The Lucy Show: The Official First Season

Finally, one TV's most beloved sitcoms from the 1960's arrives on DVD July 21, 2009. After releasing Lucille Ball's first series in its entirety, "I Love Lucy", CBS Home Video is bringing out, what I consider, one of the best television shows of all-time.
"The Lucy Show" was Lucille Ball's follow-up to her immensely popular 1950's TV program, and at first she was hesitant to do another weekly series for a variety of reasons: first, she knew the work involved in doing a TV show week after week, and secondly she also didn't know if the audience would accept her playing a widow, as she and Desi Arnaz were so closely identified as America's first TV couple. Since she and Desi were now divorced, having them star in a television show together was virtually impossible. One of the stipulations she had with the new CBS show was that she wanted Desi to be its executive producer, (which he was that first season), as Lucy knew Desi had the mind and ability to produce a top-rated show, and she wanted her best friend, Vivian Vance, to star along with her. Lucy's demands were met.
"The Lucy Show", originally titled "The Lucille Ball Show" in its inception, aired its first episode on October 1, 1962. Lucy played Lucy Carmichael, a widow raising 2 children, a daughter Chris, played by Candy Moore, and a son Jerry, played by Jimmy Garrett. Lucy shared her home with her best friend Vivian, played superbly by Vance, who had a son Sherman, portrayed by Ralph Hart. Although many TV historians state that it was Ann Romano, from "One Day at a Time", who played TV's first divorced woman, that distiction, however, belongs to Vivian Vance, who was the medium's first divorcee in this series. "The Lucy Show" followed the adventures of Lucy and Vivian, as they raised their children alone, and encountered various mishaps while living without men. The series explored what it was like for two women maintaining a household all alone, and the series depicted the problems each had with their personal lives, such as finding Mr. Right.
"The Lucy Show" is one of my favorite shows ever, and I actually love it even more than "I Love Lucy". This long awaited boxset of the series' first season, features 30 episodes, that have been rarely seen over the years. This first season is filmed in glorious black and white, but subsequent seasons were filmed in color as Lucille Ball knew they could be more easily sold in syndication than the black and white ones. The show continued to be broadcast in black and white until the 1965 season, but at the beginning of the 1963 season filming in B&W was discontinued. These 30 shows are some of the best work Lucille Ball ever did in her career, albeit they have hardly been seen by newer audiences. Many of the writers from "I Love Lucy" wrote many of these 30 shows, and their originality and creativity is evident. The best episodes from this season are: "Lucy and Viv Put in a TV Antenna", in which Lucy and Vivian go to extremes to go up on the roof to install a new antenna, as their signal is gone. This episode is hilarious, especially when one watches it during this day in time as many of us have cable and satellite, but the writing is dead on, and the performances, along with Lucy and Viv's physical comedy, are at its zenith. Another great show is "Lucy and Viv Put In A Shower", where the roomates install a new shower, as they realize having one bathroom doesn't cut it for a home housing 5 people. While doing the shower scene Lucille Ball almost drowned, and thanks to Vivian Vance, she was saved. One of my favorite Christmas shows from any series is in this set and is entitled "Together For Christmas", as Lucy and Vivian argue over a tree. Each wants to have a tree decorated to each other's taste, so to make a compromise, they each put up a tree in the living room. They eventually have a fight and destroy the other's tree, with Lucy going so far as sawing Viv's!
"The Lucy Show" is one of those rare network TV shows that never left the top 10 during its six year run on CBS. It actually finished its final season on the network in the early spring of 1968 at at whopping #2 in the Nielsens. The series would return that fall under a new title, "Here's Lucy", with a completey new format. "The Lucy Show" finished its first season at number 5, a solid hit, as the audience welcomed Lucille Ball and her co-horts into their home week after week. Important to note too is that Gale Gordon wouldn't start appearing until the following season. In the first year, a banker named My. Barnsdahl, played by character actor Charles Lane, supervised Lucy's trust fund left to her by her husband.
The series' theme music was created and performed by Wilbur Hatch, who did the music for "I Love Lucy".
Lucille Ball would go on to win two Emmy's for her role in this series in subsequent seasons, and various guest stars would pop up over the years, like Joan Crawford, Milton Berle, Carol Burnett, and Ann Southern.
There have been a handful of "Lucy Show" episodes that have been put out on home video and DVD over the years, but these are the public domain shows that were never cleaned up, and they were the edited and syndicated broadcast shows that were jumpy and scratchy. These 30 shows in this boxset have been beautifully restored from the studio's 35 mm prints and come with renewed sound, and according to studio reps, they look amazing. They are also uncut.
This boxset also comes with a new interview with Lucille Ball's daughter Lucy Arnaz, and for the first time in years Jimmy Garrett is interviewed , discussing the show and his TV mom. There are also rare commercials featuring "The Lucy Show's" network promos.
If having "The Lucy Show" on DVD isn't enough for you, talk is "Here's Lucy", Lucy's 3rd series, is coming to DVD this summer too with the complete first season. "Here's Lucy" had a DVD release in 2004 featuring some of the best episodes during it's run, but like "The Lucy Show", it will be the first time that complete season boxsets will be released. I am in Heaven!
Don't forget too that "I Love Lucy-The Complete Series" , is also available.
UPDATE!!!! LUCY'S THIRD SERIES "HERE'S LUCY" WILL BE AVAILABLE ON DVD WITH THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON ON AUGUST 25TH, 2009!!!

I can't remember how many years ago it was when I wrote, emailed and called CBS Home Entertainment to beg for them to release THE LUCY SHOW on DVD. I will tell you that I will always remember how shocked I was when I just received an email from CBS telling me they are releasing The Lucy Show's First Season on July 21, 2009! I found that begging CBS does pay, when it comes to wanting the BEST classic television shows released, and THE LUCY SHOW is THE BEST! The personal letter CBS wrote me stated that they have remastered The Lucy Show using the original 35 mm negative for a virtually flawless reproduction on dvd!!! I am so happy- FLAWLESS! I've been watching those horrible, blurred and faded versions on dvd for years! CBS said that if sales are good for this set, they will be remastering THE LUCY SHOW SEASON 2 IN FLAWLESS COLOR!!! So, to everyone who loves THE LUCY SHOW- order now!! THE LUCY SHOW ran for 6 seasons, so we only need 5 more! HERE'S LUCY SEASON ONE is also in the making from MPI Home Video and that show ran for 6 Seasons as well. After so many years of waiting, this is just like a dream come true for LUCY fans like me!

THE LUCY SHOW premiered on October 1, 1962 on CBS. The show began with Lucille Ball as Lucy Carmichael, a widow with two children, Chris (Candy Moore), and Jerry (Jimmy Garrett), living in Danfield, Connecticut, sharing her home with divorced friend Vivian Bagley (Vivian Vance) and her son, Sherman (Ralph Hart). Lucy had been left with a substantial trust fund by her late husband, which was managed during this first season by local banker Mr. Barnsdahl (Charles Lane). At the beginning of the 1963-64 season, the character was replaced by Theodore J. Mooney (Gale Gordon, who would remain with the series for the remainder of its run, despite the format change).

This First Season also featured in recurring roles, Harry Connors (Dick Martin), Audrey Simmons (Mary Jane Croft), Eddie Collins (Don Briggs), Thelma Green (Carole Cook) and Dorothy Boyer (Dorothy Konrad). Lucy's little, adorable real life children, Lucie Arnaz age 11 and Desi Arnaz Jr. age 9 make their first television appearances in a few of these first season's episodes.

Lucie Arnaz talks about these first appearances in the wonderful Bonus interview she does for this dvd set. I never knew that when watching the episode, LUCY AND VIV PUT IN A SHOWER when I was a little girl back in the 60's, that Lucy was actually drowning when she was down under the water, and couldn't pull herself up. Vivian thought Lucy was under water way too long and reached down to pull her up- literally saving Lucy's life. The cameras kept rolling and no one in the studio or audience knew what was really going on! It is just so fitting that CBS took the time to make this show flawless, just as Lucy and Vivian's performances were for all the years they worked together!

Here are the 30 Episodes from Season One, which also include in this long awaited set many fabulous special features:
1. (1 Oct 62) LUCY WAITS UP FOR CHRIS
2. (8 Oct 62) LUCY DIGS UP A DATE
3. (15 Oct 62) LUCY IS A REFEREE (Desi Arnaz Jr. guest stars and watch for Lucie Arnaz sitting on the back bench in between Viv and Candy Moore)
4. (22 Oct 62) LUCY MISPLACES $2,000.00
5. (29 Oct 62) LUCY BUYS A SHEEP
6. (5 Nov 62) LUCY BECOMES AN ASTRONAUT (Nancy Kulp guest stars)
7. (12 Nov 62) LUCY IS A KANGAROO FOR A DAY
8. (19 Nov 62) LUCY, THE MUSIC LOVER
9. (26 Nov 62) LUCY PUTS UP AN ANTENNA
10.(3 Dec 62) VIVIAN SUES LUCY
11.(10 Dec 62) LUCY BUILDS A RUMPUS ROOM
12.(17 Dec 62) LUCY AND HER ELECTRIC MATTRESS
13.(24 Dec 62) TOGETHER FOR CHRISTMAS (Mitchell Boys Choir guest star)
14.(31 Dec 62) CHRIS' NEW YEARS EVE PARTY
15.(7 Jan 63) LUCY'S SISTER PAYS A VISIT (Peter Marshall guest stars)
16.(14 Jan 63) LUCY AND VIV ARE VOLUNTEER FIREMEN
17.(21 Jan 63) LUCY BECOMES A REPORTER
18.(28 Jan 63) LUCY AND VIV PUT IN A SHOWER
19.(4 Feb 63) LUCY'S BARBERSHOP QUARTET
20.(11 Feb 63) LUCY AND VIV BECOME TYCOONS
21.(18 Feb 63) NO MORE DOUBLE DATES
22.(25 Feb 63) LUCY AND VIV LEARN JUDO
23.(4 Mar 63) LUCY IS A SODA JERK (Lucie Arnaz guest stars)
24.(11 Mar 63) LUCY DRIVES A DUMPTRUCK
25.(25 Mar 63) LUCY VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE (Elliot Reed is the voice of JFK and Desi Arnaz Jr. guest stars)
26.(1 Apr 63) LUCY AND VIV TAKE UP CHEMISTRY
27.(8 Apr 63) LUCY IS A CHAPERONE (Lucie Arnaz guest stars)
28.(15 Apr 63) LUCY AND THE LITTLE LEAGUE (William Schallert and Desi Arnaz Jr.guest star)
29.(22 Apr 63) LUCY AND THE RUNAWAY BUTTERFLY
30.(29 Apr 63) LUCY BUYS A BOAT

This DVD Set is Jam-Packed with these Special Features:

Newly Recorded Interview with Lucie Arnaz
Newly Recorded Interview with Jimmy Garrett
1962 "Opening Night" Special
Clip featuring the long-lost headdress scene recreated from "I Love Lucy"
Clip of Lucy introducing her new series and dancing with stars Jack Benny, Andy Griffith, Gary Moore & Danny Thomas
Original Network Sponsor Openings
Original Network Sponsor Closing
Original Cast Commercials
Vintage Network Promos
Segment on merchandise from "The Lucy Show" with Jimmy Garrett talking about the Lucy merchandise he remembers from 1963.
Cast Biographies
Production Notes
Additionally, the episodes included on this DVD release are completely unedited with run-times of just slightly under 26 minutes per episode. There is even a feature to play the episodes as originally broadcast with vintage network openings, closings and cast commercials!

Lastly, THANK YOU CBS for making all of our LUCY dreams come true!!!!

OK, fans... We were successful in our letter writings, emails, and phone calls to get CBS/Paramount executives to put THE LUCY SHOW - THE OFFICIAL FIRST SEASON on DVD. Now we need to put our money where our mouth is. It's time to pre-order this series to get it to climb the Amazon charts in hopes that we can get a TOP 25 rating by the release date of July 21, 2009. I think this would virtually assure us that CBS will release the rest of the seasons on DVD. Pre-order today!

I have the entire series on VHS from the last time it was on commercial TV...1992 to 1996 on Nick at Nite. This series is a gem...Lucy and Viv for the first three seasons are at their best. Granted Seasons 4 through 6 without Viv are not as good but it was in the Top 10 each of those seasons.

PREORDER!! :-)

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 81 reviews  4.8 out of 5 stars