| Jerry | |
|---|---|
 Jerry Hausner appears as Jerry, Ricky's agent, in Seasons 1-3 of "I Love Lucy". | |
| Vital information | |
| Gender: | Male |
| Personal and Family information | |
| Occupation/ Career: |
Ricky Ricardo's agent |
| Character information | |
| Appeared on: | I Love Lucy |
| Episodes appeared in: | 14 from Seasons 1-3 as well as the original unaired pilot episode "The Lost Pilot" |
| Character played by: | Jerry Hausner |
Jerry was the agent of Ricky Ricardo who first appears in "The Lost Pilot"", the very first episode of I Love Lucy, which was shot in early 1951 before the series was picked up by CBS-TV for the 1951-52 TV season. Played by actor Jerry Hausner, Jerry, a recurring character, would appear in 14 episodes in all during the first 3 seasons of the series.
About the "Jerry" character[]
In the show's original pilot episode "The Lost Pilot", Jerry had a main part. Ricky's original character of "Larry Lopez" was supposed to be much more well-to-do and famous than the bandleader Ricky Ricardo turned out to be. When the show's concept was changed, however, Jerry's importance in the series was greatly diminshed from what he was originally meant to be, "Ricky's best friend", to a secondary character, and even the lines of Jerry Hausner, who played Jerry, in "The Audition," the episode whose plot was based off of the pilot, were given to Fred Mertz character, (William Frawley) who replaced Jerry as Ricky's best friend.
Jerry, a shrewd agent as well as a loyal and trusted friend of the RIcardos, is always seeking to get the best possible deal done, but not at the expense of the Ricky, who he manages or Lucy as well; in the episode "Fan Magazine" a magazine writer Eleanor Harris (Joan Banks) who wanted to do an article on the 'real' Ricardos, got the impression that Ricky, who, along with Lucy, was trying to impress Eleanor, that Ricky was being unfaithful, which also planted seeds of distrust in Lucy's mind. Jerry. who realizes this, talks with Ricky about the misunderstanding, and they are able to quell the whole situation.
Jerry's "departure" from the series[]
Perhaps combined with the reducing of the character Jerry and an incident in the character Hausner's final appearance on the series in "Fan Magazine" (Season 3, episode 19) where a mixup occurred where the characters Jerry and Ricky were supposed to be conversing on the telephone, and where Hausner, who played Jerry, and Dest Arnaz as Ricky could not not hear each other, and where the two actor had to guess when it was time to say their lines, caused Hausner to leave the show permenantly.
Reportedly, as legend, or word of mouth from those at the episode filming, has it that Hausner is reported as saying that Desi assured him that the phones would be connected by the time of the filming. Other sources say that Desi refused to connect the phones, and wanted to rely on cues instead.
In any case, when it came time to film the episode, the phones were still not connected. During the filming the audience was laughing in all the wrong places! The scene reportedly needed several retakes to complete. As legend or rumor has it, when the scene finished filming, An angry confrontation ensued with Arnaz yelling and swearing at Hausner, and then an embarrassed and fed-up Hausner, after the finished shooting of a later scene, storming angrily off of the set! After Hausner's departure from the series, the character Jerry was mentioned only in name during conversation by the other characters, most namely, Ricky Ricardo, in particular, in various scenes, but the role was never assumed by any other actor.
Although it is said by those who knew Hausner that he never got over the incident as well as the diminishing of his character, but he did go on to make appearances on Lucille Ball's two other Desilu produced series, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy in minor guest roles.