LUCY PLAYS COPS AND ROBBERS

S6;E14
~ December 31, 1973

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

Synopsis

Lucy
forms a neighborhood watch group and starts seeing criminals where
there are none. After several false alarms to the local police, a
real burglar actually shows up!

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Mary
Jane Croft (Mary
Jane) 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.

Mary
Wickes (Violet
Barker) 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.

Al
Lewis (Lionel
Barker) is remembered to this day as Grandpa (aka Count Dracula) on
TV’s “The Munsters” (1964-66), a show that aired concurrently
with “The Lucy Show.” Prior to that he played Officer Schnauzer
(also opposite Fred Gwynn) in “Car 54, Where Are You?”

The
Barker’s daughter Carolyn and son-in-law Fred live in San Francisco
and are expecting a baby.

Dick
Sargent
(Officer Spencer, left) had just finished up playing Darrin Stephens on
“Bewitched” when he filmed this episode. Sargent was the second
actor to play the role, replacing Dick York in 1969. Sargent
continued to act on television until his death in 1994 at age 64.

Sargent’s
“Bewitched” clout earns him “Guest Star” status in the final
credits.

Gary
Crosby
(Officer Riggs, right) was the son of crooner Bing Crosby. Like his father
he was both an actor and a singer. This is his only appearance with
Lucille Ball. He died in 1995 at age 62.

Gino
Conforti
(Burglar) began his TV acting career in 1968 and has been continually
working since, although mostly as one-off characters. He had a
recurring role as Felipe on “Three’s Company” from 1980 to 1982,
a series Lucille Ball admired. This is his first time acting with
Ball, but he will also be seen in Lucy’s two teleplays “Lucy Gets
Lucky” and “Three for Two” both in 1975.

Shirley
Anthony
(Mrs. Shackleford, behind sofa, uncredited) makes
the ninth of her 13 appearances of “Here’s Lucy.”

Mrs.
Shackleford has a brother who lives in Berkeley.

Eddie
Garrett
(Mr. Shackleford, standing, uncredited) is
probably best remembered for playing Ed, the crime photographer on
“Quincy M.E.” from 1976 to 1983. This is his final episode of
“Here’s Lucy.”

Anthony
and Garrett are the only cast members not involved in the chaotic
ending of the episode.

Although
season 6 is now more than a dozen episodes old, this installment was
meant to be aired first. Instead, it originally aired on New
Year’s Eve 1973
and (naturally) was the last new episode of the calendar year. The
show’s only competition that night was the annual Sugar Bowl Game on
ABC. Some sources, including the series DVD, incorrectly list the
original air date of this episode as November 26, 1973.

Although
airing on New Year’s Eve, the show wasn’t about the holiday. Because
using actual dates or years was generally discouraged on TV (to keep
episodes current in future syndication) there was only one “Lucy”
show themed around the turning of the calendar: “Chris’s New Year’s
Eve Party” (TLS S1;E14), first broadcast on December 31, 1962.

Lucille
Ball wears a fuller, more mature wig that she never wears again. This
episode also does not yet incorporate Ball’s soft-focus lens.

Rumor
has it that the police officers were supposed to be played by
“Adam-12” (1968-75) co-stars Martin Milner and Kent McCord.
Like “Here’s Lucy,” the NBC police drama was filmed on the
Universal lot. Gary Crosby played a recurring role on “Adam-12.” In the script, one officer says to the other “I
think we’ve been riding together too long”
which would have been even funnier had it been an already famous pair of
policemen like Milner and McCord.

Al
Lewis was also part of a famous cop show, the comedy “Car
54, Where Are You?” (1961-63) where Joe E. Ross partnered with Fred Gwynn, a year before Lewis and Gwynn teamed for “The Munsters” (1964-66).

In
his DVD introduction to the episode, Gino
Conforti
(Burglar) says that Lucille Ball thought he was a very athletic
person because he was able to jump over the banister!

Harry
announces that he’s just gotten his first color TV set – a 23”
screen with remote control. He plans to watch Elizabeth Taylor in
Cleopatra
(“She
can ride on my barge anytime!”).
Lucy informs him that Walter Cronkite has baby blue eyes. Taylor
guest starred as herself in the season three opener “Lucy Meets the
Burtons” (S3;E1). On “The Lucy Show” Lucy
Carmichael
played Cleopatra in
a community theatre production of Anthony
and Cleopatra
in an episode aired the same year Taylor’s film premiered.
Coincidentally, that was the first episode of “The Lucy Show” to
be filmed in color, although CBS did not air the series in color
until fall of 1965.

Remembering
that Lucy had just completed filming on the motion picture musical
Mame
before season six started, there are detectable traces of Auntie
Mame’s theatricality and upper class diction in Lucille Ball’s
performance here.

Neighborhood
watches
began developing in the late 1960s as a response to
the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens,
New York.
People became outraged after reports that a dozen witnesses did
nothing to save Genovese or to apprehend her killer.
Officer Riggs says that in the US, a burglary is committed every 15
seconds. Depending on the source, current statistics say between 13
and 18 seconds.

The
surname Barker
will
be used by Lucille Ball for the last of her television characters in
“Life With Lucy” (1986-87). The name continues her habit of
using the letter combination AR (for Arnaz) in all her character
names: RicARdo, CARmichael, CARter, and BARker. Lucille Ball’s friend
Carole Lombard’s mother told Lucille it would be good luck when Lucy
first married Desi in the 1940s.

Seeing
Harry’s cathedral style radio, she asks him if he listens to “Amos
‘n’ Andy.”
The
original radio show, which was popular from 1928 until 1960, was
created, written and voiced by two white actors.
When the radio show moved to television in 1951 (the same year that
Lucille Ball’s radio show “My Favorite Husband” turned into TV’s
“I Love Lucy”), black actors were hired. Sam McDaniel, the first
black actor to speak lines on “I Love Lucy” in 1955, was seen on
four episodes of “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” Despite
decent ratings, CBS pulled the show when the NAACP complained of how
they believed blacks were being depicted on this show. The syndicated
reruns were pulled from circulation in 1966 after similar protests.

When
Lucy comes tearing in from buying some ice cream, she carries a red
and white striped paper sack. Although the company name has been
removed, this is undoubtedly a bag from Wil
Wright’s Ice Cream,
a California business that Lucille Ball adored. Virtually unknown on
the East Coast, Wil Wright’s was a chain of old time ice cream
parlors that dotted the West Coast until going out of business in the
mid-1970s. Their rich recipe and variety of flavors made them a
favorite of stars like Lucy and Marilyn Monroe.
Wil Wright’s was mentioned by Ethel Mertz in “Bullfight Dance”
(ILL S4;E22) while the Ricardo’s and Mertzes were living in
Hollywood. Like Lucille Ball, Lucy Carter also adores ice cream.
Harry calls her an “ice cream freak.”

Lucy
repeats her address on the telephone: 4863 Valley Long Drive.
Earlier in the series, Harry also gave this as his address.

Unbeknownst
to Lucy, Harry is adjusting Lucy’s rooftop TV antenna. Lucy thinks
he’s a burglar and calls the cops. When Lucy asks if that was him up
there, her bellows “Well,
it wasn’t the ‘Fiddler on the Roof’!” Fiddler
on the Roof was
a 1964 stage musical that was made into an Oscar-winning film in
1971. Coincidentally, Gino Conforti, who plays the Burglar in this
episode, was the original Fiddler on Broadway. The stage production
also starred Bea Arthur, Lucille Ball’s Mame
co-star.

Viewers
have not seen the second living room closet since Harry and Craig hid
their documentary camera in it in “Lucy, The American Mother”
(S3;E7). In this episode the closet is in a slightly different place than it was
in 1970.

When
Harry panics after being locked in the closet by the Burglar, Lucy
slaps him and he says “Thanks.
I needed that.” This is a reference to a ubiquitous TV commercial for Mennen Skin Bracer men’s cologne. The TV ads originally starred John Goodman
(“Roseann”).

This
episode is a loose remake of “Lucy Cries Wolf” (ILL S4;E3) in
which Lucy Ricardo keeps claiming that criminals are up to no good in
the neighborhood – until they finally are! The storyline was
inspired by the real-life theft of Lucille Ball’s jewelry from a
Chicago hotel in 1950.

There
were also six people tightly crammed into the Ricardo’s living room
closet in “Drafted” (ILL S1;E11) in 1951, also written by Davis (then Pugh) and Carroll.

Scheduling
SNAFU! Kim
wonders why she’s been asked to attend a neighborhood watch meeting
when she’s moved to her own apartment a year and a half ago! The
episode where Kim moved out was aired February 28, 1972. Had “Lucy Plays Cops and Robbers” aired as the season 6 opener, Kim’s dates would work out
perfectly, but due to the delay, she is three months off.

Hello
Dolly? There
is quite a bit of camera shake as the officer’s enter the living
room, something rarely seen on the series.

Memory Lapse! Harry is visibly smitten with Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, but neither Harry nor Lucy mention having met her when Lucy got Taylor’s million-dollar diamond ring stuck on her finger in “Lucy Meets the Burtons” (S3;E1).

Wardrobe
Malfunction! While
listening to the officers, Lucille Ball notices something on the left
leg of her black trousers, so while looking at her wristwatch, she
tries to rub it off with her other hand.

Props!
Throughout the episode, even though they’ve never been seen before,
Lucy’s “good candlesticks” that have “been in the family for generations” (they are actually silver candelabras) are sitting out
on the kitchen hatch ledge – talk about burglar bait!

Name Game! Lucy calls the Barkers’ daughter ‘Carolyn’ (rhymes with ‘fin’) and the Police Officers call her ‘Caroline’ (rhymes with ‘fine’). Earlier in the episode, Violet Barker (the mother) called her daughter ‘Carolyn’ which is what Lucy said. Mother knows best!

Research!
The
Burglar calls Harry’s antique radio a 1927 Atwater Kent, but he is a
few years off. The 1927 models were rectangular and did not have
cathedral-style cabinetry.