LUCY AND HARRY’S ITALIAN BOMBSHELL

S4;E3 ~
September 27, 1971

Directed
by Coby Ruskin ~ Written by Fred S. Fox and Seaman Jacobs

Synopsis

Harry
is expecting a visit from Donna (Kaye Ballard), an Italian girl he
met during the war. Hoping to appeal to her by looking his best,
Lucy and Kim put Harry through a serious exercise and diet routine.
When she appears, however, she is not exactly what Harry expected.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carter), Gale
Gordon (Harrison
Otis Carter), Lucie
Arnaz (Kim
Carter)

Guest
Cast

Kaye
Ballard (Donna
Colucci) was a theatre actor and singer when cast by Desi Arnaz Sr.
opposite Eve Arden on “The Mothers-In-Law” (1967-69). Ballard
also played the recurring character of Angie Pallucci on “The Doris
Day Show” which followed “Here’s Lucy” on CBS, a character she
next played immediately after “Won’t You Calm Down, Dan Daily”
(S4;E9) on November 15, 1971. Kaye Ballard has a film titled Senior
Moments
currently in post-production for 2018.

Although
Ballard, a recognizable television star, is the guest star, she
doesn’t appear until 19 minutes into the episode!

Vanda
Barra
(Arvin Saleslady) was
married to Sid Gould so is Lucille Ball’s cousin-in-law. This is
just one of her over two dozen appearances on “Here’s Lucy” as
well as appearing in Ball’s two 1975 TV movies “Lucy Gets Lucky”
(with Dean Martin) and “Three for Two” (with Jackie Gleason). She
was seen in half a dozen episodes of “The Lucy Show.”

‘Arvin’
is obviously meant to stand in for Avon, a famous cosmetics company
generally sold by woman in their community going door to door.

Herbie
Faye
(Burglar) was
a character whose first major acting role (at age 56) was Corporal
Sam Fender in “The Phil Silvers Show” (1955). He also
appeared with Silvers on Broadway in Top
Banana (1951)
and also did the film version (1954) with Silvers. He appeared in a
1968 episode of “The
Lucy Show.” This
is the third of his four “Here’s Lucy” episodes.

Sid Gould (Mr. Ferguson, the Postman) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” and nearly as many on “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton. He was married to Vanda Barra (Arvin Saleslady).

Emile
Autuori (Alfredo
Colucci) makes
the fourth of his five appearances on “Here’s Lucy.” He
passed away in early 2017. He was the uncle of writer /
director P.J. Castalleneta.

The
Colucci children: Ricardo, Anna Maria, Louisa, Luigi, Vincenzo, Dino,
Lucrezia, Alfredo Jr., Margarito, Bruno, Rosa, and Frederico all appear uncredited.

The names Luigi and Rosa were taken from the CBS radio and television series “Life With Luigi” (1948-53).
Dino may be a nod to Arnaz friend and singer Dean Martin, who was nicknamed Dino.
Ricardo is an obvious nod to Lucy’s first TV character, Lucy Ricardo on “I Love Lucy.”
Frederico could be a reference to Lucille Ball’s brother, Fred Hunt, as well as the character of Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy.”
Anna Maria may be a nod to a popular Italian-American actress and singer, Anna Maria Alberghetti.

The title, perhaps coincidentally, cleverly puns on the word ‘bombshell’ – using its literal meaning regarding something used in war, and a female whose charms and good looks can cause the downfall of a man. Harry met Donna (the ‘bombshell’ of the title) during World War II.

In
the DVD introduction to the episode, Kaye Ballard says that at Lucille Ball’s insistence she was padded
for the part of Donna and was furious about
it. She says she was promised a return engagement where she would
not be padded, but the call never came.

Lucy
sees Harry’s huge lunch and remarks that there’s enough there for the
King Family. The
King Family was
a family musical group that had great success on records and
television in the 1960s. They had a TV show on ABC that ran until
1969. They
were previously mentioned on “Lucy and Liberace” (S2;E16).

Harry
says he met Donna while stationed in Italy during World War II.
Harry called her ‘Bella Donna’ and she called him her ‘Dog Face.’
Her pet name for Harry was ‘Pepperoni’.

Kim
knows how to read Italian from taking a few classes in school.

Instead of robbing them,

the Burglar (Herbie Faye) gives Kim and Lucy five dollars! Perhaps because of this twist, he gets exit applause from the studio audience!

Kaye
Ballard uses an exaggerated Italian accent that she mostly makes
believable; except maybe on words like “fan-a-tastic.”

Lucy
uses a rare double entendre when she asks Donna if Harry told her
that in addition to claiming that he was an All American quarterback,
that he was a toreador. She replies “You
mean he throw the bull?”

In
“Lucy and Miss Shelley Winters” (S1;E4) Lucy helped movie star
Shelley Summers diet and exercise to get in shape for a new motion
picture.

Lucy
Carmichael dieted and exercised at a fat farm in “Lucy
and the Countess Lose Weight” (TLS
S3;E21) in 1965 where Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) was the task-master.
Many of the same types of weight loss machines were used in this
episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

This
episode ends exactly the same way as “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL
S1;E15) in 1952. Knowing
Mr. Ritter (Edward Everett Horton) doesn’t like children, Lucy
Ricardo trots out a stream of youngsters as her offspring in order to
thwart his affections. Ten uncredited child performers were featured
in the episode, one even dressed as a “little” Ricky playing a
conga drum – many years before Little Ricky actually played the conga drum!
Coincidentally, the first Colucci child that enters in “Lucy and
Harry’s Bombshell” is named Ricardo!

Donna
pronounces Lucille as “Lou Silly” which is similar to Eva
Von Graunitz’s
pronunciation of it as “Loosel” in “Lucy and Eva Gabor”
(S1;E7).

Character Consistency! In
“Lucy’s House Guest, Harry” (S3;E20), Harry is depicted as a
health fanatic, complete with a rigorous morning exercise regimen.
Quite the opposite of how he is presented here.

Rosetta
Stoned! If Harry was stationed in Italy, why can’t he even
pronounce ‘Bon Giorno’ correctly?

Ring
Around the Collar! As usual when Gale Gordon sweats, his
pancake make-up comes off on his collar. The tan marks can be seen
on his sweatshirt during the exercise scene.

Scenic
Status! Harry’s living room is differently furnished than
the last time it was seen.

Epic Corpsing! This
episode contains a true rarity in the Lucy universe – Lucille Ball
breaking up on camera! After being pummeled with the purse of the
cosmetics saleswoman (Vanda Barra), Gale Gordon ad libbed the line
“I’m glad she wasn’t selling door knobs!” Lucille Ball
and Lucie Arnaz both laugh, with Lucy turning away for a moment to
get her composure. It must have taken some convincing for Ball, who
generally disliked straying from the script, to allow this to remain
in the final cut! But it is priceless to see them enjoy each others’
work so spontaneously.