LIZ APPEARS ON TELEVISION

April 23, 1950

“Liz Appears on Television” (aka “Friendship Week”) is episode #85 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on April 23, 1950.

Synopsis ~ Liz and Iris make an appearance on a television show celebrating Friendship Week. Their friendship is tested, though, when they discover they’ve bought the same dress for the occasion.

Note ~ The episode served as the basis for the “I Love Lucy” episode “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3) filmed on September 17, 1953 and first aired on October 19, 1953, written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. 

“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.

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) is not heard in this episode. 

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 (Mr. Davis, Cigar Store Owner / TV Host) 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.  

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Cooper’s tonight, Liz is getting dressed for a very special event: she’s going to be on a television show celebrating friendship week.” 

Liz is excited that she’s appearing on television with Iris. She is presenting a plaque to Iris in honor of friendship week. 

GEORGE: “One appearance by you two might even bring back radio!” 

George says if she were a television star he’d sit in a bar and brag that it was his wife that won that last fall.  Liz says there are other things on TV than wrestling. 

GEORGE: “I can see it now: ‘Kukla, Fran and Lizzie!” 

“Kukla, Fran and Ollie” was an early television show using puppets. It was broadcast from Chicago between 1947 to 1957. Comedienne Fran Allison starred, interacting with puppets, Kukla and Ollie whose puppeteer was the show’s creator, Burr Tillstrom. It was previously mentioned on “My Favorite Husband” in “Too Many Television Sets” on October 14, 1949.

George wants to know how much Liz paid for her new orange and black dress with diagonal stripes. Liz brags that it is an original and one-of-a-kind. George is appalled to learn she paid $98.50!   

She practices her presentation speech. 

LIZ: “’Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends of Sheridan Falls, lend me your eyes.’”
GEORGE: “You mean ears.”
LIZ: “I mean eyes. This is television.”

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” is the first line of a speech by Mark Antony in the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. Occurring in Act III, scene II, it is one of the most famous lines in all of Shakespeare’s works.

LIZ: “’We are gathered here today to pay tribute to one of our town’s noblest creatures…’”
GEORGE: “Who’s getting this plaque? Citation?”

Citation (1945-70) was a champion racehorse who is the eighth winner of the American Triple Crown. He won 16 consecutive stakes races and was the first horse in history to win one million dollars.

At the Atterbury’s on the night of the appearance, Iris is pacing with nerves. Iris starts grandly rehearsing her acceptance speech.  Her husband reminds her she is getting a friendship plaque, not an Academy Award. 

RUDOLPH: “Hold it, Olivia. Save your speech for the television program.” 

Rudolph is comparing Iris to actress Olivia de Havilland, who had just won the Academy Award on March 23, 1950. She won for playing Catherine Sloper in The Heiress. 

Iris wonders whether she will come off well on television. 

RUDOLPH: “I don’t know how much of you they can pick up on the ten inch screen, but the sixteen should do pretty good.”  

While ten inch screens were usual, the new sixteen inch television was becoming more popular in 1950.  The next step up was the twenty inch screen, which was still a few years away.  Gale Gordon seems particularly pleased with this joke, nearly breaking character while delivering it. 

Iris wants Rudolph’s approval of her new dress, which she brags is a one-of-a-kind original. Rudolph says that with orange and black diagonal stripes, she can always save it for Halloween. 

IRIS: “I can’t wait to show it to Liz. She’ll die when she sees it.”
RUDOLPH: “Well, it’s getting late. Let’s go over and kill her.”

When the Atterburys arrive at the Coopers both women immediately shriek in horror. They are wearing the same dress!  The women insist they cannot appear on television wearing the same dress. Liz tells Iris that “one of us” will have to change their dress. Both women try to take the high road and offer to change.  It’s a stalemate.  George and Rudolph pretend to argue about wearing the same suit.  The girls are not amused.  Things get nasty. 

LIZ: “I’ll go a friend, and you’ll go as a ship!” 

The end of the act, the orchestra strikes up a few bars of the Cole Porter song “Friendship” to lead into the Jell-O commercial. This is the song that Lucy and Ethel sing on television on the “I Love Lucy” episode inspired by this radio show. Porter originally wrote it for Ethel Merman to sing on stage in Du Barry Was A Lady, Ball sang it in the 1945 film version, although it was later added to the musical Anything Goes.

ANNOUNCER: “As we return to the Coopers, we find the battle of the identical dresses still at an impasse.  Iris and Liz are Liz’s house, not speaking to each other, and George and Mr. Atterbury are down at the store, getting some cigars.” 

The men commiserate that the dress doesn’t look good on either of the women.  The husbands each defend their wives and soon the men are arguing. George calls Liz too fat. And Rudolph calls Liz a barber pole.  Now they aren’t talking to one another either. 

Back at the Coopers, the girls break down in tears about their spat.  They agree that the only fair thing to do is that neither will wear the dress – each will wear something different.

IRIS: “Liz – you’re a regular Queen Solomon.” 

The biblical King Solomon was known for his wisdom. He became ruler in approximately 967 BC and his kingdom extended from the Euphrates River in the north to Egypt in the south.

George comes home furious.  Liz tells him they made up, but George insists that she should still wear the dress she intended to. Liz reluctantly agrees, and they leave for the TV station. 

At the station, Rudolph reminds Iris that it was him who insisted that she wear her original dress, even though the girls had already made up.  They enter the studio and Liz and Iris see each other and shriek realizing neither one has changed their dress.  The show’s host (Frank Nelson again) insists that they go ahead, even though both women refuse to do the show. 

LIZ: “Try Hopalong Cassidy. He looks good next to a horse!” 

“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. Iris also mentioned the TV program in “Too Many Television Sets”.  

But the show goes on the air despite the feud.  “Love Your Neighbor” is live!  

Frank Nelson (as Freddy Fillmore) also hosted a television show called “Be a Good Neighbor” on the “I Love Lucy” episode “Ricky’s Hawaiian Vacation” (ILL S3;E22) first airing on March 22, 1954.

Liz goes through with the presentation, although somewhat lackluster in execution, mis-pronouncing ‘friend’ as ‘fiend’, and deriding Iris during her acceptance speech. Liz calls Iris Tubby, and Iris calls Liz a barber pole!

HOST: “Radio was never like this!” 

Iris says it is a shame they don’t have color television, or people could see that Liz’s dress is the same color as her hair.  George and Rudolph fight in the audience. Liz and Iris fight on the stage. The host gives up and closes the show!

End of Episode

In the live Jell-O commercial, Lucille Ball and Bob LeMond are pirates.  Lucy is Captain Blah, and Bob is Mr. Christian, satirizing characters from Mutiny on the Bounty. 

Lucille Ball ad libs here, saying out loud “What happened to my character?” when she forgets to do her pirate voice. 

Captain Blah is not happy that there’s no Jell-O pudding among his treasure.  He makes Mr. Christian walk the plank. While he walks, he talks about Jell-O pudding.  On the last word – “perfection” – there’s a splash.