TV Show Review: I Love Lucy Season 1 Volume 9

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: "Lucy's Schedule"

Cons: Most of "Ricky Thinks He's Getting Bald"

The Bottom Line:

Final season disc

One average episode

Rest are so funny

Season 1 Leaves Us Laughing

With this disc, we come to the end of season one of I Love Lucy. While they didn't quite save the best for last (the best is on disc eight, in my opinion), there are still some very funny episodes here. While several of the episodes deal with Ricky Ricardo's (Desi Arnaz) job as a nightclub performer, surprisingly none of them have to do with his wife Lucy (Lucille Ball) trying to get into his act. But there are still plenty of laughs as she gets the two of them and their friends Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vivian Vance and William Frawley) into several wacky situations.

"Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio" - When Ricky answers all the questions on a radio quiz show correctly at home one night, Lucy decides he's a genius. It's only after she books them on the show that she discovers that he knew the answers before hand. The beginning of this one is pretty ordinary. But the ending is absolutely funny even if you can see it coming a mile away.

"Lucy's Schedule" - After Lucy's tardiness embarrasses him in front of his new boss, Ricky puts Lucy on the time schedule. Things seem to be going well at first, until Fred gets the idea to put Ethel on a schedule as well. This is the highlight of the disc for me. The climax is absolutely hilarious.

"Ricky Thinks He's Getting Bald" - When Lucy makes an off handed comment about Ricky losing his hair, he suddenly starts wearing hats every where he goes. Lucy decides to develop the worse treatment possible to make Ricky stop worrying about his "problem." The episode feels a little disjointed. As the extras on the disc explain, two of the scenes were originally switched. But the final scene is still loads of fun. All I have to say is poor Desi.

"Ricky Asks for a Raise" - When Lucy goads Ricky into asking for a raise, he ends up losing his job. Now it's up to Lucy, Ethel, Fred, and a trunk of quick change costumes to convince Ricky's boss that he needs Ricky back. The final scene is a little long, but seeing Fred in drag is hysterical.

Even the "sub-par" episodes here are funny. The writers and actors have definitely found their footing. It is feeling like a TV show with all four characters playing an important part of events. The situations aren't as crazy as some of the later episodes, but they are getting crazier.

And this disc is just as great as the ones that have come before. The episodes have occasional dust, but the 50 year old picture and sound are great. The disc has the usual extras including guest cast information, flubs, a couple cut scenes, the original animated opening, some trivia (including the script for the original ending of "Ricky Thinks He's Getting Bald"), and on the set photos from the first season. Instead of one episode of Lucy's radio show "My Favorite Husband," we get three, with tie ins to all the episodes but "Getting Bald." Finally, we get the tag used to announce that the show was "going on vacation" for the summer but would be back in the fall. Not much to it, but it is still very fun to watch.

Fortunately, this was the only season of I Love Lucy to be released piecemeal like this. The rest of the seasons were released in one set. Even more fortunately, you can now get season one in a set. So unless you only want the material here, I recommend skipping this disc and getting the complete first season.