LUCY THE HELPFUL MOTHER

S2;E15
~ December 29, 1969

Directed
by Herbert Kenwith ~ Written by Milt Josefsberg and Al Schwartz

Synopsis

Kim
and Craig want their own phones, so they take on part-time jobs to
pay for them. Kim’s job has her animal-sitting for the local pet
shop, turning Lucy’s living room into a zoo!

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Irving,
a baby chimpanzee.

Radish,
a talking parrot who says
“You did it again, stupid!”

Breath-of-Spring,
a deodorized skunk.

Bruce,
a sarcastic mynah bird who says “Get
away, kid, you bother me.”
This quote from W.C. Fields was previously spoken in “Lucy and the
Used Car Dealer” (S2;E9).

The
cast also includes baby leopards, a ring-tailed cat, bunnies,
hamsters, canaries, doves, and a tank full of piranha (the only
‘prop’ [fake] animals in the episode).

This is the only episode to only feature the Carter Family: Lucy, Harry, Craig and Kim. A season five show will only feature Lucy and Harry, with archival clips of Kim and Craig. This episode is also the only episode to have an ‘all-animal’ supporting cast!

This
is the final episode of calendar year 1969 and the final episode of
the turbulent 1960s. For Lucille Ball, the decade began with saying
farewell to Lucy Ricardo with the last “Lucy-Desi
Comedy Hour” airing in April 1960. “The Lucy Show” was born in 1962
and ran through 1968. The decade also began with Ball’s divorce from
Desi Arnaz. In 1961 she married Gary Morton. The upcoming decade
would be quieter for Ball, but not for Lucie and Desi Jr., who would
each face failed relationships that dominated the headlines.

For
some unknown reason, assistant choreographer Anita Mann was asked to
introduce this dance-less and creature-filled episode on the series
DVD. Mann fondly remembers that Lucille Ball was a virtual ‘Dr. Doolittle’ when
working with animals.

Lucy’s
phone number is KL5-8231. On rotary telephones the alpha characters K
and L corresponded to the number 5 making Lucy’s number 555-8321. A
555 exchange is the accepted screen format to include a telephone
number as it will never correspond with a real telephone number.

The
episode includes multiple rotary
telephones
at Lucy’s home and work, including Kim’s Princess model. Rotary
(dial) telephones were first introduced around 1904. In 1962, the
touch tone button phone was introduced. These gradually supplanted
dial telephones throughout the decade. The Princess telephone, a
compact rotary phone with an illuminated dial, was first introduced
by Bell Telephone in 1959.

Teenagers
and telephones was a familiar TV and movie trope of the 1960s. It
most famously is celebrated in the 1960 stage musical and 1963 film Bye
Bye Birdie,
which features a song called “Telephone Hour.” Interestingly,
Bye
Bye Birdie
played on Broadway at the same time, just two blocks away, from
Lucille Ball in Wildcat.

During
the episode, Lucy and Harry are working on contracts for the Kasten
account. The name was previously given to a character played by Phil
Silvers in “Lucy and the Efficiency Expert” (TLS S5;E13, above).

Craig
plays a drum solo over the phone for his friend Steve. Steve has been
mentioned on several previous episode, but never seen. Later, Craig
talks on the phone with Tina, a new name in the long list of Craig’s
girlfriends.

To
get Craig’s attention over the din of his drumming, Kim calls out:
“Hey,
Buddy Rich!” Buddy
Rich
(1917-1987) was a world-famous drummer. He appeared with Lucille
Ball in the film Du Barry
Was a Lady (1943)
and will guest star as himself on a 1970 episode of “Here’s Lucy” (above).

While
Kim takes care of the animals for the local pet shop, Craig is
earning extra money gluing wings on toy airplanes for Herbie’s Hobby
Shop and blowing up 500 balloons for the school dance.

Lucy
gets a call from Mary Jane about Bridge Club and the Bowling League.
She mentions Hilda, who is the only one who knows how to keep score.
When Lucy’s Bridge Club was introduced in “Lucy and Eva Gabor”
(S1;E7, above) it consisted of Dolores, Maude and Nelly, but no Hilda. Mary
Jane is played by Mary Jane Croft, but she does not appear in this
episode.

With his bandaged dialing finger, Harry
invokes the name of the inventor of the telephone Alexander
Graham Bell
(1847-1922). Bell is considered the father of the modern telephone
and founded AT&T in 1885.

Lucy
compares her house full of animals to the San
Diego Zoo.
Located in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, it is one of the most
famous zoos in the world. It first opened in 1916 and is still in
operation today.

Lucy
sings a lullaby to the chimp:

“Rock-a-bye
Irving
Hark
to my chant.
You’re
kinda cute
But
you’re no Cary Grant.”

Here
is yet another mention of Hollywood heartthrob, actor Cary Grant, who
was mentioned in the previous episode “Lucy Protects Her Job”
(S2;E14) as well as many episode of “I Love Lucy.”

When
Lucy gets a call from a kindly Officer O’Reilly that Kim is in jail for
setting off the Pet Shop burglar alarm, she calls him “a
nice Fuzz.” It
was a common TV trope to portray policeman with Irish accents and
surnames. “Fuzz” was a slang word for policemen (or, in Lucy’s
generation, ‘cops’) that was coined due to the fact that so many
serviceman coming home with short military haircuts became policeman.
Their buzz cuts resembled peach fuzz. The expression sounds
particularly odd spoken by Lucille Ball.

From
1951 to 1969 Lucille Ball worked on television with:

chickens
cows
a calf
dogs of every breed
elephants (2 babies and one Jumbo)
many horses
a pony
a lion
chimpanzees
pigeons
sheep
dolphins
seals
bears
birds of all sorts
an antelope
rabbits
donkeys
deer
geese
turkeys
goats
an adorable kitten
a scent-free skunk
a baby leopard
and a
ring-tailed
cat

All of these were LIVE animals! The list does not include
prop animals (like the piranha), imaginary animals, offstage creatures, or actors in animal suits!

Lucille
Ball got a lot of experience working with three trained chimpanzees
in
“Lucy the Babysitter” (TLS S5;E16, above) which not only starred three rambunctious chimps, but a baby elephant as well!

A
tank full of piranha were also featured in the pet shop in “Lucy
Gets the Bird” (TLS S3;E12). The comic payoff of retrieving a
devoured item from the tank is repeated here. TV’s “Addams Family” (1964-66) kept piranha as pets the way other families kept goldfish.

Little
Ricky had a mini-menagerie on “I Love Lucy” that included Fred
the dog,
a frog named Hopalong, Tommy and Jimmy the turtles, parakeets Alice
and Phil, goldfish named Mildred and Charles, and a lizard (who fell
– or jumped – out the window).

FISH ON A WIRE! When
the piranha fish jumps out of the tank, the wire can be seen attached
to the end of the fish. [Unfortunately, the wire can barely be seen in the still photo above.]

DIETARY RESTRICTIONS! Piranha
fish are carnivorous and would not eat a leather pouch and paper.