I LOVE LUCY: TENNESSEE ERNIE VISITS {COUSIN ERNIE, PART 1 OF 2} (TV)
Summary
One in this series of comedies about the escapades of Lucy Ricardo, a zany redheaded housewife with show business aspirations, her Cuban-born bandleader husband Ricky Ricardo, and their best friends and neighbors Fred and Ethel Mertz. Lucy receives a letter from her mother informing her that her mothers’ friends’ roommates’ cousins’ son, named Ernie, is travelling to New York from Tennessee, and the Ricardos have been shanghaied into entertaining him. Ricky is displeased with the arrangement, but concedes to looking after him for a while. Ernie arrives and it is readily apparent that he is a country bumpkin with virtually no knowledge of city life, causing some misunderstandings. He reveals he was planning on staying with the Ricardos and they procure a bed for him from Fred and Ethel. It isn’t long before Ernie starts making trouble for the Ricardos, first by not unfurling the rollaway bed they brought, then by awakening them early the next morning with his loud singing and guitar playing. He reveals that he sold his own guitar to pay for his bus fare to New York, leaving him with little money and forcing him to stay at the Ricardos’ place, where he says he feels “wanted.” Ernie’s voracious appetite soon puts strain on Lucy. When he takes the beads out of Ricky’s maracas, Ricky has had enough and goes to give Ernie a piece of his mind. However, he relents when Lucy gets a hold of Ernie’s letter to his mother back home, where he gives the Ricardos high praise for the kindness they’ve shown him. However, Lucy notices that Ernie’s mother warned him against the wiles of dolled-up city women, which gives her an idea. Lucy appears before Ernie in an elaborate “wicked woman” disguise in an attempt to drive him back to Tennessee. However, her plan backfires when he enjoys her attentions and Lucy beats a hasty retreat. Ernie vows to remain in New York until he finds her, further ruining the Ricardos’ plans to evict him. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: May 3, 1954 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:25:58
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: B:12744
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1951-1957
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Desi Arnaz … Executive Producer
- Jess Oppenheimer … Producer, Writer
- William Asher … Director
- Madelyn Pugh (See also: Madelyn Davis) … Writer
- Bob Carroll Jr. … Writer
- Eliot Daniel … Music by
- Wilbur Hatch … Music by, Conductor
- Lucille Ball … Cast, Lucy Ricardo
- Desi Arnaz … Cast, Ricky Ricardo
- Vivian Vance … Cast, Ethel Mertz
- William Frawley … Cast, Fred Mertz
- Tennessee Ernie Ford (see also: Ernest Ford) … Cast, Cousin Ernie