MovieChat Forums > I Love Lucy (1951) Discussion > Lucy's Last Birthday

Lucy's Last Birthday

posted 8 years ago by [email protected] (1732)
6 replies | jump to latest

How bad is this episode? I've never really enjoyed it, but I recognized how truly awful it is
recently when I gave it another go. Despite the presence of Mrs. Trumble, who is
charming here - attentive, kindhearted and cute...the episode just falls flat, thanks to
terrible pacing and a Lucy here that is waaaaaaaaay too self-pitying and childish. It is also
rather unbelievable that Ricky would risk Lucy's wrath by totally ignoring her birthday, then
calling her at night and expecting her to travel all the way down to the club to deliver
music, when he knows how (understandably) hurt she'd be. Why couldn't he have given her
a card and candy in the morning, then ask her to come down to the club with the sheet
music and they'd go to a fine restaurant from there?? She'd be properly dressed and totally
floored by the party when she got there. Ricky's brainless choices defy common sense.

In the second half of this thudding bore of an offering (which feels like 45 minutes later),
Lucy is sitting alone in the park (A single young woman alone in Central Park??? Pretty
dumb and dangerous - even in 1953). Out of the blue, comes this marching band of
self-pitying bores - totally contrived. The scene is long and dull, and the old man and
his speech go on FOREVER!

Finally, when Lucy arrives (as if even Lucy would track in all those losers to disrupt Ricky's
show), she makes a complete fool out of herself. Again, even by Lucy's standards, her
behavior here is embarrassing.

Here's the odd part: The last five minutes or so conclude with the charming "I Love Lucy"
theme song - with lyrics! - sung by Ricky to Lucy , as all her friends well-wish her. It's
a charming finale to a totally dog of an episode.

Very, very few "I Love Lucy's are wince-inducing bad, but count this as one of the few.

[–] [email protected] (6247) 8 years ago

Yeah it really is pretty bad! I haven't even thought of that episode in a long time. And even though I have all six seasons, I never go out of my way to watch that one.

It is too maudlin and childish, a grown woman so upset about a forgotten birthday.

Ricky, in his own clumsy way, thought he had come up with a great surprise, only to have Lucy depressed for her entire birthday.

The only bright spot for me is the "Friends of the Friendless" band. It is such a goofy song, but I admit I sometimes sing it when I am doing stuff around the house, "We are friends of the friendless, yes we are, yes we are..." lol Such a silly song, but I sometimes sing it.

Lucy, on the other hand, should have known better. She certainly wasn't friendless. Sh had a loving husband and friends. I think it was just the type of silly sitcom antics which were acceptable in that era. Today, not so much!

[–] [email protected] (1732) 8 years ago

Again, the only bright spot for me is the "I Love Lucy" theme song, sung so lovingly by Ricky. And Lucy embracing all of
her friends is wonderful. Can't say I share your enthusiasm for the "Friendless" song, which is pretty bad to me (even
the reliable Barbara Pepper is robbed of any dialogue - all of it goes to those two silly old men).

Also interesting: Notice how Charlie and Caroline Appleby aren't mentioned or present. Doris Singleton was no extra,
and if she couldn't have any lines, there was obviously no point in including their characters. But WHY make Pepper -
a funny character actor - an extra???

[–] [email protected] (6247) 8 years ago

Oh yes, the Lucy theme sung by Ricky was so nice. As Desi Arnaz said, "I Love Lucy was never just a title."

Didn't mean to imply that I actually liked the "Friends of the Friendless" song. lol It's just one of those oddball tunes that gets stuck in my head sometimes. It's happened with other songs too, even commercial jingles.

Caroline Appleby, not in attendance? I'd like to think that Ricky invited her but that she had accepted a previous engagement like Charlie had a business dinner to attend. I was just watching "Sentimental Anniversary" and neither she nor Marion Strong were invited by the Mertzes. They weren't present when the Ricardos had a party after they returned from Hollywood.

It always seemed strange to me that the two women were established as Lucy's friends but they didn't get invited to social functions. I guess they weren't "extras" as you said. They weren't going to be in attendance just to stand in the background.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 8 years ago

Very sharp observations. But we have to remember that Lucy's relationship with Caroline was extremely competitive - and the bond Lucy shared with the Mertz's - was much tighter than Lucy's with the Applebee's.

[–] [email protected] (6247) 8 years ago

Lucy's friendships is an interesting topic to me. She obviously had a wide circle of friends but Ethel was her one true, closest friend.

For one thing Ethel was not in competition with her like Carolyn Appleby was. I often saw Lucy and Carolyn as "frenemies". I heard that term a few years ago and I think it indicates people who are friends but very competitive. As you said, extremely competitive! And when they became mothers at the same time, even more competitive!

I am referring to "Baby Pictures" when Lucy just had to drop by and see Carolyn with little Ricky and they engaged in insulting each other's babies. Both babies were awfully cute! There was no need for either mother to act so silly. But as usual, Lucy started it!

Lucy did have a lot of girlfriends though. In the episode when Ricky is waiting to hear from Hollywood, he kept telling her friends that Lucy wasn't home so they wouldn't tie up the telephone. Later on Ethel is babysitting and has a pile of messages from friends who call Lucy.

I especially like when she explained that Ricky wanted the phone lines open because Lucy can be on the phone with "one of her gabbier friends like Carolyn" for hours and it WAS Carolyn she was speaking to! lol

Now that I think about it, Lucy never enlisted any of her friends in her wild schemes. It was always the long suffering Ethel!

Of course it was only a thirty minute show. They couldn't show all of Lucy's friendships. Like on the old Dick van Dyke Show, Carl Reiner said that they couldn't write for too many characters. Buddy's wife Pickles was in a few episodes. But usually he was at the Petrie house for dinner or parties without her. Unusual for a married man to go so many places without his wife all the time, but that's the nature of the sitcom.

Lucy seemed to have a lot of girlfriends but we rarely saw them. She usually spoke to them on the phone or they were at the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League meetings.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 8 years ago

And on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" Murray often showed up at parties without Marie. And, of course, on
"Bewitched", Larry often came to dinner parties sans Louise.