#Michael Zorek | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

papermoonloveslucy · 7 years

Text

WORLD'S GREATEST GRANDMA

Unaired Episode {originally scheduled for broadcast December 20, 1986}

Directed by Bruce Bilson ~ Written by Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis ~ Story by Mel Sherer and Steve Granat

Synopsis

Becky signs up Lucy for her school's Grandma Talent Contest. Unfortunately, Lucy doesn't sing, dance, tell jokes, or do magic, so she decides to do a dramatic recitation so as not to disappoint her grandchildren.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Barker), Gale Gordon (Curtis McGibbon), Ann Dusenberry (Margo Barker McGibbon), Larry Anderson (Ted McGibbon), Jenny Lewis (Becky McGibbon), Philip Amelio (Kevin McGibbon), Donovan Scott (Leonard Stoner)

[For biographies of the Regular Cast, see “One Good Grandparent Deserves Another” (S1;E1)]

Guest Cast

Kellie Martin (Patty Durell) also played Patty in “Lucy Gets Her Wires Crossed” (S1;E4). She played Becca Thatcher on “Life Goes On” (1989-93) and Lucy Knight on “ER” (1998-2000).

Michael Zorek (Pizza Delivery Man) began screen acting in 1983. He is now a father of two living in New York City.

Phyllis Applegate (Principal) began her screen acting career in 1978. Most recently she was seen as Myrtle, one of the senior citizens on “Better Call Saul.”

Peggy Gilbert and the Dixie Belles (Themselves, uncredited) was a female bandleader who fronted a number of all girl groups, until founding the Dixie Belles in the 1970s. The Dixie Belles also appeared on several television shows: “The Tonight Show” (1981), “Madame’s Place” (1982), “The Golden Girls” (1988), “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (1991), and “You Bet Your Life” (1993). In 1986, the Dixie Belles recorded their only album. The band consisted of Gilbert on saxophone, Natalie Robin on clarinet, Marnie Wells on trumpet, Jerrie Thill on drums, Georgia Shilling on piano, and Pearl Powers on bass.

The grandma bagpiper and attendees of the talent contest are played by uncredited background performers.

This was the 13th and final episode filmed. It was scheduled to air on December 20, 1986 but the series was canceled on November 15th. The first draft of the script was finalized on October 20, 1986.

Story writers Mel Sherer and Steve Granat started their careers on “Happy Days” and its sequels “Laverne and Shirley” and “Joanie Loves Chachi.” This is their only contribution to “Life with Lucy.”

On the day of the filming, producer Aaron Spelling received word that the show was canceled. Rather than tell Lucille Ball himself, he has an assistant telephone her husband Gary Morton with the news, which was withheld from Lucy until after the filming.

A fourteenth episode was planned and a first draft of the script exists, but it was never filmed. It was titled “’Twas the Flight Before Christmas” written by Vic Rauseo and Linda Morris and scheduled to be directed by Bruce Bilson. A summary reads: “The family goes to a friend's cabin in Colorado, but become stranded on the plane in Denver and discover that Christmas is more than presents.” It was likely scheduled to air on December 27, 1986.

Kevin plays on the YMCA soccer team “The Wildcats.” The name of the team is probably a reference to Lucille Ball’s only Broadway show, Wildcat (1961).

Everyone in the Barker house has a trophy for something - except Lucy: Kevin for soccer, Becky for swimming, Margo for tennis, Ted for softball, Leonard for wrestling, and Curtis for golf.

Ted: (to Lucy) “You know what they say, Mom. It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.” Kevin: “And how many trophies you have!”

It took 13 episode, but actor Larry Anderson (Ted McGibbon), who is a professional magician, finally works a magic trick into the story, producing coins for Becky and Kevin's allowance from behind their ears.

Becky enters Lucy in a Grandma Talent Contest at her school. The money will go toward buying the school a new VCR.

Curtis: “A new video cassette recorder! My! They didn't have things like that when I was in school.” Lucy: “No, they sat in front of the fire and made shadow puppets on the wall of the cave.”

Lucy contemplates singing at the talent competition. She says that in high school she did an act with two other girls imitating The Andrews Sisters. This affords Lucille Ball to revive the old gag that Lucy cannot hold a tune, first started on “I Love Lucy.” She chants a monotone version of “Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree.” ”Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)“ by Sam H. Stept, Lew Brown, and Charles Tobias. The song was sung by the Andrews Sisters in the 1942 film Private Buckaroo.

She then thinks about dancing, claiming she took a tap class once. While Ted sings “Swanee River” Lucy does a few clumsy shuffle steps before her 'trick knee' gives out. In reality, Lucille Ball broke her leg in a skiing accident that curtailed a lot of dancing during “Here's Lucy.” “Old Folks at Home” (aka “Swanee River”) a minstrel song written by Stephen Foster in 1851.

With dancing out of the question, Lucy suggests being a stand-up comic. When everyone anticipates her punchline, Curtis says “Face it Lucille, you are not Joan Rivers.” Joan Rivers guest-starred when “Lucy and Joan Rivers Do Jury Duty” (HL S6;E9) in 1973.

Ted volunteers to teach Lucy some magic so she can be a magician at the Talent Show. Lucy, billing herself as “Grandma the Great”, puts on a magic show in the living room for the family. Ted acts as her assistant.

Lucy: “I can't sing, I can't dance, I can't tell jokes, I can't do magic. I'm a well-rounded flop!”

Curiously, the one talent Lucy Barker has already demonstrated on the series – playing the saxophone – is never brought up!

Curtis reminds Lucy of when they watched Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady on television and that he didn't sing a note. Harrison was famous for talk/singing his way through both the stage and 1964 film adaptation of My Fair Lady, winning both a 1957 Tony Award and a 1964 Oscar for the role of Professor Henry Higgins.

The Grandma Talent Contest scene fades up with a grandma bagpipe player taking her bow. Curtis later says that the 90 year-old piper was the winner, playing “Do You Think I'm Sexy.” The Principal (Phyllis Applegate) introduces the next act, Peggy Gilbert and her Dixie Belles, billed as world's only all-female Dixieland band. Peggy is the grandmother of Becky's friend Patty Durell. The septuagenarian sextet plays “When The Saints Go Marching In.”

In a spotlight, Lucy dedicates her performance to her children and grandchildren and talk / sings “Sunrise, Sunset,” a song from the 1964 Broadway musical and 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof. Lucille Ball's voice nearly breaks, knowing that she's reached the end of an era. Those watching the contest look moved by Lucille Ball's amazing serious and dramatic performance.

Kevin: “You're a winner in my book, Grandma.”

Lucy Barker taking part in talent competition hearkens back to when Lucy Ricardo participated in a talent show with the unruly Hudson Twins in “The Amateur Hour” (ILL S1;E14) in 1952.

Lucy Barker says that she did an act with two girls imitating the Andrews Sisters. Lucy Carter also did an act with two girls (her daughter Kim and the real Patty Andrews) imitating the Andrews Sisters in a 1969 episode of “Here's Lucy.”

Lucille Ball performed all kinds of dance on screen, including tap, but her most famous dancing on television is probably the training Lucy Ricardo received in “The Ballet” (ILL S1;E19) at the barre with Madame Lamond (Mary Wickes) in 1952.

“Swanee River” was first sung by Lucille Ball as a counterpoint to “Humeresques” in “Bullfight Dance” (ILL S4;E22).

It was also heard in “Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright” (ILL S6;E4) when one of Little Ricky's classmates plays it on violin at a recital.

In this episode, the story incorporates the talents of real-life female musicians The Dixie Belles who play “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The song was previously performed on “Here's Lucy” by the Remnants, a real-life musical group of Catholic nuns in “Lucy and Her All-Nun Band” (HL S4;E8).