I Love Lucy The Complete Series

I'm not going to waste time reviewing the show. We all know the show is timeless, acclaimed, beloved, and all that jazz. This is simply to comment on the newly repackaged set. The previous release of the complete series of I Love Lucy contained the complete show on 33 DVDs, including a new pressing of the first season, reducing it to 6 discs from the 7 of the slimpack reissue and the 9 discs of the original release, while retaining all bonus features. (When CBS/Paramount repackaged the seasons with new comic-strip-styled artwork in standard-sized amaray cases with much smaller price tags, the 6-disc configuration was used for season 1, giving it its first standalone release.) It also contained a bonus DVD with the long lost movie, the colorized "Lucy In Scotland" episode, and many other rarities, plus an episode guide. However, the packaging took up shelf space and was quite frustrating to get the discs out. It was also quite expensive. This new 2015 repackage ditches the guide, as well as the bonus DVD, which was issued separately a few years after the first set was released. It also presents a better package, albeit one that still needs improvement. This set takes up as much space as about five standard DVD cases and consists of a box with two cases inside - one contains seasons 1-5 on 25 discs while the other contains seasons 6-9 on 8 discs. This makes one case much larger than the other, and frankly, I think it'd have been better to divide seasons 1-5 into two cases as well. The holder inside the first case is not fixed inside but is pretty snug when the case is closed. The second case is a standard 8-disc double-thick amaray case. The episode lists are printed on the reverse side of the artwork, which can be seen through the clear cases. The artwork for this release is classy and well done. I have to admit, I never cared for the artwork in the 2012 season set reissues, finding them way too kitschy for the show. This set looks much nicer and classier. Finally, the price. At the MSRP of $80, it's great. But after tax, I paid $40. That's less than it would have cost me to buy the remaining five sets I needed at Amazon's current price of about $10 per season, as I had previously purchased the 2012 releases of the first two seasons. You can't argue with $40 for 131 episodes of I Love Lucy plus all 13 of the Comedy Hour specials. Especially with the wealth of bonus material (even without the bonus DVD), uncut restored episodes, great video and audio quality. One thing that would have truly sent this over the top would have been a bonus DVD with all of the colorized episodes to date, but for the content and price, I'm not complaining. This set was a great purchase. As a Hulu subscriber, I was happy to find the show on there, but disappointed to find some great episodes missing, not to mention the lack of the Comedy Hour specials. Now I have every episode whenever I want, with or without an internet connection. Read more

Loving this. My mom’s Christmas gift and she’s highly enjoying it. Laughter every episode Read more

I'm not going to comment on the quality of the I Love Lucy shows. I do not feel that this is the place for that. Instead, the quality of the DVDs, packaging, etc. is what should be reviewed. First, the packaging was a bit overdone but still delivered the important content, the DVDs themselves, in excellent condition. Inside the fancy outer plastic case were two accordion fold folders that contained the DVDs. I've seen reviewers complain that their disks were damaged by the folders and would have preferred jewel cases for each DVD. My DVDs were in excellent condition and I'm glad they were not in jewel cases because they would have taken up ten or more times the amount of room. The box with the folders keeps everything corralled in a minimal amount of space. If they had eliminated the big cardboard heart on top, it would have been even more compact. The content on the DVDs was excellent! The first disk was a bonus disk I didn't watch because I wanted to dive into the series. I'm glad I did because much of what is on it is also found on the other disks. Others may feel it is all worth watching. The episodes were all digitally remastered and, whenever possible, deleted footage was restored. The picture was clear and sharp, better than anything I've ever seen on TV. Each disk also contains bonus features, such as original openings and closings which had been deleted when edited for reruns because of the advertising content or to allow more room for commercials, "flubs," behind the scenes notes, guest star credits (with bios), and an episode of Lucy's radio show, "My Favorite Husband." If the only available replacement for missing footage was of too poor a quality to include with the episode, the missing footage was included separately in the bonus section. The bonus section of each disk is well worth watching. The only complaints I have was occasionally some of the clothing the actors wore would have fine lines or dots which would create moiré patterns on screen which would make the clothing appear iridescent or even flashing at times. I feel the editors could have taken a little more time to eliminate, or at least reduce, these. It didn't happen often but it still was a bit distracting. Two or three episodes had a scene or two that briefly displayed unnecessary Spanish subtitles. If I wanted to see Spanish subtitles, I would have selected them. A few episodes were preceded with a written announcement In Spanish. My high school Spanish is rather rusty (more like corroded) but it appeared they were apologizing that they didn't have Spanish subtitles or dubbing for the following episode. I feel that should have been shown only if Spanish had been selected. I feel these are very minor complaints, especially in light of the excellent quality of everything else. Considering the number of disks, the amazingly high quality of the video, and the bonus material included, this set is an incredible bargain. Read more

Fan favorite. Love the series Read more