#NFL | papermoonloveslucy (2024)

S1;E3 ~ October 15, 1962

Synopsis

Jerry and Sherman’s football game is going to be canceled due to the lack of a referee, so Lucy volunteers. She learns all the signals, but cannot help interfering on her son’s behalf and clumsily affecting the outcome of the game. To make up for it, she offers to take both teams to a pro football game, but a blizzard strands them all at Lucy’s house, watching the game on TV.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Candy Moore (Chris Carmichael), Jimmy Garrett (Jerry Carmichael), Ralph Hart (Sherman Bagley), Dick Martin (Harry Connors)

Guest Cast

Dennis Rush (Tony Lawrence, left) was just ten years old during this episode, but got his start at age four playing Lon Chaney Jr. as a child in Man of a Thousand Faces starring James Cagney. His last screen credit was in 1966.

Although the episode’s credits give the character’s surname as‘Lawrence’ it is never mentioned in the dialogue.

Desi Arnaz Jr. (#63) is, of course, the real-life son of Lucille Ball. His 1953 birth was worked into the plot of “I Love Lucy” although Desi Jr. never played the role of Little Ricky Ricardo. He did, however, appear on the final half-hour episode of the series “The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue” (ILL S6;E27) in a crowd scene. Although is appearance in “Lucy is a Referee” goes un-credited, he plays Billy Simmons in four future episodes of the series. He also appeared with his mother and sister on “Here’s Lucy.”

Lucie Arnaz (Game Spectator, white coat) is the real-life daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. She was born in 1951 just before the premiere of “I Love Lucy.” Lucille Ball was actually pregnant during the filming of the show’s pilot. Despite rumors to the contrary, Lucie Arnaz never appeared on “I Love Lucy,” and although she returns to the series to play Chris’s friend Cynthia (a character already mentioned in the premiere), here she remains un-credited, just like her brother. She also appeared with her mother and brother on “Here’s Lucy.”

The Mighty Mites of the Venice Athletic Club (Football Teams) was a pee-wee football team from Venice Beach, California, that took the parts of both the home and away teams in this episode. Venice is located about 30 minutes west of Hollywood. A dozen un-credited woman play the football players’ moms, probably the real-life mothers of the Mighty Mites.

Roy Rowan (TV Football Game Announcer) was the off-camera announcer for every episode of “I Love Lucy” as well as “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” He was also the voice heard when TV or radio programs were featured on the plot of all three shows.

Chris’s friend Cynthia is mentioned again, interestingly in the same episode that features Lucie Arnaz, who will play the character starting in episode 23. It is possible, of course, that Lucie and Desi Jr. are playing are playing Cynthia and Billy Simmons here, despite not being named, identified, or credited.

For this episode, to go along with the football theme, the title song is played in the style of a marching band.

To reinforce the premise of the episode, Lucy says that it is tough on the boys growing up without fathers, but the show had still not established that she is a widow and not a divorcee.

The NFL (National Football League) was established in 1920, adopting its current name in 1922. In 1966, four years after this episode was filmed, the NFL began a merge with the AFL (American Football League) which took four years to complete. The competition between NFL teams culminates in the annual Super Bowl Game, held in January.

At the start of this episode, Lucy is searching for her son’s lost Johnny Unitas football card. John Constantine Unitas (1933-2002) is considered one of the greatest NFL players of all-time. He was a quarterback who spent the majority of his career playing for the Baltimore Colts. Unitas was the NFL’s most valuable player in 1957, 1959, 1964 and 1967. From 1956 to 2012 he held the record for most consecutive games without a touchdown pass.

Lucy says that Chris’s favorite pop stars are Frankie Avalon and Ricky Nelson and that each has sold a million records. In 1967, Frankie Avalon(above left) will make an appearance in the episode “Lucy and the Starmaker” (S6;E4). He later played himself on “Here’s Lucy.” From 1952 to 1966, Ricky Nelson(above center) appeared on his parent’s television show “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” an ABC sitcom that was a competitor of both “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.” At first, Viv thinks that Avalon and Nelson are football players, too, and compares them to Skinnay Ennis (above right), a popular bandleader and singer who toured the country. He was also heard on radio and seen on the big screen. His given name was Edgar, but when a record label misspelled his nickname ‘Skinny’ as ‘Skinnay,’ he decided to make it official. Eight months after this episode aired, Ennis choked on a bone while dining in a restaurant and died at the age of 55.

Lucy reads out the sports cards of ‘Red’ Phillips, then a player for the Los Angeles Rams, and Jimmy Brown, of the Cleveland Browns. Phillips was actually named James and went by ‘Jimmy’ or ‘Jim,’ but since both players share the same first name, the writers used his nickname, ‘Red.’ Vivian laments that the players age and marital status is not given, despite the fact that age was included on most all sports cards.

There was spontaneous audience applause for Lucy’s frenetic dry-run of the referee signals. Throughout the episode the loud off-stage guffaw of Lucy’s new husband, Gary Morton, can clearly be heard.

When the two dozen stranded football players are sleeping throughout the house, Lucy likens her home to Boys Town. Boys Town was founded in December 1917 as an orphanage for boys. In 1938, Spencer Tracy played their founder, Father Flanagan, in a film titled Boys Town, which won two Oscars and spawned the sequel Men of Boys Town, also starring Tracy.

With all the beds full of boys, Lucy decides to sleep in the bathtub, giving us our first glimpse of the Carmichael bathroom. Naturally, we do not see the commode, just the tub where Lucy tries to bed down.

Of course, she accidentally triggers the shower and cannot seem to turn it off before her pajamas get soaking wet. Lucy Carmichael’s inability to control hoses and other spouts will become a repeated gag on the series, taken to extremes in “Lucy and Viv Put in a Shower” (S1;E18).

We learn that Danfield has a filling station where Harry has chains put on his tires.

Callbacks!

This episode aired 11 years to the day that “I Love Lucy” went on the air.

Sports Fans: On “I Love Lucy” Lucy and Ethel got involved in such sports as basketball and golf (“The Golf Game” ILL S3;E30), winter sports like skiing and skating (“Lucy Goes To Sun Valley” (1958), and baseball (“Lucy and Bob Hope” ILL S6;1). That episode was set in Yankee Stadium and featured actual second unit location footage and scenes set in and around the stadium. In 1963, “Lucy and Viv Play Softball” (S2;E3).

The episode ends with the boys having a pillow fight which naturally releases feathers into the air. This is similar to the comic ending of “Redecorating the Mertzes’ Apartment” (ILL S3;E8), when a fan accidentally hits the exposed stuffing of Fred’s recently gutted armchair.

Blooper Alerts!

While Lucy and the team are on the football field, Lucille Ball’s canvas director’s chair, clearly marked LUCY, is visible in the background at the left, behind the chain link fence.

The TV announcer says the name “Phillips,” so we know that the game is between the the Los Angeles Rams and the New York Giants, who played at Yankee Stadium. In 1962, however, the two teams did not play one other.

It is unlikely that either of the pee-wee teams didn’t have a knowledgeable coach that could step in as referee.

This is the third look (in just as many episodes) for the wall over the buffet. The lighting sconces are gone and the wall now features three small paintings. This was probably a “wild wall” - one that easily moved out of the way so the cameras could quickly be re-positioned for the kitchen scenes.

The clock in the kitchen still reads 3:40. While this may be an accurate time for the scene, it is the same time the clock read in“Lucy Waits Up for Chris” (S1;E1).