LUCY, THE SKYDIVER

S3;E2
~ September 21, 1970

Directed
by Herbert Kenwith ~ Written by Larry Rhine and Lou Derman

Synopsis

When
Kim and Craig take up dangerous hobbies, Lucy decides to use reverse
psychology and take up skydiving. But when Harry sees an opportunity
to get publicity for the Unique Employment Agency, Lucy has no choice
but to go through with her flight!

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Rhodes
Reason
(Sam Tolliver) here
marks the third of his five episodes of “Here’s Lucy” having
previously appeared in “Lucy,
the Matchmaker” (S1;E12) and
“Lucy and the Gold Rush” (S1;E13). He
also appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1974 TV movie Happy
Anniversary and Goodbye.

Bill Baldwin (Steve Campbell, Reporter for the Valley Gazette) was a voice on the radio in the Lucille Ball film Critic’s Choice (1963).

The
voices on the TV soap opera (Cynthia and Herbie) as well as the two
photographers are played by uncredited background performers.

The
date this episode first aired, ABC TV debuted “NFL
Monday Night Football,”
formidable competition for “Here’s Lucy.” The show is still on
the air today, although it moved to ESPN in 2006.

To
simulate Lucy actually skydiving, an apparatus was built outside the
sound stage. Lucille was strapped by her feet onto a high platform,
her lower body in a brace. The apparatus could move in any direction,
making it appear as though Lucy is moving through the air. A large
fan blows air at her while she moves about as if she is free falling.
The camera films her from beneath, keeping just her upper body in the
frame.

The
theme of this episode is ’do
your own thing.’
The phrase is used repeatedly in the dialogue. In
the 1960s, ‘do your own thing’ became a common expression used by and
about young people. It meant to do whatever you wanted, without
feeling guilty and free of the conformity of previous generations.
There was even a 1968 off-Broadway rock musical (based on Shakespeare’s
Twelfth
Night)
titled Your
Own Thing.
This school of thought led to what is now known as the “Me
Generation.”

Doing
their own thing, Craig takes up spear fishing while Kim joins a
motorcycle club. When Lucy sees her daughter in a motorcycle helmet
she asks if she’s playing for the Rams,
Los Angeles’ hometown football team. Later, when she has the
parachute pack strapped to her back, Lucy says she feels like she’s
carrying the Green
Bay Packers,
yet another football reference in a sports-themed episode that aired (coincidentally) the same day as the premiere of Monday Night Football.

About
motorcycling, Lucy says she doesn’t want Kim to be another Steve
McQueen. Actor Steve
McQueen’s
favorite things were racing and motorcycles. He famously rode a
motorcycle in 1963’s The
Great Escape.
He was mentioned in this context by Lucy Carmichael in “Lucy Goes
to a Hollywood Premiere” (TLS S4;E20).

Before
arriving at the idea of skydiving, Lucy borrows a book about
wrestling alligators and even thinks about being a bull fighter. Lucy
Ricardo fought a bull in a Tijuana bullring in “Lucy Goes to
Mexico” a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”

When
Harry jokes about committing suicide by jumping out of the window due
he says, “One
giant step for mankind, one small step for Harry.”
This is a paraphrase of the famous words spoken by astronaut Neil
Armstrong
when he first stepped foot on the surface of the moon on July 20,
1969.

When
Harry hears Lucy has changed her mind about skydiving he quips,
“Good.
You’d only confuse the swallows on their way to Capistrano.”
This
is a reference to San
Juan Mission in Capistrano,
southern California. It is there that the American cliff
swallow migrates every year from its winters in Argentina,
making the 6,000-mile trek in springtime. The expression “when
the swallows return to Capistrano” has
entered common usage. Capistrano was previously mentioned
in “Lucy
Gets the Bird” (TLS S3;E12)
and “Lucy’s Working Daughter” (S1;E10).

Kim
is going motorcycling with Tommy Murphy, who Craig says must weigh
400 pounds, a funny visual image.

Lucy
comes home singing “Off We Go, Into the Wild Blue Yonder” aka
“The
U.S. Air Force Song”
written in 1938 by Robert MacArthur Crawford.
It was previously heard over the helicopter shot that ends “Lucy
Goes to the Air Force Academy: Part 2” (S2;E2).

To
encourage her to make the leap, Harry invokes the names of Joan
of Arc
and Florence
Nightingale
as inspiration. Harry later says that they may even put her
footprints in front of Grauman’s
Chinese Theatre.
Lucille Ball and Joan of Arc are two of the many powerful women
mentioned in the lyrics to the song “I Want it All” by David
Shire and Richard Matlby Jr. written for the 1983 Broadway musical
Baby.
In “Lucy Plays Florence Nightingale” (TLS S2;E14), Lucy
Carmichael becomes a candystriper just as Mr. Mooney enters the
hospital. Ironically, Lucille Ball is one of the few Hollywood stars
not to have ever had their footprints in the forecourt of Grauman’s
Chinese Theatre. She did, however, create a classic half hour of
television in which Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz steal John Wayne’s
footprints from iconic movie palace in “Lucy Visits Grauman’s (ILL
S5;E1).

Lucy
compares herself soaring through the blue sky to Columbus sailing the
blue sea. Lucy Carter spoke a great deal about Christopher
Columbus
during her recitation portion of the Secretary Beautiful pageant in
“Lucy Competes with Carol Burnett” (S2;E24).

A
worried Kim says that her mother’s rendezvous with destiny may well
be more like a rendezvous with Medicare! In 1970 Medicare
was barely five years old and was still frequently making newspaper
headlines. It was also used as the source of humor on the last two
seasons of “The Lucy Show.”

Just
before making up her mind whether to jump, Lucy hears Harry’s
encouraging words in her head. This surreal technique was previously
used in “Lucy Competes With Carol Burnett” (S2;E24) when Carol
derides Lucy for not wanting to compete in the Secretary Beautiful
pageant.

When
Lucy’s parachute is revealed to have ‘Carter’s Unique Employment
Agency’ written on it, Harry remarks “Goodyear
Blimp eat your heart out.”
The
Goodyear Blimp
is a dirigible airship owned and operated by the Goodyear Tire and
Rubber Company which has the name of the company written across it
and is used mainly for advertising purposes. It was first flown in
1925 and still can be seen hovering over televised sports games and
highly attended events.

After
crashing through the ceiling, Lucy remarks “I
don’t know how the Flying Nun did it everyday.” “The
Flying Nun” was
a sitcom about a nun (Sally Field) whose habit and pelican-like
cornet helped her defy the laws of gravity. The show aired on ABC
from 1967 to 1970. The show was previously mentioned in “Lucy’s
Working Daughter” (S1;E10).

Lucille
Ball did a similar stunt of crashing through the ceiling after a
parachute jump in “Lucy and Bob Crane” (TLS S4;E22) when she
acted in a World War One movie with the “Hogan’s Heros” star.

Lucille
Ball was previously dropped from the ceiling on a harness (without
the crash) when Lucy Ricardo missed the boat in “Bon Voyage” (ILL
S5;E13) and was lowered to the deck via helicopter. Like this
episode of “Here’s Lucy,” a double was filmed in long shots and
Lucy did the on-set scenes.

Reverse
Psychology was a common plot point on “Lucy” sitcoms. It
was first used in “The Inferiority Complex” (ILL S2;18, above) to coax
Lucy Ricardo out of a funk. They
later use it when “Little
Ricky Gets Stage Fright” (S6;E4) to
get him to play his drums. Later that same season, the girls
use it on the boys to make them think they would be better
at “Building
a Bar-B-Q” (S6;E24).

Props! Although
the reporter says he’s from The Valley Gazette, the morning paper
held by Craig has a masthead that reads The Daily Chronicle, the
show’s usual prop newspaper.