October 14, 1949
“Too Many Television Sets” (aka “Liz and George Order a Television Set” aka “Television”) is episode #58 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on October 14, 1949.
This was the sixth episode of the second season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND. There were 43 new episodes, with the season ending on June 25, 1950.
Synopsis ~
Liz can’t get George interested in buying a television set, until they spend an evening at the Atterburys, who have one. With his interest piqued, George arranges one be sent over on trial. Little does he know Liz has done the same thing – as have the Atterbury’s!
“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 Benaderet 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.
MAIN 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 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) 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 Ricarodo’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, 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
Jay Novello (Joe Beckett, the Atterbury’s Neighbor) would appear on “I Love Lucy” as superstitious Mr. Merriweather in “The Seance” (ILL S1;E7), nervous Mr. Beecher in “The Sublease” (ILL S3;E31), and Mario the gondolier in “The Visitor from Italy” (ILL S6;E5). He also appeared on two episodes of “The Lucy Show,” but dapper Novello is probably best remembered for playing Mayor Lugatto on “McHale’s Navy” in 1965.
Wally Maher (Mr. Trimble) appeared on radio as the title character in the series “The Adventures of Michael Shayne, Private Detective”. In 1947 he appeared on radio with Lucille Ball in “Dark Corner”. Earlier in 1949, he was heard on “My Favorite Husband” in “Vacation Time.” He was a regular on “Let George Do It” and “Lineup” and was frequently heard on “The Cavalcade of America” and “Lux Radio Theatre.” Maher passed away in December 1951, only 43 years old.
Although the original Michael Shayne, the role was later played by Richard Denning (George Cooper).
Peter Leeds (TV Deliveryman) was born in Bayonne, NJ, and will also be heard on “My Favorite Husband in “Mother In-Law” in November 1949 and “Dance Lessons” in June 1950. He will be seen as the Reporter questioning the Maharincess of Franistan in “The Publicity Agent” (ILL S1;E31). He starred with Lucy in the films The Long, Long Trailer (1953) and The Facts of Life (1960) with Bob Hope. Coincidentally, he also appeared in “Lucy and Bob Hope” (ILL S6;E1) as well as an episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1971.
EPISODE
ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers, dinner is over. George Cooper is in the living room reading the paper. Liz Cooper is in the kitchen talking to Katie, the maid.”
Liz tells Katie that she has a plan to get George to buy her a television set. She is going to hold up a big glass pie plate in front of her face and pretend like she’s a television wrestler.
LIZ: “Do I look like television?”
KATIE: “Well your face is all wavy and distorted.”
LIZ: “I look like television alright.”
Liz enters the living room with the pie plate in front of her face, but George thinks she is a washing machine.
Lucille Ball actually voiced a washing machine named Lina for a Westinghouse industrial film titled “Ellis in Freedomland” (1952). In 1958, she hid inside a washing machine at the end of “Lucy Buys Westinghouse”, another industrial film for the appliance manufacturer.
In 1952′s “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” (ILL S1;E30), Lucy Ricardo dispenses with the pie plate and disembowels her television set to look like she’s on the air! Like George, Ricky isn’t buying it.
George guesses that Liz is supposed to be a sailor looking out of a port hole, but warns her that he is not going to buy a television set, effectively ending the conversation. Liz says she is a social pariah because she doesn’t have a television set.
LIZ: “I never know who won the fights or what Kukla and Fran are doing to Ollie.”
“Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” was a children’s television show created by Burr Tillstrom that aired from 1947 to 1957. Kukla and Ollie were puppets and actress Fran Allison interacted with them. The show won a 1949 Peabody Award and went on to win two Emmys.
George suggests Liz read the newspaper or listen to the radio instead.
LIZ: “Television is taking the place of the newspaper.”
GEORGE: “It is, huh? Well, I’d like to see you wrap the garbage in a television set!”
Before the advent of plastic garbage bags, food waste from the kitchen was generally wrapped in old newspapers before being deposited in the trash bin outside the home.
LIZ: “Every house on the block has an aerial. Our house looks positively naked.”
Before cable television and internet streaming, homes received television broadcast signals via an antenna (aerial) on the roof. In “Lucy Puts Up a TV Antenna” (TLS S1;E9) Lucy Carmichael decides to save the cost of an installation and erect the aerial herself – to disastrous results.
George agrees to buy the aerial – but not the television set.
LIZ: “Oh, great, that’ll fool everybody. Before we go out at night we can peel onions so our eyes will be bloodshot!”
Liz asks George to buy him an apple box instead.
LIZ: “If I have to watch it [TV] through a store window, at least I’ll have something to sit on.”
Before television sets became affordable to the general public, it was not uncommon to find people gathered in front of an appliance store window to view it from the street.
Liz answers the telephone. It is Iris, who brags about her brand new television set, which was delivered the day before.
IRIS: “I did my knitting last night with Ed Wynn; I had breakfast with Tex and Jinx; and this afternoon I took a bath with Hopalong Cassidy!”
“The Ed Wynn Show” was a variety show broadcast from September 22,1949 to July 4, 1950 on the CBS Television Network. Comedian and former vaudevillian Ed Wynn was the star of the program. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz made their television debut as a couple on the show on Christmas Eve 1949, just a few weeks after this episode of “My Favorite Husband”.
“Tex and Jinx” were Eugenia “Jinx” Falkenberg and her husband John “Tex” McCRary. The couple were popular radio hosts who began on television in January 1947.
“Hopalong Cassidy” made the leap from books and movies to the small screen on June 24, 1949, kicking off the legacy of the Western on television. These were not new, but simply cut-down versions of the feature films that were in cinemas from 1935 to 1948. The film / TV series had William Boyd in the title role. A new TV series (also starring Boyd) with newly-filmed adventures, began in 1952.
Iris’s comment about “taking a bath with Hopalong Cassidy” gets a big reaction from the “My Favorite Husband” studio audience not used to salacious innuendo.
Iris comes up with an idea to help Liz convince George to buy her a television set. She invites the Coopers to come over, where their TV will be showing a football game. George will naturally see the joys of owning a TV and give in!
Instead of Iris or Rudolph, the Atterbury’s front door is answered by their neighbor, Joe Beckett (Jay Novello), the local TVM (television moocher). He says they just missed the big brawl!
GEORGE: “Mr. and Mrs. Atterbury?”
JOE: “No. The Terrible Turk and Gorgeous George!”
Wrestling matches were very popular on radio and early television, producing such colorful wrestlers as the Terrible Turk and Gorgeous George. George Raymond Wagner (1915–63), was known as Gorgeous George because of his long blonde hair. He was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25) and “Ricky’s Movie Offer” (ILL S4;E6). In 1949, Republic Pictures released a film starring Gorgeous George. Laurence LeBell (1907-48) was known as Ali Alaba, The Terrible Turk, a name that was used by many wrestlers from the late 19th century onwards. He died in a car crash just weeks after this episode aired.
Joe warns the Coopers not to sit behind Iris because they only have a ten inch screen. (Liz adds that Iris has a 16″ neck.) He advises that they visit the Schraders who watch “Pantomime Quiz” and serve sandwiches. The Andersons have beer, but you have to watch Western movies.
“Pantomime Quiz” (later titled “Stump the Stars”), was a television game show hosted by Mike Stokey. Running from 1947 to 1959, it has the distinction of being one of the few television series to air on all four TV networks during the Golden Age of Television. Lucille Ball is reported to have been on the series in December 1947, which would make it her television debut.
George realizes Liz’s scheme but is insistent that he won’t watch television. When he hears a football game is on, however, he is intrigued, and decides to see “how bad it looks”.
Liz’s incessant chattering makes Mr. Atterbury miss several key plays in the game. Mr. Beckett is back but then the picture suddenly goes black! They have to imagine the game and the commercials.
ANNOUNCER: “Liz’s plan to get George interested in television has blown a fuse. Right now, Liz is on her way downtown to drown her sorrows by buying a new hat…”
On her way down Sheridan Boulevard, Liz stops in front of a Trimble’s Appliance Store to gaze at the television in the window. An elderly man stops to chat with her about the joys of television. He convinces her to go in and ask about buying one. Of course, he turns out to be Mr. Trimble himself. She tells him to send over a set on trial.
Later that day, George finds himself in front of the same store, where he encounters the same elderly man! Needless to say, Mr. Trimble is successful in selling another set to George! Mr. Trimble thinks the address sounds familiar, but isn’t sure.
Still later, the Atterbury’s are doing the marketing when they stop in front of Trimble’s Appliance Store. Mr. Atterbury, already having a set, is convinced to send George Cooper. Mr. Trimble is now positive that he’s gotten the same address three times. He thinks he is being tricked and vows that he will only send over one TV set on trial, not three.
After dinner, the Coopers decide to stay in for the evening. The doorbell rings. Unbeknownst to one another, they both are expecting a TV delivery, but instead, it is the Atterburys. A moment later the bell rings again and a deliveryman (and Mr. Beckett) is there with one new television set. Naturally, the Atterburys, Liz, and George, all think they are the ones who bought the set!
The Atterburys think the Coopers are ungrateful and they decide to leave. Rudolph tries to take the TV set with him, but the set is damaged in the tussle.
LIZ: “You’re right Iris, this IS the television set you sent out!”
This ending is reminiscent of when the Ricardos and Mertzes argue over who broke a TV set Fred and Ethel gave Lucy and Ricky as a gift. They, too, argue over ownership of the set, until it is irreparably damaged!
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