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"You mean to say that you've been married to her for fifteen years? And they call me Superman!" - George Reeves to Ricky Ricardo after saving Lucy in "Lucy and Superman"

I Love Lucy: The Complete Sixth Season DVD Review

By Jonathan Boudreaux

During the production of I Love Lucy's fifth season, creator/producer Jess Oppenheimer announced that he would not return to the series the following year. After 153 shows, he felt that the story of the Ricardos (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) and the Mertzes (Vivian Vance and William Frawley) had been tapped out. With the series still perched at number one in the ratings, he suggested that they cease production and go out on top. Ball and Arnaz disagreed, and it was decided that the series would go on without Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer had a hand in all 153 scripts, shaping the characters, re-writing scenes, and honing the dialogue into sharp, smart interplay. Would the series be the same without him? Yes.and no.

After two seasons of globetrotting - much of season four was set in Hollywood while season five split its time between Hollywood and Europe - the Ricardos and the Mertzes finally settle down in New York again.at least temporarily. Ricky even buys the Tropicana and renames it Club Babalu. In previous seasons, Little Ricky was often reduced to a prop, carried on and off stage whenever his presence might be needed to set up a joke. In the European episodes, Little Ricky was left behind in the States. For season six, the tot becomes a more integral part of the cast. Out are Joseph and Michael Meyer, the twins who played Little Ricky throughout season five. In Season six, Little Ricky ages from a toddler to a five year old and is now played by Keith Thibodeaux, a drum prodigy who had been touring the U.S. for a year before being cast in I Love Lucy.

By aging Little Ricky, the writers are able to feature the character more prominently in the show's plots. In "Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums," the title pretty much says it all - junior follows in his father's footsteps by taking up the drums. In "Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright," he learns the meaning of the words "nervous," "scared," and "stage fright" just as he's about to make his stage debut in a music school recital. He also stars in a kindergarten production of The Enchanted Forest ("Little Ricky's School Pageant"), begs for a birthday visit from Superman ("Lucy and Superman"), and brings home an irresistible dog that he names Fred ("Little Ricky Gets a Dog").

Thibodeaux is undeniably cute, is a terrific drummer, and bears more than a passing resemblance to his TV dad. He's extremely young, though, and the writers sometimes put too much on his inexperienced shoulders. When other characters are speaking to him, he is often looking at the audience or simply staring off of the set. To his credit, he rarely looks in the camera.

Starting with the season three appearance by Tennessee Ernie Ford, those involved with I Love Lucy learned that famous guest stars could goose already high ratings. The sixth season starts out with a pair of huge stars. In "Lucy and Bob Hope," Lucy comes up with a dubious plan to get Bob Hope to agree to perform at Club Babalu's opening night celebration, not realizing that he has already agreed to headline. In "Lucy Meets Orson Welles," Lucy is under the mistaken impression that Orson Welles would like her to perform Shakespeare with him at a benefit. In actuality, he simply wants her to be his assistant in a magic act.

Both of these episodes exemplify a problem shared by many season six episodes - without Oppenheimer's script polishing, there are often long stretches with no laughs surrounding scenes in which hilarity reigns. Bob Hope is funny whenever he's on screen, but there are several scenes in which laughs are few and far between. "Lucy Meets Orson Welles" has its daffy moments, but ultimately it feels incomplete. In "Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright," the cast expertly portrays the divine horror of listening to untalented children performing music. This scene is funny, but the rest of the episode does not live up to its potential.

"Off to Florida" makes excellent use of guest star Elsa Lanchester (The Bride of Frankenstein). The Ricardos and the Mertzes are finally taking a long-planned winter vacation in Florida. Fred, Ricky, and Little Ricky head out early to get in a little extra fishing. When Lucy misplaces the girls' train tickets, it begins to look as if they'll miss their vacation - Fred and Ricky are out to sea and neither Lucy nor Ethel have enough cash to spring for new tickets. Lucy answers a newspaper ad to "share a ride" to Florida with Mrs. Grundy (Lanchester), a daffy stranger who refuses to stop for food and insists that they sleep outdoors. Sure, she's eccentric, but is she the grey-haired hatchet murderess that Lucy and Ethel hear about on the radio? And if not, why does she have a hatchet in the trunk? Lanchester gives a deliriously funny performance that is on par with Ball and Vance - no small feat.

In "Lucy and the Loving Cup," Ball once again proves herself to be a master of physical comedy. Ricky is scheduled to give a loving cup to jockey Johnny Longden, but Lucy ends up with the award stuck on her head. Ethel finds a silversmith who is willing to remove it, but she and Lucy become separated on the busy subway while on their way to his shop. The loving cup is expertly designed - those two filigrees that look like eyes are classic - and Ball proves that she can be funny even when audiences cannot see her face.

Also included in this season is "Christmas Show," a long-lost holiday episode that was never seen in syndication or reruns because of its yuletide theme. In it, the Ricardos and the Mertzes decorate Little Ricky's Christmas tree while reminiscing (via clips from earlier episodes) about their various adventures. This episode originally ran on December 24, 1956, and was not seen again until CBS dug up a copy and aired it as a holiday special in 1989.

Midway through the season, the Ricardos decide to move to Westport, Connecticut so that Little Ricky can grow up in the country. The writers felt that moving the family out of town would open up a variety of new plotlines, and Ball said that she was getting tired of the Ricardos' apartment set. Soon the Mertzes are living in the guest house, and Lucy's shenanigans are once again going at full tilt, only this time in Connecticut. Whether she's chasing 500 baby chicks around her new home ("Lucy Raises Chickens"), doing the tango with three dozen eggs stashed in her blouse ("Lucy Does the Tango"), or taking apart a bar-b-q pit brick by brick in search for her missing wedding ring ("Building a Bar-B-Q"), it's comfortable to know that Lucy never really changes, only her setting does.

After thirteen episodes set in Connecticut, the season - and the series - came to an end. I Love Lucy was history, although the characters reappeared in a series of one hour Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz Show specials that continued the adventures of the Ricardos and the Mertzes.

Guests in season six include Ellen Corby (The Waltons), Marjorie Bennett (Dobie Gillis), Howard McNear (The Andy Griffith Show), Strother Martin (Lassie), Claude Akins (Sheriff Lobo), jockey Johnny Longden, Sandra Gould (Bewitched), George O'Hanlon (The Jetsons), Madge Blake (Batman), Eleanor Audley (Green Acres), Frank Nelson (The Snorks), Mary Jane Croft (Our Miss Brooks), and Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie).

The packaging of The Complete Sixth Season is similar to those for the previous seasons. The twenty-seven episodes that make up the sixth season are divided onto four discs. The discs are housed in slim, clear keepcases. The mauve-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 mauve-hued look. The packaging is classy and elegant.

The DVD menus are similar to previous I Love Lucy releases.

Video and Audio

For the most part, the audio and video of these restored I Love Lucy episodes are crisp, clean, and beautiful. There are a few shots in which the video is extremely fuzzy. These are few and far between, however, and are probably attributable to replacing missing scenes with slightly inferior footage.

Most of the episodes include a Spanish language track and Spanish subtitles. The episodes are also closed captioned.

Extras

The troupers of I Love Lucy always went "on with the show," even after bungling something, thus allowing small mistakes to actually make it to air. As with previous season sets, each disc in season six presents "Flubs" from the episodes included on the discs - blunders and inconsistencies that ended up in the episodes. Brief write-ups explain these inconsistencies and errors, plus the "Flubs" menus allow viewers to see isolated clips of the mistakes. These episodes are so engaging, chances are you never even noticed these sometimes glaring errors.

The "Guest Cast" menu on each disc offers short biographical sketches of the show's bit players, including listings of their repeat I Love Lucy appearances.

All of the discs contain the show's "Original Openings," opening credits that prominently feature the products of the show's sixth season sponsors, General Foods, Ford, and Proctor & Gamble. 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, but this time around viewers can also choose to watch the episodes with the original openings swapped for the "heart on satin" credits. This is a terrific idea, bringing the series even closer to the way it looked when it first played on CBS.if only it worked. My DVD player has trouble transitioning between the original openings and the episodes themselves. For those who prefer to watch the original openings separately, the menus also explain which openings were used on each episode since the products swapped off from week to week.

Lucy's creator/producer Jess Oppenheimer and writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll had previously worked with everyone's favorite redhead on the radio show My Favorite Husband. Each disc contains one episode of the radio show. These radio shows inspired many early episodes of I Love Lucy.

Each disc contains a selection of "Special Footage," some of which has not been seen since the show's original broadcast. The "Lost 1951 Promo" (:18) presents the cast shilling their new CBS show before its 1951 premiere. When the series was edited for syndication by CBS, the original animated openings and closings were removed, as well as many of the voiceovers that ran over the closing credits. Many of these have been fully restored for this release. Disc one presents a before and after example of a "Restored Closing" (:36). Closing credits were preceded by an animated "Sponsor Plug" (:16), and example of which is included here. All of these have, of course, been reinserted to the actual episodes included on these DVDs, but they do serve as a reminder of the excellent work that went into making these releases the definitive Lucy collection. Disc two includes two other examples of "Restored Closings" (:40; :27). The "Sanka Commercial" (:57) starring Lucy and Desi originally ran during "Lucy and Superman." Also included is an example of the "Restored Reeves Credit" (:08). Guest stars were credited by voiceover during the show's closing credits. When "Lucy and Superman" went into syndication, the original closing credits were replaced by the "heart on satin" version, and George Reeves' credit was deleted. It has now been restored. Disc three's "Restored Transition" (:50) presents an example of the restored act break animation. Also included are commercials for Sanka (1:01) and Ford (1:02). The Ford commercial is especially interesting as it features a song and dance number performed by Vance and Frawley. Also included is another example of a restored "Sponsor Plug" (:17). Disc four includes two lost scenes. "Lost Scene #1" (1:28) was originally filmed as an introduction to the April 1955 broadcast of "Mr. & Mrs. TV Show." "Lost Scene #2" (:59) was filmed to accompany a rerun of "The Star Upstairs." Finally, Lucy and Desi appear in a "Lilt Commercial" (1:05) that has been reinserted into two episodes.

"Production Notes" are included on each disc. These give written bits of trivia and behind-the-scenes information on the series and individual episodes. Also included are reproductions of script pages, video clips, and photos. You'll even get to see a full color still of Vivian Vance dressed as Cleopatra from a bit that was cut from the show. These production notes might be brief, but they are packed with information sure to please all Lucy fans.

Several episodes include commentary tracks: "Lucy and Superman" with Doris Singleton (Caroline Appleby), Keith Thibodeaux (Little Ricky), and Steve Kay (Stevie Appleby); "Lucy Does the Tango" with writers Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Schiller; and "Country Club Dance" with guest star Barbara Eden. The "Lucy and Superman" track is quite pleasant, with Steve Kay discussing how terrified he was of William Frawley and both Kay and Thibodeaux talking about what an honor it was to be able to work with their childhood hero, Superman. Even better than the episode commentary, however, is the "Play Additional Commentary" option. The three actors interview each other while a slide show plays on screen. We learn how Singleton and Thibodeaux were cast and hear about Thibodeaux's close relationship with Desi. This extra is not to be missed. Davis and Schiller take a while to warm up in their "Lucy Does the Tango" commentary, but stick with it to hear behind-the-scenes tales like the fact that rehearsal-crazed Ball didn't rehearse with the eggs - she wanted her onscreen reaction to be as natural as possible. Barbara Eden's commentary track also contains several stops and starts, but she proves to be quite charming.

As part of Bob Hope's deal to appear on I Love Lucy's season premiere for the 1956-57 season, the cast of I Love Lucy agreed to appear on his NBC special The Chevy Show a few weeks later. Disc one includes "The Chevy Show" (3:49), clips from a sketch in which Hope plays Ricky and Desi plays Fred. Because these are only highlights, the sketch feels rushed and incomplete.

Disc one's "Meet Keith Thibodeaux" is a brief, written biography of the Louisiana native (and expert drummer) who joined the cast in the sixth season as the Ricardos' five year old son Little Ricky.

"Lucy in Color" (14:38) on disc two features computer colorized footage from "Christmas Show." The original black and white version ran as a special on CBS in December 1989. When the network reran the special the following year, they decided to colorize the wraparound segments. It looks truly terrible and would easily serve as an argument against colorization.

The "Slide Show" on disc four includes thirteen behind-the-scenes photos from the filming of the sixth season.

Summary

One of TV history's most artistically and financially successful sitcoms came to an end with I Love Lucy: The Complete Sixth Season. This season doesn't represent the series at its high point, but it's still incredibly funny. Just sit back and laugh.

4/23/06