LUCY’S BIG BREAK

S5;E1
~ September 11, 1972

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

Synopsis

Lucy
breaks her leg and is confined to a hospital bed.  A handsome doctor
(Lloyd Bridges) catches her eye. Despite her confinement, she does
everything she can to get his attention!

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Lloyd
Bridgers (Dr.
Paul Murray) is probably best remembered for his starring role in
TV’s “Sea Hunt” (1958-61).  He began his screen acting career in
1936 after acting on the New York stage.  In 1959 he starred in an
episode of the “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” hosted by Desi
Arnaz.  Bridges had his own show on CBS from 1962 to 1963.  His skill
at comedy was memorably on display in the films Airplane
(1980) and Hot
Shots
(1991).  He died in 1998 at age 85.

Bob
Harks (Stand-in for Lloyd Bridges, uncredited) 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.” He died at
age 83 in 2010.

Mary
Wickes (Nurse
Sylvia Ogilvy) was one of Lucille Ball’s closest friends and at one
time, a neighbor. She made a memorable appearances on “I Love Lucy”
as ballet mistress Madame Lamond in “The
Ballet” (ILL S1;E19). In
her initial “Lucy Show” appearances her characters name was
Frances, but she then made four more as a variety of characters for a
total of 8 episodes. This is one of her 9 appearances on “Here’s
Lucy.” Their final collaboration on screen was “Lucy Calls the
President” in 1977.

Mary
Wickes returns as Nurse Ogilvy in the next episode, “Lucy and Eva
Gabor are Hospital Roomies” (S5;E2).  

Alan
Oppenheimer (Dr.
Matt Parker) 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 appeared as Lucy’s brother, Herb Hinkley, in the final episode of season four “Kim Finally Cuts You-Know-Whose Apron String” (S4;E24).  This is his last appearance with Lucille Ball.  

Oppenheimer provides the DVD introduction to this episode. 

Mary
Jane Croft (Mary
Jane Lewis) played Betty Ramsey during season six of “I Love Lucy.
” She also played Cynthia Harcourt in “Lucy
is Envious” (ILL S3;E23) and
Evelyn Bigsby in “Return
Home from Europe” (ILL S5;E26).
She played Audrey Simmons on “The Lucy Show” but when Lucy
Carmichael moved to California, she played Mary Jane Lewis, the
actor’s married name and the same one she uses on all 31 of her
episodes of “Here’s Lucy. Her final acting credit was playing
Midge Bowser on “Lucy Calls the President” (1977). She died in
1999 at the age of 83. 

Vanda
Barra (Vanda)
makes one of 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.” Barra was
Lucille Ball’s cousin-in-law by marriage to Sid Gould. 

Although
she had played a character named Vanda in two previous episodes,
nearly all her remaining appearances on the series will be as Lucy’s
friend Vanda, including the next episode “Lucy and Eva Gabor are
Hospital Roomies” (S5;E2).  

Sid
Gould (Sam) 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.

On
the second episode of “Here’s Lucy” Gould’s character name
was Sam, a tour guide in Palm Springs.  Prior to this episode he
twice played a character named Sam who was a waiter. He will play a
character named Sam three more times, in addition to his many other
minor roles.

June
Whitley Taylor
(Nurse) had appeared as Sally, one of Lucy and Ethel’s bridge-playing
friends in both “No Children Allowed” (ILL S2;E22) and “The
Camping Trip” (ILL S2;E29).  She will make one more appearance on
the next episode of “Here’s Lucy.” 

Dorothy
Konrad
(Mrs. Foster) made a total of six appearances on “The Lucy Show.”
She first played Dorothy Boyer, one of the volunteer firefighters,
then a variety of other characters. This is her only appearance on
“Here’s Lucy.”

Mrs.
Foster shares a room with Lucy in the hospital.  The surname Foster
was previously used by the writers on “I Love Lucy” for the
Ricardos’ neighbors Bill and Grace.  

After
season 4 wrapped, Lucille Ball experienced a run of bad luck.  First,
the final episode of the season was designed as a pilot for a
spin-off series starring Lucie Arnaz, but CBS declined to pick-up the
show for production.  At the same time, Vivian Vance, who was being
eyed as a reliable sidekick for Lucy should Lucie get her own show,
was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Finally, in January 1972 on a ski
trip to her condo in Snowmass, Colorado, Lucille Ball broke her leg.
Instead of canceling the series, Ball had the injury written into the
scripts, so that Lucy Carter would also have a broken leg.
Almost all of this season’s scripts had to be quickly rewritten or
postponed. 
The injury meant that Ball would have to limit her physical comedy
and musical numbers and re-think the show’s overall dynamics.  It
also meant that her plans to start filming the musical film Mame
would be put on hold until her injuries healed.

This
episode begins the longest story arc (Lucy’s broken leg) of the
entire series, and the first continued story since Lucy cruised to
Hawaii at the end of season 3.

Ironically,
the highest rated TV program the week this episode first appeared was
also set in a hospital with a handsome gray-haired doctor, “Marcus
Welby M.D.” starring Robert Young on ABC.  

For
the 1972-73 season, “Here’s Lucy” was followed by the premiere of
“The New Bill Cosby Show.”  One of the “Cosby” series
regulars was Susan Tolsky, who played Kim’s neighbor Sue Ann in the
previous episode (and pilot) “Kim Finally Cuts You-Know-Whose Apron
String” (S4;E24).  Tolsky will also return for one more episode of
“Here’s Lucy” in season 5.

For
season five the opening title theme music (by Wilbur Hatch) has been
re-orchestrated and Roy Rowan’s announcer voice re-recorded. Some of the visuals involving the spotlight are slightly altered. 

The night before this episode originally aired Lucille Ball appeared on “A Salute to Television’s 25th Anniversary” on ABC.  Former “Lucy” guest stars that also participated include Bob Hope, John Wayne, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jimmy Durante, and Dinah Shore.  

Before
donning a habit to play nuns, Mary Wickes was typecast as a nurse due
to her breakthrough role as Nurse Preen in the Broadway, film, and
television versions of The
Man Who Came To Dinner (above).
In 1960 she played a nurse in the TV film “The Gambler, The Nun
and the Radio,” 1963’s “It’s Mental Work,” and 1975’s “Doc.”
On “Here’s Lucy” she played Nurse Hurlow in “Lucy and Harry’s
Tonsils” (S2;E5) and in the following episode “Lucy and Eva Gabor
are Hospital Roomies” (S5;E2).  

The
episode opens with location film of Lucille Ball on the slopes.  This
footage was taken from Lucille Ball’s personal home movies. The
images then spiral fade into Lucy Carter’s foot in a cast in a
hospital bed.  Lucy says she was skiing down Fanny Hill (the
beginner’s slope) at Snowmass. Fanny
Hill is
also the title of an erotic novel written in 1748 by John Cleland. It
was made into a feature film by director Russ Meyer in 1964.

The American Vision, the book Lucy Carter’s hospital roommate is reading, was authored by Henry Fonda’s character William Russell from the 1964 film The Best Man.

With
the exception of a scene in the hospital hallway, the entire episode
takes place in Lucy’s hospital room.

Ribbing
Lucy about her increasingly exaggerated account of the accident,
Harry says “I
thought you carried an injured Jean-Claude Killy down the slope on
your back.” John-Claude
Killy
was a French Alpine skater who experiences world fame when he
competed in the 1964 and 1968 Winter Olympics. 
In “Someone’s on the Ski Lift with Dinah” (S4;E7), Harry declared
himself to be “the
Jean-Claude Kily of Borrego Springs.”  Borrego Springs is  a desert community near San Diego and was Gale
Gordon’s home town.

To
pass the time, Lucy is watching “As the World Turns.”  Nurse
Ogilvy says that last time she saw it Mary Gorman had appendicitis.
“As
the World Turns”
was
the second longest running soap opera in American history after
“Guiding Light.” CBS first aired the serial on April 2, 1956. It
followed the personal and professional lives of professionals like
doctors and attorneys. From 1958 to 1978, the show was the highest
rated daytime television program.  The soap opera was canceled in
2010.

During
their “gag” examination, the two doctors break into “Dem
Bones” (also
called “Dry
Bones”
or “Dem
Dry Bones”).
The song was composed by James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) although
some sources also credit his brother, J. Rosomond Johnson. It was
first recorded in 1928.

Lucy
Carmichael broke her leg in “Lucy and Viv Reminisce” (S6;E16), a
1968 clips show from “The Lucy Show” starring Vivian Vance.  Lucy
is in a hospital bed (in her living room) for the entire
non-flashback portion of the show.

As
the star of the nautical series “Sea Hunt,” Lloyd Bridges’ name
was the punchline of jokes in two ‘water-logged’ episodes of “The
Lucy Show”:  “Lucy
and Viv Put in a Shower” (TLS S1;E18)
and “Lucy
Buys a Boat” (TLS S1;E30).

In
“Lucy Goes to Sun Valley,” a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi
Comedy Hour,” Lucille
Ball’s stunt double Jannette Burr Johnson was scheduled to film the
start of Lucy Ricardo and Fernando Lamas’ speedy descent down Mount
Baldy, but Johnson fell and broke her leg so she helped Ball prepare
to do the stunt herself, with several Sun Valley ski patrol members
waiting to catch her 100 feet down slope. 

Lucy
Carter went skiing (without breaking anything) in “Someone’s on the Ski Lift
with Dinah” (S4;E7).  

When
the two doctors conspire to teach Lucy a lesson for artificially
spiking her temperature, they tell her she has Wolfington’s Tibia Pox
and Galloping Fibulosis compounded by a sever case of Yo-Yo-itis, a
made-up illness.  Ricky Ricardo and his friend Hal March conspired to
teach Lucy a lesson by telling her she had the ‘gobloots’ in “Lucy
Fakes Illness” (ILL S1;E16).  It, too, was written by Madelyn Davis
and Bob Carroll Jr.  

Lucy
Carmichael sang an impromptu chorus of “Dry Bones” during biology
class when “Lucy Gets Her High School Diploma” (TLS S6;E5).  

Huh?
Sam (Sid Gould) brings hospitalized Lucy a salami with the brand
name redacted in blue tape. If the salami is supposed to be anything
other than a sight gag, it is unclear.  Is Sam a deli owner?  In
previous episodes Gould’s Sam was a waiter.  Vanda (Vanda Barra)
notes that the salami is without garlic.  Again, there may be a joke
here, but it is elusive at best.

Details!
Details!  Although
“As the World Turns” is a real soap opera, there is no record of
a character named Mary Gorman.  

Character
Consistency!  Dr. Parker says “I’ve
known Lucy for years”
which accounts for him informally calling her by her first name. This
is, however, the first the viewing audience has heard of him, making
their prior relationship a bit of a surprise.  Audiences with sharp
eyes but no memory for names might think the doctor is Lucy’s
brother, since that is the role he played in Lucy’s brother in “Kim
Finally Cuts You-Know-Whose Apron String” (S4;E24).    

“Lucy’s Big Break” rates 3 Paper Hearts out of 5

It is a tribute to Lucille Ball’s talent that she can remain confined to a hospital bed and still turn in a funny, entertaining show.  If the script feels a bit rushed, it can be forgiven.  This is a new, more intimate Lucy by necessity and it is refreshing to watch.