User Reviews

I have always loved the beautiful Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. The two were close friends. Carol returns after a horrible season one, episode 17 outing which was a musical instead of a situation comedy and failed miserably. This episode is everything one would expect from a Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett partnership.

Carol plays the fictional Carol Krausmeyer and not herself. Carol plays Lucy's friend, having met in secretarial school. Carol is feisty and funny. Lucy and she are competing in a secretarial beauty pageant.

The show opens with Carol walking in a cafeteria and the theme music from her show playing, nice touch! Lucy sees her and both women start conversing with an unfortunate man, Buddy Lewis, in line between them. Carol tells Lucy she is in a beauty contest right as the bell on the cash register dings. Carol yells at the cashier scaring her to death.

As Lucy and Carol lift their legs they debate who has better legs. They inadvertently trip Lewis.

Gale Gordon is reliable for laughs as always. He tells Lucy he directed all his college musicals. He shows Lucy how to walk gracefully as if floating through a sea of whip cream. He prances around the office just as Carol walks in. Carol says "You've got my vote baby!"

Lucy introduces her to Harry and Carol says, "Sure kid, we've all got our problems. The important thing is be happy." With the perfect set up Carol takes aim questioning Harry's manhood.

An uncomfortable Harry excuses himself and as he is going through the door, Carol nails him with a final zinger, "Oh sweetie, don't look now but your seams are crooked." Harry's indignant and humiliated reaction is priceless.

Lucy learns that Carol is going undercover to find out what type of woman judge Robert Alda, Alan's Dad, likes. She dresses up like a Janis Joplin flower child. Lucy shows up after Carol disguised as an old woman with a mop saluting Carol's own cartoon caricature featured on her show. Alda says he has to leave and the ensuing dialogue between Lucy and Carol busted my gut:

Carol: "Old lady, why don't you take a detergent break!"

Carol: "Where did you every dream up a goofy outfit like that?"

Lucy: "From some dame on TV."

Carol: "She must be some kind of nut!"

Lucy's funniest line to Carol was "I have seen you in a bathing suit. You look like a spider on a hunger strike!"

The pageant brings a lot of laughs. Carol hogs the stage, mugs for the audience, and makes unwanted advances to Alda.

The pageant ends with Alda announcing there is a tie. Carol and Lucy believe they were selected but Alda announces two other names.

This episode shows Lucy and Carol at their best. Carol is still with us today and just as beautiful as ever. Lucy is dearly missed. Both women have my undying affection because they had it all. Their intelligence, humor, grace, humility, and compassion made them physically irresistible. We understand what Desi Arnaz Sr. Said about Lucy before he died. "I Love Lucy was more than a title."