DVD I Love Lucy - Season One (Vol. 5)

Finding Its Stride

First up, when "Lucy Fakes Illness" to try to get into Ricky's new act, she is diagnosed with the "Go-bloots."

"Lucy Writes a Play" for her women's club, and tries to get Ricky to play the lead. When he refuses, they change settings, only to have some hilarious confusion at the end. This is the weakest of the episodes, but still quite good.

"Breaking the Lease" finds the Ricardos and Mertzes fighting after the Ricardos make some noise late at night. Will the Ricardos really leave the building? (I'll give you one guess.)

Finally, the first of many personal favorites over the course of the show. "The Ballet" finds Lucy once again trying to get into one of Ricky's new acts. (How often do they change anyway?) He needs both a ballet dancer, and a burlesque comic. While most of this show is Lucy without the other regulars, it's really gives her a chance to show off her impressive physical comedy skills and always makes me die laughing.

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. I thought it sounded a bit off at times on this disc, but going back again, I didn't notice it. Maybe that was just me. The extras feature the original opening and cuts to commercials 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, footage restored to the first episode, a couple trivia type notes on the last episode, and one episode of Lucy's radio show "My Favorite Husband."

This DVD shows why the show has become such a classic - absolutely brilliant comedy. Even casual Lucy fans will want to have this disc in their collection.

Lucy keeps trying to break into show business..

Episode 16, "Lucy Fakes Illness" (January 28, 1952) has Lucy pretending to suffer a nervous breakdown because Ricky has (once again) refused to hire her for his nightclub act. Since he knows Lucy is faking, Ricky gets a fake psychiatrist (Hal March) to check her out.

Episode 17, "Lucy Writes a Play" (February 4, 1952) has Lucy writing a play entitled "A Tree Grows in Havana" for an amateur playwriting competition. Ricky ends up playing the lead, which really does not help the play.

Episode 18, "Breaking the Lease" (February 11, 1952) is the best of the four episodes, with the Ricardos and the Mertzes having a fight which develops into an all-out war in at attempt to, well, break the lease. When you see Lucy smoking a cigarette, remember that the sponsor for "I Love Lucy" during that first season was the Phillip Morris Tobacco Company.

Episode 19, "The Ballet" (February 18, 1952) features the physical comedy of Lucille Ball. Once again Lucy is trying to get into the act at Ricky's club. Ricky has an opening for a burlesque comic and a ballet dancer, so Lucy tries out for both parts (giving a whole new meaning to the word "tutu"). Mary Wickes, always a delight in anything she did, has a nice part in this one.

All of these episodes were written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Caroll, Jr., who wrote all the episodes for the show's first four seasons. Marc Daniels was the director for all of the episodes that first season, except one (which is on the next DVD). Volume 5 is the second best in the Season One collection; the best is Volume 8 with both "The Freezer" and "Lucy Does a TV Commercial." So hang in there; the best is yet to come.