LOVE AMONG THE TWO-BY-FOURS

S1;E3
~ October 4, 1986

[Photo © Getty Images]

Directed
by Mark Daniels ~ Written
by Linda Morris and Vic Rauseo

Synopsis

Lucy’s
old flame Ben comes to town looking to enlist M&B Hardware as a
supplier. Lucy and Ben rekindle their old romance, which causes Lucy to have to make a difficult decision about her future.

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

Peter
Graves
(Ben Marshall) is perhaps best remembered for playing Jim Phelps in
the Desilu-produced spy drama “Mission: Impossible” from 1967 to
1973. His screen acting career began in 1951, the same year “I
Love Lucy” premiered. Graves won an Emmy Award as the host and
narrator of “Biography” (1987-2002). In 1980, he turned to comedy
with the film Airplane!
and
its sequel.
Graves
died of a heart attack on March 14, 2010, just four days before his
84th birthday.

Although
the final credits list the character’s surname as Marshall, he is
referred to throughout the episode as Ben Matthews. Ben is president
of the Beechwood Construction Company. He is a widower who has three
grandchildren and lives in Beverly Hills. 

Curtis
Taylor
(Joe) started acting on television in 1980. He played Arnie on five
episodes of “Knotts Landing” in 1988. More recently, he appeared
on a 2017 episode of “NCIS: Los Angeles.”  

Ed
Bernard (Tony)
was born on Independence Day in Philadelphia in 1939. He played
Detective Styles on “Police Woman” (1974-78) and Principal Willis
on “The White Shadow” (1978-80).  

Joe
and Tony are construction workers for Beechwood Construction Company.
Although given names in the final credits, only Tony’s is used in the
dialogue. The two characters are there to establish the tarp over the
hole in the floor that Lucy and Peter Graves will sink into at the
end of the show.

---

This
was the sixth episode filmed but was the third aired. After John
Ritter’s appearance the previous week, Ball hoped to continue to woo
viewers with the star-power of Peter Graves.  

The
title of the episode is a variation of Robert Browning’s 1855 poem, “Love
Among the Ruins.”
Browning’s
poem inspired or gave its title to many
subsequent works,
including a painting by Edward
Burne-Jones (above),
a 1975
TV movie with Katharine
Hepburn and Laurence
Olivier,
an episode of the TV series “Mad
Men,”
and an album and
song by the band 10,000
Maniacs.
The
title of the poem is also made the title of a
1953 novella by
British satirist Evelyn
Waugh.

Lucillle
Ball was featured on the cover of TV
Guide
the day this episode first aired. She shared the cover with Andy
Griffith, who returned to series television with “Matlock.”
Griffith’s show fared much better than “Life With Lucy,” running
nine seasons on NBC. Griffith had played Andy Johnson on an episode
of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973. “The Andy Griffith Show” was shot
on the Desilu backlot.

This
episode lost its time slot earning a 10.2 share behind “The Facts
of Life” on NBC with a 15.2.

Although
they are supposed to be playing characters of the same age, Lucille
Ball was actually 15 years older than guest star Peter Graves.

This
is the first of six “Life With Lucy” episodes directed by Marc
Daniels,
who directed the very first episode of “I Love Lucy” and 38
subsequent episodes. He is credited with suggesting to Desi Arnaz
that Vivian Vance might be right for the role of Ethel Mertz. In
a 1977 interview, Daniels noted that he left “I
Love Lucy” to
take another job that paid more. “Maybe
it was a stupid thing to do but then we didn’t know we were creating
history. We were just doing a show.” Daniels
died at age 77, just three days before Lucille
Ball,
who also died at age 77 from a heart-related illness.  

This
is the only time on the
series that
Lucille Ball
wears a dress,
rather than slacks, a housecoat or bathrobe.

At
the start of the episode, Leonard is fooling around with a shower
head display in the hardware store, pretending he is Scotty (James
Doughan) on “Star Trek”: “Captain
Kirk! Captain Kirk, it’s Scotty here. Captain, the hardware ship
Enterprise – it’s losing power!”  “Star
Trek”
(1966-69) was a Desilu-produced show that owes its existence to
Lucille Ball.  

Curtis:
“I
may become the bathroom king of Pasadena!”

We
learn that Lucy Barker’s maiden name is Everett. This is the first
of her TV character that did not have the maiden name McGillicuddy.
However, on “The Lucy Show” Lucy Carmichael first said she was
originally Lucy Taylor. Later in the series she inexplicably claimed
it was McGillicuddy.

Lucy
calls Ben Matthews ‘Goofy,’ his high school nickname because he had
an overbite and his ears drooped. This is a reference to the Disney
animated dog Goofy, who shared these physical characteristics. Perhaps Ben had plastic surgery, because the description doesn’t match the handsome Peter Graves. 

Lucy:
“I
feel like a kid again!”

Lucy
and Ben first met during a dance called the Big
Apple. The
dance dates back to the African American ritual dances of the
mid-1800s. The name comes from its revival in the 1930s at The Big
Apple Club in Columbia, South Carolina. In 1937 it became a national
dance craze. It
was mentioned in the films You
Can’t Take it With You
(1938), Vivacious
Lady
(1938), and The
Big Broadcast of 1938.
The dance was first mentioned on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy Becomes a  Reporter” (TLS S1;E17) in 1963 which dealt with Lucy Carmichael and
Viv Bagley’s high school days.  

Later
in the episode, Lucy and Ben demonstrate the Big Apple. After their
‘performance’ (to one of Lucy’s old records), Kevin mentions the
dance craze of the 1980s, break dancing, while Margo and Ted
demonstrate ‘The Monkey’ and ‘The Swim’, two dances that were popular
with teens in the 1960s.  

Lucy
and Ben dated for a year, until his family moved East.  

Lucy:
(gazing
at herself in a mirror)
“I still have it!”

Lucy
says Ben was her first kiss, which prompts Margo to remember that her
first kiss with Randy Fargo, whose lips were all spongy; like two
Twinkies.

When
Becky is practicing kissing with a hand mirror, she says she looks “a
little like Madonna, but a lot like a fish.”

Margo:
(To
Lucy) “Do
you remember when I was 13, and all my girlfriends were going stead.
Finally Randy Fargo asked me to go steady.  Do you remember what you
told me?”

Lucy:
“Yeah, I told you there was no future in the name Margo Fargo.”

Ben
brings Lucy to a construction site for their date, packing a picnic
with their favorite bubbly, chateau de Dr. Pepper. Ben brings along a
mini-tape player to play their favorite song, “Too
Marvelous for Words.”
The song was written in 1937 by Johnny Mercer, with lyrics (that we
don’t hear) by Richard Whiting. Lucy and Ben dance among the
two-by-fours, fulfilling the title!  

Lucy:
(eating a chocolate chip cookie) “If
this gets around my name’ll be mud at the Happy Fig Health Food
Store.”

---

In
two episodes of “The Lucy Show” Lucy Carmichael dated Frank
Winslow (Clint Walker) who owned a construction company and also took
Lucy on a date to a construction site.  

In
“Milton Berle Hides out at the Ricardos” (LDCH 1959), a
construction site also figures into the comic finale.

Margo
stays up and waits for Lucy to come home from her date just the same
way Lucy Carmichael stayed up and waited for her daughter in the very
first “The Lucy Show” “Lucy Waits Up for Chris” (TLS S1;E1).

---

This
Day in Lucy History ~ October 4th

“The
Business Manager”
(ILL S4;E1) – October 4, 1954

“Lucy
and Mannix Are Held Hostage”
(HL S4;E4) – October 4, 1971