I Love Lucy

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I Love Lucy
Image:ILoveLucyTitleScreen.jpg
I Love Lucy logo
Format Sitcom
Created by Jess Oppenheimer
Starring Lucille Ball
Desi Arnaz
Vivian Vance
William Frawley
Richard Keith
Country of origin  United States
No. of seasons 6 (9 including The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour)
No. of episodes 194 (including the "lost" Christmas episode, original pilot and 13 Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours)
Production
Location(s) Desilu Studios in Hollywood, California
Running time Approx 26 minutes per episode without commercials.
Distributor Paramount Television
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run October 15, 1951 – May 6, 1957
External links
IMDb profile

I Love Lucy is an American situation comedy, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951 to May 6, 1957 on CBS. The show continued on for three more seasons with 13 one-hour specials, running from 1957 to 1960, known first as The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and later in reruns as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the ratings (to be matched only by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld), although it did not have a formal series finale episode. I Love Lucy is still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world.

The show won five Emmy Awards and received numerous nominations. In 2002, it was ranked second on TV Guide's top-50 greatest shows, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners[1]. In 2007, it was placed on Time magazine's unranked list of the 100 best TV shows.[2] The same year, the Washington Post named it the second best TV rerun, attesting to its longevity and sustained popularity.[3]

Contents

[edit] Premise

Set mostly in New York City, I Love Lucy centers on Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), and her singer/bandleader husband Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), along with their friends and landlords Fred Mertz (William Frawley) and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance). In later seasons, Lucy and Ricky had a son named Little Ricky (Keith Thibodeaux).

Lucy is somewhat naïve and ambitious, with an overactive imagination and a knack for getting herself into trouble. Primarily she is obsessed with joining her husband in show business. Fred and Ethel are former vaudevillians and this only strengthens her resolve to prove herself as a performer. Unfortunately, she cannot carry a tune or play anything other than an off-key rendition of "Glow Worm" (or "Sweet Sue") on the saxophone and has little other discernible ability (although to say she is completely without any sort of talent would be untrue as she has on occasion proven to be a good dancer and a competent singer in some cases). The show provided Ball ample opportunity to display her considerable skill at clowning and physical comedy, with Lucy's determination to get into the act in any way possible, resulting in numerous wacky situations. Character development was not a major focus of early sitcoms, so not much was ever learned about her life prior to the show. A few episodes mentioned that she was born in Jamestown, New York, (later corrected to West Jamestown), and that she met Ricky on a blind date. Besides occasional appearances by her mother (Kathryn Card), who annoyed Ricky to no end by constantly mispronouncing his name as "Mickey" and mistaking him for fellow bandleader Xavier Cugat, hardly any mention was ever made of any other family members.

Lucy's husband, Ricky Ricardo (the character initially was named Larry Lopez), is an up-and-coming Cuban American singer and bandleader with an excitable personality. His patience is frequently tested, sometimes to the breaking point, by his wife's antics. When exasperated, he often reverts to speaking rapidly in Spanish. As with Lucy, not much was ever learned about his past or family. Ricky's mother appeared in two episodes and in another Lucy mentioned that he had five brothers. He also mentioned that he'd been "practically raised" by his uncle Alberto (who was seen during a family visit to Cuba) and that he'd attended Havana University.

Lucy's best friend, confidante and accomplice in her crazy schemes is Ethel Mertz. A former model from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ethel tries to relive her glory days in vaudeville. She usually gets more chances to perform at Ricky's nightclub, because, unlike Lucy, she can actually sing and dance. Ethel, although she is Lucy's ally, often tries to reason with her, providing common sense advice.

Ethel's husband Fred served in World War I and lived through the Great Depression. He is very stingy with money and a very no-nonsense type of guy. However, he also shows that he can be a soft touch, especially when it comes to Little Ricky, the Ricardos' son. Fred performed in vaudeville, so like his wife Ethel, he can also sing and dance.

Lucy and Ricky often play tricks on each other; for example, when Lucy tricked Ricky into thinking she was a compulsive thief; or when Ricky tricked Lucy into thinking she was not legally married to him, based on a mistake in their license. Although they may disagree at times, and despite their age differences (not only the Mertzes' and Ricardos', but Lucy and Desi's, with Lucy six years Desi's senior), the four main characters are very close and loving.

The Manhattan building they all lived in before their move to Westport, Connecticut was addressed at 623 East 68th Street, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which in reality would be located in the East River.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Regular cast

  • Lucille Ball as Lucille "Lucy" Esmeralda McGillicuddy Ricardo (in "The Marriage License" and "Fred and Ethel Fight")
  • Desi Arnaz as Enrique 'Ricky' Alberto Ricardo y de Acha III (in "Lucy Raises Tulips")[4]
  • Vivian Vance as Ethel May Potter (maiden name), Ethel Roberta Mertz (in "Million Dollar Idea"), Ethel Louise Mertz (in "Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress"), Ethel Mae Mertz in ("Ethel's Hometown" and subsequent episodes)
  • William Frawley as Frederick 'Fred' Hobart "y de" Mertz "the First" - in the same episode where Lucy uses Ricky's full name - to emphasize her point that she wanted him to get up and do what she had requested, to mow the lawn. Ethel then used the same format in reinforcing her point to Fred by using "y de Mertz the First" the way Ricky's full name was structured.[4]
  • Keith Thibodeaux (billed as Richard Keith) as Ricky Ricardo, Jr., "Little Ricky" (1956-1957)

Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet, supporting cast members on My Favorite Husband, were originally approached for the roles of Fred and Ethel, but neither could accept due to previous commitments. Gordon did appear as a guest star in three episodes, playing Ricky's boss, Mr. Littlefield, in two episodes, and later in an hourlong episode as a civil court judge. Gordon was a veteran from the classic radio days in which he perfected the role of the exasperated character, as in Fibber McGee and Molly. He would go on to co-star with Ball in most of her post–I Love Lucy series. Benaderet was a guest star in one episode as the Ricardos' neighbor, the elderly Miss Lewis.

Barbara Pepper (later featured as Doris Ziffel in the series Green Acres) was also considered to play Ethel, but Pepper had been drinking very heavily after the death of her husband, Craig W. Reynolds. Her friendship with Ball dated back to the film Roman Scandals, in which both appeared as Goldwyn Girls. She turned up regularly in bit parts.

[edit] Supporting cast

  • Kathryn Card as Mrs. McGillicuddy, Lucy's mother (1955–1956) (also earlier appearance as "Minnie Finch" in 1954)
  • Mary Jane Croft as Betty Ramsey (1957) (earlier appearances in various roles)
  • Ross Elliot in various roles
  • Jerry Hausner as Jerry, Ricky's agent (1951–1954) (also the show's announcer in early seasons)
  • Bob Jellison as Bobby, the Hollywood bellboy (1955) (earlier appearances in various roles)
  • Doris Singleton as Caroline Appleby (1953–1957) (earlier appearance as Lillian Appleby and various other roles)
  • Shirley Mitchell as Marion Strong (1953–1954)
  • Frank Nelson as Ralph Ramsey (1957) (many earlier appearances in various roles, including Freddie Filmore, a game show host)
  • Elizabeth Patterson as Mrs. Matilda Trumbull (1953–1956) (earlier appearance as "Mrs. Willoughby" in 1952)
  • Joseph D. and Michael Mayer as Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (baby) (1953–1954)
  • Richard and Ronald Lee Simmons as Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (baby) (1954–1955)
  • Charles Lane as various characters, often-timed short-tempered. (throughout series)
  • Barbara Pepper as various characters. (throughout series)

Lucille Ball liked naming supporting characters after real-life people. For instance, Carolyn Appleby had been one of her teachers, and Marion Strong was a friend in Jamestown, New York.

[edit] Primary production team

[edit] Radio

I Love Lucy was somewhat similar to My Favorite Husband, a 1948-51 CBS comedy radio series in which Lucille Ball (as zany housewife Liz Cooper) starred with Richard Denning. Based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. Cugat by Isabel Scott Rorick, My Favorite Husband was broadcast from July 23, 1948 to March 31, 1951, sponsored by General Foods. In 1950, CBS asked Lucy to take My Favorite Husband to television, but Lucy insisted that the man playing the role of husband be Arnaz, who had been away from Lucy for months at a time as a touring bandleader. When CBS refused because he was foreign-born, Lucy decided to create a television series of her own to bring her husband back home, and I Love Lucy was brought to television. Some of the My Favorite Husband scripts were rewritten as TV scripts for I Love Lucy by the same writers, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr..

On February 27, 1952, an I Love Lucy radio show was produced, but it never aired. This was a pilot episode, created by editing the soundtrack of the television episode "Breaking the Lease", with added Arnaz narration. It included commercials for Philip Morris, which sponsored the TV series. While it never aired on radio at the time in the 1950s, copies of this radio pilot episode have been circulating among "old time radio" collectors for years, and this radio pilot episode has aired in more recent decades on numerous local radio stations which air some "old time radio" programming.

[edit] Production

At the time, most television shows were broadcast live from New York City, and a low-quality 35mm or 16mm kinescope print was made of the show to broadcast it in other time zones. But Ball was pregnant at the time, and she and Arnaz therefore insisted on filming the show in Hollywood. The duo, along with co-creator Jess Oppenheimer, then decided to shoot the show on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience, with three cameras, a technique now standard for most present-day sitcoms. The result was a much sharper image than other shows of the time, and the audience reactions were far more authentic than the "canned laughter" used on most filmed sitcoms of the time. The technique was not completely new — another CBS comedy series, Amos 'n' Andy, which debuted four months earlier, was already being filmed at Hal Roach Studios with three 35mm cameras to save time and money. Hal Roach Studios was also used for filming at least two other TV comedies as early as 1950, both airing on ABC, namely Stu Erwin's "The Trouble with Father", and the TV version of "Beulah"; and the original 1949/50 Jackie Gleason TV version of "The Life of Riley" on NBC was also done on film, not live. There were also some dramatic TV shows pre-dating I Love Lucy which were also filmed, not live. But I Love Lucy was the first show to use this film technique in front of a studio audience.

Arnaz persuaded Karl Freund, cinematographer of such films as Metropolis (1927), Dracula (1931), and The Good Earth (1937), as well as director of The Mummy (1932), to be the series' cinematographer.

Scenes were often performed in sequence, as a play would be, which was unusual for comedies at that time. Retakes were rare and dialogue mistakes were often played off for the sake of continuity.

Desilu, the company jointly owned by Ball and Arnaz, produced I Love Lucy as well as other shows. It rented space at General Service Studios in Hollywood from 1951 to 1954, when it bought the Motion Picture Center, also in Hollywood, and renamed it Desilu Studios.

Many real-life facts about Arnaz and Ball made it into the series. Like Ball, Lucy Ricardo was born on August 6 in Jamestown, New York, and attended high school in Celoron, New York. Also, the Ricardos were married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, just as the Arnazes had been. In one particular episode Lucy and Ricky are fighting over whether or not the bedroom window should be open or closed while they slept.

The opening familiar to most viewers, featuring the credits superimposed over a "heart on satin" image, was created specifically for syndication. As originally broadcast, the episodes opened with animated matchstick figures of Arnaz and Ball making reference to whomever the particular episode's sponsor was. These sequences were created by the animation team of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, who declined screen credit because they were technically under exclusive contract to MGM at the time.

The original sponsor was cigarette maker Philip Morris, so the program opened with a cartoon of Lucy and Ricky climbing down a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes. In the early episodes, Lucy and Ricky, as well as Ethel and Fred on occasion, were shown smoking Philip Morris cigarettes. Since the original sponsor references were no longer appropriate when the shows went into syndication, a new opening was needed, which resulted in the classic heart on satin opening. The original openings, with the sponsor names edited out, are now used on TV Land showings, with a TV Land logo superimposed to obscure the original sponsor's logo. Ironically, this has led some people to believe that the restored introduction was created specifically for TV Land as an example of kitsch.

[edit] Pregnancy and Little Ricky

Just before filming the show, Lucy became pregnant with her and Desi's first child, Lucie Arnaz. They actually filmed the original pilot while Lucy was "showing," but did not include any references to the pregnancy in the episode.

Later, during the second season, Lucy was pregnant again with second child Desi Arnaz, Jr., and this time the pregnancy was incorporated into the series' storyline. Despite popular belief, Lucy's pregnancy was not television's first on-screen pregnancy. That distinction belongs to Mary Kay on the late 1940s sitcom, Mary Kay and Johnny.

CBS would not allow I Love Lucy to use the word "pregnant", so "expecting" was used instead.[5] The episode "Lucy Is Enceinte" first aired on December 8, 1952 ("enceinte" being French for "expecting" or "pregnant"). The episode in which Lucy gives birth, "Lucy Goes to the Hospital," first aired on January 19, 1953. To increase the publicity of this episode, the original air date was chosen to coincide with Lucille Ball's real-life delivery of Desi, Jr. by Caesarean section.[6] "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" was watched by more people than any other TV program up to that time, with 68% of all American television sets tuned in.

Unlike some programs which advance the age of a newborn over a short period of time, I Love Lucy allowed the Little Ricky character to grow up in real time. America saw Little Ricky as an infant in the 1952-53 season, a toddler from 1953 to 1956, and finally a young school-age boy from 1956 to 1960. However, five actors played the role, two sets of twins and later Keith Thibodeaux.

When Jess Oppenheimer was trying to consider the sex of the child he asked Desi what he wanted. Desi replied that he wants a boy because this might be his only chance to get a son out of Lucy. So from then on no matter what the sex of Lucille Ball's real baby was, Lucy Ricardo would have a boy.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of I Love Lucy episodes

Most episodes take place in the Ricardos' modest brownstone apartment at 623 East 68th Street or at the downtown "Tropicana" nightclub where Ricky is employed, though other parts of the city are sometimes used. Later episodes take the Ricardos and the Mertzes to Hollywood for Ricky to shoot a movie, and to Europe, when Ricky and his band tour the continent. There is also a trip to Miami Beach for the two couples, with a side trip to Ricky's homeland of Cuba. Eventually, the quartet move to Westport, Connecticut.

Some especially memorable episodes:

  • "Lucy Does a TV Commercial": Lucy is hired to act as the "Vitameatavegamin girl" in a TV commercial, to promote a health tonic that contains healthy amounts of vitamins, meat, vegetables, minerals — and a less-than-healthy dose of 23% alcohol. Lucy becomes progressively more drunk, but gamely keeps on pitching the product. In November 2001, fans voted this episode as their favorite, during a 50th anniversary I Love Lucy television special. TV Guide and Nick at Nite ranked it the second greatest television episode of all time, after the Mary Tyler Moore Show episode "Chuckles Bites the Dust".
  • "Job Switching": Lucy and Ethel get jobs packaging candy that is delivered on a conveyor belt. The work seems easy enough when they are shown what to do by their supervisor, but then the pace picks up and the women soon fall further and further behind. In desperation, they resort to comical means to try to keep up. The skit, a variation of an old vaudeville routine, has been parodied numerous times.
  • "Lucy and Superman": Lucy tries to get George Reeves, star of the 1950s' Adventures of Superman TV series, to appear at little Ricky's birthday party. When she fails, she dresses up as Superman herself, only to have Reeves turn up in costume at the last minute and rescue her after she traps herself on the ledge of her apartment.
  • "L.A. At Last": Lucy, Fred, and Ethel have lunch at The Brown Derby, where Lucy accidentally causes a waiter to heave a pie in William Holden's face. Later at the hotel, Ricky has a surprise for her. He has brought one of her favorite actors to meet her — none other than William Holden. Fearing that the actor will recognize her, she puts on a disguise that includes a putty nose which catches on fire when she lights a cigarette.
  • "Lucy and Harpo Marx": While living in Hollywood, Lucy is visited by Carolyn Appleby, a friend who is under the impression that Lucy knows numerous celebrities. After Lucy and Ethel get Carolyn's glasses away from her, Lucy pretends to be various stars. Meanwhile, Ricky and Fred invite Harpo Marx to the Ricardos' apartment. When he shows up, Lucy is disguised as him; seeing the real Harpo, she hides in a kitchen doorway. Harpo is perplexed when he sees what he thinks is his reflection, forcing Lucy to mimic his every move to avoid detection. This was a tribute to Harpo and Groucho's famous mirror scene in the Marx Brothers comedy classic, Duck Soup.[7]
  • "Lucy Does the Tango": The Ricardos' and the Mertzes' chicken business isn't doing very well. Lucy and Ethel come up with a scheme to fool the boys into thinking the hens are laying lots of eggs by smuggling some, hidden underneath their clothes, into the henhouse. On one such trip, Ricky insists that he and Lucy rehearse their tango number for a local benefit. Unbeknownst to Ricky, Lucy's blouse is filled with chicken eggs.

[edit] Feature films

Arnaz and Ball capitalized on the series' popularity by starring in Vincente Minnelli's 1954 film The Long, Long Trailer as Tacy and Nicky Collini, two characters very similar to Lucy and Ricky. Also during this time, Desilu produced a feature film version of the show in 1953, consisting of three first-season episodes edited together: "The Benefit", "Breaking the Lease" and "The Ballet". New scenes featuring the cast were filmed and put between the episodes to tie them into one cohesive story. MGM, however, demanded the I Love Lucy movie be shelved because they felt it would diminish interest in the The Long, Long Trailer. Although I Love Lucy was never theatrically released and had been forgotten, it has since been found and has been released on the bonus disc in the Complete Series collection, available now.

In 1956 Lucy and Desi starred in the feature film Forever, Darling with James Mason.

[edit] After Lucy and legacy

After the conclusion of the sixth season of I Love Lucy, Lucy and Desi decided to cut down on the number of episodes that were filmed. Instead, they extended I Love Lucy to 60 minutes, with a guest star each episode. They renamed the show the The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and later changed for syndication to The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. Thirteen hour-long episodes aired from 1957 to 1960. The main cast, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley were all in the show. The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour is available on DVD, released as I Love Lucy: The Final Seasons 7, 8, & 9. On March 2, Desi's birthday, 1960, the day after the last hour-long episode was filmed, Lucille Ball filed for divorce from Desi Arnaz.

When the series ended, Vance and Frawley were said to have been offered a chance to take their characters to their own spin-off series. Frawley was willing, but Vance refused to ever work with Frawley again since the two did not get along. Frawley did appear once more with Lucille Ball — in an episode of The Lucy Show.

In 1962, Ball began a six-year run with The Lucy Show, followed immediately in 1968 by six more years on yet another sitcom, Here's Lucy, finally ending her long run as a CBS sitcom star in 1974. Both The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy are notable for having Vance as recurring characters named Viv (Vivian Bagley Bunson on The Lucy Show and Vivian Jones on Here's Lucy), so named because she was tired of being recognized on the street and addressed as Ethel. Vance was a regular during the first three seasons of The Lucy Show but continued to make guest appearances through the years on The Lucy Show, and on Here's Lucy. In 1977, Vance and Ball were reunited one last time in the CBS special, Lucy Calls the President[8], which co-starred Gale Gordon.

In 1986, Ball tried another sitcom, Life with Lucy. The series aired on ABC for eight episodes before being cancelled due to low ratings. Oddly enough, the show debuted to very high ratings, landing in Nielson's Top 20 for that week.

I Love Lucy has remained perennially popular. For instance, it was one of the first programs made in the USA seen on British television, which became more open to commerce with the launch of ITV, a commercial network that aired the series, in September 1955. As of July 2007, it remains the longest-running program to air continually in the Los Angeles area, almost 50 years after production ended. Ironically, the series is currently aired on KTTV, which had given up the CBS affiliation several months before I Love Lucy premiered.[citation needed] In the US, reruns have aired nationally on Nick at Nite and TV Land in addition to local channels. This is particularly notable because, unlike some shows to which a cable channel is given exclusive rights to maximize ratings, Lucy has been consistently—and successfully—broadcast on multiple channels simultaneously.

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York is a museum memorializing Lucy and I Love Lucy, including replicas of the NYC apartment set (located in the Desilu Playhouse facility in the Rapaport Center.[9] (See also SaveLucyDesiCenter.org.)

[edit] Theme song

The theme song was sung by Desi Arnaz. It made its first and last episode appearance in "Lucy's Last Birthday".

I love Lucy and she loves me,
 We're as happy as two can be,
 Sometimes we quarrel but then, how we love making up again,
 Oh Lucy kisses like no one can,
 She's my missus and I'm her man,
 Yes life is heaven you see,
 Because I love Lucy, Yes I love Lucy and Lucy loves me!

[edit] Nielsen Ratings

I Love Lucy consistently ranked very high in the Nielsen Ratings throughout its run.

  • 1951-52: #3
  • 1952-53: #1
  • 1953-54: #1
  • 1954-55: #1
  • 1955-56: #2
  • 1956-57: #1

The episode "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" first aired on Monday, January 19, 1953. It garnered a record 71.7 rating, meaning 71.7% of all television households at the time were tuned in to the program. To this day, that record is surpassed only by Elvis Presley's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 (82.6% rating).

[edit] Emmy Awards

[edit] Wins

  • Best Situation Comedy, 1953, 1954
  • Best Comedienne, Lucille Ball, 1953
  • Best Series Supporting Actress, Vivian Vance, 1954
  • Best Actress - Continuing Performance, Lucille Ball, 1956

[edit] Nominations

[edit] I Love Lucy

  • Best Situation Comedy, 1952
  • Best Written Comedy Material: Madelyn Pugh Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Robert G. Carroll, 1955
  • Best Situation Comedy, 1955
  • Best Comedy Writing: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf for the episode "L.A. At Last", 1956

[edit] Lucille Ball

  • Best Comedian or Comedienne, 1952
  • Most Outstanding Personality, 1953
  • Best Female Star of Regular Series, 1954
  • Best Actress Starring in a Regular Series, 1955
  • Best Comedienne, 1956
  • Best Continuing Performance by a Comedienne in a Series, 1957
  • Best Continuing Performance (Female) in a Series by a Comedienne, Singer, Hostess, Dancer, M.C., Announcer, Narrator, Panelist, or any Person who Essentially Plays Herself, 1958

[edit] Vivian Vance

  • Best Supporting Actress in a Regular Series, 1955
  • Best Supporting Performance by an Actress, 1957
  • Best Continuing Supporting Performance by an Actress in a , 1958

[edit] William Frawley

  • Best Series Supporting Actor, 1954
  • Best Supporting Actor in a Regular Series, 1955
  • Best Actor in a Supporting Role, 1956

[edit] Honors

  • In 1999, Entertainment Weekly ranked the birth of Little Ricky as the fifth greatest moment in TV history.[10]
  • In 2002, TV Guide ranked I Love Lucy #2 on its list of the 50 greatest shows, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners[1] (According to TV Guide columnist Matt Roush, there was a "passionate" internal debate about whether I Love Lucy should have been first instead of Seinfeld. He stated that this was the main source of controversy in putting together the list.[11])
  • In 2007, Time magazine placed the show on its unranked list of the 100 best TV shows.[2]

[edit] DVD releases

CBS Home Entertainment has released all six seasons of I Love Lucy on DVD in Region 1, as well as all 13 episodes of The Lucy and Desi Comedy Hour (as I Love Lucy: The Final Seasons - 7, 8, & 9). Bonus features include rare on-set color footage, the "Desilu/Westinghouse" promotional film, as well as deleted scenes and on-air flubs.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date
The Complete 1st Season 36 June 7th 2004
The Complete 2nd Season 31 August 31st 2004
The Complete 3rd Season 31 February 1st 2005
The Complete 4th Season 30 May 3rd 2005
The Complete 5th Season 26 August 16th 2005
The Complete 6th Season 27 May 2nd 2006
The Final Seasons 7, 8 & 9 13 March 13th 2007
The Complete Series 194 October 23rd 2007

[edit] Other releases

  • "I Love Lucy - Season 1" (9 separate discs labeled "Volumes", first volume released July 2, 2002, final volume released September 23, 2003)
  • "I Love Lucy - Season 1" (9 Volumes in box set, released September 23, 2003)
  • "I Love Lucy - 50th Anniversary Special" (1 disc, released October 1, 2002)

The DVD releases feature the syndicated heart opening, and offer the original broadcast openings as bonus features. Season 6 allows viewers to choose whether to watch the episodes with the original opening or the syndicated opening. The TV Land openings are not on these DVDs.

Initially, the first season was offered in volumes, with four episodes per disc. After the success of releasing seasons 2, 3, and 4 in slimpacks, the first season was re-released as a seven disc set, requiring new discs to be mastered and printed to include more episodes per disc so there would be fewer discs in the set. The individual volume discs for the first season are still in print, but are rare due to lack of shelf space.

Episodes feature English closed-captioning, but only Spanish subtitles.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b "TV Guide Names Top 50 Shows", CBS News (2002-04-26). Retrieved on 2007-10-06. 
  2. ^ a b "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME". Time magazine. Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
  3. ^ "The List >> TV's Top Reruns". Washington Post newspaper (July 17, 2007).
  4. ^ a b "Lucy Raises Tulips (Ricardo Alberto Fernando Ricardo y de Acha in Hollywood Anniversary)". I Love Lucy. CBS. 1957-04-29. No. 26, season 6.
  5. ^ "10 turning points for television". USA Today. Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
  6. ^ "Birth of a Memo", Time magazine (1953-01-26). Retrieved on 2008-01-16. 
  7. ^ "Lucy and Harpo Marx". I Love Lucy. CBS. 1955-05-09. No. 27, season 4.
  8. ^ Lucy Calls the President at the Internet Movie Database
  9. ^ Fryling, Kevin (2007-05-27). "UB faculty member loves Lucy", UB Reporter, buffalo.edu. Retrieved on 2008-02-29. 
  10. ^ "The Top 100 Moments In Television". Entertainment Weekly (February 19, 1999). Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
  11. ^ "Ask Matt". TV Guide (April 22, 2005). Retrieved on 2008-01-20.

[edit] References

  • Joe Garner, Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments (Andrews McMeel Publishing; 2002) ISBN 0-7407-2693-5
  • Bart Andrews, The 'I Love Lucy' Book (Doubleday & Company, Inc.; 1976)
  • Coyne Steven Sanders & Tom Gilbert, Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (William Morrow & Company, Inc.; 1993)
  • Michael McClay, "I Love Lucy: The Complete Picture History of the Most Popular TV Show Ever" (Kensington Publishing Corp., 1995)

[edit] External links

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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series

The Red Skelton Show (1952) · I Love Lucy (1953) · I Love Lucy (1954) · Make Room for Daddy (1955) · The Phil Silvers Show (1956) · The Phil Silvers Show (1957) · The Phil Silvers Show (1958) · The Jack Benny Program (1959) · Art Carney Special (1960) · The Jack Benny Program (1961) · The Dick Van Dyke Show (1962) · The Dick Van Dyke Show (1963) · The Dick Van Dyke Show (1964) · The Dick Van Dyke Show (1965) · The Dick Van Dyke Show (1966) · The Monkees (1967) · Get Smart (1968) · Get Smart (1969) · My World and Welcome to It (1970) · All in the Family (1971) · All in the Family (1972) · All in the Family (1973) · M*A*S*H (1974) · The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1975)
Complete list: (1952–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)
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