"The I Love Lucy Playhouse" -- an Episode Guide

[Brock]

I think it's time to launch a new series with a new episode guide. Let's see what we can come up with!

 

In this anthology series, we explore one-off stories of what is going on off-screen in I Love Lucy episodes featuring characters, places, and plots that might have been referenced only in the background. Let’s go in order, starting with Season 1:

 

1. – The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub: The zany adventures of nightclub singer and hostess Ginny Jones whose life gets complicated when her boss finds out she’s using the clientele and chorus line of the Starlight Roof as the base of her fledgling dating service, serving New York City’s elite.
2. – Be A Pal: We check in on the home and office life of Dr. Humphries as he develops new theories and methods for the next installment of his best-selling relationship book, this time taking things into the bedroom.
3. – The Diet: In this take-off on The Littlest Hobo, we travel the mean streets of New York and ride the rails of the stray Butch Mertz, who Fred lost in an unfortunate game of poker.
4. – Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Murder Her – The hard-hitting investigation into a New York men’s lodge, whose members are questioned after a string of housewives report being drugged by their husbands. (Alternate: A dramatic teleplay based on The Mockingbird Murder Mystery)
5. – The Quiz Show: This tearjerker follows the life story of Females Are Fabulous contestant Mrs. Peterson, as she walks the dramatic and emotional road to recovery from breaking every bone in her body after going over Niagara Falls in a Barrel. (Note: This installment features an Emmy-nominate performance by Hazel Pierce and leads to many more dramatic roles for Frank Nelson)

[FreddieMertz]

7. -The Seance: Mr. Merriweather becomes a recluse in his old mansion after his dog Tilly dies. In the weeks he spends alone, he slowly retreats into his fantasies and memories before being found dancing on the beach scaring spectators.

8. -Men Are Messy: Maggie, the elderly cleaning lady at the Tropicana is has been single her whole life, but watches Ricky Ricardo from afar wanting to marry him. Ricky doesn't know of her amorous ideas until she comes onto him one night after the club is closed. He rejects her. She runs home and takes an overdose of sleeping pills. A neighbor saves her just in time and they fall in love.

[Neil]

What a great idea.  I hope you keep this going up through "The Eve Whitney Show" borrowing its theme song from "the Pruitts of Southhampton".

 

I think it's time to launch a new series with a new episode guide. Let's see what we can come up with!

 

In this anthology series, we explore one-off stories of what is going on off-screen in I Love Lucy episodes featuring characters, places, and plots that might have been referenced only in the background. Let’s go in order, starting with Season 1:

 

1. – The Girls Want To Go To A Nightclub: The zany adventures of nightclub singer and hostess Ginny Jones whose life gets complicated when her boss finds out she’s using the clientele and chorus line of the Starlight Roof as the base of her fledgling dating service, serving New York City’s elite.
2. – Be A Pal: We check in on the home and office life of Dr. Humphries as he develops new theories and methods for the next installment of his best-selling relationship book, this time taking things into the bedroom.
3. – The Diet: In this take-off on The Littlest Hobo, we travel the mean streets of New York and ride the rails of the stray Butch Mertz, who Fred lost in an unfortunate game of poker.
4. – Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Murder Her – The hard-hitting investigation into a New York men’s lodge, whose members are questioned after a string of housewives report being drugged by their husbands. (Alternate: A dramatic teleplay based on The Mockingbird Murder Mystery)
5. – The Quiz Show: This tearjerker follows the life story of Females Are Fabulous contestant Mrs. Peterson, as she walks the dramatic and emotional road to recovery from breaking every bone in her body after going over Niagara Falls in a Barrel. (Note: This installment features an Emmy-nominate performance by Hazel Pierce and leads to many more dramatic roles for Frank Nelson)

 

[Brock]

9 – The Fur Coat: A chance encounter with a very generous potential victim insisting he take a very expensive fur coat on his rounds prompts a hardened robber to re-evaluate his life and go off to Africa with Schweitzer.

 

10 – Lucy is Jealous of a Girl Singer – Newlywed Rosemary’s homelife with a member of the mob is turned upside down when she returns back to their penthouse apartment with a significant chunk missing from her black lace bluejeans.

 

11 – Drafted –  In this Twilight Zone inspired episode, Lucy Ricardo donates her knitting to the local branch of the Salvation Army where it is found by someone to whom it fights just right.

 

12 – The Adagio – After Grandma Lewis is killed in cold blood by bullets flying through her living room floor, Mr. Ritter is on the prowl. When Mrs. Lewis’ sister, Matilda, inherits the apartment, she fends off the advances of her unwanted admirer.

[Mot Morenzi]

What a FABULOUS concept, Brock! I'll have to give this some good, hard thought.

[JoeySanJoaquin]

What a FABULOUS concept, Brock! I'll have to give this some good, hard thought.

You do that...especially the good, hard ....uh ...thought! Yeah, that's it!!

[Brock]

13 – The Benefit – A flashback episodes brings up memories of Queen for a Day when a poor mother, Mrs. Hubert Grimset, goes on television with a sob story about her struggles to feed her 10 children. Unfortunately, the top prize goes to Mrs. Irving Massey, who wins experimental treatment to cure her nosiness. The second runner up, however, receives a name mention on CBS’ new hit series. Local fame and fortune follow, but will success spoil Mrs. Hubert Grimset?

 

14 – The Amateur Hour – When they’ve run out of unsuspecting babysitters on the Isle of Manhatten, Mrs. Hudson decides to take her act on the road. But when friction threatens to split the act when Dainty Timmy becomes the breakout star and Jimmy resorts to unconventional methods to get noticed.

 

15 – Lucy Plays Cupid – When Mr. Ritter returns to the market with a new Mrs. Ritter, business slumps after all the lonely hearts on East 68^th Street take their business elsewhere. Mr. and Mrs. Ritter, the former Miss Lewis, stage a very public fight and a faux divorce to get those lima beans hopping again. (Note: We pretend Miss Lewis wasn't killed off in episode 12)

 

16 – Lucy Fakes Illness – Hal March scores every actor’s dream when he lands a plum role replacing Tallulah Bankhead’s leading man in her latest hit Broadway play (on the stage). When Miss Bankhead hears rumours that Bette Davis has nabbed the starring role in the upcoming film adaptation of the play, March suggests she feign amnesia as a scatterbrained housewife with a terrible disease when the producer is due to visit.

 

17 – Lucy Writes A Play – A dramatic interpretation of Drop One Purl Two (or: Much Ado About Knitting), charting the gruelling lives of children living and working in New York’s turn-of-the-century garment district.

 

18 – Breaking The Lease – Everyone gets more than they bargained for when Barbara Pepper and her husband purchase another set of random tickets from on-street vendors promising a jam session, and Ms. Pepper is unwittingly duped into taking centre stage in an amateur striptease show.

[Luvsbway]

Those are great. Really liked Lease and Illness.

[Brock]

20 – The Young Fans – Impressed by Arthur’s new moves on the dance floor, he suddenly becomes the most popular boy in school, much to Peggy’s annoyance. Now, he’s spreading the love around and spending less time with Peggy, so she decides the best way to spend more time with him is to personally groom him for the upcoming Gregory Peck Lookalike Contest held to promote The Snows of Kilimanjaro. When Peck himself shows up to the local theatre to judge the contest, he becomes smitten with Peggy.

 

21 – New Neighbors – After moving out of 623 East 68^th Street following the shootout, Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien move next door to a jumpy man by the name of Mr. Beecher, who just happened to see their live teleplay. Trouble seems to follow the O’Briens and when another shootout occurs at their new apartment building, they – and Mr. Beecher – find themselves involved in a very lengthy murder trial.

 

22 – Fred and Ethel Fight – We flash back to the turn of the century, where we finally meet Fred’s weasel-like mother (Estelle Winwood) who is personally training her young son for the Golden Gloves.

[Mot Morenzi]

23 - The Moustache - Our story starts in a small factory many years ago, where a hapless vat mixer inadvertently creates the most powerful adhesive on earth - Bulldog Cement. The name comes from an incident where the vat mixer accidentally glues himself to his pet bulldog, and must find the rare ingredients to make a few precious bottles of the antidote before the dog gnaws his hand off.

 

24 - The Gossip - We follow the trials and tribulations of the poor, milquetoast milkman, who unwittingly finds himself the pawn in many a jealous married couple's mind games, before he has had enough and makes the long, arduous journey to Hollywood to achieve his lifelong dream of becoming a bellboy at a ritzy hotel.

 

25 - Pioneer Women - Mrs. Petibone and Mrs. Pomerantz of the Society Matron's League are living their dream of having all the cream of society at their fingertips. But the two uptight women must have their comfort zones sorely tested when membership begins to decline and they must seek the aid of those heathens beneath them...show people. They must snap their steel trap nerves into position when Mae West becomes their first celebrity member, and brace themselves for the celebrities of the future who will one day walk their hallowed halls, including Gypsy Rose Lee, sans clothing.

[Luvsbway]

I love The Gossip.

[Neil]

LOVE THIS THREAD!!

23 - The Moustache - Our story starts in a small factory many years ago, where a hapless vat mixer inadvertently creates the most powerful adhesive on earth - Bulldog Cement. The name comes from an incident where the vat mixer accidentally glues himself to his pet bulldog, and must find the rare ingredients to make a few precious bottles of the antidote before the dog gnaws his hand off.

And you can build the suspense when the mixer unsuccessfully tries two different formulas before hitting on #3, the full-proof formula that unfortunately proves so expensive to make that it is sold "for a limited time only".

 

14 – The Amateur Hour – When they’ve run out of unsuspecting babysitters on the Isle of Manhatten, Mrs. Hudson decides to take her act on the road. But when friction threatens to split the act when Dainty Timmy becomes the breakout star and Jimmy resorts to unconventional methods to get noticed.

 

 

Can't wait for the dramatic ending after "Mrs. Hudson's Turn"  when she proclaims the poster of their new act for the Chippendale circuit to read "Madame Hudson..." and then a sweeping hand gesture to indicate billing over herself "...and her son Stripsy".

[Brock]

26 -- The Marriage License

We return to the Eagle Hotel, casting a closer eye on Mr. and Mrs. Burt Willoughby and their take-no-prisoners rise to power. After their haberdashery goes out of business, the couple invest in a run-down hotel and put their heart and soul into turning it into a relatively upscale establishment. After their dining room is shut down by their bumpkin health commissioner for a minor violation, this seemingly kindly couple vow to get revenge, eliminating each local bureaucrat one by one, ruthlessly, until they have consolidated power between the two of them. But, what happens when Burt tires of cow-towing to his mayoral missus? It is a fight to the death where the only survivors might be their impressive array of headgear.

 

27 -- The Kleptomaniac

A docu-drama charting on the rags-to-riches tale of a baby elephant captured and shipped off to America to find his fortune in show business. After his debut on the Number 2 television show at the time, our hero -- now known as Fatty Ivoryknuckle -- hits the big time. He is wined and dined at all the best and largest restaurants, showgirls drink champagne from his trunk, and eventually he becomes Hollywood's top-grossing pachyderm of all time. After a decade at the top, however, his career comes skidding to a halt in 1962 making his return to the Desilu lot. Things were going just fine until he spotted co-star Vivian Vance in her knit suit from the rear.

 

28 -- Cuban Pals

Stuck in Philadelphia, Little Renita is stuck trying to find the odd job here and there, waiting tables, taxi dancing, and maybe the odd nightclub job here and there, all to pay her way back to New York City and eventually Havana. When she lands a gig at a posh club, her "Lady in Red" number catches the eye of visiting Senator Joseph McCarthy who is so taken with her he promises an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C. It might not be New York, but how could she refuse?

 

29 -- The Freezer

While Uncle Oscar dismantles his freezer to pack off to their niece, Aunt Em reminisces about her first marriage married to a farmer. After Little Ethel's dog, Butch-Butch, bit Leslie Foster he decides lightning can't strike in the same place twice and demands the canine as compensation to give to his daughter Betty. Little Ethel and Butch-Butch are distraught and as Leslie cycles back home, the dog escapes and is reunited with the little girl. Determined to get away from Aunt Em, Little Ethel embarks on a journey, encountering Professor Marvel along the way. After peering into his crystal ball and telling Little Ethel her future lay in a brief career in show business, before a steady decline to landlady and, finally, chicken plucker, she decides to return to the farm and greener pastures. Arriving just in time for the Great Albuqerque Cyclone of nineteen-hundred-and... Little Ethel is whacked on the head by a window frame. (This segues into CBS' first foray into colour television)

[Neil]

So glad to see the return of this anthology series.  The possibilities are endless.

[Mot Morenzi]

26 -- The Marriage License

We return to the Eagle Hotel, casting a closer eye on Mr. and Mrs. Burt Willoughby and their take-no-prisoners rise to power. After their haberdashery goes out of business, the couple invest in a run-down hotel and put their heart and soul into turning it into a relatively upscale establishment. After their dining room is shut down by their bumpkin health commissioner for a minor violation, this seemingly kindly couple vow to get revenge, eliminating each local bureaucrat one by one, ruthlessly, until they have consolidated power between the two of them. But, what happens when Burt tires of cow-towing to his mayoral missus? It is a fight to the death where the only survivors might be their impressive array of headgear.

 

27 -- The Kleptomaniac

A docu-drama charting on the rags-to-riches tale of a baby elephant captured and shipped off to America to find his fortune in show business. After his debut on the Number 2 television show at the time, our hero -- now known as Fatty Ivoryknuckle -- hits the big time. He is wined and dined at all the best and largest restaurants, showgirls drink champagne from his trunk, and eventually he becomes Hollywood's top-grossing pachyderm of all time. After a decade at the top, however, his career comes skidding to a halt in 1962 making his return to the Desilu lot. Things were going just fine until he spotted co-star Vivian Vance in her knit suit from the rear.

 

28 -- Cuban Pals

Stuck in Philadelphia, Little Renita is stuck trying to find the odd job here and there, waiting tables, taxi dancing, and maybe the odd nightclub job here and there, all to pay her way back to New York City and eventually Havana. When she lands a gig at a posh club, her "Lady in Red" number catches the eye of visiting Senator Joseph McCarthy who is so taken with her he promises an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C. It might not be New York, but how could she refuse?

 

29 -- The Freezer

While Uncle Oscar dismantles his freezer to pack off to their niece, Aunt Em reminisces about her first marriage married to a farmer. After Little Ethel's dog, Butch-Butch, bit Leslie Foster he decides lightning can't strike in the same place twice and demands the canine as compensation to give to his daughter Betty. Little Ethel and Butch-Butch are distraught and as Leslie cycles back home, the dog escapes and is reunited with the little girl. Determined to get away from Aunt Em, Little Ethel embarks on a journey, encountering Professor Marvel along the way. After peering into his crystal ball and telling Little Ethel her future lay in a brief career in show business, before a steady decline to landlady and, finally, chicken plucker, she decides to return to the farm and greener pastures. Arriving just in time for the Great Albuqerque Cyclone of nineteen-hundred-and... Little Ethel is whacked on the head by a window frame. (This segues into CBS' first foray into colour television)

All of these are brilliant and hilarious! The Freezer is beyond inspired, so many Vivian references incorporated! Would Viv play herself as a large, blonde, chubby child?

[Brock]

30 – Lucy Does a TV Commercial

After the complete failure of their first foray into television on Your Saturday Night Varieties – thanks to an ill-cast pitchwoman – the inventor of Vitameatavegamin takes some time to regroup and relaunch his product. Getting rid of the mouthful of a name, he focuses just on the vitamin component, renames it “Vitamin E-4” and restructures his company to produce a syrup that can be franchised to little bottling plants across the country. Meanwhile, over in California, the faculty and student body at Madison High School decide this would be the idea business idea to raise money for their flagging school and its up to Brooks, Boynton and Conklin to whip up and ship out the first batch.

 

31 – The Publicity Agent

On a flying visit to America, the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar happens to read about his Franistanian colleague’s daughter travelling to the States to take in Ricky Ricardo’s act. Seeing the storm of publicity this has caused, not to mention the goodwill between the two nations, the singe Maharaja decides to try and one-up the other guy and decides to snag a blonde Hollywood star for his Maharani and sets his sights on Joan Davis.

 

32 – Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio

After attending a dubious political meeting, radio host Freddie Filmore is already skating on thin ice. When Senator McCarthy sits down for his evening meal to listen to Mr. and Mrs. Quiz, he’s incensed when he hears “The sap runs every two years” in response to a senator’s term of office. Concluding this was a planted response and a direct broadside at McCarthy himself, Freddie is hauled before the House of Un-American Activities to explain himself, and Filmore ultimately blames everything on his slightly dim office boy.

 

33 – Lucy’s Schedule

To celebrate their acquisition of the Tropicana, Alvin and Phoebe Littlefield decide to throw a smart dinner party for some of movers and shakers they’re friendly with. The mildly erotic way Mrs. Littlefield describes her “fresh, tender asparagus tips” makes an immediate impression on Harvey Cromwell, who right then and there decides to develop a live TV cooking program starring the Littlefields at home. Things go south, however, when the show is delayed by live broadcast of a presidential announcement and Alvin insists the show go on as scheduled, with or without a broadcast.

[Mot Morenzi]

30 – Lucy Does a TV Commercial

After the complete failure of their first foray into television on Your Saturday Night Varieties – thanks to an ill-cast pitchwoman – the inventor of Vitameatavegamin takes some time to regroup and relaunch his product. Getting rid of the mouthful of a name, he focuses just on the vitamin component, renames it “Vitamin E-4” and restructures his company to produce a syrup that can be franchised to little bottling plants across the country. Meanwhile, over in California, the faculty and student body at Madison High School decide this would be the idea business idea to raise money for their flagging school and its up to Brooks, Boynton and Conklin to whip up and ship out the first batch.

 

31 – The Publicity Agent

On a flying visit to America, the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar happens to read about his Franistanian colleague’s daughter travelling to the States to take in Ricky Ricardo’s act. Seeing the storm of publicity this has caused, not to mention the goodwill between the two nations, the singe Maharaja decides to try and one-up the other guy and decides to snag a blonde Hollywood star for his Maharani and sets his sights on Joan Davis.

 

32 – Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio

After attending a dubious political meeting, radio host Freddie Filmore is already skating on thin ice. When Senator McCarthy sits down for his evening meal to listen to Mr. and Mrs. Quiz, he’s incensed when he hears “The sap runs every two years” in response to a senator’s term of office. Concluding this was a planted response and a direct broadside at McCarthy himself, Freddie is hauled before the House of Un-American Activities to explain himself, and Filmore ultimately blames everything on his slightly dim office boy.

 

33 – Lucy’s Schedule

To celebrate their acquisition of the Tropicana, Alvin and Phoebe Littlefield decide to throw a smart dinner party for some of movers and shakers they’re friendly with. The mildly erotic way Mrs. Littlefield describes her “fresh, tender asparagus tips” makes an immediate impression on Harvey Cromwell, who right then and there decides to develop a live TV cooking program starring the Littlefields at home. Things go south, however, when the show is delayed by live broadcast of a presidential announcement and Alvin insists the show go on as scheduled, with or without a broadcast.

Hysterical! Love Lucy's Schedule in particular.

[Neil]

Don't want to step on anyone's toes, especially these toes that seemed to be on a role, but may I take a stab at "Ricky Wants a Raise"?   You can call it a spec script submitted by freelance writer although the situation is a little like Martin Ragaway trying to get interest in his I Love Lucy script "Lucy's Bonus Buck Bounces"

[Mot Morenzi]

Don't want to step on anyone's toes, especially these toes that seemed to be on a role, but may I take a stab at "Ricky Wants a Raise"?   You can call it a spec script submitted by freelance writer although the situation is a little like Martin Ragaway trying to get interest in his I Love Lucy script "Lucy's Bonus Buck Bounces"

Go for it!

[Brock]

Don't want to step on anyone's toes, especially these toes that seemed to be on a role, but may I take a stab at "Ricky Wants a Raise"?   You can call it a spec script submitted by freelance writer although the situation is a little like Martin Ragaway trying to get interest in his I Love Lucy script "Lucy's Bonus Buck Bounces"

 

Feel free to step on The Brains' toes, Fingers.

 

[Neil]

Ricky Asks for a Raise

begat

"Whatever Happened to Xavier Valdez?"

 

After word gets around about the walk-out for Xavier Valdez's Tropicana opening, he loses his hosting spot on "Your SaturdayNight Variety" and sinks into a depression.  No less crafty than Ricky Ricardo's wife, Mrs. Valdez hatches a revenge plot.  First she spikes the "YSNV" sponsor's already alcohol-filled tonic ensuring that the pitchwoman would get blasted and ruin Ricardo's "Yucatan" solo, then secures all the tickets to the broadcast and stages a mass exodus when the announcer tells the studio audience that Xavier Valdez is unable to appear.  The plan backfires when the New York TV critics rave about the inadvertent comedy of the commercial lady joining in during Ricardo's song. With his New York nightclub career ruined, Xavier takes the next booking that comes along: opening for Rudy Vallee at San Fernando Valley's "Bearded Beatnik" (later to become "The Hungry Hippy" and still later "The Hairy Ape").  In California, Yolanda (Mrs. Valdez) learns MGM has let the rights to "Don Juan" lapse, so she snaps up the property and pitches it to Mammoth Studios causing MGM to shelve the project which spells the end of Ricky Ricardo's movie career.  Thanks to her chipmunk-voiced friend who works at the studio, she's able to snag the lead in the Mammouth 2-Strip Color production for Xavier along with a plum role for herself.  She's less thrilled when the producer assigned is Sam Katzmann still riding the success of "Magic Carpet", which the studio plans to re-release as a double-bill with the new "Don Juan" bumped to the lower half of the program.  (Katzmann's claim: he produced the movie that launched Ball's television career).

Xavier Valdez: Vito Scotti. Yolanda: Penny Singleton.

Note: later when Xavier's career is featured in the movie "Konga Kings", Xavier Valdez, Jr. , whose only acting credit is a stint on his mother's "Here's Yolanda!" show, portrays his father.

[Brock]

Ricky Asks for a Raise

begat

"Whatever Happened to Xavier Valdez?"

 

After word gets around about the walk-out for Xavier Valdez's Tropicana opening, he loses his hosting spot on "Your SaturdayNight Variety" and sinks into a depression.  No less crafty than Ricky Ricardo's wife, Mrs. Valdez hatches a revenge plot.  First she spikes the "YSNV" sponsor's already alcohol-filled tonic ensuring that the pitchwoman would get blasted and ruin Ricardo's "Yucatan" solo, then secures all the tickets to the broadcast and stages a mass exodus when the announcer tells the studio audience that Xavier Valdez is unable to appear.  The plan backfires when the New York TV critics rave about the inadvertent comedy of the commercial lady joining in during Ricardo's song. With his New York nightclub career ruined, Xavier takes the next booking that comes along: opening for Rudy Vallee at San Fernando Valley's "Bearded Beatnik" (later to become "The Hungry Hippy" and still later "The Hairy Ape").  In California, Yolanda (Mrs. Valdez) learns MGM has let the rights to "Don Juan" lapse, so she snaps up the property and pitches it to Mammoth Studios causing MGM to shelve the project which spells the end of Ricky Ricardo's movie career.  Thanks to her chipmunk-voiced friend who works at the studio, she's able to snag the lead in the Mammouth 2-Strip Color production for Xavier along with a plum role for herself.  She's less thrilled when the producer assigned is Sam Katzmann still riding the success of "Magic Carpet", which the studio plans to re-release as a double-bill with the new "Don Juan" bumped to the lower half of the program.  (Katzmann's claim: he produced the movie that launched Ball's television career).

Xavier Valdez: Vito Scotti. Yolanda: Penny Singleton.

Note: later when Xavier's career is featured in the movie "Konga Kings", Xavier Valdez, Jr. , whose only acting credit is a stint on his mother's "Here's Yolanda!" show, portrays his father.

 

This is hilarious on so many levels.

[Brock]

Ricky Thinks He's Going Bald

With the cash in hand, Mr. Thurlow and his posse of bald men decide to take the money and have a wing-ding night out on the town. Hitting up New York CIty's latest craze, the Karaoke Bar, the men find that what they lack in hair they more than make up for in musical and vocal ability and decide to take their act on the road. Hitting local dives and making a buck or two here and there, they are down on their luck until they meet a similarly down-on-her-luck Rose Hovick while performing in a Chinese buffet. Without her daughters, and struggling with a little French blonde girl she exchanged on the black market for $10 and an egg roll, Rose thinks they would be perfect for a song and dance act she's been noodling on based on the nursery rhymes of Little Boy Blue and Little Bo Peep. When their premiere is panned after critics decided a group of old bald men in blue pyjamas was more creepy than cute, Rose decides to be avant-garde for once in her life. She streamlines their outfits, works on the act, gives them snappy black costumes, and ditches the blue pyjamas for blue body paint. Thus, a smash is born with Dainty Simone and Her Blue Man Group.

[Mot Morenzi]

I think this series deserves a second season.

 

36 - Job Switching - The timid Mr. Snodgrass and his employment agency are forever facing the wrath of the imposing Miss Allman, forewoman at Kramer's Kandy Kitchen, for constantly sending a stream of allegedly unqualified employees her way, through no fault of his own. Mr. Snodgrass is finally presented with a way to turn the tables, however, when the last recruitment of his to get fired was a genuinely talented, hard-working African American man (Sidney Poitier), leading Snodgrass to suspect that something more sinister is afoot. Joining forces with the man, they present their case that the candy company's initials are no coincidence and launch a class-action lawsuit for discrimination, which brings the candy dippers to their knees and a city to its feet.

 

37 - The Saxophone - This decades-spanning episode follows the travels of the saxophone itself, being passed along from tone-deaf redhead to tone-deaf redhead, appearing in everything from nightclub acts to beautiful secretary contests, and finally ending up in the hands of a Pasadena grandmother, trying to teach her granddaughter the tricks of the trade.

 

38 - The Anniversary Present - All alone down in the cold basement, the trusty old furnace hears the echoes of New York City life reverberate through its pipes day in and day out, hearing everything from Grace Foster's age-old affair with a milkman to Albert once again being summoned for his lunch. But unless someone is utilizing the snooper's friend, these slice-of-life moments fade into the brick and mortar, shaping the history of the city and painting the fabric of a crumbling brownstone day in and day out, which will one day be lost to time.

[Luvsbway]

Love that love saxophone one.