The Lucy Show (TV Series) Lucy Gets Caught Up in the Draft (1966) User Reviews

Not as Bad As I Remembered

[kgraovac · 6/10 · 15 November 2023]

A clerical error has Lucy receiving a draft letter for Lou C. Carmichael and when she tries to correct it, she ends up in basic training instead.

I remember this as being one of the worst episodes of the series, but after watching it again it's not as bad as I remembered. Yes, it's a very stupid premise, and I always disliked the Lucy-in-drag episodes but this time the situation allows for a different dynamic - she's in men's clothes in a man's environment bur she's NOT in disguise.

Since Lucy's not trying to pass as male, her performance in the military fatigues is easier to take. She knows she's a woman and wants everyone else to know it too, and it's refreshing to see her be defiant and antagonistic to the Drill Sergeant - because she knows she's right and not trying to pull off a scheme.

The funniest parts are when the officer thinks Mooney is her father, when the Drill Sergeant hands Mooney the medal for bravery and the surprise cameo by Jim Nabors.

BTW, the biggest blooper of the series happens here. Lucy makes rare mention of her two kids, but she refers to Jerry as "Jimmy Carmichael". Lucille Ball was corrected on the set but insisted she was right and the mistake lives on in rerun perpetuity.

Proof that Lucille Ball could have just stood there drooling for a half hour and folks would have loved it!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 25 February 2020]

The plot to "Lucy Gets Caught Up in the Draft" is so fundamentally stupid and nonsensical that it helps to prove that back in the day, Lucille Ball was so popular that she could have done ANYTHING and the public would have watched her show. That, and the writers of her 1960s show essentially were phoning it in here!

When the episode begins, Lucy receives an induction notice addressed to Lou C. Carmichael. Naturally a mistake has been made...they used this script! If such a thing were really to have occurred, Lucy should have just ignored the notice, but being a comedy show, Mr. Mooney convinces her to go down in person to explain the mistake...and they insist that she's been inducted. So, a middle-aged woman is being inducted into the Marines...that's really stretching. And, throughout the show, she keeps insisting they've made a mistake and the folks in charge admit it must be true but 'orders are orders'.

While times have changed, women have never been drafted into the US military. And, if they would, they would have picked someone who wasn't 55 years-old! An utterly ridiculous story that just isn't funny...despite the laugh track that insisted it was. Normally, I wouldn't review a show like this...but it was appallingly bad that I felt compelled and I doubt if I'll review any more Lucy shows.

Utter Fantasy

[richard.fuller1 · 29 April 2006]

Lucy Carmichael is drafted with a letter addressed to 'Lou C. Carmichael'.

She takes the letter down to the draft board and they tell her she must fill in.

Until what? Someone is found to fill the gap? Then the army must track down this Lou C. Carmichael and hold him accountable.

But Lucy Carmicheal isn't responsible for keeping up the military's quota.

Nevertheless, I supposed we wouldn't have this rather unique episode in comedy.

Hardly funny, tho much of the Lucy show from the 1960s is hardly funny, the episode is insightful to such an idea, and perhaps even rather prophetic to women in the military.

Amusing bits are definitely Lucy referring to herself as tho she will simply be a girl in the army.

By this time, Lucille Ball was in her mid-fifties. That is hardly being perceived as a girl.

But then Lucy sought to deny her age, obviously.

This is the episode with the cameo from Jim Nabors at the end.

This then rather runs the loop of Lucy, Andy Griffith, Jim Nabors and Danny Thomas full circle, in a sense.

Lucy Ricardo would meet Danny thomas and his TV family on an episode of the Lucy-Desi comedy hour, Danny Thomas would drive thru Mayberry and meet Sheriff Taylor, which would spawn the Andy Griffith show.

Andy Griffith show is where Gomer Pyle began, who would get his own show, and now the caricature of Gomer, tho unnamed and uncredited, would turn up on Lucy's show, tho here she is Lucy Carmichael, not Lucy Ricardo (tho again, both women would give her maiden name as McGillacuddy).