LUCY GETS HER WIRES CROSSED

S1;E4
~ October 18, 1986

[Photos © Getty Images]

Directed
by Peter Baldwin ~ Written by Linda Morris and Vic Rauseo

Synopsis

With
competition from other hardware stores, Lucy gets Curtis booked on a
morning TV show as Mr. Fix-It. Lucy goes along as his helper and
ends up gluing herself to everyone!

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Barker), Gale
Gordon (Curtis
McGibbon), Ann
Dusenberry
(Margo Barker McGibbon),  Larry
Anderson
(Ted McGibbon), Jenny
Lewis
(Becky McGibbon), Philip
Amelio
(Kevin McGibbon), Donovan
Scott
(Leonard Stoner)

[For
biographies of the Regular Cast, see “One Good Grandparent Deserves
Another” (S1;E1)]

Guest
Cast

Dick
Gautier (Fred
Dunlap) appeared as Conrad Birdie in Bye
Bye Birdie
on Broadway in 1960. He began his screen acting in 1963 and is best
remembered for playing Hymie on “Get Smart” (1966-68). He did
extensive voice over work until his death in early 2017 at age 85.  

Fred
Dunlap is the host of TV’s “Wake Up Pasadena.”  

D.D. Howard (Stacy Reynolds) began her screen career in 1981 playing Corinne on “Happy Days.” In 2000, she began doing voice work.  

Stacy Reynolds is the co-host of “Wake Up Pasadena.” Her character name is listed in the end credits but is never used in the episode.

Reva Rose (Customer) was ironically best known for her portrayal of another famous Lucy, Charlie Brown’s nemesis in the original off-Broadway 1967 musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. On TV she was seen as Marcy on “That Girl” and Blanche on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”

Kellie Martin (Patty Durell) also plays Patty in the un-aired “Life With Lucy” episode “World’s Greatest  Grandma.”  She played Becca Thatcher on “Life Goes On” (1989-93) and Lucy Knight on “ER” (1998-2000).  

The last name of Becky’s friend Patty is not used here, but disclosed in “World’s Greatest Grandma.”    

Brad
Gorman
(“Wake Up Pasadena” Stage Manager) began his TV acting with an
episode of “Alice” in 1977 and also was briefly seen in the
Steven Spielberg film 1941.

Tom
Williams (Fly
Voice Over, uncredited) is an actor and voice artists who worked
extensively on “Adam-12” (1968-71). This is second of his three
voice roles on “Life With Lucy.”  He also provided a dog bark and
the honk of a wounded goose!  Williams retired in 2010.  

The
cameraman and one other crew person on “Wake Up Pasadena” are played
by uncredited background performers.

---

This
was the third episode filmed, but it was aired fourth.  

This
is the first of two episodes written by producers Linda
Morris and Vic Rauseo.
They later won four Primetime Emmy Awards for their writing on
“Frasier” (1994-96).  

On
October 18, 1986, “Life With Lucy” was up against the CBS drama
“Downtown” and the World Series pre-game show on NBC. “Life With Lucy” lost its time slot to the baseball game, but did
manage to edge out “Downtown” by a slim margin.
Like “Life With Lucy,” “Downtown” will be canceled before
the end of the year.  

Lucy: “Our business died and went to Hardware Heaven.”

The family is affected by a contagious bout of insomnia:

• Curtis
  and Lucy can’t sleep because they are worried about business since a
  chain store named Hardware Heaven opened a nearby branch.
• Ted
  can’t sleep because he’s worried that he won’t be able to get a job
  after graduating law school.  
• Margo
  can’t sleep because Ted can’t sleep.
• Jenny
  can’t sleep because she’s afraid her friend Patty will stay mad at
  her.
• And
  Kevin can’t sleep because he’s afraid
  “Miami Vice”
  will be canceled before he’s old enough to watch it!  (Kevin needn’t
  have worried; the hit show had begun two years earlier and would run
  until 1990. The
  Florida-based crime drama was aired on Friday nights on NBC.)

To drum up business, old-school Curtis
has potholders made that say “When
your home repair problem is too hot to handle.”  

Leonard: (to a Customer) “Today we have a special: a two-for-one sale.  You buy any two items, and I for one will be thrilled!”

Curtis
says that people tell him that he resembles Mr.
Whipple.
This is a reference to a character created by Dick Wilson in
advertisements for Charmin toilet paper that ran from 1964 to 1990.
Mr. Whipple was a supermarket clerk who chided customers not to
squeeze the Charmin. Gale Gordon and Dick Wilson did indeed have a
similar look. Although Wilson and Gordon never worked together,
Wilson did two episodes of the “Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse” in
the late 1950s. He died in 2007.  

Lucy
(to
Curtis): “Let
grandma be on television!”

Lucille
Ball does some physical comedy by chasing an unseen (but audibly
buzzing) fly around the hardware store and then battling an out-of-control
lounge chair she claims to have just repaired.  

When
Lucy’s legs are like rubber after bouncing around in the
malfunctioning lounger, Ball’s husband Gary
Morton’s
guffaw can be clearly heard from the studio audience. Morton was also
frequently heard laughing on the soundtrack of many “Here’s Lucy”
episodes. When
Lucy leans against the mantle for support, photographs of
Lucille Ball as a baby have been used for set decoration.

Instead
of giving a vocal shout-outs to her grandchildren on television, Lucy
tells them she will do what Carol Burnett does when she says hello to
her grandmother – tug on her ear. Carol
Burnett
appeared frequently on both “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy”
and one episode took place in the audience of “The Carol Burnett
Show” where Burnett tugged on her ear, just as she did on each of
her television shows. In return for her appearances on Ball’s shows,
Lucille would reciprocate by appearing on Burnett’s.

Lucy
gives the address of M&B Hardware as 7207
Hill Street, Pasadena, California, 91106.
While there is a Hill Street in the Chinatown district of Los
Angeles, it is several miles from the Pasadena City limits.

Lucy
and Curtis use Wacky Glue (“the
strongest adhesive on the market”)
to fix a lamp on live TV. This is a fictional version of the widely
advertised Krazy Glue. 

In
the comic finale of the episode, Lucy tugs on her ear as a signal to
her grandkids right after applying the wacky glue, thereby gluing her
fingers to her ear. When Curtis tries to help, he also gets stuck.
Ditto Fred and Stacey, all glued together in an awkward clump. Lucy
insists on demonstrating that the lamp works and it short circuits,
causing a blackout in the studio! This fulfills the promise of the title.  

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Lucy says that she hasn’t seen promotional potholders since Wendell Wilkie ran for President. In “Lucy and the Used Car Salesman” (HL S2;E9) Kim is searching between the sofa cushions for spare change and finds a ‘Win With Willkie’ button. Wendell Lewis Willkie (1892–1944) was the 1940 Republican nominee for President defeated by Franklin Roosevelt. Later in the episode Harry (Gale Gordon) asks if anyone has seen his Willkie button!  

Lucy
trying to swat an invisible (but audible) fly hearkens back to “Job
Switching” (ILL S2;E1) in which chocolate-dipper Lucy Ricardo followed a fly with
her eyes while her hands were in wet chocolate. When she went to
swat the fly, she slapped the face of her co-worker with a hand
covered in gooey chocolate.  

Lucy
also chased an invisible insect in “Lucy and the Runaway Butterfly”
(TLS  S1;E29).  

A broken lamp was the springboard for the total destruction of
Harry’s living room in “Lucy the Fixer” (HL S1;E14). In the end,
amidst the rubble, they realize the lamp wasn’t plugged in!

A continually broken lamp doesn’t seem to bother Fred Mertz (William Frawley) on “I Love Lucy,”
even when it threatens to scorch his bald head!  

Like Fred
Dunlop and Stacey Reynolds of “Wake
Up Pasadena,” Lucy Ricardo and Paul Douglas co-hosted a morning show called
“The Early Bird Show” in a 1959 episode of "The
Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”

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This
Day in Lucy History ~ October 18th

“Lucy
Cries Wolf”
(ILL S4;E3) – October 18, 1954

“Lucy
the Stunt Man”
(TLS S4;E5) – October 18, 1965

“Lucy
Makes a Few Extra Dollars”
(HL S4;E5) – October 18, 1971