Don Juan is Shelved – I Love Lucy season 4, episode 119, originally aired: 3/21/1955
After finding out that Don Juan, the movie that Ricky came out to Hollywood to star in, has been canceled, Ricky is depressed. In an attempt to change the studio’s mind, Lucy, Fred and Ethel attempt a letter-writing campaign, as the Ricky Ricardo Fan Club. Lucy then has a ‘great idea’. They’ll hire an actor to play the part of a producer from a rival studio, who’s interested in starring Ricky in a picture, in order to push Dore Schary, Ricky’s producer, to use him in another picture.
The ‘actor’ they hire at the hotel’s poolside, however, is the actual Dore Schary (played by Phil Ober, Vivian Vance‘s husband at the time), who plays along, in order to tell Ricky personally that even though Don Juan is shelved, the studio had been planning to star Ricky in another picture all along.
Don Juan is Shelved is available on the I Love Lucy season 4 DVD collection.
funny quotes from Don Juan is Shelved – I Love Lucy
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): That cat wasn’t let out of the bag, it was yanked out!
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Change your handwriting.
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): I did change my handwriting. The last hundred letters I used my left.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) [looking at one of the letters that Fred wrote]: Your left what? Your left foot?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Metro just gave me the door and the fence.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Oh! They gave you the gate.
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Maybe they’ll use me in one of the Marx Brothers‘ pictures – Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Floppo.
Bobby the Bellhop: I’ve got shoes that make me four inches taller.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): How do they work?
Bobby the Bellhop: Fine, but my ears pop.