I LOVE LUCY

After Lucy louses up a dinner appointment with the new Tropicana boss, Alvin Littlefield, and his wife Phoebe, by being late, Ricky promptly puts his wife on a rigid time schedule. (Ricky: "Ten minutes for this, fifteen minutes for that.")

Ricky informs Littlefield of Lucy's schedule a meeting to discuss the possibility of Ricky being made manager of the Tropicana, adding, "I've got her jumping around like a trained seal!" Seeing is believing, so Ricky invites the Littlefields to dinner to watch Lucy "perform."

When Lucy gets wind of the plot, she schemes with Ethel and Mrs. Littlefield to teach their time-conscious husbands a well-deserved lesson. The various dinner courses are rushed to the table and then whisked away in seconds, with Lucy finally donning a catcher's mitt to catch hot biscuits being thrown by Ethel from the kitchen.

Littlefield has seen quite enough: "This is no way to run a house, but it is the only way to run a nightclub, Mr. Manager."

Special Notes: This was the first television appearance of Gale Gordon with Lucille Ball. Eleven years later, they began an eleven-year association on "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy". Gordon had appeared on Lucy's radio program, "My Favorite Husband," from 1948 to 1951 and had been considered the first choice for what eventually became the Fred Mertz role on "Lucy". Edith Meiser, who played Phoebe Littlefield in this and a subsequent episode, appeared in 1941 with Vivian Vance in Cole Porter's Broadway musical, "Let's Face It." This episode is based on lucy's radio show, My Favorite Husband, Episode #41, "Time Budgeting".