LUCY IN THE JUNGLE

S4;E13
~ December 6, 1971

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

Synopsis

Harry’s
doctor says he’s in danger of a nervous breakdown, so Lucy suggests a
house swap vacation. Unfortunately, the only home left was in
Nairobi, Kenya. Their swap turns out to be a jungle hut, populated
by wild animals and without modern conveniences, causing Harry to get
even more tense than he was in Los Angeles.

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Ben Wrigley (Homer Pomeroy) played Butlers in “Lucy and Liberace” (S2;E16) and “Lucy and Jack Benny’s Biography” (S3;E11). He was a British actor who appeared in the film My Fair Lady (1964) and Bednobs and Broomsticks (1971). Wrigley previously appeared as a ticket agent in “Lucy Flies to London” (TLS S5;E6). This is his last episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Lola
Fisher
(Matilda Pomeroy) understudied
and replaced Julie Andrews on Broadway in the musical My
Fair Lady.
It was the third and last of her Broadway shows. Fisher makes the
second of her three “Here’s Lucy” appearances.

The
Pomeroys’ first names are not spoken in the dialogue and only listed
in the final credits.

Ginny
Tyler
(Polly the Parrot, uncredited voice) previously
voiced Clementine the sheep in “Lucy
Buys a Sheep” (TLS S1;E5)
and
the bird voices in “Lucy Gets the Bird” (TLS S3;E12).
She did the voice of the sheep in Disney’s 1964 hit Mary
Poppins.
She started out on radio before hosting a children’s TV show in
Seattle. By the late 1950s, she had moved to Hollywood and was
narrating record albums for Disney, including “Bambi” and “Babes
in Toyland.” Although she died in 2012, her voice can still
be heard in the chorus of birds outside The Enchanted Tiki Room at
Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Baby
Chimpanzees
(Fido and Rover)

The
ham radio voice of the Doctor from Nairobi General Hospital is
uncredited.

This
episode was first aired on Wally Cox’s 47th birthday, December 6, 1971. Cox was one of
Lucille Ball’s favorite character actors. He appeared on four
episodes of “Here’s Lucy” and one “The Lucy Show.”

In
her DVD introduction to the episode, Lola Fisher says that she later
actually visited Nairobi, Kenya, and that the Hollywood version of
the jungle was “pretty good.”

Lola
Fish and Ben Wrigley (the Pomeroys) had appeared on stage in My
Fair Lady
together. She was Eliza, and he played her father, Alfred P.
Doolittle.

Harry
gets wet right away in this episode, when he crushes the paper cup
that holds the water to swallow his nerve pills. It’s not “Here’s Lucy” until Gale Gordon gets wet!

When
Harry sees the Pomeroy hut in Nairobi, he says he’d be better off
in the San Diego Zoo. In “Lucy the Helpful Mother” (S2;E15),
Lucy
compared her house full of animals to the San
Diego Zoo.
It was also mentioned as a possible stop-over in “Lucy and Viv
Visit Tijuana” (S2;E19). 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.

When
Harry sees baby chimps Fido and Rover, he reminds Lucy and Kim that
King Kong started out as a baby, too! King
Kong,
Hollywood’s tale of a giant ape, was first filmed in 1933, then
re-made in 1976 and 2005. A stage musical of the story has even been
created. Fay Wray, one of the stars of the original film, also made
The
Bowery
that same year, which was the uncredited screen debut of Lucille
Ball.

When
Kim says that Fido and Rover are cute, Harry snaps back that she
thought Jack the Ripper, Ivan the Terrible, and Bluebeard were all
cute! All three were historical figures that reigned terror through
murder, despotic leadership, and robbery, to name but a few.

Lucy
cooks up a Jungle Stew consisting of gazelle gizzards and hippo ham
hocks. These ingredients were doubtless chosen for their comic
alliteration.

To
keep Harry awake after he has supposedly been bitten by a Tsetse fly,
Lucy and Kim sing “Deep
in the Heart of Texas”
slapping Harry in the face on the downbeat. The anthem to the Lone
Star State was written in 1941 by June
Hershey and Don Swander.

The
Pomeroys call off the house swap because Los Angeles has made nervous
wrecks of them due to smog, floods, earthquakes and the freeways!

This
episode is similar in setting to “Lucy’s Safari” (S1;E22) which
was actually supposed to be set in Topanga Canyon, outside of Los
Angeles, but looked more like a jungle in the middle of Africa.

In
“Lucy the Helpful Mother” (S2;E15), the Carter living room is
turned into a pet shop that also features a chimpanzee (Irving)…

…and a
talking parrot (Radish), in addition to many other live animals.

Lucille
Ball had previous experience with chimps in “Lucy
the Babysitter” (TLS S5;E16)
which
featured Lucy Carmichael and three baby chimps.

Oops!
When Lucy enters with the luggage on her head, she stoops to set it
down and something falls off her head and underneath the stack of suitcases. This is a foam ring that Lucille Ball had between her head and the luggage as a cushion and to prevent her hair from being flattened!

Lion-Eyes!
When the lion leaps up at the window, the animal’s taut wire restraints can be seen at the right.

Horny Harry! When Harry stares at the ostrich egg, the boar’s teeth
on the wall behind him make it look like Harry has horns! This
devilish look was intentionally given to Harry in “Lucy Protects
Her Job” (S2;E14).