I LOVE LUCY and So Do You

I LOVE LUCY: THE COMPLETE SERIES (DVD)

75th Anniversary Edition

1951-1960 / 5398 min

Paramount

Review by Carl, the Couch Potato😽

Like Elvis Presley and rock & roll, I Love Lucy didn’t invent the sitcom, but sure as hell defined it in the early days of American television. Its popularity and cultural impact was huge, its influence immeasurable. Just think of the sheer number of similarly-structured shows that probably would never have existed without it.

Not only that, it turned Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz into two of TV’s biggest power couple. Without Desilu productions, we would never have gotten The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible or Star Trek. Can you imagine life without Star Trek? Thanks to I Love Lucy, we never have to. So even if their own groundbreaking show might seem archaic and silly to some, everyone’s gotta love Lucy at least a little bit.

I Love Lucy first aired long before my time, but has been in syndication forever. I can’t say I grew up on the show, nor did I ever go out of my way to watch it, so it holds no real nostalgic value. But whenever it happened to pop up on TV, I  always found it pretty funny and a lot of the humor holds up even today, especially the classic episodes that have since become iconic (I dare anyone not to laugh their ass off during Season 1’s Lucy Does a TV Commercial).  

Is it the greatest sitcom ever made? That’s obviously subjective, so I won’t go there, but in addition to still regularly airing on TV, I Love Lucy has been repeatedly released on physical media in every format over the years, including the entire series on Blu-ray just a few years ago. So for those who do consider it the greatest, the show’s always been readily available…

"That's no moon. It's a space station!"

…which makes this 75th Anniversary DVD set kind of perplexing. Content-wise, it’s priceless. The initial I Love Lucy TV show actually ran for six seasons, but this set also includes three seasons (13 episodes) of the retooled hour-long version, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, which ran from 1957 to 1960. It’s all here, spread out over 33 discs. Then again, so did the DVD set released in 2020, which is still widely available at a cheaper price. And as far as I can ascertain, this new set might actually include less bonus material (there is still a ton, but none of it is new). And with a set this massive, some kind of episode guide would’ve been nice.

I also gotta say that it’s terribly packaged. Granted, any set consisting of 33 discs is always gonna be a challenge, but Paramount did a pretty decent job with Mission: Impossible a few years ago. But here, the discs are stacked atop each other and tend to slide around inside the box. That might be a minor quip for some, but I personally don’t know a single physical media collector not put-off by inconveniently housed discs that are likely to get scratched up. 

Still, the overall video transfer is fairly decent, as is the mono Dolby Digital track for all nine seasons. And it goes without saying that those who love the show will like having every episode immediately on-hand. As a 75th Anniversary commemoration, I Love Lucy: The Complete Series is a good set, but there are better ones out there.

EXTRA KIBBLES (Spread out over several discs)

ORIGINAL OPENINGS & CLOSINGS - These changed a bit from season to season.

FLUBS - Various mistakes made during live tapings.

LOST SCENES

RESTORED MUSIC

BEHIND THE SCENES - Most are excerpts from a book about the show.

LUCY ON THE RADIO - Some episodes were also done as radio broadcasts.

SLIDE SHOW GALLERY

COLOR MONTAGE VIDEOS, FOOTAGE AND HOME MOVIES

CAST LIST MENUS

GUEST CAST LIST MENUS

PRODUCTION NOTES 

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

SPONSOR SPOTS - Vintage ads from the show’s sponsors.