Lucy’s Impossible Mission – Here’s Lucy, season 1 – originally aired October 28, 1968
Lucy’s Impossible Mission is a spoof of Mission Impossible. Lucy becomes involved in a plot to find a list of secret agents on microfilm. After unwittingly intercepting a secret phone call, she’s involved. She has her family brought along so they wouldn’t be worried. So, She, Kim, Craig, and Harry have to impersonate a royal family. The secret agents will steal a man’s shoe at an embassy party. The shoe has the needed microfilm hidden inside. There’s a funny bit where Lucy, disguised as the princess, has to do a native dance at the party. Which, of course, she knows nothing about. Including dancing across hot coals! It’s cute how they play the Mission Impossible theme at certain points.
Funny Quotes
Agent Geller: Our organization is so top secret, we never have personal contact or even see the man we work for.
Lucy Carter (Lucille Ball): Oh, I wish I never had to see the man I work for. Boy, if you think you’re asked to do the impossible, you ought to work for my boss.
Lucy Carter (Lucille Ball): [Impersonating a princess] May the bird of paradise reward you with a drumstick.
Songs
- Yesterday, Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
- The Sunny Side of the Street, Written by Jimmy McHugh.
- Mission: Impossible Theme, Written by Lalo Schifrin
Cast
- Lucille Ball … Lucy Carter
- Gale Gordon … Harry Carter
- Lucie Arnaz … Kim Carter
- Desi Arnaz Jr. … Craig Carter
- Richard Derr (Terror is a Man) … Agent Geller
- Jack Collins (The Sting) … Agent Johnson
- Tim Herbert (Soylent Green) … Mahuli Omar
- Raymond Kark (Cold Turkey) … Proprietor (as Ray Kark)
- John J. Fox (Harlow) … Policeman
- Ken Drake … Butler
- Maxine Gates (Goof on the Roof) … Dowager
- Joseph Ruskin … Ambassador Korlik of the Slobtoni Embassy
Trivia
- Trying to remember the recorded message, Lucy mistakes the word ’embassy’ for ‘NBC’.
- Lucy & Gale Gordon got involved with spies previously In The Lucy Show, after seeing a James Bond film, Lucy Carmichael and Mr. Mooney get embroiled in a spy caper that finds her disguised as Broadway star Carol Channing in “Lucy and the Undercover Agent” (S4;E10).
- Agent Geller is named for Bruce Geller, the creator of Mission: Impossible, and Agent Johnson is named for Bob Johnson, the actor who provided the voice heard on each week’s self-destructing tape.
- “Mission: Impossible” was green-lit by the president of Desilu, Lucille Ball.
- As the Maharani, Lucy must improvise a dance routine. Although it starts off with Middle Eastern moves, Lucy turns it into a square dance. It then turns into an American Indian War Dance and a Charleston. It culminates with Lucy walking across hot coals and sticking her feet in a tub of champagne bottles for relief.
- Lucy’s impersonation of a Middle Eastern Maharani is a direct homage to I Love Lucy’s “The Publicity Agent” (S1;E32) where Lucy Ricardo created the character of the Scheherazade of Franistan. Even the nasal voice is similar.