Butch is Fred’s Dog in “The Diet” episode of I Love Lucy.
Butch is part of the ensemble cast and is expected to behave the way a dog is supposed to behave in order for the scene to work. We are introduced to Butch about fifteen minutes into the episode at the dinner scene. Butch sits by the table and gets treated to a piece of steak and Lucy at this point has deprived herself as she continues her radical weight loss journey. Seeing that Butch is able to get a few strips of meat while she is made to eat celery hides under the table pretending to be Butch in order to acquire a strip of meat. She even licks the hand in thanks akin to Butch. However, Butch quickly devours Lucy’s strip. In regards to the scene, it was imperative that Butch the dog plays his part and behaved in order to make the scene work with his human co-stars and to make the scene effective for the audience. Butch’s importance as an ensemble cast member is outlined by Ernest Mathijs within their article, Referential acting and the ensemble cast within the “Small Parts, Small Players Dossier”, “the members of ensembles play off the received perceptions of themselves held by other cast members and audiences. In other words, it is important for someone in an ensemble cast to act in the way the audience expects, and to make use of that expectation in their playing with (or off) other cast members” (90). The scene worked because Butch worked, the scene would have fallen apart if Butch didn’t stay by the table and obeyed his offscreen training. While it is as simple as a dog being a dog, if the dog got distracted at something off-screen or simply did not comply it would not have made the scene work as while we only get one scene with Butch that entire scene the actors had to play along and off of Butch.
WORKS CITED
Mathijs, Ernest. “Referential acting and the ensemble cast.” Screen, vol. 52, no. 1, 2011, pp. 89–96, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjq063
“The Diet.” I Love Lucy, season one, episode three, 1951.
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