MovieChat Forums > I Love Lucy (1951) Discussion > Potential Characters to Bring In

Potential Characters to Bring In

posted 5 years ago by [email protected] (1732)
4 replies | jump to latest

In the early seasons of ILL, Lucy's mother is clearly mentioned as still living, although
we don't meet her until the start of the Hollywood journey in season four. It is
to be assumed Lucy's father has passed on.

In the early years, Ethel's mother is still living, as Ethel "goes home" to her mother in
anger over the final scene of "Fred and Ethel Fight." Ethel is also visiting her mother
in "Lucy Does a TV Commercial." Yet by the time the foursome winds up in New
Mexico, Ethel's mother is clearly out of the picture.

To me, it's obvious that the character has passed on. And I say "obvious" based on the
'50's notion that characters never divorced. PJ has written that she feels Ethel's
mother IS sill living by the Hollywood years, but her parents have split.

I think it is safe to assume that Ricky's mother is a widow. For starters, she visits
alone; secondly, Ricky states in many episodes, "as my father always used to
say..."

Here's the shocker for me: In the same episode where Ricky's mother visits, Ethel
mentions that Fred's mother (!!) does a yearly "inspection", and talks about her in
the present tense. This woman would HAVE to be pushing 90 - at least!!

I'm wondering if, at some point, the writers might have been thinking about bringing
in Fred's mother for an episode. Think of the potential for hilarity, had the character
been cast well, and the script solid.

As things wound up, we never did see a relative of Fred's - not even his brother, who
is mentioned in "The Camping Trip."

Thoughts?

[–] [email protected] (5497) 5 years ago

Regarding Fred's mother, yeah, she would be quite elderly!
Ethel has a very funny line in that scene when she tells Lucy that her mother-in-law visits every year to look under her rug.

"If I knew she'd stay home I'd send her a rug and a box of dirt!"

The only thing is, she tells Lucy this as if Lucy didn't already know. The two women were so close that I'm sure Ethel would mention it every time "Mother Mertz" visited.

Regarding Ethel's own mother, I always assumed that she and Ethel's dad split up. There's nothing in the dialogue that would prove my theory. I just infer it from a few things. Both times Fred says that Ethel is visiting her mother. Why doesn't he say that she's visiting her parents? presumably she'd visit both of them. Of course at this point in the series, the writers probably hadn't come up with the detail that Ethel's dad lived in Albuquerque. I just can't imagine frugal Fred springing for bus fare all the way to New Mexico.

And in a post Hollywood episode Ethel calls Aunt Martha and Uncle Elmo to tell them that an apartment in their building would soon be available. I always imagined that one of them was a sibling of Ethel's mother.

It's true that very few people were divorced back then. But my mom's parents separated when she was eleven. They never got divorced. But they never lived together after that. My mom said that she was the only one in her class that had parents who were separated.

Ethel's mother might have left her husband. In the hometown episode Fred says something like, "Everybody knows he's a crackpot" or something to that effect. Maybe Ethel's mom got along with him about as well as Fred did!

I think an episode with Fred or Ethel's mother would have been fun. I also wonder what Fred's brother would have been like.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 5 years ago

Neither of us can "prove" our theories, but I just see Ethel's mom gone. And being a '50's sitcom, there was no
need to mention it.

You'd think if they were only going to have ONE of Ethel's parents there, it would've been the mother! This old
tart and Fred could've really gotten into it. But I guess the writers thought it funny to show that Ethel's father
wasn't much older than FRED!!!

[–] [email protected] (5497) 5 years ago

Ethel's mother would have been an interesting choice! I wonder what she was like.

It seems like they went with the father instead for various reasons. Ethel calls him "daddy" and she is definitely the apple of his eye, "Little Ethel". He got into an argument with Fred over how popular Ethel was.

I love that line where he says something like, " Ethel could've had her pick of so many men,but when I think of who..." He trails off and gives Fred a withering look and finishes, "Oh what's the use?"

Ethel seems to have married a "father figure". Maybe subconsciously she assumed that an older man would treat her like a princess just like her daddy did. But she miscalculated.

[–] steven1660 (140) 5 years ago

I've actually always wondered what an episode with Fred's mother would have been like! I think it would have been hilarious seeing the interaction between her and Ethel. She most definitely would have been nearing 90. I also would have been curious to see Lucy have a sister or brother or both. That could have been funny as well.