Lucy is picked from Art Linkletter's studio audience and challenged not to utter a sound for 24 hours to win $200. Linkletter sends another studio audience member to watch over her, and then arranges for various shocking events to occur at her apartment to get her to speak.
Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney)
Mary Jane Croft (Mary Jane Lewis) does not appear in this episode.
Art Linkletter (Himself) was born in 1912 in Moose Jaw, Canada. He was the host of “House Party” (aka “The Linkletter Show”) which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and “People Are Funny,” on NBC radio and TV for 19 years. Linkletter had one of the longest marriages of any celebrity in America, at nearly 75 years. He was the father of five children. Art Linkletter will also play himself on a 1970 episode of “Here's Lucy.” He died in 2010 at age 97.
Doris Singleton (Ruth Cosgrove) created the role of Caroline Appleby on “I Love Lucy,” although she was known as Lillian Appleby in the first of her ten appearances. This is the first of her two appearances on “The Lucy Show.” She will also make four appearances on “Here's Lucy.”
Coincidentally, Ruth Cosgrove is also the name of Milton Berle's wife. She will appear on “The Lucy Show” with her husband in season five.
Jerome Cowan (Dr. Metcalf) had appeared with Lucille Ball in The Fuller Brush Girl (1950) and Critic's Choice (1963). He was featured in such films as 1947's Miracle on 34th Street (with William Frawley) and as Miles Archer in 1941's The Maltese Falcon. He will appear in one episode of “Here's Lucy” in 1970.
George Barrows (Hilda, the Gorilla) played a gorilla in his very first screen credit, Tarzan and His Mate (1934). He donned the gorilla suit 18 more times from 1954 to 1978. His final simian character was on “The Incredible Hulk.” His first appearance on “The Lucy Show” was also as a gorilla, in “Lucy and the Monsters” (S3;E18). He also played human characters on two episodes.
Ray Kellogg (The Cop) played the loud, barking Assistant Director (“Roll ‘em!”) in “Ricky’s Screen Test” (ILL S4;E6) and later appeared in “Bullfight Dance” (ILL S4;E22). This is the fourth of his seven episodes of “The Lucy Show.” He also did two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Just as in his other screen credits, most most time he played policemen.
Jack Searl (Armed One-Armed Fugitive) was a fairly well-known child actor who gained a film following in the '30s. He previously played a policeman in “Lucy Makes a Pinch” (S3;E8).
Barbara Perry (Cheated on Wife) makes the first of her two appearances on “The Lucy Show.” She died in 2019 at age 97.
Sid Gould (Deliveryman from the Acme Pet Store) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all as background characters. He also did 40 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton. Gould was married to Vanda Barra, who also appeared on “The Lucy Show” starting in 1967, as well as on “Here’s Lucy.”
Leoda Richards (Studio Audience Member, uncredited) appeared on Broadway in 1934′s Anything Goes, which also starred a young Vivian Vance. She made at least three background appearances on “I Love Lucy.” This is the first of her four episodes of "The Lucy Show.”
Coincidentally, Richards will also be glimpsed in the studio audience of “The Art Linkletter Show” on “Here's Lucy” in 1970. She was also in the Lucille Ball film Yours, Mine and Ours (1968).
Her main claim to fame is her appearance at the party given by Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, standing next to Christopher Plummer during the song “So Long, Farewell”.
Paula Ray (Studio Audience Member, uncredited) makes the second of her three appearances on the series. She was first seen as a member of the Danfield Art Society in “Lucy Gets Her Maid” (S3;E11).
George Holmes (Studio Audience Member, uncredited) also did three films with Lucille Ball: The Facts of Life (1960), Critic's Choice (1963), and Mame (1974).
Hazel Pierce (Studio Audience Member, uncredited) was Lucille Ball’s camera and lighting stand-in throughout “I Love Lucy.” She also made frequent appearances on the show. She was also an uncredited extra in the film Forever Darling (1956).
Caryl Lincoln (Studio Audience Member, uncredited) was one of Lucy’s friends from her Goldwyn Girl days. Lincoln was the sister-in-law of actress Barbara Stanwyck.
Louise Lane (Studio Audience Member, uncredited) was a background artist who appeared in at least three other episodes of the series.
Two dozen women (and one man) play the other studio audience extras at “The Art Linkletter Show.”
This episode went before the cameras on November 11, 1965. This is the 100th episode of “The Lucy Show.” The series was originally not supposed to last more than one season, but is now halfway through season four. None of the original cast members are still with the show and the location has been switched from New York to California. It is a very different show than the one that began in the fall of 1962.
In 1964, Lucille Ball appeared on “Art Linkletter’s House Party” to promote her new CBS radio show “Let's Talk to Lucy.” It only lasted one season. Later in the show, Art Linkletter and Lucy recreated an old time radio broadcast with Lucy as the sound effects person.
ART LINKLETTER: “Welcome to the House Party!”
In January 1966 CBS aired new episodes of “House Party” daily at 2:30pm while “I Love Lucy” was in reruns at 10:30am.
The premise of this episode was slightly adapted for a Season Three episode of “Here's Lucy.”
Coming into the studio audience where Lucy is sitting, Linkletter calls her hair a ‘stop light’ and asks her if it is a wig or her real color.
LUCY: “Well, shall we just say it’s not a wig.”
Lucille Ball was in fact wearing a wig for this episode. Her real hair color (once upon a time) was brunette. It is fairly clear that Lucy is Linkletter’s ‘mark’ since there are several other redheads in the small studio audience.
In order to appease a curious doctor about her silence, Lucy plays a game of charades with him and Mr. Mooney to relate a traumatic incident that happened when she was 3 years old. While wheeling a pram through the zoo, a gorilla reached through the bars and grabbed her doll, eating it whole!
While Lucy is at home under her vow of silence, she passes the time reading Elite Magazine, a publication made up by the Desilu Props department. The same blue cover issue of Elite turns up several years later on a couple of episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”
A one-armed man bursts into Lucy's apartment waving a gun and saying that a guy has been chasing him for three years. This is a reference to the hit ABC series “The Fugitive” (1963-67) on which David Janssen was on the trail of a one-armed man who killed his wife. Three weeks after this episode of “The Lucy Show” was filmed, Doris Singleton (Ruth Cosgrove) guest-starred on “The Fugitive.” The series was a Quinn Martin Production. Quinn Martin was a producer at Desilu and also married Madelyn Pugh, one of Lucille Ball’s longest lasting writers.
The episode is also similar to “Lucy Tells the Truth” (ILL S3;E6) in which Ricky bets that Lucy can't go 24 hours without telling a lie. The episode also featured Doris Singleton as Caroline Appleby.
Seeing Lucy's wide-eyed look, Mr. Mooney says to stop looking like an “over-aged Orphan Annie.” Little Orphan Annie was mentioned in several episodes of “I Love Lucy,” including at the end of “Lucy Wants New Furniture” (ILL S2;E28). The Harold Gray comic strip character (1924-2010) was famous for her mass of curly red hair and her pupil-less eyes.
Lucy Ricardo was challenged not to be “The Gossip” (ILL S1;E24), which also resulted in Lucille Ball playing charades, something she was extremely adept at and enjoyed doing.
In “Lucy Puts Up a TV Antenna” (S1;E9), Lucy is on the roof having sent Viv into the house to check the TV reception. When Lucy asks what is keeping her, Viv yells up the chimney “I got carried away watching Art Linkletter. Come on down Lucy. He’s about to go through a lady’s purse.”
Location! Location! Location! Lucy's desk at the bank is no longer located in Mr. Mooney's office but in some indeterminate location. The color scheme of the bank is totally different than in previous episodes.
I’ve Seen That Somewhere Before! When Mr. Mooney opens the door to indicate that Lucy’s ‘friend’ (Ruth) should leave - viewers get a glimpse of a familiar piece of art: Maurice Utrillo’s “Restaurant au Mont Cenis” (1922), which hung prominently on the back wall of the living room of the Ricardo’s first apartment. It’s like seeing an old friend in an unusual location!
Speaking of art, the painting next to the door is titled “Sailing Days” by Gabriel Deschamps (1919-2011), a French artist who mainly painted Provence.
Where The Set Ends! When the Policeman is chasing the Fugitive through Lucy's apartment, the camera pans too high and we see one of the studio lights above the set.
Also, when the make-up box explodes and the chair collapses, the camera pulls back to reveal where the edge of the carpet meets the concrete stage floor. The living room features a different arm chair with break-away legs so Lucy can perform the gag of it collapsing under her.
“Lucy and Art Linkletter” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5
