LUCY IS A BIRD-SITTER

S6;E15
~ January 7, 1974

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

Synopsis

Lucy
is volunteered to babysit a rare bird while its owner (Arte Johnson)
gets an award. Lucy accidentally leaves the front door open and the
bird escapes. Now Lucy can’t tell the rare bird from the pigeons in
the park.

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.

Arte
Johnson
(Sir Osbert Beechman Place) made his screen debut in a 1954
television remake of Lucille Ball’s 1943 film musical Best
Foot Forward. He
first teamed with Ball in a 1964 episode of “The Jack Benny Show”
where Lucy and Jack played Mr. and Mrs. Paul Revere. He was a
regular performer on “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” from 1967 to
1971, which, in some seasons, competed with “Here’s Lucy” on NBC. He died in 2019 at the age of 90.

Johnson’s
character name is a nod to Lucy’s soon-to-be-released film Mame.
Mame Dennis (Lucille
Ball) lives in a townhouse on Beekman Place, New York City. Sir
Osbert has traveled from Neiafu Vava’u, Tonga, a real place in the South
Pacific islands.
Sir Osbert is an ornithologist and conservationist who has come to
Los Angeles to donate a rare Weewawk bird to the Los Angeles Zoo. He is the recipient of the Conservationist of the Year Award. Arte Johnson uses a Scottish
accent for the character.

Floyd
(uncredited) the Tongan Ruby Throated Weewawk. There are only three like it in
the world and only one is female.

More
than a dozen white pigeons appear (uncredited) in the park scene.

This
is the first new episode of calendar year 1974. This will be Lucille
Ball’s final year on weekly television until the short-lived “Life
with Lucy” in 1986.

In
his DVD introduction to the episode, Arte Johnson jokingly says he
hated holding the bird because it bit him and caused him to go to the
hospital. In the finished episode, his character never actually touches the bird.

On
“Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” (1967-73) Johnson is best remembered as the naughty old man who
sat next to Ruth Buzzi on the park bench, and as the German soldier who
peered through the bushes and said “Very
interesting!”
In “Lucy Meets the Burtons” (S3;E1) Elizabeth Taylor imitated
Johnson’s catch phrase and accent, but the line was edited out of the
final cut. Other “Laugh-In” catch phrases heard on “Here’s
Lucy” include “Here come da judge!,” “Sock it to me” and
multiple references to “Tip Toe Through the Tulips” and its eccentric singer Tiny Tim.

Johnson
is one of many actors who appeared on “Rowan
and Martin’s Laugh-In”
that have also appeared on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy,” including Lucie Arnaz.
Others include:

Ruth Buzzi, Flip Wilson, Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon,
Jack Benny, Sammy Davis Jr., Rich Little, Charles Nelson Reilly, Paul
Winchell, Robert Goulet, Ricardo Montalban, Joe Namath, Jack Carter,
Van Johnson, Tennessee Ernie Ford, David Frost, Burt Mustin, Totie
Fields, Janos Prohaska, Petula Clark, Andy Griffith, Jack LaLanne,
Carol Burnett, Mike Connors, Steve Lawrence, Shelley Winters, and
Wally Cox.

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin both appeared several times on
“The Lucy Show.”

Much has been written about Lucille Ball’s fear of birds – called ornithophobia. The story goes that the day Lucille’s father died, a bird was trapped inside the house. From then on she connected birds with death. If this is true, Ball is the consummate professional as she has acted with live birds many times.

As
the episode opens, Lucy is sitting at Harry’s desk, feet up, talking
to Vanda on the telephone. The character (played by Vanda Barra) is
not in the episode and hasn’t been seen since the sixth episode of
season six, several months earlier. Lucy also mentions Sam, the waiter in the
coffee shop downstairs, a character played by Sid Gould that hasn’t been seen
since the end of season five. Sam
and Vanda
will return, however, before the series wraps up.

Harry
is out of the office at a luncheon meeting for the Friends
of the Los Angeles Zoo.
The real LA Zoo opened in 1966. Prior to that there was a zoo in
Griffith Park that opened in 1912. In “Lucy and the Franchise
Fiasco” (S5;E20), Lucy, Harry, and Mary Jane open a frozen custard
stand across the street from the zoo.

Mary Jane offers Lucy
a ticket to see Charlton
Heston in
play at the Los Angeles Music Center. Lucy and Harry have some dialogue about Heston that plays on his role as Moses in The
Ten Commandments (1956). Mary Jane never tells Lucy the title of the play.

Sir
Osbert says that Floyd liked the movie they showed on the plane –
Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
The 1973 film, based on the book of the same name by Richard D.
Bach, was nominated for two 1974 Oscars. It features the voice of
Richard Crenna, who played Arthur, the young man who has a crush on
Lucy Ricardo in “The Young Fans” (ILL S1;E20). The Grammy-winning film score was by Neil Diamond, who would act opposite Lucie Arnaz in 1980′s The Jazz Singer.

Before
leaving him with Lucy, Sir Osbert says to Floyd: “Bye
Bye Birdie”
and throws his head back in a squawk-like laugh. This was also the
title of a popular Broadway musical and 1963 film starring Ann-Margret. Ann-Margret guest starred on “Here’s Lucy” in 1970.

Kim
rushes in to announce that she’s bought a new car from Vivian Bowman… who bought it from her sister… who bought it from her boss… who got
it from his brother-in-law… who has an agency. So a new / used car. Vivian Bowman was the name of a production coordinator on “Here’s Lucy.”

Harry:
Where? Where is that Weewawk?
Lucy: Maybe he went for a wee walk?

This
episode is based in part on 1964′s “Lucy Gets the Bird” (TLS S3;E12) in which Lucy
Carmichael bird-sits Mr. Mooney’s prize cockatiel Greenback. When
Greenback flies away, Lucy and Viv must track it down. When they are unsuccessful, they try to replace it
with a similar looking bird.

The
Weewawk has to be kept warm, just like the baby chicks
prematurely bought by Lucy Ricardo in “Lucy Raises Chickens” (ILL
S6;E19).

In that same episode, Lucy does her chicken walk just as
she does here with the pigeons in the park.

Lucy Ricardo also got up close and personal with pigeons while on the ledge of her apartment building in “Lucy and Superman” (ILL S6;E13), an episode that has been since colorized.

Name
Game!
The names used in this episode are pronounced differently than they
are spelled.

The
rare bird in question is pronounced “Wee-Wok” but is generally
spelled as “Weewawk” or “Weewalk” or “Weewark” –
depending on the source. The first spelling seems preferable since it
is meant to rhyme with “squawk.”
Harry
and Lucy pronounce Sir Osbert’s surname as “Beecham” (Beech-um)
although it is spelled as “Beechman” in the DVD English subtitles
and elsewhere. The homage to Mame would indicate that it should be pronounced “BeachMAN” to rhyme
with “BeakMAN”.
The name “Osbert” is meant to sound like “Oz-bird”. Thankfully, Arte Johnson is not credited using his character name –
just as “Guest Star Arte Johnson.”
As
usual, Harry has his particular way of pronouncing “Los Angeles”
with a hard ‘g’. Harry does, however, pronounce “Neiafu
Vava’u” perfectly!

MapQuest
SOS! Harry (and later Sir Osbert) says that the Weewawk has flown 7,000
miles from Tonga. In reality, a direct air flight from Tonga to Los
Angeles (there is literally nowhere to stop) is 5,324 miles (8,596 km).

Props! Lucy
adjusts the temperature in her home to mimic the warmer climate of
Tonga. She adjusts the thermostat on the landing next to the mirror.
There has never been a thermostat there before – it is a prop of
convenience.

Schtick! Sir
Osbird has a habit for examining pieces of porcelain and ceramics he
sees in Lucy’s home, but the character trait is not developed into
anything of importance to the plot. It seems just an quirky trait
that perhaps Johnson thought would be funny. Also probably for a
joke, Johnson’s vest is incorrectly buttoned.

You
Break Me Up! When Arte Johnson does his bird-like shriek Lucille Ball
can’t help but smile.

Hats Off! When Sir Osbert imitates the Weewawk’s mating dance, his hat falls off the sofa arm onto the floor. He picks it up during the audience’s applause for his exotic imitation.

Sitcom Logic Alert! When Lucy goes off joyriding with Kim in her new / old car, she leaves the front door wide open and Floyd’s cage open. The plot often depends on Lucy doing such illogical and careless things!

Pack Lightly! When Sir Osbert comes to pick up Floyd the next morning, he is wearing exactly the same clothes he wore the day before – sweater still incorrectly buttoned!

Oops! When Harry rushes in to the park having found Floyd, Lucille Ball trips (and nearly falls) on the low wire fencing designed to corral the pigeons.