S1;E8
~ November 15, 1986
[Photos © Getty Images]
Directed
by Bruce Bilson ~ Written
by Linda Morris and Vic Rauseo
Synopsis
When
Ted and Margo decide to renew their wedding vows, Lucy’s sister
Audrey (Audrey Meadows) drops by for a visit and starts to take over
the entire event.
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
Audrey
Meadows
(Audrey Everett, Lucy’s Sister) was a television legend, thanks to
her portrayal of Ralph Kramden’s long-suffering wife Alice on “The
Honeymooners” and “The Jackie Gleason Show.” The role won her
an Emmy Award in 1955, winning over Vivian Vance of “I Love Lucy.” Meadows died in 1996 at age 73.
Meadows
is granted ‘special guest star’ status in the opening credits.
The character says she is the social director on a cruise ship, but
the engine broke down. Audrey is Lucy Carter’s only sister. She has
never been married or had children.
Jim
Hackett (Minister)
was a classically-trained actor who made just a dozen big and small
screen appearances before moving his career to the technical side of
the industry.
Jacque
Lynn Colton
(Cousin Florence) was a stage actor off-Broadway and in LA who had
four films released in 1986, as well as appearing a month earlier
on TV’s “Silver Spoons.”
Others at the wedding are played
by uncredited background performers.
This
was the twelfth episode filmed, although it was aired eighth, on
November 15, 1986. It was the last episode to be aired by ABC, who
canceled the series for low ratings. It earned a 6.6 share, only four
tenths of a point above its follow-up, “The Ellen Burstyn Show,”
which also aired its final episode that night and was the lowest
rated show across the three major networks.
This
was Lucille Ball’s final performance as scripted character on television. She would
continue to appear as herself on TV until her death in 1989, with her
final live appearance at the 61st Annual Academy Awards on March 29, 1989 (above). She died a month later.
There
was talk about changing the show’s format and adding Audrey Meadows to the
permanent cast, but by that time the network had canceled the show.
This
the first of two episodes directed by Bruce
Bilson.
Unfortunately, his second episode, “World’s Greatest Grandma,”
never aired. Bilson had won a 1968 Emmy for directing “Get Smart”
the same year Lucille Ball won for her final year as Lucy Carmichael
on “The Lucy Show.”
The
entire action of the episode is set in the McGibbon home. There are
no scenes set in M&B Hardware.
The
cover page for the revised first draft of the script (dated October
20, 1986) states “Story by Laura
Levine,”
but Levine does not actually receive screen credit in the episode’s
credits.
Lucy’s last television appearance starts with Lucy
fretting about dirty dishes in the dishwasher. In her very first
television appearance in 1951, Lucy Ricardo was also washing dishes. In 1952’s “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), Lucy figures out that she’s washed 219,000 dishes
in her ten years of marriage.
Going by Lucy’s math, in 1986 she’d have washed her 1,051,200th dish!
Oops! When greeting the children, Audrey Meadows mistakenly calls Becky ‘Jenny,’ the actor’s real name! Meadows stops herself halfway: “Oh, hi Jen—” and quickly moves to Kevin, calling him “sweetheart.”
We
learn that Curtis’s late wife (Ted’s mother) was named Josephine.
They eloped at a cost of $2.50 – each!
Kevin:
“Wait’ll
I tell the kids at school my parents are finally getting married!”
When
Ted and Margo decide to re-new their vows, Lucy hums “Here
Comes The Bride (aka Bridal Chorus)” written by Richard Wagner in
1850.
The song is heard on the organ during the ceremony that ends the
episode.
Audrey:
“Darling,
nobody but nobody serves Swedish meatballs anymore.”
Lucy:
“Not
even the Swedes?”
The
Swedish furniture store Ikea
is famous for serving Swedish meatballs to shoppers, but the company
only opened its first US store in June 1985 in Philadelphia, so their
reputation was yet to be the source of humor.
When
the studio audience feels that Audrey has left Lucy out of the
wedding plans, Lucy earns an audible “Awwww” from the audience!
She then angrily kicks Audrey’s suitcase across the room earning a
laugh that ends the scene.
Curtis
gets a phone call from Doc Severinsen’s agent, declining to play at
the McGibbon wedding. Curtis sarcastically asks Lucy if Johnny Carson
is going to perform the ceremony. Doc
Severinsen
was bandleader on “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson” on
NBC from 1967 to 1992, when Carson retired. Carson and Ed McMahon
played themselves on an episode of “Here’s Lucy” centered around
“The Tonight Show.” Although Lucy Carter played ‘Stump the
Band,’ one of Severinsen’s usual segments, he did not appear and was
not mentioned.
The
guest list for the wedding includes Ron and Nancy Reagan (to see what
gift they’ll send). Former actor Ronald
Reagan
was half-way through his second term as the 40th president of the United States. He was mentioned on “Here’s Lucy”
shortly after being elected Governor of California. Lucille Ball met
Reagan at the White House when she was named one of the Kennedy
Center Honorees on December 6, 1986, just after “Life With Lucy”
was canceled and four days after the death of Desi Arnaz.
Ted
says that the Barker Twins didn’t make the cut on the revised guest
list in order to make room for “two chairs” Florence.
Ted:
(about Audrey) “She’s
dating some guy who owns a winery up in the Napa Valley.”
Lucy:
“Ernest?
Julio? Or both?”
Ernest
and Julio Gallo were brothers who founded Gallo Wines in 1933. Gallo is the largest exporter of California wines.
Lucy:
(holding
her wedding gown)
When
Margo was little she found my dress in the attic and she called it
‘the most bootiful dwess in the world’! When she was little she
talked a lot like Elmer Fudd.”
Arthur Q. Bryan, the actor who originally did the voice of Elmer
Fudd
in the Warner Brothers cartoons, appeared as Mr. Chambers in “Ricky
Loses His Voice” (ILL S2;E9) in 1952.
Audrey: “Ah, Pasadena. A hundred thousand people; a dozen stories.”
Lucy
says that when she was picked to play saxophone in the Rose
Parade
in high school, when Audrey got chosen a Rose Princess. Audrey rode
on a float while Lucy marched behind Cowboy Pistol Pete and his
Prancing Palominos. Lucy then mimes playing the sax while marching
and trying to kick horse manure off her shoes. If the city of
Pasadena is famous for anything, it is the annual Rose Parade.
Originally
started on January 1, 1890 the Rose Parade is watched in person by
hundreds of thousands of spectators on the parade route,
and
is broadcast on multiple television
networks in
the United States. It is seen by millions more on television
worldwide in more than 100 international territories and countries.
In
the kitchen scene, Lucy and Audrey mention their father,
something rarely done on a Lucille Ball sitcom. Ball’s father died
when she was a child and she was raised by her mother and
grandfather. Consequently, mothers figure prominently in Lucille
Ball’s characters while fathers are virtually non-existent. The one
notable exception is a mention of Lucy Carter’s father singing
“Snoops the Lawyer” (above) to her when she was a child.
Some
publicity stills of the episode show Curtis also being covered in
cake icing. However, Gale Gordon is not in the finished scene, so the
scene may have been staged for the cameras to include Gordon, or his
part of the scene was left on the cutting room floor.
Curtis: “Lucy, the way your mind works scares me.”
Lucy: “Thank you.”
“Lucy’s
Sister Pays a Visit” (TLS S1;E15) in order to get married on “The Lucy Show” in 1964. Lucy Carmichael’s sister’s name is Marge and she
was played by Janet Waldo (aka Judy Jetson).
That
same episode also contains a kitchen scene where Lucy and Viv end up
covered in icing from a wedding cake.
Lucy
Carmichael also pulls her wedding dress out of mothballs for her
daughter in 1964′s “Chris Goes Steady” (TLS S2;E16) just as Lucy Barker does for Margo in 1986.
Margo
puts a big circle around the date of their wedding anniversary so her
husband Ted won’t forget it. Lucy Ricardo did the same thing to jar Ricky’s memory in “The
Anniversary Present” (ILL S2;E10).
Lucy
Bicardi (as their marriage license mistakenly read) got out her old
wedding gown to get re-married to ‘Mr. Bicardi,’ duplicating their
first wedding at the Byram River Beagle Club on a 1952 episode of “I Love Lucy.”
Like “I Love Lucy,” “The Honeymooners” was one of the sitcoms of the 1950s that has earned classic status. Its star, Jackie Gleason, made a wordless cameo appearance as Ralph Kramden in the second episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1968.
Prior to that, Ralph’s sewer-working pal Ed Norton was visually suggested by a nameless character on a 1964 “The Lucy Show” who pops out of a manhole to chastise Lucy Carmichael. This role could have been originally meant for Art Carney!
Norton’s wife, Trixie, was played by Jane Kean in the hour-long color “Honeymooners” of the 1960s. She guest-starred on a 1966 episode of “The Lucy Show.”
Audrey Meadows’ real-life sister Jayne (Mrs. Steve Allen) made a guest star appearance on a 1970 “Here’s Lucy.”
This
Day in Lucy History
~ November 15th
“Ricky’s
Screen Test” (ILL S4;E7) – November 15, 1954
"Lucy and
the Sleeping Beauty” (TLS S4;E9) – November 15, 1965
“Lucy
and the Celebrities” (HL S4;E10) – November 15, 1971
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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