News Blackout

"I'll relay the information to Wilbur Post, right away!" said Miss Hathaway, Mr. Drysdale's secretary.

She was a highly intelligent, very scrupulous, but exceeding plain young woman.

"How beautiful," she said to herself. "A baby. An enfante. Perchance one fine day I will enter the holy bonds of matrimony and be blessed by a visit from the stork!"

She pictured herself marrying Jethro Bodine. Bodine was the idiot nephew of Jed Clampett, the hillbilly multimillionaire. Her reflections, however, were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Mr. Drysdale.

"Excellent news, chief!" relayed Miss Hathaway. "Mrs. Post is currently in transit. She will presently arrive at the hospital where the stork shall present her with a little visitor!"

"I take it," said Mr. Drysdale, long acquainted with his secretary's loquaciousness, "you mean she's having the baby?"

"Let's not be crude!" Miss Hathaway exclaimed.

"If Lucy and Ricky could have a baby on I Love Lucy . . . using those exact words . . . I don't see why Mr. And Mrs. Post can't have one in real life."

"Perhaps," said Miss Hathaway doubtfully.

"Well, anyway that is good news" conceded Mr. Drysdale. "But I forbid you to tell Mr. Post."

"But chief . . . ." started Miss Hathaway.

"Not another word," said Mr. Drysdale firmly. "We're finally making progress, and should have everything sorted out in a few hours."

"Mrs. Addison . . . the Posts' neighbour . . . requested that I relay the information!" insisted Miss Hathaway.

"Then relay this: Mr. Post and I have left for city hall and can't be reached," said Mr. Drysdale. "Mr. Post will be home in three or four hours."

"I won't be a party to such a shameful deception."

"Shameful deception," scoffed Mr. Drysdale. "All I'm doing is saving Wilbur a few miserable hours pacing in a waiting room with the other nervous wrecks."

"Nonsense" argued Miss Hathaway.

"You help me with this shameful deception, or I'll find a new secretary who will," Mr. Drysdale replied. "And just so you don't spill the beans later, I want you gone for the day . . . take these papers to Jed Clampett."

Miss Hathaway crossed her arms, pouted . . . and started to dial the phone.

"I knew I could trust you," Mr. Drysdale replied oilily.

Miss Hathaway is Mr. Drysdale's secretary on the Beverley Hillbillies, and is in love with Jethro Bodine for most of the earlier seasons.

Lucy Ricardo "had a baby" in the second season of I Love Lucy