LUCY AND THE ASTRONAUTS

S4;E5 ~
October 11, 1971

Directed
by Coby Ruskin ~ Written by Lou Derman and Larry Rhine

Synopsis

Harry
takes Lucy along to a NASA splash-down, but before the astronauts can
be medically cleared, Lucy has kissed them forcing Lucy and Harry to
join the space travelers in isolation.

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Roy
Roberts
(Dr. Jamison) was
born Roy Barnes Jones in Tampa, Florida in 1906. His early career was
on the Broadway stage, gracing such plays as Old
Man Murphy (1931), Twentieth
Century (1932), The
Body Beautiful (1935)
and My
Sister Eileen (1942).
In Hollywood, the veteran character actor clocked over 900 screen
performances in his 40 year career, most of which were authority
figures. He and Lucille Ball appeared together in Miss
Grant Takes Richmond (1949).
On “The Lucy Show” he first appeared as a Navy Admiral in “Lucy
and the Submarine” (TLS S5;E2) before
creating the role of Mr. Cheever, a recurring character he played
through the end of the series. On “Here’s Lucy” he played the
Superintendent of the Air Force Academy in season two’s two-part
opener. He will play two more characters on the series.

Hal
England (Major
Jim Dunlap) made
his Broadway debut in 1958 in Love
Me Little.
He followed this with a success in Say,
Darling
written and directed by Abe
Burrows.
He understudied Robert
Morse in
the lead of How
to Succeed in Business…Without Really Trying.
He starred in Edna
St. Vincent Millay’s
Conversations
at Midnight in
1964 and appeared in three plays in the inaugural season of the
Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park in New York.
He began screen acting in 1960. He will do one more episode of
“Here’s Lucy.” England died in 2003.

Robert
Hogan (Captain
Frank Perry) was the inspiration for the naming of the title
character on “Hogan’s Heroes” (1965-71). His screen career began
in 1961. He will do one more episode of “Here’s Lucy.” As of
this writing Hogan has two projects in post-production.

Hank
Brandt
(Flight Commander Colonel Dick Matthews) was born in 1934 in New
Jersey. He began his screen acting career in 1961. He will make two
more appearances on the series. He died in 2004.

Byron
Morrow (Admiral
Haines, left) was a character actor whose early career was as an
announcer. He performed during World War II and often was cast on
television as a judge. This is his only appearance with Lucille Ball.

Paul Picerni (NASA Official James Duncan, right) makes the third of his four appearances on “Here’s Lucy.” He also appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1975 TV movie “Lucy Gets Lucky.” Picerni was a cast member of Desilu’s “The Untouchables” from 1959 to 1963.

All the
first names stated above are never spoken in the dialogue, but are
listed in the final credits.

Sid
Gould
(TV Cameraman) 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.

The
cameraman does not have any lines.

Roy
Rowan
(Voice, uncredited) was the off-camera announcer for all of Lucille
Ball’s television shows. He would also do voice-over announcers of
radio and TV voices heard on screen, as he does here. In rare
instances, Rowan would sometimes appear on camera as well.

Bob
Harks (Spectator, uncredited) Extra, stand-in, and double Bob Harks was born on September 20, 1927.
Harks appeared in his first film in 1968 and was seen in the
background of Mame
(1974). In 1970 he popped up on his first television show and was
seen in more than a dozen episodes of “Here’s Lucy,” starting with this one. He died at
age 83 in 2010.

The
other sailors and officers are played by uncredited background
performers.

The
date this episode first aired (Monday, October 11, 1971) actor
Chester
Conklin
died at age 85. Conklin had played uncredited roles in the Lucille
Ball films Valley
of the Sun
(1942) and Fancy
Pants
(1950).

This
episode is framed with a voice-over (Roy Rowan) telling us about a
moon shot known in the secret files of our government as Operation
Redhead. It incorporates stock footage of a previous rocket launch,
the recovery ship, and a splash-down.

This
episode was featured in a set of View-Master reels. View-Master is
the trademark name of a line of special-format stereoscopes and
corresponding photo reels, which are thin cardboard disks containing
seven stereoscopic
3-D pairs
of small color photographs on film. The View-Master system was
introduced in 1939 by GAF, four years after the advent
of Kodachrome color
film.

During
his introduction to the episode on the series DVD, Paul
Picerni
recalls that he had acted alongside Roy Roberts (Dr. Jamison) in
1953’s House
of Wax starring
former “Lucy” guest star Vincent Price.

To
lure Lucy out of the bathroom, Harry pretends to welcome Steve
McQueen to the isolation tank. Ruggedly handsome actor Steve
McQueen
(1930-80) was often mentioned on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s
Lucy.”

Lucy
gives her phone number as (213) 555-8231.

On
the telephone, Kim tells her mother that she is going out with Willy
“The Grabber” Heller. Lucy does not approve!

Lucy
says that the three astronauts are a combination of Columbus,
Magellan, and John Wayne. Ferdinand
Magellan
(1480-1521) and Christopher
Columbus
(1451-1506) were explorers who sailed the seas in search of new
lands. John
Wayne
(1907-79) was an actor who specialized in Western films. Although
not an explorer, Lucy probably includes him for his bravery,
strength, and American frontier image. Wayne guest-starred on both
“I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.”

In
a daring bit of word play by writers Derman and Rhine, Dunlap shuts
down some ribbing by his fellow flyers by saying “Cut
it out, fellas! Nobody likes a smart astronaut!”

About
her over-sized sleepwear, Lucy says
“Who’d they make these pajamas for? The Jolly Green Giant?”
The
Jolly Green Giant was
the advertising character used to promote Green Giant Frozen
Vegetables. The character was previously mentioned in “Lucy
and Tennessee Ernie’s Fun Farm” (S1;E23)
and “Lucy and the Raffle” (S3;E19). All
the men wear light blue pajamas, but Lucy’s are green to add to the
humor of the line.

Lucy
says that all her favorite songs are ‘moon’ songs: “Moon River,”
“Moon Over Miami,” and “Shine On, Harvest Moon,” which Lucy
starts singing. Soon the astronauts are joining in – when they are
supposed to be sleeping! “Shine
On, Harvest Moon” is
credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth
introduced in the Ziegfeld
Follies of 1908 to
great acclaim. It
was previously sung by the Ricardos and the Mertzes in “The
Benefit” (ILL S1;E13) in 1952.

Barely
tolerating Lucy in the isolation unit, Dr. Jamison grumbles “We
never had this trouble with Neil Armstrong.”
Neil
Armstrong
was the first American astronaut to set foot on the moon on July 21,
1969. Armstrong traveled with Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11. His famous
quote when he stepped onto the moon’s surface was “That’s
one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Harry
tells the astronauts that if they survive being quarantined with
Lucy, people will say about them: “This
was their finest hour!” Harry
does a vocal impression of Winston
Churchill while
quoting
from Churchill’s speech to Parliament on June 18, 1940.
Churchill is referring to the British people surviving the horrors of
World War II.

Although
NASA
(National Aeronautics and Space Association) is not mentioned by
name, the astronauts do wear NASA patches on their jumpsuits.
President
Eisenhower established NASA in 1958. Alan Shepard became the first
American in space in May 1961. Similarly,
the name Apollo (the name given to NASA’s manned moon exploration
program) is never spoken aloud, but there is an Apollo banner at the
end of the red carpet on the aircraft carrier. Apollo 15 was
launched on July 30, 1971, just a few months before this episode
aired. The two-day mission sent astronauts David Scott and James
Irwin to the moon.

Although
the astronauts speak to the President of the United States, his
proper name is never spoken aloud. Lucy does, however, ask about his
daughters. Richard Nixon had two daughters, Tricia and Julie. Cape
Kennedy and the Kennedy Space Center are never mentioned but Houston
(the Texas home of NASA operations) is mentioned when they get health
clearance for the astronauts.

While briefly on the phone with the President, Harry tells him that he runs a small employment agency and the time may come when he might need his services. Harry was right! In 1974, amidst a scandal called Watergate, President Richard Nixon resigned from office, putting himself out of work!

In
“Lucy Becomes an Astronaut” (TLS S1;E6) Lucy
Carmichael and Vivian Bagley successfully spend 24 hours in a
simulated space ship as part of a ‘Women in Space’ experiment.

In February 1962 Colonel John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth.

In this “Lucy Show” episode, Viv sarcastically calls Lucy ‘Colonel Glenn’
Carmichael.

While
in the isolation unit, Lucy talks to the President of the United
States on the telephone. In 1971, the President was Richard M. Nixon.
In 1963, Lucy Carmichael went to the White House with her son’s cub
scout troupe and met the president – John F. Kennedy.

In a 1977 TV
movie “Lucy Calls the President” Lucy Whitaker and her husband
(Gale Gordon) talked to the president on the telephone – Jimmy
Carter. Although no president ever appeared on a Lucille Ball sitcom,
President Cater’s mother Lillian did a cameo on the 1977
television film.

Lucille Ball herself was given the Kennedy Center
Honor by Ronald Reagan.

Character Consistency! Here,
Harry Carter is a Naval Reservist who was a photographer in the
Pacific Theatre, but in “Lucy and Harry’s Italian Bombshell”
(just two episodes previously) he said he was stationed in Italy for
the Army during World War II.

I’ll Be In My Trailer! The
mobile isolation unit is actually an air stream trailer. It has the
Presidential seal on the side, supposedly because the President has a
hot line into the unit to talk with the astronauts. Generally,
however, a seal is only used to denote the presence or a designated
area intended for the use of the President of the United States.