Lucy the Bean Queen – The Lucy Show season 5
In Lucy the Bean Queen, Lucy launches a get-rich-quick scheme by taking advantage of a bean’s company’s double-your-money-back offer. A very funny episode.
Synopsis of Lucy the Bean Queen
Lucy wants new furniture, that will cost her $1,500 (in 1966 dollars). So, she asks her boss, Mr. Mooney, to cosign a loan. He understandably turns her down, given her understanding of finances. For example, she then asks for a loan, based on the value of her old furniture:
Mr. Mooney: You expect me to authorize a loan of $1,500 on furniture that costs $800 on which you still owe $700?
Lucy Carmichael: Well, certainly. 800 and 700 equals 1,500.
So, no loan. But Mr. Mooney’s investing in “Bailey’s Beans”, a company offering double your money back if they’re not the best beans you’ve ever eaten. And after Mr. Mooney teaches her what would happen if she doubled 1 cent every day for 19 days, she has an idea …
Lucy’s scheme hatches
So, Lucy donates her old furniture to charity. Because she has a plan. She’ll buy 1 can, and return it for double her money back. Then, using that money, she’ll buy 2 cans, and return those. And so on …
Lucy: This idea is so simple, it scares me.
Mary Jane: All of your ideas scare me!
So, Lucy has mapped out the various stores, where she and Mary Jane start the scheme. And poor Mr. Bailey’s losing money — and so’s Mr. Mooney!
Mr. Bailey: Now Theodore, it ain’t gonna do no good, you standing there squawking like a hen laying a square egg!
And after a funny scene of rearranging the boxes of beans into impromptu furniture, Lucy the Bean Queen goes to the warehouse, and delivers 3,000 cans to poor Colonel Bailey! Dropping crates and driving a forklift through a wall!
Finally, back at the empty apartment, Lucy has her check for $1,500! But then she actually tastes the beans, and realizes they are the best beans she’s ever eaten! She tears up the check! And Mr. Mooney and Colonel Bailey come in. And he’s so impressed with Lucy’s testimonial, that he pays for the furniture. He’ll make her Bailey’s Bean Queen!
Cast of characters in The Lucy Show – The Bean Queen
- Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy, The Long Long Trailer) … Lucy Carmichael
- Gale Gordon (Visit to a Small Planet, Don’t Give Up the Ship) … Mr. Theodore J. Mooney
- Ed Begley (12 Angry Men, The Unsinkable Molly Brown) … Colonel Beauregard Bailey
- Mary Jane Croft (I Love Lucy – season 6, Lucy Calls the President) … Mary Jane Lewis
- Richard Jury … Addison the Bean Salesman
- Joseph Mell (I Was a Teenage Werewolf) … Manager #2
- John Perri … Manager #3
- Sid Gould (Advise and Consent) … 1st Furniture Delivery Man
- Bennett Green … 2nd Furniture Delivery Man