Lucy's Really Lost Moments - D

First, my bona fides as a Lucy fan: I've named my four dogs Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred.

I Love Lucy is one of those iconic shows that essentially defined an era in television entertainment, and consequently American culture. Even today, with the multitude of distractions available, kids are still growing up watching and laughing at poor Lucy's antics. Shows like I Love Lucy engender a strong bond with their resulting fans.

Lucy's Really Lost Moments is a package for the hardcore Lucy fan, primarily because it focuses on extraneous material as opposed to the cut and dry episodic formula of most compilations. Don't come expecting a sequence of familiar show episodes, this disc doesn't contain any. What this disc does contain is a host of stuff you've never seen before, like Lucy and Desi's appearances on the Bob Hope Show, game shows, Westinghouse infomercials, all sorts of commercials and trailers and bloopers and the pilot episode from the show. All of this lush material has been re-imagined in full color, thanks to Legend's high-tech process, which honestly makes it look as real as if it had originally been filmed with a first generation color camera (sans grain and other uncorrectable evils). Truly a must-own for the Lucy fan, as you will never find this same material elsewhere!

First of all, to paraphrase the old saying, don't judge this DVD by it's cover, which is rather generic and uninspired and looks like a dollar store public domain LUCY SHOW release. What we have here is an awesome collection of vintage television appearances by Lucille Ball outside of her various series (although on occasion she is joined not only by Desi but Vivian Vance and William Frawley as well). This is really a set for Lucy fanatics (who number in the millions) as opposed to the casual viewer who wants to watch a comedy show.

You get
THE BOB HOPE CHEVY SHOW special from the 1950's with the whole I LOVE LUCY cast - and Bob as Ricky Ricardo! This segment is about 21 minutes long and includes Hope's opening and closing monologues and credits.

I LOVE LUCY WESHINGTON HOUSE SPECIAL promotional film for ILL's new sponsors Weshington House done in sitcom format with the full ILL cast. About 30 minutes.

I'VE GOT A SECRET - Lucy makes a guest appearance on the popular quiz show and has a secret. The panelists include a young Johnny Carson. About 10 minutes.

THE VICTOR BORGO SHOW - comedy sketch with Lucy and future co-star Gale Gordon. About 9 minutes.

One has the option of watching all of the above either in original black-and-white or a surprisingly good colorization print.

The bonus features are (note these have not been colorized):

Lucy movie trailers - THE FULLER BRUSH GIRL, BEST FOOT FORWARD, DUBARRY WAS A LADY, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD, THE LONG LONG TRAILER, FOREVER DARLING. B&W and color.

WHAT'S MY LINE - Lucy and Desi are the mystery guests. About 6 minutes.

I'VE GOT A SECRET - Lucy's a panelist and Desi has a secret. About 11 minutes.

TV commerical for daytime I Love Lucy reruns. 20 seconds.

Phillip Morris commercial with Lucy and Desi. 1 minute.

ADVENTURES OF A MODEL - Lucy and Desi appear as themselves in a skit at the end of an episode of the Joanne Dru series. About 3 minutes.

US SAVINGS BOND FILM - Lucy (on the set of The Lucy Show) makes a pitch for savings bonds. 6 minutes.

BLOOPERS AND BEHIND THE SCENES - Lucy segments from Ken Murray's Hollywood Home movies show (candid footage), Lucy and Bob Hope on one of his show's introducing bloopers from their film, and Lucy guests on Steve Lawrence special and shows behind the scenes footage of her famous TLS episode with dolphins. 12 minutes.

WESHINGTON HOUSE SPECIAL DELETED SCENE - speech by Desi Arnaz. About 6 minutes.

A further bonus is promo trailers for other colorized DVDs by this company of Shirley Temple, Laurel & Hardy, the Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, and Jackie Robinson that look fantastic. Colorization has come along way from the garish early days of the 1980's and most of these look wonderful.

This is a DVD that every Lucy fanatic will love, for the small group of people who don't fall into that category may also enjoy it as well.

I loved it! It's got lots of things I couldn't find anywhere else... being a huge Lucy fan, it's a must have! I wish some of it wasn't cut down so much, though... Like the 'Whats My Line' and 'I've Got a secret' portions were edited quite a bit - they're nicer on 'lucy and desi: a home movie' - wish more would have been on the dvd - but I loved it! 4 stars because I thought more could have been on the dvd, but it's amazing none the less. Totally worth it. Much of the things I've never seen!

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 9 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars