I Love Lucy: Season 1, Vol. 4

"The Adagio" finds Lucy once again trying to get into Ricky's act, this time as an adagio dancer. But she gets more then she bargained for when Ethel finds her a real French teacher to teach her the dance.

"The Benefit" is the best of the bunch. Lucy agrees to get Ricky to do a performance at a benefit for Ethel's club, but only if she can be part of the act.

"The Amateur Hour" finds Lucy over her head babysitting to earn money for a dress she bought and can't return.

"Lucy Plays Cupid" provides a mix-up in the romance department when Lucy tries to help a shy neighbor win the heart of the grocer. This episode was inspired by an episode of "My Favorite Husband," included on the disc, and I found the radio show much funnier.

This DVD is a collector's dream. The episodes are presented in their entirety, and they look and sound sharp. There are occasional flaws in the picture, but considering the source material is 50 years old, it really isn't bad at all. The sound is presented in mono. While it won't challenge your sound system at all, it serves the purpose well and is faithful to the original audio recording. The extras feature the original opening plugging the show's sponsor (the episodes themselves use the heart we're used to from reruns), info on the guest cast, some mistakes that made it into the episode, and the previously mentioned "My Favorite Husband" episode.

Part of my love for this show is the great friendship portrayed on screen between the four leads. Since the Mertzes are hardly in full time at this point (Fred doesn't appear in the third episode, and both are missing from the fourth), I think that partially contributes to my lack of enthusiasm for these episodes.

While the middle two provide some great laughs, the disc opener and closer leave much to be desired. Still, a Lucy fan will want this disc to complete their set of season 1.

1. "The Adagio" (aired 12/31/51)- Lucy, bitten by the showbiz bug once again, is determined to be in the French Apache dance number in Ricky's Paris revue. Ethel finds a real Frenchman to help Lucy out. His name is Jean Valjean Raymand and when he comes to her apartment for lessons and he sees her trying to hide him from Ricky, Jean assumes that Lucy wants to runaway with him. That night, he climbs up a ladder to Lucy's window to take the woman he loves, but it's not that easy.

2. "The Benefit" (aired 1/7/52)- Lucy convinces Ethel that she and Ricky are the perfect husband and wife act for a benefit performance at Ethel's club. Now all Lucy has to do is convince Ricky. When he agrees and comes up with a comedy act for them to do, Lucy is mad when she finds out that Ricky gave himself all of the jokes and left her with nothing. She then decides to tell the punch-line of the jokes before he has a chance to finish them.

3. "The Amateur Hour" (aired 1/14/52)- To pay for a new dress she just bought, Lucy decides to get a job baby-sitting. She's supposed to be watching a little boy, but is her mind playing tricks on her or does Lucy see two little boys?

4. "Lucy Plays Cupid" (aired 1/21/52)- Miss Lewis (Bea Benaderet, who was the original choice for Ethel Mertz), a sweet, elderly neighbor, asks for Lucy's help in asking out Mr. Ritter, the grocer, who she has had her eye on for awhile. Ricky forbids Lucy to be a matchmaker, but, of course, that has never stopped her before. When Lucy tells Mr. Ritter about Miss Lewis, he thinks that Lucy is lying and that she is the one who is interested in him.

Episode 12, "The Adagio" (December 31, 1951) has Lucy all excited about doing an Apache routine at the Club. But then her French dance coach (Shepard Menken) takes a romantic interest in her and suddenly this does not seem like such a good idea.

Episode 13, "The Benefit" (January 7, 1952) finds Lucy blackmailing Ethel into letting her perform at a benefit at a woman's club. It seems Lucy has promised Ricky will perform but has somehow neglected to mention this fact to her busy husband.

Episode 14, "The Amateur Hour" (January 14, 1952) has Lucy making the big mistake of baby-sitting twins at an amateur talent contest. It is a wonder Lucy ever wanted to have a baby after this escapade.

Episode 15, "Lucy Plays Cupid" (January 21, 1952) features a couple of great character actors in supporting roles as Lucy plays matchmaker between the grocery man (Edward Everett Horton) and the neighborhood spinster (Bea Benaderet). But the grocery decides that what he really likes...are redheads.

It is rather interesting to watch these episodes within the context of four episodes to a disc. In a lot of these early scripts Lucy is close to going solo as writers Jess Oppenheimer, Maedelyn Pugh, and Bob Caroll, Jr. have not yet gotten comfortable with the fact that Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley are pretty good comic actors playing pretty good comic characters. Overall these episodes would grade out as slightly above average, but the classics are still waiting for us down the road. See you there.