I know not many people would give this one an 8-star rating, but I have a special fondness for this episode. It was one of the first LUCY SHOW episodes I ever saw and it's a guilty pleasure full of goofy Sixties charm.
Chris and her gal pals are all set to spend Spring Break at Sandy Cove - until stodgy old Principal Westcott won't allow his daughter Debbie to go. It isn't made clear why this would have any bearing on why all the other girls would be forbidden to attend - I assume because Westcott is such a pillar of the community that everyone else would just follow suit.
Anyway, Lucy volunteers herself and Viv as chaperones but when they make the girls go to bed early and get called old fogies, they decide to act like teenagers so the girls will accept them.
That's basically the whole plot, but like I said, it's the campy early '60s flavor that makes this one such fun. The written by/directed by credits have this over-the-top twangy motif that is supposed to sound like rock and roll circa 1963. Lucy schools Viv in all the hip lingo. Lucie Arnaz has a small part and we get to see both her and Lucy do the Mashed Potato.
Lucy and Viv make a grand entrance on the boardwalk and perform a twangy duet on "Big Girls Don't Cry" with MY THREE SONS' Don Grady backing them up on guitar. Teen singer Eddie Hodges ("I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door") also appears. When the ladies sing, I almost get teary, sad for an era of innocence that will never come again.
The bat that terrorizes them in the cabin is laughably cheesy and the finale is too chaotic but this is still one of my favorites of the series for sentimental reasons. Not hilarious, but wonderfully nostalgic and a definite early Sixties time capsule.
Chris and her gal pals are all set to spend Spring Break at Sandy Cove - until stodgy old Principal Westcott won't allow his daughter Debbie to go. It isn't made clear why this would have any bearing on why all the other girls would be forbidden to attend - I assume because Westcott is such a pillar of the community that everyone else would just follow suit.
Anyway, Lucy volunteers herself and Viv as chaperones but when they make the girls go to bed early and get called old fogies, they decide to act like teenagers so the girls will accept them.
That's basically the whole plot, but like I said, it's the campy early '60s flavor that makes this one such fun. The written by/directed by credits have this over-the-top twangy motif that is supposed to sound like rock and roll circa 1963. Lucy schools Viv in all the hip lingo. Lucie Arnaz has a small part and we get to see both her and Lucy do the Mashed Potato.
Lucy and Viv make a grand entrance on the boardwalk and perform a twangy duet on "Big Girls Don't Cry" with MY THREE SONS' Don Grady backing them up on guitar. Teen singer Eddie Hodges ("I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door") also appears. When the ladies sing, I almost get teary, sad for an era of innocence that will never come again.
The bat that terrorizes them in the cabin is laughably cheesy and the finale is too chaotic but this is still one of my favorites of the series for sentimental reasons. Not hilarious, but wonderfully nostalgic and a definite early Sixties time capsule.
