Carstairs Considers....: TV Show Review: I Love Lucy

Thursday, March 7, 2013

TV Show Review: I Love Lucy - Season 6

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Shows that still make you laugh 50 years later

Cons: A few unorignal sub par efforts

The Bottom Line:

A few weaker shows

Still many classic moments

Move to the country

Final Full Season of Laughs

This collection is the final collection of a true classic sit-com. I Love Lucy originally aired 50 years ago and still gets lots of laughs today.

The series makes little tweaks with their proven successful formula, but much of the structure remains the same. As the season opens, Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) is buying the nightclub he has worked at since the series opened. Still at home is his wife Lucy (Lucille Ball) who is just as likely to get involved in some crazy situation as always. Rounding out the regulars are neighbors and good friends Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance).

For this season, the decision was made to age Lucy and Ricky's son, Little Ricky. By all rights, he should only be four for this season. However, he is suddenly six and played by "Richard" Keith Thibodeaux. This allows them to do stories involving him. He develops an interest in drums, much to everyone's dismay. At his music school recital, he develops stage fright. The whole gang gets involved in his school musical. And he even gets a dog and the Ricardos try to keep it in their New York apartment.

Not all the stories revolve around him, however. Lucy only tries to get into Ricky's act a couple of times, both times with celebrities. Yep, she still makes a fool out of herself any time someone famous comes around. This time, the victims are Bob Hope and Orson Wells. George Reeves as Superman also stops by for Little Ricky's birthday party. In one of the more famous episodes from the season, Lucy gets a trophy stuck on her head and has to make her way across town even though she can't see a thing.

The Ricardos and Mertzes take a trip to Florida and Cuba during the season. My favorite of the episodes surrounding this trip is "Deep Sea Fishing" in which the couples make a bet over who will catch the biggest fish. Then they secretly each buy a huge fish and try to hide it from each other.

About half way through the season, the Ricardos decide to move to the suburbs. Naturally, they can't go alone, and it isn't long before the Mertzes have moved with them to help raise chickens. This leads to the most famous episode from the season, "Lucy Does the Tango." Lucy and Ethel are trying to hide eggs in the chicken coop when Ricky decides he wants to go over the tango routine he and Lucy are going to perform at the PTA. It drew the longest laugh from the studio audience in the history of the show.

By the time the season is over, the cast and writers had done 179 episodes of the show. While there are still some great episodes left, there are a few that feel like retreads. "Ragtime Band" features Lucy, Ethel, and Fred trying to form a band with disastrous results, a la the third season's "Lucy's Club Dance." An attractive single woman capturing the men's attention, in "Country Club Dance" an idea similar to "Charm School," again from season three. While the show has used familiar ideas before, these seem pale imitations of the originals.

Even given these familiar storylines, the season as a whole has plenty of laughs. The previously mentioned episodes are hilarious. When the gang visits Cuba, Ricky gets a chance to make fun of Lucy's Spanish (and it's worse then his English by far). Adjusting to the quiet of the country after all the years in the city provides some great laughs as well. It's just too quiet for Lucy to sleep. And the tale of the runaway lawnmower from "Lucy Raises Tulips" is hysterical as well.

Included in the set is the Christmas special. It incorporates new scenes with flashbacks to the episodes about the birth of Little Ricky from season two. The new scenes were colorized in the 80's, and both the original black and white and the color versions are available in this set. Let me just say that "I Love Lucy" should only be viewed in black and white, at least as far as I'm concerned.

This season set has been put together with the same care as the previous five. The picture is still extremely sharp and the sound is perfectly clear. All the usual deleted scenes, flubs, guest cast, and original openings are present, along with five more episodes of Lucy's radio show "My Favorite Husband." For the first time, you have the choice of watching the episodes with their original opening or the more famous hearts on satin used for the reruns.

Additionally, this set includes three audio commentaries, a first for the series on DVD. While the first two have some entertaining information in them, guest star Barbara Eden's commentary on "Country Club Dance" really has very little information in it. Then again, since she only guest starred in that one episode, I wasn't expecting too much from her. Doris Singleton (Caroline Appleby) and Keith Thibodeaux share thoughts on "Lucy and Superman" while series writers Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Schiller talk about "Lucy Does the Tango." Both of these have some great behind the scenes memories of the show.

While not the best the show has to offer, there are still plenty of classic moments and laughs to make this set worth getting. I'm thrilled to have a complete set of one of my favorite shows of all time.

Season 6 Episodes:

1. Lucy and Bob Hope

2. Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums

3. Lucy Meets Orson Welles

4. Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright

5. Visitor From Italy

6. Off to Florida

7. Deep Sea Fishing

8. Desert Island

9. The Ricardos Visit Cuba

10. Little Ricky's School Pageant

11. Christmas Scho