LUCY-DESI COMEDY HOUR, THE: THE CELEBRITY NEXT DOOR (TV)
Summary
One in this series of reruns of "The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show" comedies. As this version opens, Lucy is torn between helping her family rehearse for the upcoming PTA musical show and spying on the house next door, which is about to welcome a new occupant. The new neighbor turns out to be actress Tallulah Bankhead. After Lucy makes a bad first impression, she invites La Bankhead to dinner; Lucy hopes to convince the southern belle turned star to help with the PTA show. Ashamed to admit that she has no servants, Lucy embroils Fred and Ethel Mertz when she convinces them to pose as her "couple." The dinner proves disastrous: offended at being treated with condescension by Lucy, the Mertzes walk out on the job, and the hostess makes matters worse by upsetting the entire table. The next day, Fred and Ethel stop by, and Desi informs them that Lucy has gone to a PTA meeting -- with Bankhead. He explains that he and Lucy have told the actress the truth, and that she has kindly agreed to help with the planning of the musical. Lucy returns home in a rage because Bankhead has turned the musical entertainment into a drama and cast herself in the lead. Lucy changes her tune, however, when the new neighbor calls and requests that both the Ricardos and the Mertzes participate in the performance. The program then shows a rehearsal of the new play, "The Queen's Lament," in which Bankhead plays a queen in love with a nobleman (Ricky). Offstage, relations between the Ricardos and their celebrity neighbor cool, however. Bankhead's butler borrows Lucy and Desi's paint sprayer to decorate a chair, and through a series of mishaps both Bankhead and Lucy end up wearing wet paint -- and blaming each other. On the evening of the performance, Lucy is ripe for mischief and tries to sabotage the play in a number of ways. Bankhead must work hard to match wits and pranks with her neighbor and co-star. Includes commercials.
(This episode originally aired on December 3, 1957. The original series ran 1957-1960; the rerun series ran 1962-1967. The rerun air date is an estimate based on the five rerun dates between 1962-1967.)
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: August 10, 1963 Saturday 7:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:56:12
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: T78:0396
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; She Made It Collection (Madelyn Pugh Davis)
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1962-1967
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Desi Arnaz … Executive Producer
- Bert Granet … Producer
- Jack Aldworth … Associate Producer
- Jerry Thorpe … Director
- Jay Sandrich … Direction (Misc.), Assistant Director
- Martin, Madelyn (See also: Pugh, Madelyn) … Writer
- Bob Carroll … Writer
- Bob Schiller … Writer
- Bob Weiskopf … Writer
- Wilbur Hatch … Music by, Conductor
- Eliot Daniel … Theme music by
- Lucille Ball … Cast, Lucy Ricardo
- Desi Arnaz … Cast, Ricky Ricardo
- William Frawley … Cast, Fred Mertz
- Vivian Vance … Cast, Ethel Mertz
- Keith, Richard (See also: Thibodeaux, Keith) … Cast, Little Ricky
- Tallulah Bankhead … Cast, Herself
- Elvia Allman … Cast, The Director of the PTA Show
- Richard Deacon … Cast, Winslow the Butler
- Phyllis Kennedy … Cast, The Maid