KIM FINALLY CUTS YOU-KNOW-WHOSE APRON STRINGS

S4;E24
~ February 28, 1972

Directed
by Coby Ruskin ~ Written by Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis

Synopsis

When
Kim moves out, she goes to live at an apartment building in Marina
Del Rey managed by her Uncle Herb. There she copes with a the amorous
advances of an English race car driver with the help of her kooky
best friend and neighbor.  

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Alan
Oppenheimer (Herb
Hinkley) got his start in screen acting in a 1963 episode of Desilu’s
“The Untouchables.” In 1974 he began doing voices on animated
shows and has become one of Hollywood’s busiest and most versatile
voice actors. Oppenheimer will also appear on “Here’s Lucy” in
the very first episode of season 5, but not as Herb Hinkley.  

Lucy’s unmarried brother manages the Marina Del Rey apartment building where Kim
lives. He is an aspiring song writer. 

Susan
Tolsky (Sue
Ann Ditbenner) is probably best remembered for playing Biddie Coom on
the TV series “Here Comes the Brides” (1968-70). Like
Oppenheimer, Tolsky has done voice acting for animation. She will do
one more episode of “Here’s Lucy” in season 5, but not as Sue Ann Ditbenner.  

Sue
Ann is Kim’s single neighbor who works at the Museum of History. Kim
calls her “Sue-Sue.”  

Lloyd
Battista
(Ronnie Cumberland) makes his first and only appearance with Lucille
Ball and Lucie Arnaz. He was, however, seen on Desilu-produced shows
“Mannix” and “Mission: Impossible.” In
1992, he voiced Papa Mousekewitz on the animated series “Fievel’s
American Tails.”

Ronnie is a competitive racing car driver from England.  

Some sources also list this episode as
first airing on February 21, 1972, not accounting for the show’s
preemption of February 14 so that CBS could air “The Lorax”
special, which bumped “With Viv as A Friend…” from the 14th to the 21st and this episode to the 28th. The DVD introduction by Lucie
Arnaz give the wrong date but the liner notes are correct. 

Some sources do not pluralize the last word in the title: “Strings” – after all, most aprons have two!  The DVD uniformly uses the pluralized title. The other point of contention seems to be the use of “Whose” versus “Who’s”.

This is the second episode to
have Kim’s name in the title and not Lucy’s, although, cleverly,
Lucy’s name was implied by the “You-Know-Whose” wording. The
expression “cutting the apron strings” refers to a mother and
child’s separation in order that the adult child will become
self-sufficient.  

This
was the final episode of Season 4 of “Here’s Lucy.” It placed
10th in the Nielsen ratings with a 23.7 share. This is the lowest rating
of the series so far.  

This
episode is actually a pilot for a possible spin-off series starring
Lucie Arnaz as Kim Carter. CBS did not pick-up the pilot for
production and Arnaz remained part of the regular cast of “Here’s
Lucy” in seasons 5 and 6. It is possible that both Oppenheimer and
Tolsky’s single guest spots in season five were because Lucille Ball wanted to offer some compensatory employment to make up
for the pilot not selling.  

While it
seems unusual that Lucille Ball was incapable of convincing CBS
to pick up the new series, most likely Ball didn’t pressure CBS due
to Vivian Vance’s sudden illness. Without Vance to fill-in as Lucy’s
side-kick, Lucie was needed on “Here’s Lucy.” Lucy undoubtedly
recalls how difficult it was to replace Vance when she left “The
Lucy Show” after season 3. She went through a string of possible
replacements (Joan Blondell, Ann Sothern, Mary Jane Croft), none of
which panned out to her satisfaction.  

The
writers were probably influenced by the success of “The
Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1970-77)
which
also presented a single woman, living in an apartment with a kooky
best friend (Valerie Harper). Alan Oppenheimer bears more than a
passing resemblance to Gavin MacLeod (Murray) and has the paternal
watchfulness of Ed Asner (Mr. Grant). Although both shows featured a
character named Sue Ann (Betty White), “Happy Homemaker” Sue Ann Nivens was not introduced until 1973.
Coincidentally, Laurence Luckinbill (Lucie Arnaz’s second husband)
guest-starred on “Mary Tyler Moore” in 1975, before Lucie met and
married him. Ironically, when the ratings came out for the 1971-72 television season, “Here’s Lucy” tied with “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”  

Lucille
Ball and Gale Gordon are only seen for less than three minutes at the
start of this episode. For some reason Harry (Kim’s Uncle) was not
told of Kim’s move or her new job. He also seems to have a problem
with Lucy’s brother Herb. None of this is developed, however, possibly with a plan to develop it further on the unproduced spin-off series. Kim
is not in the office scene with Lucy and Harry in order to give the
pilot its own identity.  

Kim
has moved to an apartment building in Marina Del Rey. Marina
del Rey is
an unincorporated seaside
community in Los
Angeles County, California.
Fisherman’s
Village offers
a view of Marina del Rey’s dominant feature, the Marina, the world’s
largest man-made small craft harbor with
eight basins having a capacity for 5,300 boats.The
building manager is Lucy’s brother, Herb.

Kim
has a job working for a public relations firm. Her latest assignment
is posing next to cars at the auto show.

Like
her short-lived garage apartment, Kim owns a spinet piano, although
she doesn’t play. Kim is, however, an aspiring singer. Herb Hinkley (Alan Oppenheimer) plays and sings “Organically Yours,” a song he wrote about shopping at the health food store. He later sings a bar or two of “The Seagull’s Lament,”  a song about Ecology. Both the Health Food craze and the Ecology were in the news in the early 1970s. 

Lucy
has given Kim a book titled “Self
Defense for Women”
and the episode has Kim and Sue Ann practice some self-defense
techniques. In reality, the book was authored by Alice McGrath and
Bruce Tegner. McGrath served as the episode’s consultant and fight
choreographer. McGrath
was trained by and taught with Bruce Tegner at his school in
Hollywood, CA. Together they developed a special course of
self-defense for girls and women which Miss McGrath introduced in
1967.
Both receive screen credit at the end of the episode.

Regarding her dating life, Susie says she has a card on the bulletin board at the corner market saying “Need a date tonight? Call Sue Sue Delight!”  She is paraphrasing the tremendously popular marketing slogan of Chicken Delight. Founded in Illinois in 1952, the chain grew during the 1960s to over 1,000 locations. The jingle “Don’t cook tonight, call Chicken Delight,” emphasizing their delivery and take-out services, was widely advertised on American radio.

The
publicity photo used for “Here’s Lucy” is framed on a table
directly behind Kim’s couch.
Lucy has the same photo on her mantle.

Admiring
her crocheted cloche in the mirror, Kim says “Ali
McGraw, eat your heart out!”
In 1970, McGraw starred in the film Love
Story,
which earned her an Oscar nomination. Her character in the film wore
a crocheted cloche, which vaulted the fashion accessory to
popularity. In 1972, McGraw was voted as Hollywood’s top box office
star.

Sue
Ann drops by to return Kim’s fondue pot. Like the cloche hat, fondue
was nothing new, but experienced a pop culture resurgence during the
1970s. Fondue parties were often held to experience this Swiss
tradition of dining.

More
1970s iconography includes the smiley
face
poster in Kim’s kitchen. According
to the Smithsonian Institution, the round, yellow smiley face
was created by Harvey Ross Ball (inset photo) in 1963. Ball (no
relation) was
employed by Hanover Insurance and asked to create a happy face to
raise the morale of the employees. He created the design in ten
minutes and was paid $45.
The
graphic was further popularized in the early 1970s by Bernard and
Murray Spain, who produced buttons as well as coffee
mugs, t-shirts, bumper stickers and
many other items emblazoned with the symbol and the phrase “Have
a happy day” which later became “Have a nice day.”

This
episode was originally sponsored by Campbell
Soups
and the DVD includes a commercial that features Dodie Goodman and
Eddie Bracken. Coincidentally, Bracken has been credited with
introducing Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz when they were starring
in the film version of Too
Many Girls
in 1940.  

By
the time the second commercial break happens – five minutes later –
the price of the soup has risen a penny a serving!  [This may be due
to the editing of the DVD].  

Herb
says that he saw Ronnie Cumberland race against
A.J. Foyt.
Foyt is the
only driver to win the Indianapolis
500,
the Daytona
500,
the 24
Hours of Daytona,
and the 24
Hours of Le Mans. In
the NASCAR stock car circuit, he won the 1972 Daytona
500. 

After
constant interruptions during their date, Kim cautions Sue Ann and
Uncle Herb that she’s having Ronnie over again tomorrow night and
“guess
who’s NOT coming to dinner.”
Kim is paraphrasing the title of the 1967 Oscar-winning film Guess
Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Sue
Ann demonstrates her ‘less-than-fluent’ Italian by saying “Funiculì,
Funiculà” which
is the title of a famous Neapolitan song composed in 1880
by Luigi Denza to lyrics by Peppino Turco. It was
written to commemorate the opening of the first funicular cable
car on Mount Vesuvius. 

After
Kim kicks Ronnie out (literally) he bids her farewell saying “bye
bye birdie.” Bye
Bye Birdie
was the title of a 1960 Broadway musical and 1963 film. Ann-Margret, who starred in the film, was a guest star in “Lucy and Ann-Margret” (S2;E20).  

When
Sue Ann realizes that Kim breaking up with Ronnie means she won’t get
to use her Italian, she says “Arrivederci,
Roma”
[translation: “Goodbye, Rome”]. This is the title and
refrain of a popular Italian
song composed by Renato Rascel,with lyrics by Pietro
Garinei and Sandro
Giovannini. It was published in 1957 as
part of the soundtrack of
the Italo-American musical film Seven
Hills of Rome.

This is the second time that Kim has ‘cut the apron strings’. The first was in “Kim Moves Out” (S4;E20), when she moved to an apartment over a garage on the same block as her mother.  Like this episode, Kim returns home eventually – without explanation. 

Harry says that Lucy will always be an overly protective mother and keep Kim in her ‘pouch’ like a mother kangaroo.  For one episode in 1962, Lucy Carmichael was indeed a kangaroo!  

Lucy
Carmichael and Vivian Bagley took self-defense courses in “Lucy and
Viv Learn Judo” (TLS S1;E22) also demonstrating self-defense
techniques.

An
overly-amorous Ronnie feels that Kim has been giving out mixed
signals: the wine, the candles, and the way she’s dressed. He says
“this
is hardly the time to start playing Mary
Poppins.”
The nanny character from the 1964 Disney film was satirized by Lucy
in “Lucy’s Mystery Guest” (TLS S6;E10) and mentioned in “Lucy
Saves Milton Berle” (TLS S4;E14, inset photo). Lucy played Mary Poppins in a sketch on 1969′s Dinah Shore special “Like Hep.” 

Family Tree!  This
is the first time we have heard of Lucy having a brother. In a
previous episode it was noted that Harry was Kim and Craig’s only
uncle. Further, in season 5 Lucy will state that her maiden name is
McGillicuddy (again), not Hinkley.  

Bag Drop!  When Harry startles Lucy by barking at her, her purse falls off her desk and onto the floor.  Lucille Ball glances at it, but decides to finish off the scene instead. 

Bag Tape! Herb’s vacuum cleaner has its brand name covered by gray duct tape, but it is a Hoover Upright. 

“Kim Finally Cuts You-Know-Whose Apron String” rates 2 Paper Hearts out of 5

Lucie Arnaz is a talented performer, with good comic instincts and terrific musical comedy skills. Sadly, however, this premise for a spin-off show is not a good fit. Her supporting cast, although talented, seem to be trying too hard. It is a valiant attempt but fate intervened. Onward!