LUCY, THE CO-ED

S3;E6
~ October 19, 1970

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

Synopsis

Harry’s
old flame Gloria (Marilyn Maxwell) is in town to help produce a
musical for their college alumni. They resurrect a show Harry wrote
in 1928 and cast Lucy, Kim, and Craig in supporting roles.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carter / ‘Ginger’), Gale
Gordon (Harrison
Otis Carter / ‘Crazy Hips’), Desi
Arnaz Jr. (Craig
Carter / ‘The Dead End Kid’), Lucie
Arnaz (Kim
Carter / ‘Honey Beasley’)

Guest
Cast

Marilyn
Maxwell
(Gloria Pendleton / ‘Nurse’) was a singer who started out her career
as an MGM contract player. She appeared in four films with Lucille
Ball between 1943 and 1963. It was rumored the Maxwell and Bob Hope
were romantically linked, despite both being married to others.
Maxwell died of a heart attack at the age of 50 in 1972.  

Robert
Alda (‘Dean
Butler’) originated
the role of Sky Masterson in Broadway’s Guys
and Dolls,
winning the 1951 Tony Award. He is the father of Alan Alda of
“M*A*S*H” fame. He made one appearance on the “The Lucy Show,”
and this is the second of his three episodes of “Here’s Lucy”
and the only one where he plays a character instead of himself. Alda
died in 1986.

Cecil
Gold
(‘Cecil’, orange sweater, center) previously danced
in “Lucy and the Generation Gap” (S2;E12) also directed by Jack
Baker. 
This is his final series appearance.

Kevin
Edwards (‘Norman’,
blue sweater, right) was previously seen in “Lucy, the Conclusion
Jumper” (S1;E5) and was
an uncredited ballet dancer in Streisand’s Funny
Girl (1968).
This is his final series appearance.

Jim
Bates
(‘Clarence’, red sweater left) appeared as an uncredited extra in
such films as
Singin’ in the Rain
(1950) and Easter
Parade
(1948).  He previously appeared with Gale Gordon on a 1963 episode of
“Dennis the Menace.”  Bates will appear in one more episode of
“Here’s Lucy” in 1972, his final screen appearance.  

Although
given character names in the final credits, none of the three boy
co-eds have their names spoken in the dialogue.

The
Co-Ed Singers include:

Mickie Pollak (black hair) was assistant choreographer to Jack Baker on “Lucy and Liberace” (S2;E16). This is her only screen appearance.

Judy
Van Wormer
(blonde hair) would become the assistant choreographer on the Steven
Spielberg film 1941
(1979). She was also assistant choreographer for a 1970 episode of
“Jimmy Durante presents The Lemmon Sisters.”  This is one of only
two screen appearances for Van Wormer.

Lisa
Pharren
(red hair) gave up performing after only three appearances on screen
and became a Hollywood make-up artist eventually earning three Emmy
nominations for her work.

Unlike the 3 male Co-Eds, the girls have no spoken dialogue, and therefore are not assigned character names in the final credits.

Other ‘Bullwinkle students’ are played by uncredited background performers.

On
the series DVD this episode is introduced by Jim Bates (Clarence) who
later became a choreographer on the show. Bates
shares the DVD intro with Anita Mann, assistant choreographer on this
and many other “Here’s Lucy” episodes.

The
evening this episode was first broadcast, Lucille Ball made her
fourth and final appearance on “The Carol Burnett Show.”  Also
appearing was Mel Torme, who made several appearances on “The Lucy
Show” as Mel Tinker. Carol Burnett would star in one more episode
of “Here’s Lucy” in 1971.

Harry
sarcastically says to Lucy, “Thank
you, Dear Abby.”
“Dear
Abby”
is
an advice
column founded
in 1956 by Pauline
Phillips under
the pen name “Abigail Van Buren” and carried on today by
her daughter, Jeanne
Phillips,
who now owns the legal rights to the pen name.

Gloria
calls Harry ‘Windy’, his college nickname. Windy was also the nickname
given to Winfield Cheever by his nephew (Frankie Avalon) on “Lucy
and the Starmaker” (S6;E4). In “Lucy and Wally Cox” (S2;E21)
Harry’s old buddy Moose Manley says that Harry’s college nickname was
‘Blubber’.  

Lucy
reminds Harry that he got over his infatuation with Dorothy Lamour so
he’ll get over Gloria Pendleton. Dorothy
Lamour
(1914-96) was
an actress
and singer best remembered for appearing in the Road
to… movies
starring Bing Crosby and Bob
Hope.

Harry
and Gloria are producing a musical show for the alumni of Bullwinkle
State University. It was written by Harry during his senior year
there in 1928. Previous episodes have stated that Harry both
performed and wrote shows while in college. The title of his musical
is… 

It’s
Always Do-Wacka-Do at Bullwinkle U!

As
the curtain goes up on the front of steps of Bullwinkle U, the
orchestra plays “You
Gotta be a Football Hero (To Get Along with the Beautiful Girls)”
written
by Al Sherman, Buddy Fields and Al Lewis in 1933.
It is one of the most widely recorded and
performed football anthems of all time.

As
Ginger (Lucy) enters, the boys (Gold, Edwards, and Bates) sing “Ain’t
She Sweet”
written in 1927 by Milton Ager and Jack Yellin.

When
Crazy Hips (Harry) enters in his football uniform the girls (Van
Wormer, Pharren, and Pollak) sing
“Baby Face” written
in 1926 by Harry Akst and Benny Davis.

The
students all sing “Buckle
Down Bullwinkle”
to the tune of “Buckle Down Winsockie” a
song written for the film Best
Foot Forward (1943) which starred Lucille Ball. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Marilyn
Maxwell played the role originated by Lucille Ball in the 1954
television re-make of Best
Foot Forward,
which stayed closer to the 1941 Broadway show than the Lucille Ball
film, where Lucy essentially played herself.

Crazy
Hips says that “Marion
the librarian keeps intercepting my passes.”
Marion
the librarian
was a character in the 1957 Broadway musical The
Music Man,
which was filmed in 1962 (above) with Shirley Jones as Marion. Both stage and screen versions starred Robert Preston in the title
role who would go on to play Beau in Mame
(1974) opposite Lucille Ball.  

One
of the pennants decorating the dorm room says Princeton,
which is coincidentally where Lucille Ball made her legitimate stage
debut at McCarter Theatre in 1937 with the play Hey
Diddle Diddle.
It moved to Washington DC, but closed before Broadway due to the
illness of leading man Conway Tearle. Regular Lucy director Herbert
Kenwith also directed Lucy in Princeton in 1947’s Dream
Girl by
Elmer Rice.  

To
cover up for the girls hidden in the closet, Crazy Hips tells a ‘nosy’ Dean Butler that he uses perfume: Lucky Lindy No. 5.  ‘Lucky Lindy’ was the
nickname of Charles
A. Lindbergh
(1902-74), an aviator who made the first
solo transatlantic
flight and
the first non-stop flight between North America and mainland Europe. The addition of ‘No. 5′ is a bow to Chanel No. 5, the
first perfume launched by designer Coco Chanel in 1921.  It is still
sold today.

Ginger,
Honey, Dead End, Crazy Hips, and the Dean (Robert Alda) sing
“Collegiate”
written
in 1925 by Nat Bonx and Moe Jaffe.

Bullwinkle
University wins the big football game against North Keokuk.  Although Keokuk is in
Iowa, North Keokuk is a town located in Oklahoma.  

The
musical ends with “Varsity
Drag,” a
song written by Lew Brown and B.G. DeSylva for Good
News,
which was seen on Broadway in 1927 and on screen in 1947 when it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

“You
Gotta be a Football Hero (To Get Along with the Beautiful Girls)”
was sung by Craig in “Lucy and Carol Burnett” (S1;E17) to raise
money for the school gym. The red and white pom-poms on the dorm room wall were used by the cheerleaders in that episode. Red and white are the colors of Angeles High School, Kim and Craig’s alumnus. 

Craig
wears a raccoon coat, a typical fashion statement of the 1920s. One was also worn by Fred Mertz in “Lucy
Has Her Eyes Examined” (ILL SE;E11).  

The
dorm room is decorated with an art deco poster of Sarah Bernhardt by
Alphonse Mucha (1897) that was previously seen on the wall of the
knife thrower The Great Pierre (Paul Winchell) in “Lucy, the Cement Worker”
(S2;E10).

The
dorm room also features a pink phonograph that was seen in both “Lucy
and the Generation Gap” (S2;E12, left) and in the Navajo hogan in “Lucy
and the Indian Chief” (S2;E3, center).  

On
the wall of the dorm room is a pennant for Tait. The pennant was
also seen on the wall of Jerry and Sherman’s bedroom in “Lucy and Her Electric Mattress” (TLS S1;E12) in 1962. This
is a reference to the fictional Tait University in the musical Good
News,
which was seen on Broadway in 1927 and on screen in 1947.

Good
News
also featured the song “Varsity Drag,” which Vivian Vance
performed in “Lucy
Has Her Eyes Examined” (ILL S3;E11).

Who Are You?  Oddly,
Robert Alda has a principal role of the Dean in the musical but has
no corresponding ‘real life’ character. Perhaps the character was cut from the opening scenes for time?  It is possible that Alda was playing himself again. 

“Lucy, the Co-Ed” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

This
musical comedy episode is not quite as good as “Lucy and the
Generation Gap” but still a lot of fun for its high camp style.
Oddly, Gloria Maxwell is underused in the musical sequence and Robert
Alda is absent from the set-up scene.