LUCY IS N.G. AS AN R.N.

S6;E17 ~ January 21, 1974

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

Synopsis

Kim
gets a cold, Harry hurts his knee, and Mary Jane breaks her fingers.
Even the cat is having kittens!  Naturally, it falls to Lucy to nurse
them all back to health.

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. 

Roy
Roberts (Dr.
Honeycutt) was born Roy Barnes Jones in Tampa, Florida in 1906. His
early career was on the Broadway stage. In Hollywood, the veteran
character actor accrued over 900 screen performances in his 40 year
career, most of which were authority figures. He and Lucille Ball
appeared together in Miss
Grant Takes Richmond (1949).
On “The Lucy Show” he first appeared as a Navy Admiral in “Lucy
and the Submarine” (TLS S5;E2) before
creating the role of Mr. Cheever, the president of Mr. Mooney’s
bank, a recurring character he played through the end of the series.
On “Here’s Lucy” he played the Superintendent of the Air
Force Academy in
season two’s two-part
opener.  He
also played a Doctor in “Lucy and the Astronauts” (S4;E5).  

Al
Checco (Dr.
Crawford) was originally the comedy partner of Don
Knotts entertaining
US troops stationed overseas. This is the second of his two
appearances on the series,
having first appeared in “The Big Game” (S6;E2).  

Dr.
Crawford, a veterinarian, is substituting for Dr. Moss.  

Harry, Kim’s
Cat
(uncredited) is

the mother of 20 kittens and is pregnant for the fifth time. She was briefly named Harriet, but refused to respond to
anything but Harry. Harry is a kitten from the litter of a cat owned
by Lucy’s friend Vanda.

The
title features abbreviations that might be confusing: N.G. stands for
“No Good” and “R.N.” means “Registered Nurse.”  

The
same evening this episode originally aired, Roy Roberts also appeared
on “Gunsmoke,” “Here’s Lucy’s” lead-in on CBS. Roberts played
Mr. Bodkin in 19 episodes of the long-running Western. Like his character of Mr. Cheever on “The Lucy Show,” Mr. Bodkin was a banker. These two back-to-back episodes are Roberts’ last television appearances before his death a
year later. In that year, he also starred in two feature films:
Chinatown
(1974) and The
Strongest Man in the World (1975).

In
his DVD introduction to the episode, Al Checco says that the “Here’s
Lucy” company worked like
“a well-greased automobile engine.”
Truthfully, Checco was the only ‘outsider’ in this episode full of
“Lucy” regulars, having only done one previous episode.   

As
the episode opens, Harry is catching up with his reading with the
September 1969 issue of The
Ring.
The boxing magazine published its first issue in 1922. On “I Love
Lucy,” both Ricky and Fred were big prize fighting fans, with the
last scene of the very first aired episode set ringside.

Harry
says he spends dinner-time watching Walter Cronkite deliver the news.
Walter
Cronkite
(1916-2009) was anchorman of “The CBS Evening News” for nearly 20
years. He was recently mentioned in “Lucy Plays Cops and Robbers”
(S6;E14) when Harry gets a new television set.

Lucy
and Mary Jane are headed to San Francisco for a convention of The
Girl Fridays Association, where Lucy intends to run for vice
president. The Girl Fridays were last mentioned in “Lucy Gives
Eddie Albert the Old Song and Dance” (S6;E6, above). The local members of the Girl Fridays are Lucy, Mary Jane, and Vanda.  

Kim
has acquired a cat to keep her company at her Marina Del Rey
apartment. This is the first full-grown cat on the series, although a
kitten appeared in “Lucy the Fixer” (S1;E14, above). The previous
episode to be aired, “Meanwhile, Back at the Office” (S6;E16),
featured an even cat – a full grown lion!  

When
she hears about Kim’s cat having another litter, Lucy asks the cat if
she’s heard of the Anti-Litter Campaign. Pun aside, the
Anti-Littering Campaign, also known as the Keep America Beautiful
Campaign, started in 1953 and was co-founded by original “I Love
Lucy” sponsor Philip-Morris. The Campaign was mentioned in “Lucy
Meets the Law” (TLS S5;E19). Lucy alumni Iron Eyes Cody, who appeared
as the Medicine Man in “Lucy and the Indian Chief” (S2;E3), was
seen as the Native American with the single tear running down his
cheek in TV and print ads for the Campaign.

When
Lucy can’t cat-sit, Kim wonders if Cindy can take the cat for the
weekend. Cindy (Cynthia) was Lucie Arnaz’s character name on several
episodes of “The Lucy Show.”  

Lucy
asks Mary Jane why she’s reading a ‘spicy’ book like “Starved
Love.” She’s heard it makes Jacqueline
Susann
look like Dr. Seuss. Susann’s novel (and the subsequent film) Valley
of the Dolls,
was parodied as Valley
of the Puppets in
“Lucy and  Eva Gabor” (S1;E7). 

When she catches Harry reading
it, Lucy says
“It sure beats ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’, doesn’t it?”  

Sitcom Logic Alert! Harry
is staying in Craig’s old room and Kim is back in her old room. Just
where Harry and Mary Jane are sleeping is not specified. Perhaps
Mary Jane is bunking in with Lucy?  In addition to mentioning the
absent Craig (formerly played by Desi Arnaz Jr.), the episode also
mentions Lucy’s friend Vanda (Vanda Barra), who hasn’t been seen in
several episodes.

Lucy
Carter’s daughter, Kim, has named her cat after her Uncle Harry, just
the same way Lucy Ricardo’s son, Ricky, named his dog after his
‘Uncle’ Fred.

Little
Ricky:
“I always name my pets after people I like!”

Running
up and down stairs to help a sick friend was also done by Lucy
Carmichael when Viv was bed-ridden (and feeling litigious) in “Vivian
Sues Lucy” (TLS S1;E10).  

“Lucy is N.G. as an R.N.” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

Al Checco’s observation that the “Here’s Lucy” troupe was like a well-oiled machine is spot-on. This episode feels like another series: no bellowing from Gale, no whimpering from Lucy – the characters treat each other in a realistic manner rarely seen on the series – one that probably mirrors real life.  Add to that clever writing and you’ve go one of the best episodes of the series. The only drawback is the abrupt ending, which needed a bigger comic finish. Oh, and the title is terrible, too!