I Love Lucy: The Complete Series
Paramount/CBS Blu-ray $99.99
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I Love Lucy: The Complete Series
- Seasons 1-5 (5 discs each)
- Season 6 (4 discs)
- Season 7 (2 discs)
- Seasons 8-9 (1 disc each)
I actually know people who don’t love I Love Lucy, but those people don’t travel in my circle (or at least, I don’t travel in theirs). As with the 1920s-1930s Laurel & Hardy films, I can drop in to watch Lucy & Ricky & Fred & Ethel and still laugh out loud every time, and this new mammoth set from Paramount/CBS is never going to be more than a couple of feet away from my Blu-ray player and TV set. It’s 33 discs, weighs almost 2 lbs., and includes 193 episodes, the long-lost pilot, an I Love Lucy theatrical film, and more bonus material than I could get through in the next 20 years. I may start a 24-hour I Love Lucy TV channel in my own home.
The Stars
Lucille Ball (1911-1989) as Lucy Ricardo, Manhattan housewife married to Cuban bandleader Ricky Ricardo, played by Lucy’s real-life husband Desi Arnaz (1917-1986). Lucy longs for an entertainment career of her own, but her efforts to break into show business are thwarted by Ricky’s refusal and by the salient fact that Mrs. Ricardo has little talent. In the second season, they have a son, Little Ricky, portrayed by various actors (but not by Desi Arnaz Jr., born the same day that the birth episode aired and featured on the cover of the first issue of TV Guide). The birth of Lucy and Ricky's baby was the most-watched program of its era and still ranks as one of the most-watched episodes of any show, ever.
Their neighbors, landlords, and inseparable best friends are the Mertzes, retired vaudevillians Fred, played by William Frawley (1887-1966), and Ethel, played by Vivian Vance (1909-1979).
Although there are plenty of supporting players and guest stars, including some of Hollywood’s royalty, these four carry the program and if they’d filmed a show with just the four of them playing cards, it would end up funnier than 98% of any other TV sitcom episodes. I think these four constitute the most talented cast ever put together for a TV show, and despite much written about how they actually may have felt about each other in real life, together on camera, they were marvelous
Fun with the Ricardos and Mertzes
To keep the show fresh and lively, the four fast friends took several trips together, including driving cross-country to Hollywood when Ricky is signed for an MGM motion picture (beginning in season 4 and carrying through to season 5, and featuring a bevy of guest stars, including John Wayne and William Holden); a trip to Europe (also season 5); a trip to Miami and Havana (season 6), and finally, Ricky and Lucy moving to a home in Connecticut, although the Mertzes are never far away, courtesy of the guest house.
Beginning with season 7, the show became The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and was expanded to regularly-scheduled one-hour TV specials for the remainder of the series, and although the format and cast from I Love Lucy didn’t change, there was a greater emphasis on guest stars and musical-comedy numbers. The first episode was a flashback to how Lucy and Ricky allegedly met (no, not on the set of the film Too Many Girls, on a cruise Lucy was taking to Havana, a cruise that the Mertzes just happened to be on). Other trips during these years included Las Vegas, Mexico, Alaska, and Japan, and Lucy & Ricky welcome the cast of The Danny Thomas Show and reciprocate with a guest appearance on that program.
The Blu-ray
All of this is gathered together across 33 discs, including the option to watch many episodes with the original cartoon openings and closings (the heart on satin credits were created for syndication) and this set probably is the largest collection of cigarette commercials ever assembled (“Call for Philip Morris!”) and don’t smoke kids, it’s bad for your health. Also included are flub footage, guest cast bios, numerous episodes of the precursor radio series My Favorite Husband with Lucy and Richard Denning, and a lot of brand new features not included in the previous releases (prior to this, the episodes were on DVD and the first two seasons were on standalone Blu-ray releases).
Because Arnaz insisted that the show be shot on 35mm film (just like a “real movie”) by Oscar-winner Karl Freund, and because the materials have been so well preserved, I Love Lucy in HD, including the bonus material, restored footage and credits, and various clips and newly recovered materials are all presented in an impeccable presentation and Ricky’s musical numbers have never sounded better. It’s a showcase release for how to present a TV classic. My sole complaint: The 33 discs are placed in a case on spindles that hold no more than 3 discs each, so they’re pretty well packed in there and there is no episode-listing booklet and so if, for example, you want to see the episode where Lucy bottles and sells her Aunt Martha’s salad dressing, good luck finding it. It’s in here somewhere, though!
Notable Bonus Material
- Archival promotional material for several seasons
- The “lost” pilot episode
- Restoration footage
- Bumper sequences with that cast used to introduce reruns while Miss Ball was on maternity leave
- Promotional spots with Lucy and Desi for charity organizations and to promote their films The Long Long Trailer and Forever Darling
- I Love Lucy: The Movie; three early episodes stitched together with new materials to make a “feature film” that previewed in Bakersfield but never released due to MGM’s request.
And, or course, “much, much more.”
The Final Verdict
I can’t imagine a home without a volume of Shakespeare, a plumber’s helper, or this Blu-ray release. No more indecision on a quiet night, wrestling with what to watch, not with this massive Lucy set right next to the TV. I’m going to pick up a straw hat, a box of chocolates, and perhaps a bottle of Vitameatavegamin, and start binge-watching ri-i-i-i-ight NOW.
The best Christmas gift of the season!
