DVD I Love Lucy - Season One (Vol. 7)

The battle of the sexes goes into high gear on "I Love Lucy"

Episode 24, "The Gossip" (March 24, 1952) offers another battle of the sexes as Fred (William Frawley) and Ricky bet they can keep from gossiping longer than Ethel (Vivian Vance) and Lucy. The outcome is predictable, but the journey is half the fun.

Episode 25, "Pioneer Women" (March 31, 1952) is, quite simply, the one with the twelve-foot loaf of bread. Everybody remembers the sight gag, but do you remember the premise? Fred and Ricky challenge Ethel and Lucy to a contest to see who can survive the longest without the conveniences of modern life. This means having to bake your own bread and figuring out how much yeast to use.

Episode 26, "The Marriage License" (April 7, 1952) has Lucy finding out that her marriage license to Ricky is not legally binding. The simple thing to do would be to have the paperwork done right, but Lucy insists that Ricky play out their entire courtship. Not as funny as the how the same situation played out on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ("Laura's Little Lie," October 9, 1963), but then Petrie's had a kid, which gave that classic episode a bit more edge. Note: Elizabeth Patterson, who would play Little Ricky's baby-sitter Mrs. Trumbull appears in this episode, but as a different character.

Episode 27, "The Kleptomaniac" (April 14, 1952) hinges on Ricky finding a whole bunch of goods that Lucy has collected for a charity bazaar. Since Ricky does not know about the bazaar, he jumps to the conclusion that Lucy is a kleptomaniac and needs psychiatric help. The psychiatrist is played by Jospeh Kearns, who would go on to play Mr. Wilson on "Dennis the Menace."

This solid quartet puts Volume 7 in the top four of the nine volumes that collect the first season and the original unaired pilot (36 episodes in all). However, the top volume is the next one up, which contains one of the most famous "I Love Lucy" episodes of all time, "Lucy Does a TV Commercial." Still, what we have here is ample reason why every Monday night literally half of the nation's television sets were tuned to this classic situation comedy.

Hilarious Antics of the Comedy Fab Four

"The Gossip" opens the disc. This is a personal favorite even if it's not a popular one. When Fred and Ricky bet Ethel and Lucy over who can go longer without gossiping, the men scheme to win the bet. While the surprise at the ending got me the first time around, this episode is worth it for the charades at the beginning alone.

"Pioneer Women" involves another bet between the two couples. They decide to try to live as their ancestors did in 1900. Naturally, no one knows what they are really doing. Most famous for the 12 foot loaves of bread, there are plenty of other laughs as well.

"The Marriage License" is the weakest one here. Lucy discovers that Ricky's last name is spelled wrong on their license and decides they must redo everything the same and get married again. There are some good moments, but the premise gets old by the end.

I was pleasantly surprised by "The Kleptomaniac." I think I had it confused with another episode. Anyway, Ricky is convinced that Lucy is stealing things, and the evidence seems to prove it. The final scene is a riot, topped off by the final gag.

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, it serves the purpose well and is faithful to the original audio recording. The extras include the now familiar guest cast info, original opening, trivia, mistakes, and episode of "My Favorite Husband."

While expensive, any Lucy fan will love these discs because of the comedy contained on them.