LIZ CHANGES HER MIND

June 24, 1949

“Liz Changes Her Mind” is episode #50 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on June 24, 1949 on the CBS Radio Network. This was the only “My Favorite Husband” episode to be repeated. It aired again on September 30, 1950.

Synopsis ~ When Liz has trouble making up her mind, George decides she must finish everything she starts.

This program was used as a basis for “I Love Lucy” “Lucy Changes Her Mind” (ILL S2;E21) first broadcast on CBS TV on March 30, 1953.

~ from Laughs, Luck… and Lucy by Jess Oppenheimer

REGULAR CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.”  From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on “Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury / New Secretary) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST

Frank Nelson (Waiter) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”. This is one of his 11 performances on “My Favorite Husband.”  On “I Love Lucy” he holds the distinction of being the only actor to play two recurring roles: Freddie Fillmore and Ralph Ramsey, as well as six one-off characters, including the frazzled train conductor in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5), a character he repeated on “The Lucy Show.”  Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs.

Nelson repeated the role of the waiter in the “I Love Lucy” episode based on this radio episode.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benadaret was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

THE EPISODE

The story opens with Liz driving to pick up George at the bank. Liz is not a very good driver – she can’t make up her mind which direction to go or what dress to wear.

They are meeting the Atterbury’s at the Green Room for dinner, despite the fact that she is wearing her blue dress and will clash with the décor.

On “I Love Lucy” the Ricardos and the Mertzes can’t decide where to dine but end up at the Roof Garden, despite the menus saying Jubilee Club.

Liz finally gets the attention of a waiter (Frank Nelson) but then decides to move tables.

On TV, Nelson wears thick eyeglasses to reinforce the visual comedy.

LIZ / LUCY: “Does everyone have everything they need?” GEORGE / ETHEL: “I have three knives.”
IRIS / FRED: “I beat ya. I’ve got a full house: three forks and a pair of spoons.” 

The scene that follows is virtually the same as it is on television.

Liz sneezes, feeling a draft at their new table by the window, and spots another empty table nearby.

RUDOLPH / FRED: “Stand by for another troop movement!” 

Liz crashes into the waiter mid-move. He spills a tray of shrimp cocktails all over Mr. Atterbury.

On TV, the waiter returns with the tray, looks around for the Ricardos and Mertzes, who have moved a third time. When Lucy gets his attention, he immediately hands her the tray, grabs his hat and coat, and leaves without a word!

At home that night, an embarrassed George chastises Liz for her inability to make a decision.

GEORGE: “Why are you so wishy-washy?”
LIZ: “I can’t help it. My father was a wishy and my mother was a washy.”

George revolts against the adage that women are allowed to change their minds. He even threatens to spank her!  He gives his wife an ultimatum: Finish what you start!  Liz agrees and they kiss and cuddle as the scene fades out.

Next morning, Liz asks Katie to help her clean out the desk, a project she started but never finished.

KATIE: “It’s the only desk where the pigeon holes have pigeons in ‘em.”

In the desk, Liz finds a newspaper with the headline “McKinley Assassinated”!  She remembers Iris gave it to her because there was a good recipe on the back.

William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States from 1897 until his assassination on September 14, 1901. The comedy here stretches reality, as the newspaper would be 48 years old at the time of broadcast!  Perhaps Iris had saved it after its publication date and passed it on to Liz.

Digging a little deeper into the cluttered desk, Liz finds love letters from George. In one unfinished letter Liz threatens to leave George, but never mailed the letter. Remembering her promise, she mischievously decides to finish it and send it to George at work special delivery.

At the office, George and Rudolph are playing darts when George’s giggly new secretary (Bea Benadaret, doing a second voice that sounds very much like Betty Rubble on “The Flintstones”) brings in a special delivery letter. It is a letter from Liz’s old sorority inviting her to a reunion, sent in care of George. The boys decide to leave early and that night convince the girls to go to the reunion.  After they leave, the secretary comes in with one more special delivery letter (the one from Liz) – but George has already gone!  The scene is set for a profusion of confusion!

On television, Lucy finds a love letter to an old boyfriend, not Ricky, and decides to finish it and allow Ricky to discover it in order to make him jealous. When Ricky decides the letter is not real, but written recently to make him jealous, he decides to call her bluff and mail it for her!

At home that night, Liz and Iris await their husbands return. Iris expects George to be furious, but he isn’t!  She brings up the special delivery letter, non-plussed.

IRIS: “What do you think about it?”
GEORGE: “I think you ought to go!”
LIZ: “Rudolph Atterbury! I think you even agree with that heel!”
RUDOLPH: “I do! As a matter of fact, as long as Liz is going I think you should go too!” 

The girls leave in tears; the boys are mystified. Over a drawn-out tearful dinner at the Green Room, Liz and Iris commiserate. Katie informs the boys of the real letter, and they realize their mistake. They find the girls at the restaurant and make up.  The waiter brings their lamb chops and all ends happily!

On television, Ricky follows Lucy and Ethel to the old boyfriend’s place of business, a fur salon, where they spy on Lucy.  She has just discovered that her handsome beau has aged into a shorter, fatter, balder man (”Looks like my hunk has shrunk!”).  Just as Ricky is getting jealous, Lucy reveals the truth.  Just before they leave however, it is revealed that the short bald man is not Tom Henderson at all – and that the real Tom is a dreamboat!  Ewwwwwwww!

FAST FORWARD

This is one of the episodes performed in 2014 by L.A. Theatre Works starring Marilu Henner (Liz), Jeff Conaway (George), Alley Mills (Iris), and Harold Gould (Rudolph).