Ah, to Spend Tuesdays in Black and White

One of the best things about TV in the ‘90s is that at almost any hour of day or night you can escape it for TV of the ‘70s, ‘60s or ‘50s. When shows get to be this old, they are no longer merely reruns; they also may have become classics.

It’s made me very happy to spend Tuesday nights this summer nestled in the bosom of the ‘50s, the first full decade of television. From 8:30 until midnight, I can watch nothing but black-and-white beauties that first made me laugh many, many years ago.

The heart of the matter is Nick at Nite’s “Lucy Tuesday,” part of the network’s “Block Party” programming format used each summer. Monday night you can see nothing but old “Monkees” episodes, for example (if you really, really want to). But Tuesday is the best--six episodes of “I Love Lucy,” the greatest sitcom of all time, back to back to back.

This week’s “Lucy” episodes included such heirlooms of the air as “The Seance,” in which Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball, as all the world knows) and pal Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) joined forces to pull wool over the eyes of a superstitious producer so he’d hire Ricky (Desi Arnaz). Fred Mertz (William Frawley) naturally became involved as well.

Ethel pretended to be a medium, Madame Mertzola, who enters the spirit world to contact the producer’s dear, long-lost Tilly (“Ethel to Tilly, Ethel to Tilly”). Tilly turned out to be not the man’s wife but--ah, but there still might be three people who haven’t seen it, so we shouldn’t give it away.

In another episode this week, Lucy and Ethel fell under the mistaken notion that Ricky and Fred had been drafted because they were training to appear in a variety show at an Army base. Meanwhile, Ricky and Fred got the erroneous idea that their wives were pregnant, though the word “pregnant” could not be used on TV shows of that era.

And then there was an episode called “The Fur Coat,” in which Lucy got the mistaken idea (the series abounded in mistaken ideas) that a fur coat Ricky rented for a woman to wear in his nightclub act was really an anniversary present for Lucy. Lucy loved the coat so much she wore it to bed. In the morning, she cooked breakfast with an apron over it.

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No matter how many times the best “Lucy” episodes are shown, they retain their ridiculous charm, mostly because of the brilliance of the leading lady. Lucille Ball died in 1989 at the age of 77, but watching her on these amazingly resilient episodes makes that seem a mere technicality.

In order to see nothing but shows from the ‘50s one recent Tuesday, I abandoned “Lucy” at one point for an episode of “The Phil Silvers Show” on Nick at Nite’s companion channel, TV Land. So far, the reruns on TV Land have not been auspicious--lots of old “Mannix” and “Cannon” fodder. But the Silvers show, a wild Army farce originally titled “You’ll Never Get Rich,” has a reckless brilliance that refuses to fade.

That week’s episode was a particular treasure, since it featured a cameo appearance by Mike Todd, legendary producer of the film “Around the World in 80 Days” and, of course, one of the many husbands of Elizabeth Taylor. Todd played himself, sponsoring a contest to see who could go around the world in 80 hours (which sounded almost impossible back then). Silvers as the constantly conniving Sgt. Bilko conspired to win by having himself declared a piece of Army luggage and being transported from flight to flight.

Finally at 11:30 Tuesday nights on WGN, the Chicago station carried on many cable systems and the DBS satellite system, comes one more golden oldie, an episode of “The Honeymooners” starring Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows and Art Carney. Priceless.

Thus does a night in the ‘50s come to an end. But next Tuesday, the ‘50s will be back again. It’s like a summer vacation every week.