DVD I Love Lucy - Season One (Vol. 8)

Vitameatavegamin and Some Other Laughs

"Cuban Pals" gives Lucy and us a chance to meet some of Ricky's old friends. But when one of them turns out to be cuter then Lucy is comfortable with, she gets a visit from the green-eyed monster.

In "The Freezer," the gals get in over their head buying meat for a new basement freezer.

When "Lucy Does a TV Commercial," she gets much more then she bargained for when the product turns out to be alcoholic. While I normally don't enjoy people acting drunk, this episode kills me every time I see it. It's a classic for a reason.

Finally, we get "The Publicity Agent." This one finds Lucy pretending to be the Maharincess of Franistan to give Ricky some much needed publicity.

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, mistakes, and episode of "My Favorite Husband." It also features an excerpt from Jess Oppenheimer's books about the creation of "The Freezer" and "Lucy Does a TV Commercial."

I Love Lucy is a classic TV show, and this disc features a classic episode. Not only will fans of Lucy want this disc, so will anyone who loves all time classic TV.

"Hello friends! I'm your Vitametavegamin girl!"

Episode 28: "Cuban Pals" (April 21, 1952). Lucy and Ricky are visited by two of Ricky's Cuban friends (Alberto Morin and Rita Convy), as well as a dancer named Renita Perez (Lita Baron), whom Ricky used to perform with when she was a little girl. Lucy's jealousy of Renita leads to some classic hijinx at the night club.

Episode 29: "The Freezer" (April 28, 1952). Lucy and Ethel want to save money by getting a freezer to store a lot of meat that they could purchase wholesale. Ethel can get a freezer essentially for free from a relative, so Lucy orders some meat; but it's a bit more meat than Lucy & Ethel realize when three delivery men arrive (Frank Sully and Bennett Green). After they try to sell some of the excess meat, Lucy learns the true meaning of popsickle. Fred Aldrich played the butcher.

Episode 30: "Lucy Does a TV Commercial" (May 5, 1952). This is one of the best known and most beloved episodes of all time. In this episode, Lucy finagles her way into doing a TV commercial during a show that Ricky has been invited to perform in. The TV commercial is for that well-known elixir, Vitametavegamin; but the director (Ross Elliott) and Joe (Jerry Hausner) fail to mention that it has a lot of alcohol in it. After several takes, Lucy gets a bit tipsy.

Episode 31: "The Publicity Agent" (May 12, 1952). Concerned that Ricky isn't getting enough publicity, Lucy poses as a princess from the fictional country of Franistan who has travelled to NYC just to hear Ricky sing. Ethel poses as her consort. Peter Leeds, Bennett Green, Richard J. Reeves and Gil Herman guest star in this episode.

If you are debating whether to purchase any of the episodes on DVD, you won't be disappointed if you are a long-time fan of "I Love Lucy". As with the other seven volumes released so far, picture quality of the episodes is superb; and being able to watch the episodes uninterrupted and uncut is fantastic. I rate these 4 classic episodes with 5 out of 5 stars!