
appearance with Lucille Ball.

John
Erwin (Narrator, uncredited) was a voice-over artist primarily
known for voicing Reggie on the “Archie” cartoons. Erwin’s voice
over comes at the end of the episode to tell the audience to tune in
next week for part two.

Actual
Air Force Academy students and staff play themselves.

This
is the first episode to be directed by George Marshall, who directed
Lucille Ball in the films Valley of the Sun (1942) and Fancy
Pants (1950). He will direct the first eleven episodes of
season two of the “Here’s Lucy.” According to DVD extras,
Marshall was quite a drinker. This is the first of four episodes to
be written by Gene Thompson.

A
few weeks before this episode aired, CBS staged a press event at the
Air Force Academy which Lucy attended. It resulted in publicity (like the above article) for
the new season.

Oops! Interestingly, the Chicago area CBS affiliate took
out ad space adjacent to their feature article on the event.
Unfortunately, they mis-identified Craig as Ricky, continuing the
confusion that Desi Arnaz Jr. and Little Ricky Ricardo were one and
the same person. This confusion was further compounded by the fact
that Lucy Ricardo gave birth on TV on the very same day (January 19, 1953) that Lucille
Ball gave birth to Desi Jr.

This
episode is the first of a four-part on-location story arc that came
about due to the success of location filming at LAX during the first
season. Created with the cooperation of the Air Force and the states
of Colorado and Arizona, practically the entire Air Force Academy
appears as extras. Filming was done right in the dormitories and
administrative buildings. The Air Force viewed this as a sort of TV
commercial at a time when the public was very down on the military
due to its involvement in the Vietnam War.

The
episode uses a Travco
motor home. The company’s RV’s were originally built on a Dodge
chassis. Travco was in business from 1964 until the late 1980s.

The
US Air Force Academy was founded in 1954. The
most controversial aspect of the Academy was its chapel,
designed by architect
Walter Netsch, who at one point was prepared to abandon the design;
but
the accordion-like structure is now acknowledged as an iconic symbol
of the Academy campus.

Like
previous location shoots, the episode was supplemented with studio
shots using rear projection for driving scenes. Unlike
studio filming, only one camera was used on location, although
Lucille Ball was insistent on her studio lighting instruments,
despite their weight and bulk.

Seeing
Lucy in an RV (camper) recalls the 1953 film she made with Desi Arnaz
Sr. The
Long, Long Trailer.
The episode even opens with the same theme music, “Breezin’ Along
With the Breeze” written by Haven
Gillespie, Seymour Simons, and Richard
A. Whiting.
At one point, due to the sudden movement of the vehicle, Craig gets
covered in food, just the way Lucy was in the film.

This is not the first time a Lucy character enrolled her son in a military academy. On “The Lucy Show” Lucy Carmichael shipped her son Jerry (Jimmy Garrett) off to military school not once, but twice!

As noted on the DVD, continuity was affected by the weather. An early snow covered the ground overnight and it became impossible to match exterior shots of the Academy campus.