After only the first two seasons were previously released on Blu-ray, I Love Lucy: The Complete Series now presents all six seasons of the classic television sitcom on Blu-ray plus three seasons of The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show / The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. That’s 194 episodes, nearly 90 hours, spread across 33 discs of what is arguably the greatest sitcom of all time.
Buy I Love Lucy: The Complete Series Blu-rayLucille Ball starred on CBS’s hit radio show My Favorite Husband. When the network wanted to bring the series to television, Ball requested her real-life husband Desi Arnaz join her.To help ensure her success in the new medium, she was joined by My Favorite Husband producer/writer Jesse Oppenheimer and writers Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr. And “success” is an understatement as it has been a consistent presence on television since its debut in 1951.
The series centers on the lives of Lucy Ricardo and her husband Ricky. He is a bandleader at the Tropicana nightclub and she is frequently trying to get into a show business, both as part of his act and on her own. They live together in a New York apartment and are good friends with their landlords, Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance). Many stories see Lucy and Ricky at odds and one-upping each other while a few others see the ladies and the men go at it. The conflicts always work out by the end of the episode.
The show is a great blend of comedy and music. Ball shatters the idea that women can’t be funny because she excels at both verbal interactions and physical comedy. She is also much better at singing and dancing than Lucy is supposed to be, although Lucy is offered a contract in “The Audition,” a remake of the original unaired pilot. Arnaz was already known as a singer before the series, so it’s no surprise how well the musical numbers go, but he also reveals a gift for comedy, which is on display as he handles straight-man duties setting up Ball and, at times, Frawley.
What may be the most well-known episode occurs during the first season. “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” as a spokesmodel for Vitemeatavegamin and proceeds to get drunk on the product as she rehearses. Ball’s metamorphosis is hysterical. During the second season, Lucy and Ricky are expecting a baby, incorporating Ball and Arnaz’s real-life situation, and “Little Ricky” arrives halfway through the season. “Job Switching” is the iconic episode where Lucy and Ethel get a job in a candy factory.
During the fourth season, Ricky gets a movie offer and the whole gang take a road trip to Hollywood and their stay spills into the next season. Demonstrating how popular the show is at this time, they enlist an impressive collection of movie stars to involve in the shenanigans, such as Eve Arden, William Holden, Cornel Wilde, Rock Hudson, Harpo Marx (recreating the mirror gag with Lucy), and Richard Widmark.
The fifth season opens with John Wayne in a two-parter as Lucy has to replace the cement slab of his footprint and signature from Grauman’s Chinese Theater, which she broke. Later in the fifth season, the gang head to Europe because Ricky’s band gets booked on a tour and Fred is hired on as the manager. The most notable episode is “Lucy’s Italian Movie” where she and a grape-stomper have a tussle in a vat. The sixth season also sees its share of guest stars with appearances by Bob Hope, Orson Welles, Elsa Lanchester, and TV’s Superman George Reeves, Before the season’s end, the Ricardos move out of their apartment and buy a home in Westport, Connecticut.
The series then altered format for the remainder of its run. Rather than a weekly, half-hour sitcom, it expanded to an hour and aired periodically. The first five aired as specials during the 1957-58 television season and the remaining eight aired on Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse over the next two seasons. Guest stars included Tallulah Bankhead, Fred MacMurray, Betty Grable, Maurice Chevalier, Red Skelton, and husband and wife Howard Duff and Ida Lupino. There were joined by fictional guests. Ann Sothern appears as Susie MacNamara from Private Secretary, and the Williams family from The Danny Thomas Show rent the Ricardos’s home.
A few episodes in the first season feature bits repeated in sitcoms that followed. In “Men Are Messy” the Ricardos run a line down the apartment to divide it because Ricky is so messy. In “The Benefit” Lucy is unaware she is babysitting a pair of terrible twins. “The Ballet” features the famous Vaudeville routine “Slowly I Turned” where a man goes into a rage when a certain word is mentioned. Also famous is the scene in “Pioneer Women” that finds the foursome trying to live like the olden days and Lucy makes a rather large loaf of bread.
The video is available in an 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed in the show’s original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Many shades across the gray spectrum are noticeable. A good contrast appears regularly thanks to the solid whites and typically rich blacks. The image looks very clean, free from damage and wear for the most part, especially when compared with commercials seen in the original broadcast versions. A natural amount of film grain can be seen. Focus is frequently sharp, and textures on garments and objects come through very well, but mostly with objects in the foreground. Items in the background tend to be slightly softer, which narrows the depth. Aliasing can be seen on occasion such as the Ricardos’ kitchen shutters and clothing with patterns.
AI was used in the restoration and a complete QA was not properly done leading to troublesome moments. In “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana,” background actors shot out of focus are forced into focus by a computer, creating horrific moments of distorted figures, like zombies coming through a fog.
The audio for the first two seasons is available in LPCM 2.0 mono, so ignore the labeling. The remaining seasons are available in DTS-HD MA. The track sounds free of hiss and damage. Dialogue is always understandable, even Ricky’s accent. The singing is clear and not overwhelmed by the orchestra’s music which can come through with very strong. That music demonstrates the loud end of the dynamic range while quiet talking demonstrates the soft end. Different types of laughs can be made out in the audience’s responses.
In terms of Special Features, the set is jam-packed with them. Every disc contains Flubs. Every disc in Seasons 1-6, except Season 2, Disc 5, contains “Lucy on the Radio,” episodes of My Favorite Husband. Every disc in Season 1 and 2 have Sponsor Talent, Production Notes, Photo Gallery, and Guest Cast Profiles. Each disc in Season 2, except Disc 2, has Flashbacks (Introductions to Season 1 Episode Repeats). Every disc in Season 3 has Opening Credits/Sponsor Segment and Sponsor Material Montage. The latter feature appears on four other discs. Every disc in Seasons 4, 5, 6 and 8, as well as Season 7, Disc 1, has Opening Credits/Sponsor Segment and Closing Credits/Sponsor Segment except Season 4, Disc 3, which has neither, and Season 4, Disc 5 and Season 6, Disc 2 which only has the latter. Five promos for the series, five PSAs, three Lost Scenes, and seven “Behind the Scenes (Audio excerpt from Laughs, Luck… and Lucy by Jess Oppenheimer)” are spread throughout.
Other special features are:
SEASON 1 – DISC 1
• I Love Lucy Costume & Makeup Tests
• I Love Lucy: The Very First Show (1990)
• Audio Commentary for “Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her” made from interviews clips. Previously appeared on the Criterion Collection LaserDisc
• Before and After (Restoration Comparison)
• Special Slide Shows (Audio & Photos)
SEASON 1 – DISC 2
• On-Set Color Home Movies
• The Sunday Lucy Show Network Rerun Opening & Closing Credits
• Meet Marc Daniels, director of the first 38 episodes
SEASON 1 – DISC 5
• Clowning Around (Behind-the-Scenes photos)
SEASON 1 – DISC 6
• Audio Commentary for “Lucy Does a TV Commercial”
• Fancy Editing (Alternate Versions of Scenes from two episodes)
SEASON 2 – DISC 1
• Audio Commentary for “Job Switching”
• Colorized and French-Canadian Versions of “Job Switching”
• “The Handcuffs” 1955 Repeat (New Opening & Closing Sequences)
• Meet William Asher, director of 110 episodes
• Missing Scene (Script Pages from “The Operetta”)
SEASON 2 – DISC 2
• Stars in the Eye (1952) – A CBS Special about the opening of CBS’s Television City. It stars Jack Benny and includes the I Love Lucy cast
• CBS Eyes (New Credits Logo)
• “Redecorating” Canadian/UK Syndicated Opening & Closing Sequences
SEASON 2 – DISC 3
• Welcome Little Ricky (Philip Morris Special Commercial)
• Meet Karl Freund, director of photography/cinematographer for every episode
SEASON 2 – DISC 4
• The Red Skelton Show – a clip of an I Love Lucy sketch
• Spanish Main Title Sequence
• Meet Richard & Ronald Lee Simmons, they played Little Ricky in six episodes this season
• Special Baby
SEASON 2 – DISC 5
• I Love Lucy: The Movie – Never theatrically released, first-season episodes “The Benefit,” “Breaking the Lease,” and “The Ballet” were edited together and new footage was shot to connect the stories
• Meet Edward Sedgwick, director of the new footage for The Movie.
• Movie Guest Bios
• Movie Notes
SEASON 3 – DISC 1
• Network Promo
SEASON 3 – DISC 4
• The Long, Long Trailer Philip Morris Promos
SEASON 4 – DISC 3
• Original Proctor & Gamble Sponsor Ending from “California, Here We Come!”
SEASON 5 – DISC 1
• Top Ten I Love Lucy Shows #3 Intro for Face to Face
SEASON 5 – DISC 2
• “Christmas with The Greatest Show on Earth” Segment
SEASON 5 – DISC 3
• Promo for Forever, Darling starring Ball and Arnaz
SEASON 6 – DISC 1
• The Sunday Lucy Show Opening/Closing Segments (Season 6)
SEASON 6 – DISC 2
• Colorized Version of “Lucy and the Loving Cup”
• “Flashback” Opening Footage for “Ethel’s Birthday” Rerun
• Text Commentary for “Lucy and Superman”
SEASON 6 – DISC 4
• “Flashback” Opening Footage for “The Black Wig” Rerun
SEASON 7 – DISC 1
• Desilu Playhouse Promo
SEASON 7 – DISC 2
• Christmas Rerun Footage from “Lucy Goes to Sun Valley”
• Original Desilu/Westinghouse Sponsor Presentation
SEASON 8
• Westinghouse/Desi-Lucy Fiesta of Values Sponsor Promo
SEASON 9 – DISC 4
• Eye on CBS (1959) – Ball and Vance appear in this special hosted by Perry Mason’s Raymond Burr promoting CBS upcoming season
Although I Love Lucy is still airing on TV and available through streaming, it’s nice to have the entire series, one of the all-time greats, readily available in one’s library. The high-definition presentation looks good, especially for a TV series from the 1950s; however, the use of AI certainly diminishes some scenes no matter how briefly the ugly errors appear. Another issue that collectors may see as a negative is this massive set collects the discs in an Epik Pak with up to three discs set onto a spindle, which can be tricky in terms of storing, searching, and removing. There’s also no information booklet, and this is a series that really deserves essays about Ball and Arnaz, the show and its impact, as well as episode details. While not perfect, many fans will find the pros of the I Love Lucy: The Complete Series on Blu-ray outweigh the cons.
