MovieChat Forums > I Love Lucy (1951) Discussion > Mr and Mrs. TV Show

Mr and Mrs. TV Show

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

What a great episode! Everyone sparkles here (including the handsome Lee Milar, who
finally got to play a real character instead of just a radio/TV host walk-on).

The only issue I have with this otherwise brilliantly conceived script is the STUPID concept
that Ricky could fool both Lucy AND the Mertz's by setting everyone's clock back one hour!
(Let's see, Ricky sneaked into the Mertz apartment, wound their clocks back - I'm assuming
in the middle of the night, while they slept - then did the same to Lucy. Apparently, Fred
and Ethel had no watches!).

A better way of scripting this would've simply involved Ricky telling Mr. Taylor that he lied
and told Lucy and the Mertz's that the show would air an hour later, and that the real
show was just a dress rehearsal.

Lastly, Ricky is a bit too calm when he says, "For your information..." In truth, this
calamity would've had Ricky blacklisted from all future television. Lucy had to have REALLY
been in the doghouse after pulling that stunt!

But again...a great episode nonetheless.

[–] AndrewHNPX2 (119) 4 years ago

Great episode, in my top twenty for sure, maybe even top ten. But yeah, it was a little silly how Ricky just sort of calmly brushes off what happened when in actuality it would have been a major scandal that would have derailed his career.

On a side note, I really hate the way that Lucy mumbles that song to herself when Ricky decides to swallow his pride and ask her to be in the show. It was like listening to nails on a chalkboard, I know this was the idea, but still...

[–] [email protected] (1732) 4 years ago

Ball's voice is pretty scratchy throughout the episode, and, according to one book I read on the series, Ball often had
vocal issues in the early seasons due to her incessant smoking and intense work on the show (remember, in those
days, there were about 30 episodes per season, compared to about 18 now).

Lastly, I don't think Lucy's costume is particularly creative. I always thought, even as a kid, that the burlap and fright
wig, coupled with the silly teeth were pretty cheesy. But on repeated viewings, it seems Ball was "ready-to-wear" with
the costume under her billowy bathrobe. They really aimed for getting it all in the can in an hour's filming, hoping to
pause for as few "stage waits" as possible.

[–] [email protected] (5517) 4 years ago

Yes, setting the clocks back was a big plot hole especially by doing that in the Mertz apartment.

And who knows, maybe Fred and Ethel were in the habit of turning on the TV or the radio in the morning to get the news and weather. The time is always announced.

The fright costume was SO bad that I wonder if the audience that that it was all a joke, a joke that was in poor taste nevertheless. I guess Ricky managed to get away with it by insisting that they did it for laughs (after all it didn't derail his career).

Alfred Hitchcock routinely made fun of his sponsors and they managed to look like good sports for not pulling their advertising $$$ from his show.