"I just want to see what it is that I haven't got that I don't want." - Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) on her supposed lack of jealousy in "Lucy is Envious"
I Love Lucy: The Complete Third Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
I Love Lucy's first two seasons were filled with unforgettable moments that are recognized as the undisputed highpoints of television comedy. In the series' first year, frustrated housewife Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) wrestles with a ballet barre and an overgrown loaf of bread, turns into a human Popsicle while trapped in a walk-in freezer, and pitches a dubious health product called Vitameatavegamin. In the second year, she and her best pal, Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) fight a losing battle with a candy factory assembly line, and the show would forever change TV history when Lucy and her bandleader husband, Ricky (Desi Arnaz) give birth to their son, Little Ricky. So how does the series top itself in its third season? Well, Ethel gets an improved wardrobe, and now Little Ricky is a toddler. That's about it. Season three isn't about innovation, but even at its most perfunctory, I Love Lucy continues to be one of television's funniest shows.
In season three, Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and curmudgeonly cheapskate Fred (William Frawley) face the same kinds of wacky situations that have plagued the couples in the past. From the very first episode, "Ricky's Life Story," Lucy continues her futile struggle to break into showbiz, this time rehearsing to the point of exhaustion for a dance number in Ricky's act. Obviously motherhood has not dimmed her performance aspirations. She soon fibs her way into becoming a knife thrower's assistant ("Lucy Tells the Truth"), jitterbugs her way into a Broadway audition while blind from eye drops ("Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined"), and splices herself into Ricky's TV pilot ("Home Movies").
I Love Lucy wouldn't be I Love Lucy without a few harebrained schemes that go horribly wrong. Lucy and Ethel decide to try making a quick buck by making and marketing their own salad dressing using Lucy's old family recipe ("The Million Dollar Idea"). A good deed leads to disaster when the Ricardos help the Mertzes to spruce up their apartment ("Redecorating the Mertzes' Apartment"). Lucy and Ethel agree to donate "five" to a charity fundraiser thrown by Lucy's snooty high school friend. They soon finds themselves climbing atop the Empire State Building dressed as Martians to earn extra money when the friend expects five hundred dollars and the girls are too proud to cancel their pledges ("Lucy is Envious"). Lucy and Ethel dress up as swanky femme fatales when their husbands don't pay enough attention to them ("The Charm School").
Season three's episodes are funny, but the plotlines often feel a tad familiar. In at least one instance, the déjà vu occurs in two episodes within the season. In "The Girls Go Into Business," Lucy and Ethel decide to buy a dress shop. In "The Diner," the Ricardos and the Mertzes pool their resources and their talents to buy and run a diner. Both episodes are entertaining, but their themes are startlingly similar, including their similar twist endings.
Season three also features the series' first special guest star when entertainer Tennessee Ernie Ford appears in "Tennessee Ernie Visits" and "Tennessee Ernie Hangs On" as "Cousin" Ernie, Lucy's "mother's friend's roommate's cousin's middle boy." The episodes feature terrific dialogue, excellent physical schtick (Lucy dressed as an "evil city woman" and pretending to be poor by eating a stale crust of bread as if she were a starved mouse), and even a delightfully cornpone musical number ("Y'all Come"). Of course, Ford's visit also comes across as a cheap stunt, and he sings "Wabash Cannonball" much too often in both episodes. Still, his appearance was so successful that it helped to inspire season four's dominant storyline: the Ricardos and the Mertzes' star-studded visit to California.
The packaging of The Complete Third Season is in keeping with that of the second season. The thirty-one episodes that make up the third season are divided onto five discs. The discs are housed in slim, clear keepcases. The blue toned front covers feature production stills from one of the disc's episodes along with a bright red "I Love Lucy" heart. The back covers include smaller production stills and a list of the episodes and extras found on the DVD. Because the cases are clear, the double-sided coversheets show through to the inside of the case. The interiors include episode titles, original airdates, production numbers and plot synopses. Production stills are also printed on the DVDs in similar color schemes. When the DVDs are removed, they reveal quotes from one of the disc's episodes. The five keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which continues the blue-hued look. Overall, the packaging is classy and well-designed.
The DVD menus are similar to those employed in the first two seasons.
Video and Audio
What more can be said about the pristine black and white images in the DVD releases of I Love Lucy? They are astoundingly crisp and clean, with remarkably few instances of dust or other blemishes in the film. These episodes look as if they were shot last week rather than fifty years ago. The sound, too, is great. Lucy never looked so good!
Most of the episodes include a Spanish language track and Spanish subtitles. The episodes are also closed captioned.
Extras
I Love Lucy: The Complete Third Season presents the same pleasing mix of extras found in the first two releases.
Each disc presents "Flubs" from the episodes included on the discs. When filming I Love Lucy, scenes were rarely re-shot, so small blunders often ended up in the actual episodes. In addition to offering short write-ups of these inconsistencies and errors, the "Flubs" menus allow viewers to see isolated clips of the mistakes. As usual, the DVD producers go out of their way to make this feature user-friendly, often slowing down the footage or otherwise highlighting the easy-to-miss errors.
The "Guest Cast" menu on each disc offers short biographical sketches of the show's bit players, and it even provides a list of their repeat I Love Lucy appearances.
All of the discs contain the show's "Original Openings," opening credits that prominently feature the product of the show's main sponsor, Phillip Morris cigarettes. The "heart on satin" credits were not added until the show went into syndication. The DVDs retain the heart on satin opening for the individual episodes while offering several original openings on the bonus menu of each disc. Also included is a guide explaining which opening were used on the individual episodes.
Many classic I Love Lucy episodes were loosely based on scripts from My Favorite Husband, the radio show on which I Love Lucy's creator/producer Jess Oppenheimer and writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll had previously worked with Lucy. Each disc contains one episode of the radio show paired with the television episode that it inspired. Chapter stops allow listeners to jump from one act to another or to skip commercials. These remain a wonderful extra - turn off your television, allow the radio shows to waft from your speakers, and pretend that you are listening to your radio circa 1949!
Each disc contains a selection of "Special Footage," some of which has not been seen since the show's original broadcast. Disc one presents a "3rd Season Promo" (1:32) touting the start of the series' third season and includes footage from "Lucy Goes to the Hospital," the season two episode in which Lucy gives birth to Little Ricky. Disc two includes the "Jingle Bells Tag Scene" (2:54), a Christmas greeting that followed "Ricky's Old Girl Friend" in December 1953 (and which had previously been aired following "Drafted" and "Lucy's Show Biz Swan Song" in the previous two years). Disc two also includes before and after examples of how the DVD producers restored lost footage to the disc's episodes. Disc three contains a treasure trove of footage. In "Trailer Trailer" (:32), Lucy and Desi plug the filming of their new movie, The Long, Long Trailer. The couple also performs a pitch for "The March of Dimes" (1:32). The "Fanfare for Brownies" (:17) provides an amusing example of how the original 1950s Spanish-dubbed episodes featured completely different sound effects and musical cues. Disc three also includes an example of the sometimes odd music CBS added to the show when cutting it for syndication. Disc four includes another "Trailer Plug" (:22) from Lucy and Desi. At the start of the original broadcast of "Lucy's Club Dance," Desi stepped out from behind the curtain to introduce Phillip Morris' new "Snap-open Pack" (1:48). On March 22, 1954, CBS aired a rerun of "Lucy Does a TV Commercial." In "Commercial Rerun" (:51), announcer Roy Rowan introduces the rebroadcast. Disc four also presents a "Lost Scene" (1:58) that preceded the season four rebroadcast of "Lucy's Club Dance." Disc five features a "Christmas Message" from Lucy and Desi (:45) which followed the original broadcast of "Changing the Boys' Wardrobe." Also presented are animated bumpers used as transitions to the closing commercial during many third season episodes and the original closing credits (featuring Phillip Morris cigarettes, natch). Everything here should be of great interest to fans of the series. And be sure to look for the Easter Eggs hidden (barely!) on the "Special Footage" menus.
"Production Notes" are included on each disc. These give written bits of trivia and behind-the-scenes information on the series and individual episodes. Reproductions of script pages are also included, as in disc one's deleted scene from "Lucy Tells the Truth."
This time around, only one disc includes a "Behind the Scenes" feature. Disc one presents audio excerpts from Jess Oppenheimer's book Laughs, Luck, and Lucy read by actor Larry Dobkin (who appeared in several Lucy episodes and created The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams). Running seven minutes, it delves into the show's hectic writing schedule, and the recycling of My Favorite Husband radio scripts. He also discusses the fact that the writers tried to make the show as logical as possible rather than going for cheap gags. Dobkin is an appealing reader, and the excerpt is fascinating. If only there were more.
Finally, sixteen gorgeous production stills make up the "Slide Show" on disc five.
Summary
Sure, I Love Lucy: The Complete Third Season finds the venerable series treading water. Still, even the least creative episode of I Love Lucy is much funnier than even the best episodes of most other sitcoms. Just sit back, laugh, and get ready for season four's journey to Hollywood!
1/30/05
