OVER BUDGET – BEANS!

January 7, 1949

“Over Budget – Beans” (aka “Beans for Three Weeks”) is episode #25 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on January 7, 1949 on the CBS Radio Network.

Synopsis ~ Liz goes over her budget again by buying six cases of beans that were on special so George cuts off her allowance. Soon they’re eating nothing but beans, and the electricity and telephone have been disconnected!

Episode Firsts!

• This is the first episode of 1949.
• This is the first episode in which the characters of George and Liz are named Cooper, instead of Cugat, to avoid comparison with the Latin bandleader.
• This is the first episode to be sponsored by General Foods’ Jell-O, which will continue their sponsorship for the rest of the series.
• This is the first episode in its new time slot – 8:30pm.

“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.

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.

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.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) and Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) had not yet joined the cast as regular characters.

GUEST CAST

Frank Nelson (Mr. Taylor, an Important Client) 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.

Parley Baer (Mr. Rafferty, the Grocer) played MGM’s Mr. Reilly in “Ricky Needs an Agent” (ILL S4;E29) and the furniture salesman Mr. Perry in “Lucy Gets Chummy with the Neighbors” (ILL S6;E18) which also featured Frank Nelson. He then made five appearances on “The Lucy Show” and was seen twice on “Here’s Lucy” as Harry’s psychiatrist. He is perhaps best known for his recurring roles as Mayor Stoner on “The Andy Griffith Show” and Doc Appleby in “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

Helen Burke (Radio Soprano / Telephone Operator) was seen in a 1955 episode of “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”.

THE EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “Every day in each American home an old native custom takes place. An ancient tribal ritual called ‘getting up in the morning. Everyone has his own interpretation on how this is to be done!” 

GEORGE: “Ahh! I’m glad I’m alive.”
LIZ: “Bleh! I wish I was dead.” 

1. Have To Pay
2. Ought To Pay
3. Doubt If I Ever Will Pay

She tosses Group 3 into the air. She picks them up by a system developed by Hoover – the vacuum cleaner, not the president.

Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) was the 31st President of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933, during the Great Depression. The Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Company was founded in Ohio in 1908. They dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry so much so that their name was synonymous with vacuums and vacuuming in England and Ireland.  When not using the fictional Handy Dandy brand, Lucy Ricardo used a Hoover upright.

George freezes her household accounts and tells her they will spend no more money for the rest of January – even for food.

In “The Business Manager” (ILL S4;E1), Lucy Ricardo’s food budget is also frozen – but clever Lucy thinks she has found away around the restriction by doing the marketing for the entire neighborhood on credit!

Liz asks for a loan from her banker husband – putting up six cans of beans as collateral. But George says her credit is no good.

LIZ: “George Cooper, you’re a fiend!” 
GEORGE: “Meet George Cooper, King of the Fiends!”
LIZ: “Meet Liz Cooper, Queen of the Beans.”

In a 1966 episode of “The Lucy Show” titled “Lucy The Bean Queen” (TLS S5;E3), Lucy Carmichael buys cases of beans on special in order to cash in on their double money back guarantee.

When George gets home from work that night (and for the next several days), Liz rattles off the menu for dinner:

• Bean Soup
• Bean Salad
• Baked Beans
• Bean Meringue Pie
• Bean Burgers
• Bean Sundae – Beans with Beans over them
• Beanies – Beans frozen into the shape of little hats

One day, George comes home and tells lunch that he had a big lunch bought for him by a client, Mr. Taylor. Liz wants the details – not of the client – but of the lunch! George taunts her describing big, thick, mouth-watering pork chops.

Liz suggests a movie, but they can’t afford it. George says they could get free passes to the regular theatre. They are presenting “The Late Christopher Bean.”

The Late Christopher Bean opened on Broadway in 1932 and played more than 215 performances. There was a London production in 1933. An MGM film version starring Lionel Barrymore premiered in November 1933.  In 1955 there was a television version starring Phil Ober (husband of Vivian Vance).

They can’t even afford to play bridge with the Sturms’ – but George facetiously suggests staying home and playing “beanochle”!

Pinochle (aka pinocle or penuchle) is a card game for two to four players and played with a 48-card deck. It is derived from the card game bezique; players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds.

GEORGE: “Whatever happened to the fine art of conversation?”
LIZ: “Conversation? We couldn’t possibly have anything to say to each other. We’re married!”

They reminisce about staying out late at Inspiration Point. George laughs about the time they went skiing and were snowed in at the lodge all night.

LIZ: “George! You never took me skiing in your life!”

A recorded public service announcement touts the Great American Dream. This was a post-war effort to boost industry, enterprise, and morale with the American public.

ANNOUNCER: “Liz Cooper has spent all her household money for January. Liz is beginning to crack under the strain.” 

Liz realizes they have run out of candles and they are still in the dark. Katie understands George’s stubbornness thanks to her first husband Clarence. She decides to call Rafferty’s Grocery and charge all her items, telling George she found the money in an old purse.

MR. RAFFERTY (on the phone): “Rafferty’s Grocery and Delicatessen: If you can eat it, drink it, chew it, slice it, or smell it, we sell it!” 

Liz asks Mr. Rafferty (Parley Baer) to send over six lamb chops, two potatoes, corn, peas, sugar, bread, butter, and milk.  But Mr. Rafferty tells Liz that George has stopped her credit.

MR. RAFFERTY (on the phone): “Too bad, too. We got a real deal on beans!” 

Liz hangs up and the phone immediately rings again. The operator (Helen Burke) informs Liz that her phone service is being disconnected.

The phone rings a third time and it is George. He has called a truce for the night because Mr. Taylor, an important client from the bank, is coming home for dinner. Liz is angry and is determined to teach him a lesson by keeping the lights off, wearing an old house dress, and gluing beans to sticks and calling it “bean on the cob”!

George and Mr. Taylor (Frank Nelson) pull up to the Cooper home and notice all the lights are out.

MR. TAYLOR: “I can’t wait to get a home-cooked meal. You know how it is when you’re traveling: beans, beans, beans!”

When they get inside, Liz is huddled weakly in the corner in the dark, claiming she is going mad with starvation. Liz gives Mr. Taylor the impression that she never leaves the house.

LIZ: “Tell me, what happened to Dewey?
MR. TAYLOR: “He lost.”
LIZ: “What a shame. I was sure he’d take Manila.”

This is a complicated joke that relies on Liz conflating Admiral George Dewey (1837-1917) with New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey (1902-71).  Mr. Taylor (and the audience) think that Liz is referring to Governor Dewey, who ran for president against incumbent President Harry S. Truman and lost, despite a history-making headline to the contrary in the Chicago Daily Tribune the next day. Instead, Liz reaches back even further to reference Admiral Dewey, who is best known for his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War in May 1898. If it wasn’t so obviously a joke, it would mean Liz hadn’t been outside in more than 50 years!

Mr. Taylor is indignant stating that he would never do business with a man who would treat his wife so shabbily.  George tries to explain that it is all Liz’s joke. He summons Katie, who pretends to be George’s poor old, starving mother!

In bed that night, Liz asks if George if he is still mad at her. After all, she fixed Mr. Taylor a delicious steak dinner after she confessed to the joke. She tells George that she also got her accounts in order and has paid all the bills. George asks how she did it.

LIZ: “I wrote an article and sold it to the daily paper: 100 Different Ways to Fix Beans!”  

END OF EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “Lucille Ball will soon be seen in the Paramount Picture ‘Sorrowful Jones’.”