I Love Lucy – The Complete First thru Sixth Seasons/The Complete Series
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: B Episodes: A-
For a few decades, Lucille Ball was as movie star, though
never on the A-list as long as she could or should have been. A perfectionist, she kept taking on feature
films that she thought would work for her and occasionally had a hit here and
there. She was also on radio in the
golden days of dramas, comedies and other dramatic series before anyone heard
of TV. She even hit it big with My
Favorite Husband, but nothing could have prepared her or anyone else for
the immense success that is I Love Lucy.
Lucy played Lucy McGillicuddy, who marries Cuban musician
Ricky Riccardo, played by Desi Arnaz.
Married in real life, CBS and other forces put up resistance to the idea
of Arnaz playing her husband on screen at a time ethnic minorities were ignored
and left out. There were also insane
charges that the couple might be pro-communist! Fortunately, all that passed and the show helped build TV as we
know it.
Joining the Ricardos were the Mertzes, Fred (William
Frawley) and Ethel (Vivian Vance) as their neighbors who were the best of
friends. Fred and Ricky do guy things
and sometimes include their wives and sometimes not. It is when they do not that things become hilarious. A feminist critic once suggested that even
after watching the shows over and over, you can get further laughs by seeing it
as the wives trying to escape the kitchen.
Even after that, there is always something else funny going on and the
writing of Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis over the 179 episodes all here is
still far and above just about all situation comedies that followed.
There are so many great shows, from the grape vat fight,
to the chocolate conveyer belt skit, to the TV commercial Lucy does for a
vitamin drink with that special something, to George reeves showing up as
Superman, to Harpo Marx, to the guest stars, the quick money schemes, Lucy
trying to join Ricky’s band against his will, to trying to hide things form
Ricky to doing “things” people supposedly should not be doing. It was a break from the mundane conservatism
of the 1950s and the imitators like I Married Joan could not compete
because they could not begin to dare to do what Lucy and the gang did. The show built a dynasty in the Desilu
Studios (formerly the RKO feature film studio) and made Lucy into one of the
biggest powerhouse stars in TV history even to this day. No matter which set you choose, you come up
with a winner. In many ways, I Love
Lucy is better than ever simply because hardly any comedy show since the
1980s has been as ambitious and it proves once again “reality TV” has nothing
on outstanding writing with great comic talents and solid professionals at the
helm.
The 1.33 X 1 image is from a series of restored prints and
that includes unearthing some fun, charming animation of the couple tied into
the sponsors of the show. The
improvement in Video Black, detail and clarity is always a pleasure and just
about as good as any TV from the 1950s you can get on DVD or anywhere
else. Of course, the great German
cinematographer Karl Freund created the three-camera set-up that became a
sitcom standard. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono is also nice, clean and clear. The
combined result is terrific throughout these DVD sets and set a high watermark
for all TV on DVD.
Extras are as extensive as not only anything Paramount or
CBS has done, but any TV on DVD from any company. Hundreds of commercials, intros, promos and other bits, many that
have not been seen since their original broadcast in the 1950s. You also get flubs, guest cast information,
production notes and even stills.
Another great addition are select episodes of My Favorite Husband. Each set also has other little gems too
numerous to go into, but it also looks like videotape intros that may have
appeared on the old Columbia House VHS releases of the series are here on these
discs. Even a detail like that is here
for the fan base that is larger than you would imagine, but the whole original
TV series is finally on DVD and with a seriously large set of extras that can
only be described as archival, remains a winner 55 years later and
counting. Hopefully, The Lucy-Desi
Comedy Hour and badly-in-need-of-restoration Lucy Show will soon
follow.
- Nicholas Sheffo
