MRS. COOPER THINKS LIZ IS PREGNANT

May 21, 1950

“Mrs. Cooper Thinks Liz is Pregnant” is episode #89 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on May 21, 1950.

Synopsis ~ Liz tells George’s mother that she’s ill so the older Mrs. Cooper won’t try to come to Liz’s bridge game, but George’s Mother thinks Liz is really pregnant, and tells all of Liz’s friends what she thinks.

Note: Despite the word ‘pregnant’ being in the title, it is never spoken aloud in the episode. This was also true of the “I Love Lucy” episode, “Pregnant Women are Unpredictable” (ILL S2;E11).  CBS censors found the word distasteful, but titles were originally used only for internal use. Unlike Lucy Ricardo, Liz Cooper never had children – that we know of!  

“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) 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

Eleanor Audley (Letitia Cooper, George’s Mother) was born Eleanor Zellman in Newark, New Jersey. Audley was a New York born actress who performed in eight Broadway plays between 1926 and 1944. On radio, she appeared in several episodes of Lucille Ball’s “My Favorite Husband,” such as “The Mother-in-Law” (1949), “George is Messy” (1950),  “Dinner for 12″ (1950), and “The Two Mothers-in-Law” (1951), in which she plays George’s mother, Letitia Cooper.  

Audley was first seen with Lucille Ball as Mrs. Spaulding, the first owner of the Ricardo’s Westport home in “Lucy Wants to Move to the Country” (ILL S6;E15). 

She returned to “I Love Lucy” to play one of the garden club judges in “Lucy Raises Tulips” (ILL S6;E26) in April 1957. 

Audley appeared one last time with Lucille Ball in a “Lucy Saves Milton Berle” (TLS S4;E13) in 1965. She played a society reporter named Eleanor.

 She is probably best known, however, as the voice of two of Disney’s most memorable animated villainesses: Lady Tremaine, the wicked stepmother in Cinderella (1950); and the evil Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959). She served as the physical model for both characters.

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers today, its late afternoon, and George Cooper is just coming home from the bank.”

George greets Liz with a kiss. He tells her that he had lunch with his mother.  She wants Liz to go shopping with her tomorrow afternoon. Liz has a bridge luncheon. Now that mother Cooper knows about it, she’s sure to want to attend.  Liz says she always describes herself as a ‘spare’ if anyone drops out.  Liz complains that she picks all the pecans out of the mixed nuts. 

LIZ: “If she brings any more of that cheese spread she makes, we’ll all drop out.” 

Liz is having two tables of bridge and nine would be a crowd.  Just then Mother Cooper (Elizabeth Audley) telephones.

LIZ: “Well, the pecan picker didn’t waste any time.” 

Mother tells George she wants to speak to Liz. The conversation is awkward. Mother isn’t asking, and Liz isn’t offering.  Mother coyly asks Liz what she’s doing tomorrow. 

LIZ: “Two o’clock and bring your own pecans.” 

Mother has already made the cheese spread.  They hang up the phone. 

LIz tells Katie that tomorrow she will be too sick to have breakfast.  And too sick to have the bridge luncheon. Katie is concerned but Liz says it is all a ruse to get George’s mother not to attend her bridge party.  Katie wonders what ailment she she have?  Liz suggests something with a Camille-like cough.  

Camille is a 1936 MGM film based on the 1848 novel and 1852 play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, is about a woman (Greta Garbo in the film) dying from consumption, a wasting disease that caused the coughing up of blood. The film starred Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, and Lionel Barrymore. In “The Dancing Star” (ILL S4;E27) during the song “How About You?” Van Johnson sings about “Greta Garbo’s looks” to which Lucy ad libs “Did you see ‘Camille’?”  In “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (ILL S4;E19), Ricky tells the director “She thinks she’s playing Camille. She’s been practicing dying all day long!”  

George is alarmed that Liz is ill on the day of her bridge luncheon. George agrees to phone his mother and tell her it’s off.  Liz celebrates her award-winning performance by telling Katie to fix her a big breakfast. George returns with good news: Mother Cooper is coming over to be her nurse! 

LIZ: “Aaaargh!  I just had a relapse!” 

End of Part One

Announcer Bob LeMond provides a recipe for Raspberry Snow, using Raspberry Jell-O, a warm-weather dessert!  

ANNOUNCER: “As we return to the Coopers, we find that Liz’s pretended illness has hit a snag. A snag called Mother Cooper.  George is just leaving for the bank.”

When George is finally gone, Katie serves Liz the big breakfast she ordered. She says the toast and warm milk George insisted she eat was terrible. 

KATIE: “I’ve never had warm milk and toast. How does it taste?”
LIZ: “Like hot cotton and white shoe polish.” 

Before she can even tuck in the doorbell rings. Katie admits Mother Cooper.  Liz wants her not to worry – just to go home, but Mother Cooper insists on nursing Liz back to health. 

It becomes clear that Mother Cooper is on to Liz’s deception; strange pains and queasy in the morning.  She reminds Liz that she was a mother once herself and takes to calling herself Grandma. Liz insists it is not what Mother Cooper thinks it is.  

The phone rings and Mother answers it – it is Iris Atterbury. Mother can’t keep it to herself and tells Iris that the Cooper house is soon to hear the patter of little feet!  Iris won’t believe Liz’s story about a cold.

IRIS: “What do you want? A boy cold or a girl cold? I know how much you and George have always wanted a cold.”

Liz asks her to tell all the girls that the bridge party is off. Iris promises she will tell all the girls but doesn’t say about what. After she hangs up with Iris, Mother Cooper promises to keep her well fed

MOTHER: “After all, you’re eating for two now!”
LIZ: “Two? I haven’t even been able to eat for one!” 

Mother Cooper rushes off to prepare her a big breakfast – of toast and warm milk. 

At the bank, Mr. Atterbury calls George into his office and offers him a cigar. 

MR. ATTERBURY: “Congratulations, boy!  It isn’t every day you become a father.”

He says that Liz told Iris a few moments ago.  George is astonished!

GEORGE: “I’d better call Liz.”
MR. ATTERBURY: “She knows about it.”

George is completely flustered by the news. Mr. Atterbury says that a raise might be in store. He says that they are going to take the afternoon off and go see Liz. On the way, they’ll stop and get the ‘boy’ some toys: A baseball bat, some boxing gloves, an air rifle, and a chemistry set.

Back at the Cooper home, Liz begs mother to go home – she’ll be fine. 

MOTHER COOPER: “What are you going to call the baby?”
LIZ: “Virus.”

Mother Cooper implies that she might name a girl after her, but Liz says she’d never name a child Budinsky Cooper. Iris bursts in just as Liz is about to tell Mother Cooper the truth. George and Mr. Atterbury burst in as well, both congratulating Liz. 

LIZ: “What did they put this in? Skywriting?”

When Liz hears about the raise – she bursts into tears. Mr. Atterbury decides to raise it to $100 a month! More tears!

MOTHER COOPER: “I’m going to be a Grandmother!”
MR. ATTERBURY: “I’m going to be a Godfather!”
IRIS: “I’m going to be a Godmother!”
GEORGE: “I’m going to be a Father!”
LIZ: “I’ll pass.”

Liz tells them they will have a long time to wait. Mr. Atterbury is going to put the $100 in the bank under the baby’s name. George says his baby will be worth hundreds!  Liz says it might be thousands!

LIZ: “In fact George, don’t be surprised if I give birth to a millionaire!” 

End of Episode

In the Jell-O tag, Lucille is Honest Abe Foghorn, a blustery politician, and Bob LeMond is a reporter interviewing him. Foghorn promises a chicken in every pot and a box of Jell-O in every cupboard!  

Herbert Hoover’s 1928 campaign slogan “A Chicken in Every Pot and a Car in Every Garage” was satirized in “Lucy Goes Into Politics” (TLS S2;E25) in March 1964 when Mr. Mooney runs for Danfield Comptroller as “A Chicken in Every Pot and a Mooney in Every Garage!”  

Foghorn tells everyone to go to the polls and vote for Jell-O pudding.