"Here's one for you to try, Ethel: Trigger!" - Fred Mertz (William Frawley) to his wife Ethel (Vivian Vance) at Grauman's Chinese Theatre upon learning that she has larger feet than both Joan Crawford and Tyrone Power
I Love Lucy: The Complete Fifth Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
In I Love Lucy's stellar 1954-55 season, the series' creative team - creator/producer Jess Oppenheimer and writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll - revitalized the show by packing the Ricardos (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) and the Mertzes (Vivian Vance and William Frawley) off to California when Ricky is offered a part in a Hollywood film. How would they follow up a season which includes such memorable moments as Lucy accosting William Holden at the Brown Derby, Lucy fighting.and losing.against an oversized headdress while filming a bit part in a movie, and Lucy facing off with Harpo Marx? By sending the two clans to conquer Europe, of course!
As the fifth season begins, the gang is still in Hollywood, where Ricky has just wrapped filming on his screen debut ("Lucy Visits Grauman's"). Fred, Ethel, and Lucy are disappointed to learn that he plans for them to return to New York right away. There are still too many sights left to see. And besides, Lucy's souvenir collection - which includes an orange autographed by Robert Taylor, Richard Widmark's grapefruit, and an old tin can smushed by Cary Grant's left rear wheel - isn't quite big enough. Ricky grants them an extra week, and the three head off to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the landmark movie palace where the historic sidewalk enshrines the handprints, footprints, and autographs of Hollywood's luminaries in cement. When she discovers that John Wayne's concrete slab is loose, Lucy decides that it would add much-needed heft to her souvenir collection. This episode - along with "Lucy and John Wayne," its unofficial second half - is classic I Love Lucy. Idiotic schemes, crazy mix-ups, quick drying cement, Lucy wearing a purse over her head to cover up her curlers when meeting John Wayne - everything we've come to love about Lucy is here, starting the season with a bang.
Soon, the Ricardos and the Mertzes are on their way back to New York, this time via train in the screwball episode "The Great Train Robbery." When Lucy notices that her train car houses an emergency brake, she comments on the lunacy of the conductor having to run that far back in the train in order to make an emergency stop. Shouldn't it be in the engine car? Once she learns that the emergency brake is actually for passengers to use, she repeatedly employs it in the face of minor "emergencies" - she forgets her purse on the platform, she thinks Little Ricky has been kidnapped, she mistakes a jeweler for an escaped jewel thief. Sitcoms have employed the emergency brake gag for laughs ever since, but this episode actually makes it look fresh.
Miraculously, the group does make it back to New York. . .but not for long. Ricky's band is booked on a European tour, and the Ricardos and Mertzes find themselves packing their bags for an extended overseas trip. The remainder of the season plays like a series of picture postcards as the gang hops from country to country. See the USS Constitution! See Buckingham Palace! See the Coliseum! See how many different ways the same hotel room set can be dressed!
These episodes don't have the same easy charm of the Hollywood episodes, mostly because they seem like a variation on the trip-to-California theme. Moving the Ricardos and the Mertzes to Hollywood stirred creative juices? Then why not pack them off to Europe! Still, it's hard to complain when some of these episodes are so funny. Lucy's Jacques Marcel couture gown in Paris is actually a potato sack ("Lucy Gets a Paris Gown"). Lucy soaks in local color by stomping grapes.and a peasant woman.at an Italian vineyard ("Lucy's Italian Movie"). The gang - trapped by an avalanche in a deserted mountain cabin outside of Lucerne, Switzerland - reveals their innermost secrets ("Lucy in the Swiss Alps").
These episodes increasingly rely on Lucille Ball's genius for laughs. As a performer, she can seemingly do anything. She frets like an over-caffeinated Chihuahua when Ricky gets more adoration than she does upon their return to New York ("Homecoming"). She walks a fine line between subtle and blowtorch when Lucy convinces herself she's seasick during a ride on the Staten Island Ferry ("Staten Island Ferry"). She takes an indignant, balletic swat at Ricky when he tries to slap her awake at the passport office ("Staten Island Ferry"). And the look of shock and horror upon receiving her first pussful of grapes in "Lucy's Italian Movie" is priceless.
Fred and Ethel sometimes get a chance to shine, but not quite as often as in the past. One especially amusing episode is "Second Honeymoon," in which Ethel and her "Tiger" rekindle their love life aboard the USS Constitution while sailing to Europe. They even neck in a stairwell! Ricky, on the other hand, often disappears for long stretches of time, showing up only to perform a musical number or two. And as for Little Ricky, season five reduces him to a prop. The other actors occasionally carry him onto the set, and then quickly whisk him away. When the gang leaves for Europe, they unceremoniously leave him behind with his grandmother.
Season five also sees the addition of two new writers, Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf. The duo would later go on to write many memorable episodes for the final two seasons of All in the Family, including "Edith's Fiftieth Birthday" (in which Edith is threatened by a rapist), "The Stivics Go West" (in which Mike and Gloria move to California), and "Edith's Crisis of Faith (Part 1)" (in which Edith questions her faith when her female impersonator friend is beaten to death at Christmas).
The packaging of The Complete Fifth Season is similar to those for the second, third, and fourth seasons. The twenty-six episodes that make up the fifth season are divided onto four discs. (There are fewer episodes this time around, hence fewer discs.) The discs are housed in slim, clear keepcases. The teal-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 four keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which continues the teal-hued look. The packaging is classy and elegant.
The DVD menus are similar to previous I Love Lucy releases.
As stated on the packaging, "Lucy and the Dummy" is edited from its original network version. When the episode first aired, the MGM talent show in which Lucy appears also featured an extensive clip from the latest MGM musical, Guys and Dolls starring Marlon Brando. Unfortunately, the producers of this set were unable to secure the rights to this clip, so it has been cut. Losing it doesn't detract one bit from the episode, and the episode is so complete otherwise that it even includes the emcee's introduction of the clip and the post-clip segue.
