Like any TV show, “Here’s Lucy” had its share of technical and character mistakes – from the barely noticeable to the things that made viewers say “Huh?”
YOU CRACK ME UP!
Lucille Ball rarely dropped character – but in this case Phil Harris ad libbed a line that caused Lucy to laugh out loud. The pair had trouble getting back to the script without laughing.
After being pummeled with the purse of a door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman, Gale Gordon ad libbed the line “I’m glad she wasn’t selling door knobs!” Lucille Ball and Lucie Arnaz both laugh, with Lucy turning away for a moment to get her composure.
SCRIPT DISCREPANCIES
Say Uncle! In an early episode, Kim and Craig called Harry their favorite uncle. Lucy adds that he’s their ONLY uncle! In season 3, however, we met Herb Hinkley (Alan Oppenheimer), Lucy’s brother!
Surf’s Up! In the second episode, Craig packs his surfboard for a trip to Palm Springs. In a later episode, Lucy refuses to buy Craig a surfboard because it is too dangerous!
Where? There were two references to Harry and the town of Borrego Springs, California. Borrego Springs is a desert community located outside of San Diego where Gale Gordon built a ranch in 1949. He was later appointed Honorary Mayor of the town, a position he held until 1974. However, the town is 150 miles from Los Angeles, where Harry works and lives!
ACTOR ERROR: THEY’RE ONLY HUMAN!
Lucy nearly loses her footing on this rock! Tony Randall reaches out to steady her, but by that time Lucy is on firmer ground.
While dancing on a bar, the dancer on the left made a sweeping arm movement where her hand hit the framed picture and cut her hand! She continued with the routine with a bloody finger, even sliding down the pole!
Gale Gordon perspired – a lot!
This often caused his pancake make-up to rub off on his wardrobe.
Mary Wickes (as Sister Paula) tries to take a bow with a huge drum strapped to her habit. She nearly falls over! For the second bow, she steadies herself on the piano behind her.
ONLY ON TV!
A group of penguins escape from the zoo and follow Lucy (dressed in a penguin suit) all over town. But penguins are flightless birds, so how they managed to go from the floor to the top of a serving cart with no help is anyone’s guess!
A rare (but fictional) ape called the Gorboona is loose in the Topanga Canyon! For some reason, the California location resembles the jungles of South America!
While cruising to Hawaii, Harry listens to the radio. It must be an extremely strong signal to reach the middle of the Pacific Ocean!
PROPS!
Even before Lucy cracks opens this split of sparkling wine, it seems to be only ¾ full!
The chair in this cell gets jostled and tilts precariously – not falling to the floor – but we’re obsessed that it might!
The daily papers! But what day?
During a struggle, Lucy’s cane falls to the floor and gets dangerously underfoot. Gale Gordon thinks fast and back-kicks it away from the other actors!
A pencil rolls off the desk! Reta Shaw tries to grab it, but it hits the floor – and stays there!
Lucy tries to quickly close the drapes – but they won’t cooperate! The shade gets caught in the drapery and Lucy has to do some quick adjusting!
Whoever arranged these file boxes didn’t mind their P’s and Q’s!
Rather than fuss with a long microphone cord, Art Linkletter simply tucks the cord into his jacket pocket! Where is it plugged in????
Every home has a thermostat, right? This one only appeared for one episode and was never seen again!
While Lucy, Kim, and Carol Burnett are touring a movie soundstage, this costume display is the only one not mentioned in the dialogue! It looks like Charleton Heston’s Roman armor from “Ben Hur” – but we’ll never know for sure!
When Harry disguises himself as a Southern Colonel (no, not the chicken-fryer), his walking stick knocks his hat to the floor. Gale Gordon doesn’t bother to pick it up, knowing that by the end of the scene, he’ll lose not only his hat, but his wig, too!
WARDROBE (and MAKE-UP) MALFUNCTIONS!
During a dance number, Lucy’s long tresses get momentarily caught in Harry’s gold laurel leaves! They dis-entangle fairly quickly.
This undercover detective’s mustache comes half off during his arrest of Joey Grapefruit!
When Lucy disguises herself with a black wig, the script dictates that it gets knocked off revealing her red hair. Lucille Ball had tapes on her temples that she was supposed to quickly pull off when going to pick up the wig – but the one over her right ear stayed on a bit longer than she expected!
When Lucille Ball had to balance three trunks on her head, a foam ring was created for her comfort and to assure her wig wasn’t crushed for the remainder of the scene. Unfortunately, the foam ring falls to the ground in full sight when the trunks are removed!
This same goof happened again when Lucy plopped a package of meat on the butcher’s head! When he removed it, the item that helped it stay on his head fell to the floor – and Lucille Ball watches it fall, but doesn’t pick it up in order not to draw attention to it. It stays on the floor for the rest of the scene!
TECHNICAL TROUBLE!
One of the most common technical errors on “Here’s Lucy” was framing the shot! In many episodes the viewers could momentarily see where the wall-to-wall carpeting stopped and the cement floor of the studio began!
Here, there were not two, but three different floors visible!
In one episode, for the sake of a trap door gag – Lucy’s living room wall-to-wall carpet disappeared entirely!
For dance numbers, spacing marks were usually on the floor as well. Here the marble floor effect AND the spacing lines are visible!
Sometimes, even the top of the set was also visible!
And in some wide shots – both!
Lighting instruments occasionally found their way into the shot!
This standing instrument was not as big a goof as you might think – since the ship was on the set of a movie!
But certainly this crew member was not supposed to be in the shot!
When doing blue-screen effects, it is important that no wires sag into the frame!
A crew member is wondering what became of that roll of duct tape!
Although Lucy is supposed to be being dragged along the floor by a runaway polisher, here the low dolly she is lying on is clearly visible!
As are the wires that drag her down the hallway! (Look closely!)
The wires were also visible when Lucy lifted this beefy barfly above her head!
A taught (but barely perceptible) cable kept this ‘trained’ lion in check!
Probably the biggest and most obvious goof happened not once – but twice! Ladders stenciled with LBP (Lucille Ball Productions) were used on camera!
Match Game ‘69! These medium and long shots on location at the Air Force Academy were clearly done on different days. The snow on the ground and the cars in the background give it away!
Come into the Light! Is this sloppy staging, bad lighting, or has Mary Jane Croft missed her mark? We’ll never know for sure but she’s clearly in the dark about something!
MISCELLANEOUS ERRORS!
Spelling Bee! The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are known as “Mounties” not “Mountys”!
This newspaper ad mistakes Craig for Little Ricky!
Et tu, DVD? Lucy Loses, not Looses!
Somebody tried to create an IMDB listing for a non-existent episode! This sort of thing gets my goat! Not on my watch, fella, not on my watch!
The first prize in the episode was actually a brand new car (with an 8-track player)! I guess the press department worked from an earlier script and didn’t screen the show before writing this press release!
An inadvertent framing error recalls a previous episode! The devil made them do it!
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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