With: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Richard Keith, Claude Akins, Charles Boyer, Richard Crenna, Barbara Eden, William Holden, Hedda Hopper, Rock Hudson, Van Johnson, Elsa Lanchester, Strother Martin, Harpo Marx, George Reeves, John Wayne, Orson Welles, Richard Widmark, Cornel Wilde
Written by: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf
Directed by: James V. Kern, Marc Daniels, Ralph Levy
I Love Lucy: The Complete Series (75th Anniversary) (1951)
4 Stars (out of 4)
Some 'splaining to Do
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
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Undoubtedly one of the most influential TV shows of all time, if not the most influential. Most sitcoms that came after it (All in the Family, Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld, etc.) all owe it a debt of gratitude. It was the first scripted TV show to be shot on 35mm film in front of a studio audience. (Karl Freund, who had worked on Metropolis and Dracula as well as films by F.W. Murnau and Carl Theodor Dreyer, was the show's lead director of photography.) And it was enormously popular; even reruns generally attracted large audiences, both in the U.S. and around the world. In fact, it's the show that invented reruns! It ran for six seasons as I Love Lucy, and then continued for three more as The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour (not included here).
As Lucy and Ricky, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are the stars, but they shared equal screen time with the supporting characters, neighbors Fred Mertz (William Frawley) and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance). And even though Ball was the comic genius of the quartet, the laughs were shared as well. The stories and the laughs still feel fresh after 75 years, even though they center around "typical" sitcom stuff like lies and schemes. Classic episodes include "Lucy Tells the Truth," "Job Switching," "Lucy Does a TV Commercial," and "Lucy's Italian Movie," and various guest stars included George Reeves (Superman), Orson Welles, Harpo Marx, William Holden, and John Wayne. The episodes in which Lucy is pregnant are also legendary. (And, yes, there's a Christmas episode too.)
There's no question that this is great stuff, a must-have for any fans of physical media and classic TV. The main drawback is that this exact DVD set was released back in 2020, the only thing new here is the slipcover celebrating the show's 75th anniversary. Either way, the massive set contains 194 episodes of the show on 33 DVDs, totaling 89 hours and 58 minutes. There are also tons of extras, including alternate opener and closers, flubs, lost scenes, restored music, behind-the-scenes, home movies, photos, Spanish language tracks, and more. Other drawbacks are that it's a bit cumbersome to sort through the 33 discs to find the ones you want, and that there are no English subtitles. All that aside, this is Highly Recommended.
