LUCY AND HARRY’S TONSILS

S2;E5
~ October 20, 1969

Directed
by George Marshall ~ Written by Milt Josefsberg and Ray Singer

Synopsis

When
Harry gets tonsillitis, he dreads going into the hospital and wants
to recuperate at home. – until a sexy night nurse (Paula Stewart)
comes on duty.

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Mary
Wickes
(Nurse Hurlow) was
one of Lucille Ball’s closest friends and at one time, a neighbor.
She made a memorable appearances on “I Love Lucy” as ballet
mistress Madame Lamond in “The
Ballet” (ILL S1;E19).
In
her initial “Lucy Show” appearances her characters name was
Frances, but she then made four more as a variety of characters for a
total of 8 episodes. This is the third of her 9 appearances on
“Here’s Lucy.” Their final collaboration on screen was “Lucy
Calls the President” in 1977.
A wisecracking nurse is a familiar role to Wickes, who created the
role of Nurse Preen on Broadway in 1939’s The
Man Who Came to Dinner
and also did the 1942 film version (inset photo) and a 1972 TV
adaptation.

The
surname Hurlow was recently used as the name of the driving
instructor (Jack Gilford) in “Lucy Helps Craig Get a Driver’s
License” (S1;E24), also written by Josefsberg and Singer.

Jack
Collins
(Mr. Phillips) previously appeared in “Lucy’s Impossible Mission”
(S1;E6) as well as the
final two episodes of “The Lucy Show.” He played Russel Slater
on “Dallas” from 1982 to 1987. This is the second of his six
appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”

Adele
Claire
(Nurse Whitton) makes the first of her two appearances on the series.
She will also be seen in “Lucy and Jim Bailey” (S5;E9).

The
character is never referred to by name in the dialogue.

Paula
Stewart (Nurse Dean) appeared as Janie, Lucille Ball’s sister, in the
Broadway musical Wildcat (1960). It was the fourth of her six Broadway musicals between 1951
and 1965. This is her only series television appearance opposite
Lucille Ball. In 2017, she published a memoir titled Lucy Loved Me, about her friendship with Lucille Ball.

This
is the first multi-camera show with a studio audience of season 2,
after the series’ 4-part road trip shot on location.

This
is the only time on “Here’s
Lucy” where
Harry reveals his age, 51, although because Lucy and Nurse Hurlow
both roll their eyes, he is probably lying. In reality, Gale Gordon
was 63.

The
“Here’s Lucy” crew played a prank on Gale Gordon. He expected
the legs on the hospital bed to break, but instead the special
effects crew rigged the bed to snap shut, forcing him to be folded in
half. Although he masks his laughter, Gordon continued with the
scene. Lucy and
the kids look mildly amused for a moment.

Both
Kim and Craig mention that they have had their tonsils out.
Tonsillitis can be more serious in adults than young people, so Harry
is not completely off-base to be worried.

Craig
jokes that Uncle Harry is covered under Medicare. Medicare insurance
was only a few years old at the time, having been signed into law by
President Johnson in 1965. Benefits were not available until a
person was 65.

Dr.
Kurtzman is Harry’s surgeon; Dr. Bodner is a psychiatrist Lucy
telephones on his behalf. In real life, Dr. Sam Kurtzman
was a comedy writer who worked with writer Milt Josefsberg for Bob
Hope. Dr. Henry Bodner
was the name of Josefsberg’s urologist.

Mr.
Phillips is smoking
a cigar in the hospital waiting room. Cigars were traditionally given
to and smoked by new fathers. In
1991 the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations (JCAHO) announced tobacco control standards for
accredited American hospitals which mandated that they go smoke-free
by the end of 1993.

In
a brilliant scene of comic writing, Mr. Phillips thinks Harry is an
expectant father and Harry thinks Mr. Phillips is there for a
tonsillectomy. They talk at cross purposes and confusion abounds!

Lucille
Ball loved charades and pantomime, so it makes sense that when Harry
can’t speak, he resorts to a bedside game of charades. Every “Lucy”
sitcom has included this bit of comic fun – some more than once.

In
“Lucy Plays Florence Nightingale”
(TLS S2;E14) Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) was also the victim of Lucy and
a tricky hospital bed.

Lucy
also triggers a hospital bed to fold up with a patient (Jan Murray)
inside it in “Lucy and the Soap Opera” (TLS S4;E19).

Harry
acts like a bigger baby than Little Ricky when had his tonsils out in
“Nursery School” (ILL S5;E9).

Harry
is practically incoherent when giving the admitting nurse his
information, just as Ricky Ricardo was in “Lucy Goes to the
Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). Coincidentally, that episode aired the
same day Desi Jr. was born!

Expectant
father Mr. Phillips (having his third child) is similar to the
character of Mr. Stanley (who is having his ninth – all girls!), also seen in “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). Mr. Stanley was played by Charles Lane. The scenes were inspired by one of Lucille Ball’s early films, Carnival (1935) starring Jimmy Durante.

GPS! Harry
tells Nurse Hurlow his address as 4863 Valley Lawn Drive, which in
future episodes Lucy will claim as her own address.

Allergy Season? Harry
is supposedly allergic to flowers, but in a season one episode, Lucy
brings flowers to the office to butter up Harry for a raise.

Where The Floor Ends! When
the camera pulls back in Harry’s living room, viewers see where the
wall to wall carpeting meets the concrete stage floor. This is a
common era on all “Lucy” sitcoms.

Resume Trouble! Harry’s
will leaves Lucy 5,000 aspirin bottles she’s caused him to empty over
the past two years. At the start of the series, it was established
that Lucy’s worked for Harry for two years, then a few months later,
it was said to be three, now it is back to two!

Capper! Nurse
Dean wears a different style cap than the other two nurses, probably
in order to appear more feminine and show off more of her sexy
hairstyle.

Title Trouble! The
title follows the usual “Lucy and ____” format, but in this case
it sounds like both Lucy and
Harry have tonsillitis.