RADIO on TV!

Radio Shows on Lucille Ball’s TV Sitcoms

Television was an outgrowth of radio. Many of our best loved shows originally came from radio – including “I Love Lucy,” which was inspired by the success of “My Favorite Husband”.  Here are a few stragglers – radio shows and incidental broadcast that were featured on Lucy TV! 

There was some thought about creating an “I Love Lucy” radio show to run in simultaneously with the television series as was being done with “Our Miss Brooks.” A pilot show was produced, but it never aired. It was created by editing the soundtrack of the television episode “Breaking the Lease”, with added narration by Desi Arnaz. It included commercials for Philip Morris, which sponsored the TV series. Philip Morris eventually sponsored a radio edition of “My Little Margie” instead.  Here’s Desi / Ricky’s opening narration:

“Hello. I’m Ricky Ricardo and I’m the guy who loves Lucy. The whole thing started ten years ago.  I had just come to this country from Cuba and I didn’t know much about your customs.  The first girl I had a date with was Lucy. It was a romantic night and after all I had a reputation to live up to as a Latin lover so I kissed her goodnight. It was right then that she told me that under the Constitution of the United States if a man kisses a girl he has to marry her. Then I found out that she tricked me. I didn’t care. Because after all, if I hadn’t married her, I’d would have married someone else. And Lucy’s just like any other American girl, who is pretty, charming, witty, and partly insane.”

FREDDY FILLMORE QUIZ SHOWS

“The Quiz Show” (1951)

With Lucy’s household accounts in arrears, she goes on a radio quiz show to win a thousand dollars. All she has to do is pretend a complete stranger is her first husband in front of Ricky.  A tramp arrives at the door and threatens to throw a monkey wrench into the scheme!

This is the first of three episodes to feature Frank Nelson in the role of Freddy Fillmore [variously spelled Freddie Filmore], game show host extraordinaire. He is the host of “Females Are Fabulous”.  The announcer who encourages the studio audience to applaud is played by Lee Millar. Radio shows were generally broadcast live in front of a live audience in the studio. The premise of the quiz show has Lucy being pelted with various items (mostly liquids) when Ricky sings a trigger word – from a safe distance. 

“Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio” (1952)

When their TV breaks down, the gang tunes in to a radio quiz show. Surprisingly, Ricky correctly guesses the answers to all of the questions, so the next day Lucy signs them up to be on the show. Little does she know that the quiz was a delayed broadcast and that Ricky overheard the answers while at the studio! This episode is based on Lucy’s radio show, “My Favorite Husband” “Quiz Show,” which aired October 23, 1948. In the radio version, the show was called “His and Hers” and is hosted by Smiley Stembottom (also Frank Nelson). 

On television, the quiz show is called “Mr. and Mrs. Quiz” and is hosted by Freddy Fillmore (Frank Nelson again). 

Everyone on the series loved Roy Rowan’s on-screen announcing for “Mr. and Mrs. Quiz” so much that he then became the announcer for “I Love Lucy.”  To be sure Ricky wins, Lucy steals the questions. Unbeknownst to her, Fillmore changes the questions at the last minute so Lucy’s rehearsed answers on the show make no sense. 

The next time we see Freddy Fillmore he has made the transition to television with his latest quiz show “Be A Good Neighbor”.  

“Off To Florida” (1956)

Radio plays an integral role in the plot of the roadtrip. Lucy and Ethel hitch a ride to Florida with a Mrs. Grundy (Elsa Lanchester), an eccentric woman who agrees to letting them share her backseat. Instead of a motel, they park in a darkened clearing. To fall sleep in the parked car, Lucy turns on the radio for some soothing music, until… 

NEWSCASTER: “Now here’s the latest bulletin on the Evelyn Holmby case. Police have definitely established that Evelyn Holmby, famous gray-haired hatchet murderess who escaped from New York State Prison Thursday, is heading south in a cream-colored convertible coupe. Stand by for further bulletins. And now back to our recorded music.”

Having found a hatchet in the car’s trunk, Lucy wonders if their driver is actually Holmby!  In the morning, they try to nap while Mrs. Grundy is driving. When they are sleeping, she turns on the radio. 

NEWSCASTER: “That winds up the news from Washington today. And here’s the latest bulletin on Evelyn Holmby, escaped hatchet murderess. Police have learned that, before leaving New York, she dyed her gray hair red, and is heading south with a blonde companion.”

Now Mrs. Grundy suspects Lucy and Ethel of being the escaped criminal!  The radio announcer is voiced by Roy Roberts. The big band music in the background will also heard in “Country Club Dance” (1957).  

“Lucy is a Chaperone” (1963)

Lucy and Viv chaperone a group of Chris’s friends on a beach vacation. When the girls are dancing to music on the radio, Viv mistakes the Mashed Potato for the Jitterbug. When Lucy attempts the steps, Viv remarks that she’s got “lumps in her gravy.” The Mashed Potato was a popular dance craze of 1962 made famous by James Brown.  A companion dance song was titled (appropriately) “Gravy”. This marks the first of many appearances by the red transistor radio – albeit in black and white!

“Ethel Merman and the Boy Scout Show” (1964)

During a tribute to show business, ‘Radio’ is represented by Mr. Mooney as a talent show host presenting a saxophonist (Lucy) from Altoona, Pennsylvania. Naturally, Lucy plays an off-key rendition of “Glow Worm”, one of only two songs Lucille Ball ever played on the sax. 

“Lucy and the Beauty Doctor” (1965)

At the start of the episode, Lucy and Viv listen to the radio show “Morning Magazine of the Air” which presents Lady Cynthia’s Beauty Tips. It is from this broadcast that Lucy hears about a $25 beauty treatment by Dr. Fleischer.

LADY CYNTHIA (voice on radio): “Good morning, ladies. How would you like to have your biggest beauty problem behind you?” 

VIV (listening to radio): “That’s where mine is now.”

Lady Cynthia is voiced by Carole Cook and Sid Gould is the announcer. 

Now easily identified in color, Lucy’s red transistor radio will turn up many times on “The Lucy Show”, even after she moves to Los Angeles.

“Lucy the Disc Jockey” (1965) 

Lucy wins a mystery sound contest on the radio, winning $25 and the chance to be disc jockey for a day. Naturally, things don’t go smoothly when she takes over the studio. 

The host of the radio show Gordon ‘Fair’ Felson (Pat Harrington). The call letters of the radio station are WLDJ representing the first letter of each word in the episode’s title: “Lucy the Disc Jockey.”

After playing the mystery sound, Felson announces the return to “the swing sounds of Jan Garber.” Garber was a bandleader known for ‘sweet’ and ‘swing’ jazz. His nickname was “The Idol of the Air Lanes.”  Left on her own in the radio station, Lucy hasn’t a clue how to operate the equipment.

Lucy and Viv frantically try to replicate the sound they heard on the radio. Mr. Mooney says that the ‘Name the Sound’ contest is the silliest thing since ‘Mrs. Hush’. The Mrs. Hush contest was a feature of “Truth or Consequences” radio show in 1947.

“Lucy the Rain Goddess” (1966) 

Before the action shifts to the dude ranch, Herbie (Marc Cavell), the bank office boy, is blaring “Do The Watusi!” on his transistor radio. The song (without lyrics) was also heard in “Chris’s New Year’s Eve Party” (1962).  

“Lucy’s Burglar Alarm” (1969) 

At the start of the episode, Craig is practicing guitar and Kim is listening to a transistor radio playing an instrumental version of “I Know a Place” by Tony Hatch. The song was made popular in 1965 by Petula Clark. This is the third time the song has been heard on “Here’s Lucy.” Clark herself will make a guest appearance on the series in 1972.

“Lucy and Jack Benny’s Biography” (1970)

Helping Benny write his memoirs, Lucy plays all the women in Jack’s life. In the fourth flashback, Jack Benny is a radio star broadcasting with Mary Livingstone. In this sequence, Lucille Ball lip synchs to a recording of the voice of the real Mary Livingstone, who became Mrs. Jack Benny in 1927. 

“Lucy, the Other Woman” (1972)

While having breakfast, Lucy listens to a radio news report about a marital triangle that caused a Mrs. Mercedes Smith of Sherman Oaks to shoot a Mrs. Vivian Boone for breaking up her happy home. The newscaster is once again voiced by Roy Rowan.  This newscast sets up the appearance of Poopsie Butkus (Totie Fields) who accuses Lucy of being “the other woman”.