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papermoonloveslucy · 7 years ago

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LUCY GOES TO THE AIR FORCE ACADEMY: PART 2

S2;E2 ~ September 29, 1969

Directed by George Marshall ~ Written by Gene Thompson

Synopsis

Visiting the U.S. Air Force Academy, Lucy takes a tour and mistakes the General in charge for a janitor!

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carter), Gale Gordon (Harrison Otis Carter), Lucie Arnaz (Kim Carter), Desi Arnaz Jr. (Craig Carter)

Guest Cast

Roy Roberts (Superintendent) was born Roy Barnes Jones in Tampa, Florida in 1906. His early career was on the Broadway stage, gracing such plays as Old Man Murphy (1931), Twentieth Century (1932), The Body Beautiful (1935) and My Sister Eileen (1942). In Hollywood, the veteran character actor clocked over 900 screen performances in his 40 year career, most of which were authority figures. He and Lucille Ball appeared together in Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949). On “The Lucy Show” he first appeared as a Navy Admiral in “Lucy and the Submarine” (S5;E2) before creating the role of Mr. Cheever, a recurring character he played through the end of the series. This is the first of his 5 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Roberts died in 1975 at age 69.

Roy Roberts played the same character in “Lucy Goes to the Air Force Academy: Part 1” (S2;E1).

Mel Blanc (Red Squad Radio voice / Woodward voice, uncredited) is best known as the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers characters, but had acted with Lucille Ball on radio and in the 1950 film The Fuller Brush Girl.

I'd be curious to know how Lucy convinced her old friend Mel Blanc to come to the ADR (automated dialogue replacement) session and do these two voices. Possibly he was in the studio that day anyway. It would also be interesting to learn how the uncredited actor/cadet playing Woodward reacted to being dubbed by the great Mel Blanc!

Beverley Garland (Secretary, uncredited) is best remembered as Barbara, Fred MacMurray's new wife on “My Three Sons.” Roy Roberts (Superintendent) played a dentist on a 1970 episode of the show. This is her only appearance with Lucille Ball. She died in 2008.

Antonio Garcia Tony (Kid on Field Trip, uncredited) makes his screen debut with this episode. He continued to play uncredited background characters and also became a casting director.

John Erwin (Narrator, uncredited) was a voice-over artist primarily known for voicing Reggie on the “Archie” cartoons. Erwin's voice over comes at the start of the episode to tell the audience what happened in part 1.

Actual Air Force Academy students and staff play themselves.

This episode is the second of a four-part on-location story arc created with the cooperation of the Air Force and the state of Colorado. At the Academy, filming was done right in the dormitories and administrative buildings. The Air Force viewed this as a sort of TV commercial at a time when the public was very down on the military due to its involvement in the Vietnam War.

Unlike studio filming, only one camera was used on location, although Lucille Ball insisted on her studio lighting instruments, despite their great weight and bulk.

The US Air Force Academy was founded in 1954. The buildings were designed in a modernist style and make extensive use of aluminum on building exteriors, suggesting the outer skin of aircraft or spacecraft. The most controversial aspect of the design was the Cadet Chapel, designed by architect Walter Netsch. It is currently the most visited man-made tourist attraction in Colorado. It features 17 spires that shoot 150 feet into the sky. On the tour, Lucy understandably mistakes the Chapel for a large aircraft. This scene is underscored by the Air Force Academy choir singing a hymn.

Harry mistakes the domed planetarium building for a UFO. The site used to be open to the public, but is now used exclusively for cadet training. The choir switches to “Air Force Blue” an unofficial Air Force song composed during 1956 by Marilyn Scott and Keith Textor.

They look through the windows at Mitchell Hall, the cadet dining hall, which is named in honor of Brigadier General William Mitchell. This three and a half story structure sits on 1.7 acres and has the capability of serving the entire Cadet Wing (more than 4,000 people) simultaneously in less than 30 minutes. During this scene the choir sings a song based on the poem “The Coming American” by Samuel Walter Foss.

They next see Vandenburg Hall, a quarter mile long dormitory. Vandenberg Hall is the second-largest university dormitory in the country, after the United States Naval Academy’s Mitchell Hall. The dorms are named after General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, the second Air Force chief of staff. The main buildings in the Cadet Area surround a large pavilion known as The Terrazzo, designed by landscape architect Dan Kiley. The name comes from the walkway’s terrazzo tiles that are set among a checkerboard of marble strips.

The scene where Lucy is dragged by a floor polisher through the hallways of one of the buildings is accomplished by Lucille herself without a stunt double. A special dolly is placed under her body to glide her along, and the film was sped up so she appears to be moving much faster than she actually was.

When Lucy and the Carters are guests at the grand parade, Lucille Ball wears the prescription sunglasses she wore in real life. Lucy Carter never wore glasses on the series, so it momentarily reminds us that these cadets are all parading for the real-life celebrity Lucille Ball.

As the parade of cadets passes, the show takes a surreal turn when Lucy, with Craig standing beside her watching the men march by, sees the face of her son in the formation. The camera irises in and focuses on Craig in full military inform. The march is accompanied by “El Capitan” (1896) by John Philip Sousa.

The episode ends with a helicopter shot of the parade and the Academy campus to the strains of “Off We Go, Into the Wild Blue Yonder” (aka “The U.S. Air Force Song” written in 1938 by Robert MacArthur Crawford).

In addition to Beverly Garland and Roy Roberts, Lucy shows and “My Three Sons” have a lot of actors in common. First and foremost William Frawley (Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy”) who played Uncle Charlie. Star Fred MacMurray played himself on a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” In early episodes of “The Lucy Show” Barry Livingston (Ernie, youngest of the three sons) played Mr. Mooney's son Arnold on two episodes. Don Grady (Robbie, eldest of the three sons) also did an episode of “The Lucy Show” as one of Lucy's daughter's friends. Candy Moore and Jimmy Garrett, who played Lucy Carmichael's children on “The Lucy Show,” each did one episode. Doris Singleton, who played Caroline Appleby on “I Love Lucy” and characters on each of Lucy's shows, also played two characters on eight episodes of “My Three Sons.”

Other shared character actors include Maurice Marsac (Tropicana Maitre D'), Reta Shaw, Jerry Hausner (Jerry the Agent), Maxine Semon, Lou Krugman, Ted Eccles (who also played Arnold Mooney), Richard Reeves, Ed Begley, Gail Bonney, Jay North (Wendell Mooney), Rolfe Sedan, Tyler McVey, Sandra Gould, Richard Deacon, Eve Arden, Mabel Albertson, Joan Blondell (Joan Brennan), Elvia Allman, Herb Vigran, Dayton Lummis, Mary Wickes, Lurene Tuttle, Dick Patterson, Jamie Farr, Tol Avery, Robert Carson, Amzie Strickland, Barbara Morrison, Louis Nicoletti, Eddie Quillan, Barbara Pepper, Dub Taylor, Kathleen Freeman, Ray Kellogg, Stafford Repp, Jay Novello, William Meader, Arthur Tovey, Bess Flowers (”Queen of the Extras”), Ed Haskett, Hans Moebus, Bert Stevens, James Gonzales, Steve Carruthers, Norman Stevans, and George DeNormand.

During the saluting scene, cars disappear and reappear; They're present in the long shots and gone in the close-ups. Same for the snow (small circle); there is snow on the grass in the long shots and none in the close-ups.

Lucy mistakes the Superintendent (Roy Roberts) for a janitor despite the fact that he's wearing a military hat!

The wire pulling the runaway floor polisher down the hallway can be clearly seen in one shot, although it is difficult to see in the still photos.

In another shot you can see the dolly underneath Lucy.

“Lucy Goes to the Air Force Academy: Part 2” rates 3 Paper Hearts out of 5

These two episodes feel more complete if viewed as one. Lucy's display of physical comedy is truly memorable. The tour of the Academy is basically a recruitment video for cadets. The military pageantry of the ending, combined with Lucy's hallucination of Craig in uniform, is a bit odd.

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