LIZ EXAGGERATES

January 20, 1951

“Liz Exaggerates” (aka “Liz Stretches the Truth”) is episode #115 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on January 20, 1951.

This was the 17th episode of the third season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND. There were 31 new episodes, with the season ending on March 31, 1951.  

Synopsis ~ Liz’s exaggerations become so bad that George cuts off her allowance until she can prove that she can consistently tell nothing but the truth. George finds her promise is kept, not wisely, but too well.

TRIVIA: In order not to be confused with the earlier episode “The Absolute Truth” (January 28, 1949), the script never uses the word “lie” – just “exaggerate”. Both of these episodes were combined for “Lucy Tells The Truth” (ILL S3;E6) filmed on October 8, 1953, and first aired on November 9, 1953.  Both featured Shirley Mitchell.  

“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 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) does not appear in this episode. 

Curiously, when Liz talks to Imogene about having domestic help, she never mentions Katie. 

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

Shirley Mitchell (Imogene Abbott) was born in Toledo, Ohio, on November 4, 1919. She started her acting career on radio in Chicago but soon moved to Los Angeles. Mitchell was a regular on radio in series such as “Fibber McGee and Molly” and “The Great Gildersleeve”. She became friends with Lucille Ball in the late 1940s when she was featured in four episodes of “My Favorite Husband.”

Mitchell reunited with Lucille Ball on “I Love Lucy” playing Marion Strong, a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), “Lucy Tells the Truth” (ILL S3;E6) and “Lucy’s Club Dance” (ILL S3;E25). 

Shirley Mitchell died of heart failure on November 11, 2013, seven days after her 94th birthday. 

In 1953, the surname ‘Abbott’ was given to the art store clerk in “Lucy Becomes A Sculptress” (ILL S2;E15).

Alan Reed (David Jerome Abbott) is probably best remembered as the voice of Fred Flintstone. He started his acting career in 1937. He played a cafe owner in “Lucy Visits the White House” (TLS S1;E25) first aired on March 25, 1963. In 1967, he made an appearance on the Desi Arnaz series “The Mothers-in-Law”. He died in 1977 at the age of 69. 

Bea Benadaret (Iris) played Betty Rubble on “The Flintstones” with Reed.  Although not in this episode, Jean Vander Pyl was the voice of Wilma Flintstone and also appeared several times on “My Favorite Husband.” 

THE EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers. It is evening and George and Liz are entertaining the Atterburys.”

Rudolph alerts the Coopers that an important business client is coming to town; the President of the Abbott Chemical Company and his wife, D.J. (David Jerome) Abbott. Liz recognizes the name. She went to college with him and even dated him a few times. Liz says he was tall, handsome and captain of the football team – although George remembers him very differently. 

George looks him up in their college yearbook and finds he was correct, comparing him to a pig or a frog, instead!  Liz was exaggerating, as usual. 

LIZ: “I’m just looking at my old boyfriends through rose colored glasses, is all.” 

Liz says that she was Junior Prom Queen, but George doesn’t recall it – so he looks it up in the yearbook. George has caught Liz exaggerating again! 

Even Iris says Liz exaggerates too much. She reminds Liz about the time she claimed that she claimed a chair belonging to George Washington – but Iris saw the label: Sears & Roebuck. 

22 years later, Lucy Carter will buy a chair that an antiques dealer (Robert Cummings) claims belonged to George Washington in a 1973 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” Coincidentally, Lucille Ball supposedly is a distant relative of George Washington’s. 

Mr. Atterbury adds he never believed Liz swam the English Channel!  

In “Lucy’s Bicycle Trip” (ILL S5;E24) in 1956, after Lucy’s icy dip in the Mediterranean, Fred calls her “the poor man’s Florence Chadwick.” Chadwick (1918-95) was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions, setting a record each time. In 1951 she appeared on the CBS variety show "Faye Emerson’s Wonderful Town.” 

George tells Liz to stop exaggerating – now!

Liz is visited by Imogene Abbott (Shirley Mitchell) who tests Liz’s ability to stay truthful. Imogene insists that Liz must have been to Paris. Betraying her oath to George, she says that she has. 

IMOGENE: “How did you find London?”
LIZ: “Oh, I just looked under London Bridge and there it was!” 

Imogene wants to know how many servants Liz has. Liz says she only has eight!  

IMOGENE: “How on earth do you manage?”
LIZ: “I doubled up. I taught the downstairs maid how to walk upstairs. Her ears pop but she loves it.” 

Imogene is going to tea with Iris, but is surprised to learn that George is only third Vice President. Liz says that Mr. Atterbury is a mere figurehead and that George is the brains behind the bank. 

At the bank, a furious Mr. Atterbury calls George into his office and tells him he’s had a call from Iris to report that Imogene heard from Liz that Mr. Atterbury is “a fat dummy sitting on George’s lap”. George promises to deal with her. 

An angry George barrels through the front door to confront Liz about her exaggerations. George takes drastic measures: he’s canceling her charge accounts and stopping her allowance until she proves she can tell the truth – starting at the Atterbury’s dinner party with the Abbotts tonight!

At the dinner, Liz lives up to her end of the bargain by telling Iris her roast was lousy. Liz admits that she also exaggerated to Imogene during tea that afternoon. 

LIZ: “The closest I’ve ever gotten to Paris is buying George a pair of garters.” 

From 1908, Paris was a manufacturer of belts, suspenders and men’s sock garters. Despite their name, Paris was made in the USA by A. Stein & Company. Sock garters are no longer manufactured due to the creation of synthetic fabrics that cling to the leg, keeping the sock from falling.

Rudolph serves a rare, imported sherry, but Liz points out that Iris told her he pours cheap cooking sherry into expensive bottles.

MR. ABBOTT (laughing): “Oh, Liz!  You and I had some good times together, didn’t we?”
LIZ (flatly): “No. Oh brother, were you dull.”

Iris tries to make up for Liz’s ‘hard truths’, but Liz reminds everyone that Liz called him a pig and Rudolph called him a frog!  

IMOGENE (laughing): “I never noticed before, but you really do look like a frog!” 
MR. ABBOTT (angry): “Well, you’re no Betty Grable, you know!” 

Betty Grable (1916-73) was one of Hollywood’s biggest starlets, known for her shapely legs. She would appear with her second husband Harry James on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” In 1958.

Thanks to Liz’s truth-telling, everyone is angry at everyone!  Imogene spills the beans that the Abbott Chemical Company is nothing but a scam and that her husband is a con artist!  They leave in a hurry!

Naturally, Liz takes the credit for exposing the crooks. 

LIZ: “You had to know sooner or later. For some time now I’ve been working for the FBI!” 

End of Episode

At the end of the broadcast, Lucille Ball promotes Desi’s Arnaz’s new radio series, "Your Tropical Trip”, which premiered the next day.