Saturday, December 13, 2014

Classic TV: Lucy meets the Untouchables (sort of)(The Lucy Show, 1966)

Near the end of season 4 of The Lucy Show comes an unexpected treat.

Lucille Carmichael (Lucille Ball) is at first mistaken for, then asked to impersonate, a nightclub singer named Rusty Martin (Ball in a dual role), whose boyfriend is the notorious gangster, Big Nick, in "Lucy The Gun Moll":


It was a mini-Untouchables reunion, with guest stars Robert Stack, Bruce Gordon, and Steve London, plus narration by Walter Winchell. The CBS suits must've loved Gordon's hammy, over-the-top performance as Big Nick, such that they signed him to play a gangster in Run, Buddy, Run the following fall. Gordon & Stack took their bows from the studio audience at the end of the show, and rightfully so.

If you didn't get the inside references, you probably weren't a fan of The Untouchables in the first place.

Rating: A.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

Saw the ep and it is rather funny!

Lucille Ball was a talented woman! Loved seeing her singing. It was the closest to seeing stars like her in a nightclub setting. Perhaps that's why I always loved seeing stars from the era in situations in which they get to perform out of character.

Seeing the Untouchable actors added to the fun.

The Lucy Show wasn't shown in syndication in my market, although "Here's Lucy" was broadcast almost as frequently as "I Love Lucy" . In that incarnation, Lucy got to work with Mike Connors - who as in character as Joe Mannix.

hobbyfan said...

That was because Mannix was a stablemate of Here's Lucy, both in terms of network & studio, though by the time Here's Lucy premiered, I thought, Desilu was no more.