MY FAIR BUZZI

S5;E13
~ December 11, 1972

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

Synopsis

Kim’s
shy and awkward friend Annie (Ruth Buzzi) comes out of her shell in
order to audition for a 1920s revue, only to find the director was
looking for someone shy and awkward in the first place!

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carter / “Dallas Noonan”), Lucie
Arnaz (Kim
Carter / “Buttercup”), Gale
Gordon (Harrison
Otis Carter / “Big Jake”)

Guest
Cast

Ruth
Buzzi
(Annie Whipple / “Penelope”)
came
to national recognition when she teamed up with Dom
DeLuise as
an incompetent magician and she his assistant who never spoke but
sported a wide grin. The audiences demanded more of them and they
eventually played several major nighttime television variety shows.
She was cast on “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” creating the
character of Gladys Ormsby, a homely woman with a hairnet and a
lethal handbag who was often found on a park bench. In 1986, Ruth
Buzzi guest-starred (with John Ritter) on the second episode of “Life
With Lucy.” She was nominated for five Emmy Awards and won a Golden
Globe in 1973.   

Hal
England (Lee
Greenway, Director) 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 previously appeared in “Lucy and
the Astronauts” (S4;E5) and was in the TV film Lucy Gets Lucky in
1975.  England died in 2003.

The
name Lee Greenway is not used in the dialogue and only appears in the
final credits. 

Larry
Meredith
(Hal King / “Killer”) makes his only appearance on the series and
his first of only two screen acting appearances. 

Michael
Richardson
(Tommy / “Waiter”) made six television appearances in 1972 alone,
his first year of screen acting.  This is his only appearance with
Lucille Ball.

The
name Tommy is not used in the dialogue and only appears in the final
credits.

Marl
Young (Rehearsal
Pianist, uncredited) was
also the musical director of “Here’s Lucy.”  He also
appeared on camera on episodes featuring Donny Osmond and Petula
Clark.  Young later supplied the DVD introductions for several
of the musical episodes.  

Judy
Bates (“Misstep
Sister,” uncredited) was the wife of “Here’s Lucy”
choreographer Jim Bates. The husband and wife dancers
co-choreographed the 1984 “Ann Murray in Quebec” TV special on
CBS.  

Shirley
Anthony (Revue
Performer,
uncredited)
makes the sixth of her 13 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”  

Sig
Frohlich (Revue
Performer, uncredited)
makes the fifth of his 6 uncredited background appearances on the
series.

Bob
Harks (Revue Performer, 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.

The
other revue performers are played by uncredited background
performers.

There
was no new episode of “Here’s Lucy” on Monday, December 4, 1972.

On
Monday, December 11, 1972 Ruth Buzzi (a series regular) was seen on
“Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” on NBC the hour just before “Here’s
Lucy” on CBS. Two months earlier (October 6, 1972) Lucie Arnaz
appeared with Buzzi on “Laugh-In.” Both Dan Rowan and Dick Martin
appeared multiple times on “The Lucy Show,” with Martin playing
Lucy’s steady boyfriend Harry during season one. Despite
being on another network and being against one another on the
primetime schedule, there were many references to “Laugh-In” on
“Here’s Lucy.”  

The
episode title and story of transformation were inspired by the 1956
Broadway musical and 1964 film My
Fair Lady,
which, in turn, was inspired by George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 play
Pygmalion.
Both plays are mentioned in the dialogue of the episode. 

Ruth
Buzzi’s most famous character, Gladys Ormsby, came out of Buzzi’s
portrayal of Agnes Gooch on stage in the play Auntie Mame.
Coincidentally, Lucille Ball did the film musical version of the
story, Mame (1974). In the movie musical, Gooch was supposed to be played by
Madeline Kahn, but Ball and Kahn had “creative differences” so
she was replaced by character actor Jane Connell, who had played the
role on stage.  

The
characters played by Larry Meredith and Hal England are named after
“Here’s Lucy” make-up artists Hal King and Lee Greenway.  

Kim
and Annie are members of the Community Drama Club. Harry calls Annie
“a
budding Sarah Bernhardt.”
Sarah
Bernhardt (1844-1923)
was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  She
also played male roles, including Hamlet. She
made several theatrical tours around the world, and was one of the
first prominent actresses to make sound recordings and act in
motion pictures.
Bernhardt’s image appeared in several episodes of “Here’s Lucy”
on an art deco poster by Alphonse Mucha that was frequently used as
set decoration.

There
is a shrill female laugh coming from the studio audience during the
episode. Generally, only Gary Morton’s loud guffaw is discernible
above the studio and canned laughter.

Harry
says Annie’s face looks like an unbaked pie. Annie says Harry
reminds him of her dear old grandmother – because of his little
mustache. 

When
the transformed Annie enters down the stairs, Kim sings
“A Pretty Girl is Like A Melody.” The
song was written by Irving Berlin in 1919 and became the theme song
of Broadway’s Ziegfeld
Follies.
It was heard (without lyrics) when Lucy Ricardo played a showgirl
with an enormous headdress in “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (ILL
S4;E18). Lucy Carter would later do an impromptu fashion show to the
song in “Lucy’s Working Daughter” (S1;E10).

Harry
tries to flatter the newly-transformed Annie by saying his only
regret is that he’s already promised to Raquel Welch.
Raquel Welch seems
to be the show’s go-to name to drop when wanting to reference a
young female sex symbol.
She
was previously mentioned on “Lucy and
Johnny Carson” (S2;E11), “Lucy,
the American Mother” (S3;E7), and “Lucy Visits Jack Benny”
(S1;E2).

As
a delay tactic while Annie is reversing her transformation to appease
the director, Kim sings “El
Cubanchero,”
one of Desi Arnaz’s biggest hits.  It
was written in 1947 by Rafael Hernández. As Ricky Ricardo, Desi
Arnaz first sang it in “Lucy
is Jealous of Girl Singer” (ILL S1;E10)
and again in
“Breaking the Lease” (ILL S1;E18). Kim
says it is for the “Sleeping Beauty” sketch so she ends with a
loud snore.  

When
the director tells her that they are only working on the “Speakeasy”
sketch, she offers a tap routine while singing “Anchor’s
Aweigh,”
the
march of the United States Navy composed in 1906 by Charles A.
Zimmermann.
It was heard on the soundtrack of “Lucy and the Submarine” (TLS
S5;E2).  

When
Annie still doesn’t appear Kim quickly launches into “A
Hawaiian War Chant”

by Johnny Noble while
doing hip movements that make her bottom vibrate!  Kim sang and
danced to the song in “Lucy Goes Hawaiian ~ Part 2” (S3;E24). The
song
was previously performed on “I
Love Lucy” and “The
Lucy Show” making
it one of the few songs to be performed on all three of Lucille
Ball’s major sitcoms.

Kim
announces that the title of the speakeasy sketch is… 

“No
One Had An Inhibition About Disobeying Prohibition”

In
the speakeasy sketch, Lucy plays hostess Dallas Noonan, a satire on
Texas
Guinan,
one of the first female emcees. During Prohibition, she opened a
speakeasy called the 300 Club in New York City. 
Lucy enters saying
“Hello, suckers!”
which was also something attributed to Guinan. Lucille Ball and Texas
Guinan actually shared the screen in 1933’s Broadway
Through A Keyhole.
It was Guinan’s last film and one of Ball’s first. “Hello,
suckers”
was also spoken in the musical Chicago
by Velma Kelly, a character based on Guinan. The greeting also served
as the title of an ill-fated 1969 musical starring Martha Rae.  

Kim,
Linda (played by an uncredited dancer), and another flapper (Judy
Bates) appear as ‘The Misstep Sisters’ and tap and sing to
“Nagasaki,”
a song written in 1928 by Harren Warren and Mort Dixon. They lyrics
of the song are written on the chalkboard in the rehearsal hall.
Lucie Arnaz later said it was one of the most difficult dance
combinations she’d ever done on the show.

As
Penelope, Ruth Buzzi sings a vampy rendition of “A
Good Man is Hard To Find” written
by Eddie Green in 1918.

During
her song, Penelope mashes a half grapefruit into Kim’s face.  This
was famously done by James Cagney to Mae Clarke in the 1933 film
Public
Enemy.
The film was referenced in “Lucy the Disc Jockey” (TLS S3;E26).

For
the curtain call, the band plays “Tiger
Rag,” a
song that dates back to 1917.  

Lucy
Carmichael was transformed from charwoman… 

to glamorous lady in “My
Fair Lucy” (TLS S3;E20), which was first aired shortly after the
film My
Fair Lady
premiered.

In
“Ricky Asks For A Raise” (ILL S1;E35) the name Hal King was used
for an (off-screen) quick change artist who supplied Lucy and the
Mertzes with costumes.  

In
“Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined” (ILL S3;E11) the gang put on a ‘20s
revue at the Tropicana as a tryout for a musical called “The Professor
and the Co-Ed.”  

More
recently, a musical episode titled “Lucy, the Co-Ed” (S3;E6) was
also set in the 1920s.  

Ouch!  In
her DVD introduction to the episode, Lucie Arnaz recalls that during
the “Nagasaki” tap number atop the bar, Judy Bates (left) hit the
painting on the wall with her hand, slicing open her finger.  She continued with
the number, completing it in one take!  

Where
the Floor Ends!  Once again, the camera pulls back too far and viewers see where the living room carpet ends and the soundstage floor begins!

“My Fair Buzzi” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

Ruth Buzzi is a very good fit in the Lucy mold.  She is a funny character woman who can do physical comedy as well as sing and dance.  Although this is basically one of the show’s musical episodes, the scenes of Buzzi doing her schtick are the best!