Amazon.com: I Love Lucy: The Complete Series: I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, William Frawley, Vivian Vance: Movies & TV

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Season Two

Season 2 of I Love Lucy includes two of the most famous half-hours in television history. "Job Switching," originally broadcast mid-September of 1952, is the crazy, battle-of-the-sexes episode in which husbands Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) and Fred Mertz (William Frawley) trade roles with wives Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Ethel (Vivian Vance), culminating in the men making a shambles of domestic chores while Lucy and Ethel take disastrous work at a chocolate factory. That's right: This is the show where the ladies have a Chaplinesque experience with a too-fast factory conveyor belt, forcing them to hide candies in their mouths, in their hats, and down their blouses lest a tough forewoman fire them for incompetence. A half-century later, the scene is still so fresh and funny it would grace any current sitcom. "Lucy Goes to the Hospital," which received an amazing 71.7 rating on January 19, 1953, is the historic episode featuring the birth of Little Ricky and a load of wonderful slapstick. Other television series (The Dick Van Dyke Show) and movies (Nine Months) have tried to top Lucy's time-to-go-to-the-hospital shenanigans, but there's nothing like the sight of Ricky and Fred falling all over themselves or Ricky showing up at the maternity ward (direct from a voodoo-themed show at the Tropicana) in witch doctor makeup.

The other 31 episodes included in I Love Lucy: The Compete Second Season have choice moments, too. "Lucy Becomes a Sculptress" finds the ever-ambitious redhead falling for empty flattery at an art-supply store and commencing an ill-advised career working in clay. Ricky agrees to bless this new endeavor if an art critic says she has talent, but Lucy tries to increase her chances by posing as a bust of herself--resulting in mayhem, of course. The usual running themes in I Love Lucy--Lucy's misguided desire to be a part of Ricky's musical career, and her penchant for disguising herself to investigate something--are all over The Complete Second Season. "Ricky Loses His Voice" is a delightful piece in which Ricky's laryngitis inspires Lucy, the Mertzes, and an aging chorus line to put on a Tropicana spectacle, and "Ricky Has Labor Pains" finds Lucy and Ethel going undercover as male reporters to find out what happens at a stag party. Lots to enjoy here, and the special features include bloopers, information about the guest cast, and snippets from Ball's radio show. --Tom Keogh

Season Five

I Love Lucy: The Complete Fifth Season finds Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) making an international mess out of husband Ricky's globe-trotting tour as an entertainer. Beginning with "Lucy Visits Grauman's" and "Lucy and John Wayne," the impulsive redhead risks Ricky's sanity in Hollywood by stealing a cement slab, from the famous entrance to Grauman's Chinese Theater, that contains the imprint of John Wayne's footprints and signature. In the tradition of superstars playing themselves on I Love Lucy, an exasperated (and very funny) Wayne gets into the act over and over and over again, making new imprints on multiple slabs because Lucy keeps messing up the results. After more shenanigans in Los Angeles (Lucy attends a ritzy party with a dummy substituting for her unavailable husband) and a disastrous train ride home, it's time to jeopardize Ricky's success during an interview show that ends disastrously.

Lucy's fifth season travel theme continues when Ricky and his band are booked on a European tour that does not include his wife or the Mertzes. Of course, that doesn't stop the determined Lucy (or Ethel), who schemes her way into Ricky's plans, only to have a number of snafus arise as she tries to leave the country. In the I Love Lucy tradition, entire episodes are written around such simple matters as trying to get a passport, or helping with Fred's fear of getting seasick while traveling. All this show's stars really need is a ridiculous, open-ended situation to exploit, and the comedy flows from there. "Bon Voyage" is a particularly funny episode in which Lucy gets left behind by the European-bound ship carrying Ricky and the others, and she has to find a way to get back aboard. The hilarious "Lucy and the Queen" finds her angling in London for a way to meet the Royal Family after Ricky is invited to say hello at the Palladium. From there, Lucy creates chaos in Scotland (this episode includes a memorable dream sequence in which Ricky appears as Scotty MacTavish MacDougal MacCardo), Paris (where she and Ethel plot to meet guest star and good sport Charles Boyer at an outdoor café), Rome (the outstanding "Lucy's Italian Movie" finds her dispatched to a vineyard, where she has to crush grapes--brilliantly--with her feet). Lots of special features, including a behind-the-scenes peek and bloopers. --Tom Keogh

Season Six

The sixth and final season of I Love Lucy finds new laughs in some old formulas while also expanding the hugely popular show’s horizons with a change of scene. Things get off to a familiar start when Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) gets in the middle of husband Ricky’s business--in this case, disguising herself as a hot dog salesman at Yankee Stadium in order to get near Bob Hope. Hope, she believes, has ignored Ricky’s offer to be the first act at his new nightclub. But, in fact, Hope had already agreed; Ricky was just sitting on the information to keep Lucy from getting typically ditzy in front of one of his celebrity pals. Not surprisingly, mayhem follows when poor Hope finds his hand slathered with condiments and his noggin bonked by a foul ball. Other celebrity sightings include Orson Welles, who copes with Lucy’s aspirations as a Shakespearean actress, and George Reeves, television’s Superman, who shows up unexpectedly, in costume, at Little Ricky’s birthday party. Meanwhile, Lucy--who didn’t want to disappoint the tyke--stands in a makeshift Man of Steel outfit on a window ledge, in the rain.

A number of episodes concern Little Ricky (Keith Thibodeaux) now that he’s old enough to be a functioning character on the show. In "Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums," the lad takes after his musician father and starts playing percussion, leading to some frayed nerves. A couple of episodes later, young Ricardo gets a bad case of stage fright at school, and Lucy suggests Ricky let him play the drums at the nightclub. (But then, of course, she has to figure out how to talk her son into performing.) A big change comes to I Love Lucy in the season’s second half, when the Ricardos decide it’s time to become homeowners and pull up stakes at their old Manhattan apartment. Moving to a nice, new house in Connecticut, they’re soon joined by Fred (William Frawley) and Ethel (Vivian Vance), and the season’s storylines take on a distinctly suburban flavor, with country clubs, barbecues, and gardens figuring into the comedy. With those developments, I Love Lucy came to a close after making television history as a much-beloved sitcom. Lots of special features, including multiple audio commentaries, flubs, lost scenes, and five episodes of My Favorite Husband, Ball’s radio show. --Tom Keogh

Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show

From Lucy-tormented Hollywood A-listers and bongo-propelled production numbers to archival goodies such as long-lost footage, there is much to love in this collection of all 13 episodes from The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (also known as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour). Following I Love Lucy's sixth and final season, these monthly (give or take) specials reunited America with Ricky and Lucy (and Keith Thibodeaux's adorable Little Ricky, still living the country life in Connecticut. The expanded, hour-long format allowed for celebrity guest stars and excursions to far-flung locales, such as Japan and Mexico. Not matter where they go, Lucy can always be counted on to act, in Desi's words, "a little crazy in the head," which is how she winds up masquerading as Ernie Kovacs' chauffeur in "Lucy Meets the Moustache" (an episode making its home-video debut), dangling Milton Berle from a construction crane in "Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos," or sparking a uranium uproar in Las Vegas in "Lucy Hunts Uranium."

A highlight of this set is the first-ever home video release of the uncut version of "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana," a flashback episode in which Lucy meets Ricky on a "maiden voyage" to Cuba. She also meets future best friend Ethel (Vivian Vance) and her new husband Fred (a toupeed William Frawley), and goes overboard for her first celebrity sighting, Rudy Vallee. Because these episodes do not play as often in syndication, they seem fresher than their endlessly re-run counterparts. They are full of delights for movie, TV, and Lucy buffs, among them, Fred MacMurray getting "Uranium" fever, Maurice Chevalier singing "Yankee Doodle Boy" in the "Mexico" episode, prolific character actor Sid Melton as a bellboy in the "Alaska" episode, and a va-voom Vance decked out as maid and a dance hall girl, respectively, in the "The Celebrity Next Door" and "Milton Berle" episodes. Among this set's prodigious bonus features include 1951 color footage that an audience member surreptitiously filmed, rediscovered scenes that were cut from the original broadcasts, and a filmed presentation to Westinghouse, which sponsored the series. If you don't add this to your library, you have some 'splainin' to do. --Donald Liebenson

Product Description

The Whole McGillicuddy: All 9 Seasons! All 194 Episodes!
Fall in love again and again with the timeless comedy that entertains generation after generation. This special 34-disc DVD collection contains every hilarious episode of every classic season of I Love Lucy--from the Lost Pilot to the The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour shows. Join Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel for non-stop laughter as you savor every magical moment of the greatest sitcom of all time.

Includes all new special features including I Love Lucy: The Movie, the first Fully-Colorized I Love Lucy episode, I Love Lucy at the 6th Annual Emmy® Awards, highlights of Lucy & Desi's First Joint TV Appearance, and hours of bonus features from the individual complete season releases!

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297 of 301 people found the following review helpful

"The Whole McGillicuddy: All 9 Seasons! All 194 Episodes!" (taken from the back description) A Great Product. A Great Show! November 17, 2007

By musicholickgp

Format:DVD

I have been watching I Love Lucy since my elementary school years. I grew up watching it, even though I wasn't around when it first came out. Young and old love this show.

It is much cheaper buying the complete series than buying each individual season, which is what I did, until I saw this on Amazon, so I sold my other sets to get this one. Usually Amazon is pretty competitive with their prices, but I got this set for $137.72 at Sams Club. Now I will be waiting for complete series of TV sows to come out, rather than buy each individual season of different TV shows.

This set includes all 180 episodes plus the pilot episode to make it 181 episodes from the show I Love Lucy plus the 13 episodes from The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour series for seasons 7, 8, and 9, making it a total of 194 episodes. All of the discs are exactly the same as the individual season boxed sets, but there is a bonus DVD included.

This disc includes:
"Lucy Goes to Scotland"-In Color
"I Love Lucy: The Movie"
Lucy and Desi's First Joint TV Appearance
"I Love Lucy" At the Sixth Annual Emmy Awards
On-Set Commercial From the Series Premiere

It was great being able to see one of the episodes in color, to see what the audience saw when they were there watching the actors in person. It was especially nice to see Lucy's red hair, but I do have to admit I much prefer the series in black and white because that's what I'm used to.

Many people in the past reviews have mentioned I Love Lucy: The Movie. Well to be honest it's only three episodes (The Benefit, Breaking the Lease, and the Ballet) all one right after the other with some extra minutes in between each episode to add a story line from one episode to transition to another, so it flows together and makes sense to create a movie length show. It's still great to watch, but it wasn't as big a deal as I thought it was going to be.

And there are many other extra bonus features on each disc, the same bonus features that are on each of the season boxed sets. The discs are also the same in appearance both on the outside just looking at it, and also once put in the DVD player, on the main menu screen. Also what I have noticed on the bonus disc before choosing to play the commercial for Philip Morris, there is a warning label: "This material is shown in its historical context. WE DO NOT RECOMMEND SMOKING, WHICH CAUSES LUNG CANCER, AND OTHER DISEASES."

On all of the discs there are Spanish Subtitles, and on every season disc (not the bonus DVD) you can choose to watch any episode with English or Spanish as the spoken language.

Also on the first season discs in this set, on the main menu screen you can choose to play all episodes on the disc or play them individually. If you choose to play them all by clicking the "play all" button on the screen, the I Love Lucy song plays with Ricky singing the lyrics. Then there is a group of people singing the song right before it ends. There are several different scenes from the show that show on the screen while the song is playing. Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel are in color on the screen during the song, but everything else is in black and white. Before the song plays and right after it, a pink curtain pulls up and down that says "The Collector's Edition." You'll probably recognize the lyrics to the theme song.

These are the words to I Love Lucy:

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
LUCY KISSES LIKE NO ONE CAN
SHE'S MY MISSUS AND I'M HER MAN
AND LIFE IS HEAVEN YOU SEE
CAUSE I LOVE LUCY
YES I LOVE LUCY
AND LUCY LOVES ME

The pilot episode on the first disc from the first season, I was surprised how clear the screen was. All of the discs have such clear picture quality, much better quality on these discs than on reruns on TV. Of course it may depend on how good a picture your TV gets. If you have a good picture on your TV, then the reruns on TV are usually pretty clear too.

In this complete series, the DVDs are not in cases, like they were for the individual seasons. Instead there are two cardboard book-like CD cases that they are in (accordion shape style). One has seasons 1-3 including the bonus disc and the other for seasons 4-9, so they are split up about equally to be the same size to fit into its case. For each slot in the CD case, it says what season and what disc the slot is. The colors on the slots match the colors on the discs. For example, the first seasons' discs are pink, so the slots for season one are pink. Everything is put in order and easier to locate and find.

There is also a pamphlet or small thin book (whatever you want to call it) that tells you what is on each disc. For each page in it, it lists each episodes' title, the air date and a small summary about the episode. And below the episode lists/guides, there are "Bonus Material Highlights" which mention which episodes from "My Favorite Husband" are on the disc and whatever special features the disc has: "Behind the Scenes" Featurette, "Behind the Scenes" Slide Show, slide shows, Audio Commentary, Meet Special People, Photo Gallery etc. On each page, there are several photos of Lucy and the gang from different episodes as well. Also, just like the DVDs and the book-like accordion CD cases are organized by color, so is the pamphlet/thin book. Season one's DVDs are pink, and so are the pages in the pamphlet/thin book for the pages that season one is on. Season three is colored blue, so the pages with season three are blue, and so are the DVDs and the slots to put them away in.

The pamphlet/thin book fits inside the box with the two CD cases. The cover for the box, with the I Love Lucy logo on it, fits nicely over it. It's a cute way to store the series, but it probably could have been put together better, but it's still great for any Lucy lover, and it's a wonderful collectors item.

It really is a great product, and better, a great show! It's great to watch over and over again.

Once a fan, always a fan!

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117 of 118 people found the following review helpful

YES! The one, the original, and now the complete series April 11, 2006

By DC

What can I say that isn't already known about the best-loved sitcom in television history? Well, it has a history of many firsts as its makers were pioneers in television. They single-handledly invented the re-run. They were also the first show to have a video club in VHS format for sale back in the late eighties. I purchased those tapes and still own them, and waited for the day the full six seasons would be available on DVD. I also own the 13 episodes of the "Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" on VHS, which were shot as once-a-month specials at the end of Lucy and Desi's run. A separate DVD package for that makes sense, and we the fans look forward to its release (hey, while you're at it, guys, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy would be great too!).

So from the first episode shot (which aired as episode #3, entitled "Lucy Thinks Ricky Wants To Murder Her", to the final episode from season six, entitled "Lucy Dedicates A Statue", you now have the complete set, with a pristine and lovingly restored picture, and all the extras from each season DVD.

Here's something a lot of people are surprised to know when I tell them. The advantage of watching all six seasons in a package like this is you see the story of the Ricardos and the Mertzes unfold, and the story has an arc, particularly for Lucy. This is perhaps most evident in one particular Hollywood episode, when she is offered a golden opportunity. But I won't give anything away here, you'll have to see what I mean!

Lucy collectors have been around since the beginning of the I Love Lucy phenomenon, and I think it's mainly because the show has heart. The jokes never get old, and there is a genuine appeal - you can relate to the show no matter who you are or where you're from. Sure, there was backstage controversy over the marriage which ended in divorce in 1960, and women's groups may quibble about how Lucy did not exactly move the women's movement forward, but it did what television does best: reflect the times of our culture. If anything Lucille Ball was quite the pioneer herself, as the first female TV Studio executive, navigating Desilu well into the 1970's.

Anyone who wants to see a master at play in situation comedy should take a good look at this collection. In fact, the work of Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance (whom I may submit here as the greatest sidekick in sitcom history) and William Frawley presents the original Fab Four, way before Seinfeld. These cats still show how it's done.

6 Comments |

62 of 69 people found the following review helpful

What's up with the price? July 18, 2006

By Dan Curtis Fan

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I would gladly this set 5 stars, except for the fact that it is currently cheaper to purchase all 6 seasons of "I Love Lucy" individually. That should not be. There is nothing extra in this set that is not included in the individual sets, except for a fancy piece of cardboard on the bottom and some extra plastic wrap holding all of the sets together. I really don't understand Amazon's pricing policy. Their DVDs go dramatically up and down in price every week. Just last week the "I Love Lucy" seasons were $45 each, making this complete series collection a good deal. Now it is not worth it. Buy them individually and save 50 bucks. But beware, maybe next week they'll jack the prices up again.

3 Comments |