The Lucy Show (TV Series) Lucy the Babysitter (1967) User Reviews

Certainly the Best of All the "Monkey" Shows She Did

[kgraovac · 7/10 · 6 October 2023]

Normally I would rate any episode with chimps, gorillas or Gorboonas very low. The writers mined the well for monkeyshines wayyyy too many times on these post-I Love Lucy series. But I have to say, this one is not half-bad and definitely the best of a weak bunch.

Lucy takes a babysitting job to earn what she thinks is easy money (remember when she did this with twins on I Love Lucy?). This episode is notable because the business that assigns Lucy the job is called the Unique Employment Agency-foreshadowing the office setting on Here's Lucy. Elvia Allman plays the job counselor and Mary Wickes appears as the "Mom" of "triplets" which turns out to be a trio of young chimpanzees. The appearance of these ladies make it seem like Old Home Week and elevates the episode. It gains another star for the sweet way Lucy interacts with the primates, especially the "baby".

Wickes and Allman, Together At Last?

[richard.fuller1 · 10/10 · 9 September 2006]

Lucy is given a job baby-sitting after she has a falling out with Mr. Mooney.

Alvia Allman is the receptionist at the employment agency.

Mary Wickes is the 'mother' to the three chimpanzees.

Can this be the only appearance of these two recognizeable ladies, even tho they don't appear in a scene together? As far as the episode goes, I remember it as a child, being absolutely fascinated by that tree in the room (bedroom? Living room? It was just off of the front door, but the bunkbeads were in it, so I'm not sure what room this was supposed to be).

Lucy's ability to keep up with the monkeys, realizing that it would be futile to try to outshine them, is remarkable to observe.

She knew the chimps were the stars, or they weren't impressed by working with her, so why fight it? This then, as often happens with a star's humility, makes her shine even greater.

The chimps themselves? Amazing how childlike they are. Try not to laugh at one on skates being shoved by the other one.

I could have sworn there was a scene where either Lucy or Mary Wickes picked up the pagama top (we even see it on the bed) and holds it up so we can see the exceptionally long arms, but it wasn't on this DVD collection.

Perhaps I am thinking of another program.

Unique Lucy employment

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 9 June 2016]

The first review was posted almost ten years ago...and I agree with most of it, especially the part about Ball not trying to compete with the chimps. She plays along with them and does it very well-- but make no mistake, she's very much in charge of those scenes. The off- camera trainer is ensuring that the chimps perform in a way that doesn't interfere with the typical Lucy style of comedy.

One thing that doesn't work for me is how the whole second half of the episode is mostly just her and the chimps-- there is a lot of physical stuff she has to do with all three animals. And what we see is an older woman who smokes a lot getting out of breath quickly. After the first minute of that extended sequence, it's not really fun watching her lose her breath and exhaust herself on screen. Too bad they couldn't have written it where she is more stationary and the animals do little tricks around her. Like the part where she steps to the side and the chimp plays on the organ. It still relies on her reactions/funny expressions-- but she gets to stand still and catch her breath.

Also, I wanted to add that the Unique Employment Agency she goes through to get the babysitting job was an idea developed by writers Milt Josefsberg and Ray Singer. In Josefsberg's book on comedy writing, he describes how they reused the concept for a unique employment agency as the basis for her next sitcom, 'Here's Lucy,' which she and Gale Gordon operated.

Terrible

[grantcary · 29 April 2022]

Nadir of a very bad series ....should have ended as a series years before this tired episode was ever dreamed up...Lucy without Ricky is like a day without sunshine.