My perceptions, as a rapidly ageing adult are slightly different from what I remember from when I was eleven. However, this is still one of my favorite episodes of the series and it is filled with colorful and interesting guests.
Of course, there's Superman. Crossovers between two popular shows were rarely done in the fifties, especially when one was a CBS comedy and the other was a syndicated (dare I call it a) drama. The presence of Superman seemed so unique and essential that I don't think many people realized that he only had a few minutes of screen time and a half dozen actual lines.
And of course, there was Madge Blake, who might have been the only regular or recurring performer from the Batman series of the sixties, to also be on a show with Superman. Even when I was an eleven year old aspiring writer, I was sorry that they had actually given Madge's character the first name, Martha. If they had left her unnamed, it would have been easy to imagine that this was actually Dick Graison's Aunt Harriett, ten years earlier. Maybe her husband had since died and she had been taken in by Bruce Wayne to assist in raising Dick. The arguably crass innuendo in my last line was unintentional but I'll leave it, just the same. Though Madge's character was considered minor, and Superman was the show's special guest, the two essentially had the same amounts of dialogue and screen time.
Superman and Batman, though long term friends from the comic books, could never have met, on the Adam West series. George Reeves was long dead and the children who watched Batman when it was new were also watching Superman in syndicated reruns. Having a different actor play Superman, on Batman, might have confused a lot of kids. One might say that Madge Blake's appearance here provided the missing link between the two shows.
And then there's Doris Singleton, a regular guest on Lucy and Desilu shows for roughly thirty years, and George O'Hanlon , who had made his mark as Joe McDoakes in a series of comedic movie shorts and would later voice George Jetson. George's face wasn't recognizable when I first saw this show because movie shorts were essentially lost, for several decades, until they were resurrected on classic movie stations.
Finally, though I Love Lucy was innovative for filming multi-camera, in front of live audiences, I can't imagine that this episode was done that way. A dozen five year olds at Little Ricky's birthday party would have likely been difficult to direct without room for multiple takes, though not nearly as difficult as the dozen actual live birds, on the ledge. Clearly, this scene was shot in an indoor space but I can't imagine how all of those birds were trained to stand still, to walk in place and especially to stand on Lucy's arms and shoulders. The show was normally rehearsed and shot over the course of a few days. How did they find and train an assortment of pigeons and sea gulls, so quickly? If there is an article or if there's footage anywhere that elaborates on how this episode was shot, I'd love to learn more.
All in all, I'd say that this is a rather memorable moment in time that is just as worth watching today as it was when it was first broadcast, sixty five years ago.
Of course, there's Superman. Crossovers between two popular shows were rarely done in the fifties, especially when one was a CBS comedy and the other was a syndicated (dare I call it a) drama. The presence of Superman seemed so unique and essential that I don't think many people realized that he only had a few minutes of screen time and a half dozen actual lines.
And of course, there was Madge Blake, who might have been the only regular or recurring performer from the Batman series of the sixties, to also be on a show with Superman. Even when I was an eleven year old aspiring writer, I was sorry that they had actually given Madge's character the first name, Martha. If they had left her unnamed, it would have been easy to imagine that this was actually Dick Graison's Aunt Harriett, ten years earlier. Maybe her husband had since died and she had been taken in by Bruce Wayne to assist in raising Dick. The arguably crass innuendo in my last line was unintentional but I'll leave it, just the same. Though Madge's character was considered minor, and Superman was the show's special guest, the two essentially had the same amounts of dialogue and screen time.
Superman and Batman, though long term friends from the comic books, could never have met, on the Adam West series. George Reeves was long dead and the children who watched Batman when it was new were also watching Superman in syndicated reruns. Having a different actor play Superman, on Batman, might have confused a lot of kids. One might say that Madge Blake's appearance here provided the missing link between the two shows.
And then there's Doris Singleton, a regular guest on Lucy and Desilu shows for roughly thirty years, and George O'Hanlon , who had made his mark as Joe McDoakes in a series of comedic movie shorts and would later voice George Jetson. George's face wasn't recognizable when I first saw this show because movie shorts were essentially lost, for several decades, until they were resurrected on classic movie stations.
Finally, though I Love Lucy was innovative for filming multi-camera, in front of live audiences, I can't imagine that this episode was done that way. A dozen five year olds at Little Ricky's birthday party would have likely been difficult to direct without room for multiple takes, though not nearly as difficult as the dozen actual live birds, on the ledge. Clearly, this scene was shot in an indoor space but I can't imagine how all of those birds were trained to stand still, to walk in place and especially to stand on Lucy's arms and shoulders. The show was normally rehearsed and shot over the course of a few days. How did they find and train an assortment of pigeons and sea gulls, so quickly? If there is an article or if there's footage anywhere that elaborates on how this episode was shot, I'd love to learn more.
All in all, I'd say that this is a rather memorable moment in time that is just as worth watching today as it was when it was first broadcast, sixty five years ago.