WHERE IS MY WANDERING MOTHER TONIGHT?

AS6;E23
~ March 11, 1974

Directed
by Jack Donohue ~ Written by Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll Jr.

Synopsis

Lucy
is upset because her children have left the nest. Kim decides to
invite her mother to stay for the weekend, but when Lucy overhears
Kim’s phone conversation about her ‘mother-smothering’, Lucy goes
missing to give her daughter some space.

Regular
Cast

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

Guest
Cast

Jack
Donohue (Dirty
Jack) was the director of the very first and the final episodes of
“Here’s Lucy” as well as 33 episodes in between. He also
directed the very first and the final episodes of “The Lucy Show”
with 105 episodes in between. He also directed Lucille Ball’s 1964
TV movie “Mr. and Mrs.” Donohue is making his third on-camera
appearance on “Here’s Lucy” after having been seen in two
episodes of “The Lucy Show.” He will also direct and appear in
“Lucy Gets Lucky” (1975) and “Happy Anniversary and Goodbye.”
His final collaboration with Ball was the TV special “Lucy Moves
to NBC” in 1980.

Dirty
Jack is the proprietor of Dirty Jack’s Paradise Cafe.

Brian
Cutler
(Brian) was a stage actor who made his TV debut in 1965 with “The
Long, Hot Summer.” He is probably best remembered for playing Rick
on the short-lived superhero series “Isis” (1974-75).

Cindy
Barnes
(Cindy)

In
“Lucy is N.G. as an R.N.” (S6;E17) Kim mentions asking Cindy to
take care of her cat.

Shirley
Anthony (Dirty
Jack’s Patron, uncredited) makes the 12th of her 13 appearances
of “Here’s Lucy.” From 1994 to 1999 she played Sally
on “The Rockford Files” TV movies.

Bob
Whitney (Dirty
Jack’s Patron, uncredited) appeared with Lucille Ball in The
Facts of Life (1960).
He played one of the jurors (unnamed but credited) in “Lucy and
Joan Rivers Do Jury Duty” (S6;E9).

Marl
Young (Marl,
Dirty Jack’s Piano Player, uncredited) was also the “Here’s Lucy”
musical director and often appeared on camera when episodes included
music.

The
other patrons of Dirty Jack’s Paradise Cafe are played by uncredited background
performers.

The
title of the episode is a paraphrase of the song “Where
is Your Wandering Mother Tonight?”
written in 1951 by Red Foley and made famous by The Andrews Sisters.
Patti Andrews guest starred on a 1969 episode of “Here’s Lucy”
where Kim and Lucy stood-in for Maxine and Laverne, although this
song was not included in their medley.

PR memos about the episode an a description of the publicity photos.

The
same evening this episode first aired, ABC broadcast the TV special
“Free
To Be…You and Me,”
which was created by and starred Marlo Thomas. Thomas is the daughter
of frequent Lucy guest star and Desilu employee Danny Thomas. The
show also starred the child of another frequent Lucy guest actor,
Alan Alda, son of Robert Alda.

Also
that evening, “Here’s Lucy’s” follow-up on CBS “The
New Dick Van Dyke Show,”
ended its run after three seasons on the air. Like Ball, Van Dyke
had re-invented his original sitcom to create a ‘new’ version. Both
ended within a week of one another leaving CBS without its two most
bankable stars.

In
her DVD introduction to the episode Lucie Arnaz remembers that the
episode was “funny and touching” and “very believable.” She
says she wouldn’t have minded a few more scripts like this one.

In
this episode, Lucie Arnaz sports a short (and very mature) hairstyle.
In the next and final episode of the series, Kim’s hair is covered by
a kerchief and then a large, curly wig. Lucie’s wardrobe is provided by ALROE, who likely also dressed Cindy in her yellow pantsuit.

Lucy
is upset because Kim lives five miles away and hasn’t called her in
ages. Harry reports that Kim is very busy working, going to school
two nights a week, and doing a play with her little theatre group.
Lucy guesses the title as “I DON’T Remember Mama”. This is a
reference to a 1944 play called I
Remember Mama
by John
Van Druten based
on Kathryn
Forbes’
novel Mama’s
Bank Account,
which was loosely based on her own childhood.
The play was made into a film in 1948 starring Irene Dunn and a
television series on CBS (simply titled “Mama”) starring Peggy
Wood that ran from 1949 to 1957, concurrently with “I Love Lucy.”
While “I Love Lucy” was filmed, “Mama” was on kinescope rendering it unavailable for syndication. An unsuccessful Broadway musical adaptation
in 1979 starred Liv Ullman and had music by Richard Rodgers.

Harry
tells Lucy to go have coffee with Mary Jane.
Mary Jane
(Mary Jane Croft) is not in the episode, having made her last
appearance on the series (appropriately enough) in “Mary Jane’s
Boyfriend” (S6;E20).

To
remind a sarcastic Lucy who she is, Kim states her weight – at
birth! Seven pounds, six ounces!

Kim, then Lucy, consult a yoga instruction booklet to guide them into the lotus position. Although it is difficult to say for sure, it was likely written by Kareen Zebroff, who wrote books about Yoga and hosted a Yoga instruction television show from 1971 to 1977.

In
her final bit of physical comedy on “Here’s Lucy,” Lucy gets
stuck in the lotus position while trying to do yoga. She was 62 years old at the time of filming.

After
Lucy’s great struggle getting out of the lotus position, Kim tells
Cindy they are going to the movies to see The
Great Struggle.
Although there was a 1931 film simply titled The
Struggle,
there was no film titled The
Great Struggle.
Lucy is not eager to see The
Great Struggle
because it has an ‘R’ rating.
“I’ve heard about ‘The Great Struggle.’ From what I hear the women
didn’t struggle enough.” Lucy
suggests they go see Robin
Hood.
Lucy
is referring to the 1973 animated version by Walt Disney.
Coincidentally, it features the voice talent of Phil Harris (above left), who
guest-starred on “Here’s Lucy” two episodes earlier.

Lucy
says Kim’s favorite food is pot roast and potato pancakes. After
dinner, Lucy suggests a game of backgammon,
one of Lucille Ball’s favorite pastimes. The series has always
depicted Lucy Carter as a fan of games, particularly in the recent
episode “Milton Berle is the Life of the Party” (S6;E19, above).

Trying
to keep busy, Lucy “fluffs” the bean bag chair and says “Love
this chair. Chair has a sense of humor.” This
sounds very much like Lucille Ball speaking, not Lucy Carter.

Kim
suggests her mother watch television. Lucy wants to watch a spooky
show called “The Beast Who Ate Boston.” With the sound channeled
through an earpiece, Lucille Ball reacts in silence to the horror
movie until she explodes with “Get
your claws off Bunker Hill!”

Dirty
Jack suggests that he and Lucy dance. He does a few hip gyrations
while the piano player (Marl Young) plays “As
Time Goes By,”
written by Herman
Hupfeld in
1931. The song became most famous in 1942 when part of it was sung by Dooley
Wilson in the movie Casablanca. It
became a number one hit for “Here’s Lucy” guest star Rudy
Vallée when
it was re-released to tie in with the film. It is also the theme of Warner Brothers Pictures, who had just released Lucille Ball’s
1974 musical film Mame.
Jack Donohue got his start in show business as a dancer in the
Ziegfeld
Follies of 1927.

The
costuming of Dirty Jack (Jack Donohue) resembles that of the Skipper
(Alan Hale Jr., inset) on “Gilligan’s
Island” (1965-67).
Alan Hale Jr. played Moose Manley in “Lucy and Wally Cox”
(S2;E21). Coincidentally, John Gabriel, the original Professor from
the unaired series pilot, was recently seen as “Mary Jane’s
Boyfriend” (S6;E20).

The
episode ends with Lucille Ball (Lucy Carter) slapping Jack O’Brien
(Dirty Jack), her director!

While
there is no sign of Harry, Kim’s cat, last seen in “Lucy is N.G. as
an R.N.” (S6;E17), the apartment is decorated with ceramic cats.
Unusual ceramic cats have been seen in “The Carters Meet Frankie
Avalon” (S6;E11) and “Lucy and the Ceramic Cat” (TLS S3;E16).

Apparently, when Kim moved out her mother gave her the playing card ice bucket from her home kitchen. It was last seen in “Lucy’s Replacement” (S4;E19, right).

Lucy’s
attempt to make her legs ‘obey’ her while getting into the yoga
position is reminiscent of when Lucy Ricardo’s leg got stuck on the
barre in “The Ballet” (ILL S1;E19), also written by Madelyn
(Pugh) Davis and Bob Carroll Jr. “A
bas! A bas!”

At
Dirty Jack’s Lucy has seven cups of coffee and the bill comes to
$8.00. Jack says it includes $5.00 entertainment tax. In “First
Stop” (ILL S4;E13) the Ricardos and the Mertzes were charged eighty
cents entertainment tax by Mr. Skinner of One Oak Cabins and
Cafe when they were served stale cheese sandwiches and treated to an
off-key rendition of “I’m Afraid to Come Home in the Dark.”

Location!
Location! Location! Kim
must have moved apartments since we lasted visited her Marina Del Rey
digs in “Kim Cuts You-Know-Whose Apron String” (S3;E24). The
view, formerly of sailboats at the Marina, is now of high rise
buildings and trees. The floor plan of the apartment, while similar,
has been altered. The nautically-themed Dirty Jack’s Cafe suggests Kim still lives near the Marina.

What Kind of Room? When Kim goes off to change and returns to find her mother knotted like a pretzel, she tells Cindy she was in “the dressing room” instead of “in the bedroom”. No doubt Lucie Arnaz was thinking about where she went to change clothes, not Kim! Unfortunately, she repeats the error twice. When Cindy asks why she didn’t answer the door promptly and then (to be consistent) to explain her mother’s knotty position!