Blu-ray Review I Love Lucy: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

One of the all-time greats, I Love Lucy: The Complete Series, is finally available in its entirety on Blu-ray!



I Love Lucy (1951–1957)



Released: N/A
Rated: TV-G
Runtime: 30 min




Director: N/A
Genre: Comedy, Family



Cast: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley
Writer(s): N/A



Plot: A daffy woman constantly strives to become a star along with her bandleader husband and gets herself in the strangest situations.



IMDB rating: 8.4
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: Paramount
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution: 1080P/AVC



Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA, English PCM 2.0



Subtitles: English SDH...

Continue reading...

 

[Rodney]

Thanks for the great review, Josh! I'll be putting this on my Christmas list, for sure.

 

[chrislong2]

I agree with a fair bit of what is said and I do think overall the blu-ray's are a win at the pricepoint they are at. But some notes:

(1) The S1&2 episodes are VERY grainy. I know everyone on these sites seemingly love their film grain, but there IS such a thing as too much. I found it very distracting the amount of grain - particularly in people's faces, after coming from the DVD's which don't have hardly any of that. If grain pulls me out of the enjoyment of the story as it has now on several S1&2 episodes, then it's too much in my book. There's a notable difference starting with Season 3 and it only continues to get better with each season. There is a HUGE difference in regards to this say between a Season 1 episode and a Season 7 one. The later seasons are all very sharp but also don't have the crazy amount of grain. I understand the filmstocks are likely different, but I do think S1&2 could stand to be revisited at some point - I'll bet with newer scans and a modern workflow, a lot of that problem would go away for them. There's been a lot of technological advances with some of this stuff in recent years.

(2) Compared to the DVD complete set (or at least the first Heart version of that set), the following are also missing on the Blu-rays:
- Production Notes for S3-9
- Cast Bios for S3-9
- Slide shows/Photo montages for S3-9
- Spanish audio and captions for S3-9
- Colorized "Lucy Goes to Scotland" S5 episode (this was on the "Bonus disc" DVD)
- First joint TV appearance on the Ed Wynn show 1949 (this was on the "Bonus disc" DVD)
- Sixth Annual Emmy Awards appearance (this was on the "Bonus disc" DVD)
- Johnny Roventini ("Call for Philip Morris") info and appearances in ILL episodes (this was on the "Bonus disc" DVD)

The dropping of the season 5 Lucy in Scotland episode in particular is a real shame because if there's ANY Lucy episode that is most fitting for color, it's the Scotland one where they actually planned for it to be in color. Granted, they gave us the new Lovingcup one instead (which wasn't on the DVD's), but still, that's a blow, and there's no good reason for it that I know of.

As for the episodes themselves, the DVD's contain some minor alterations such as extended music cues that are not always on the blu-ray version of the episode. On the other hand, the blu's contain "lost" scenes inserted into some episodes that the DVD's do not. Plus the fact that S1-2 and S7-9 of the blu's contain the ability to watch the full "as broadcast" episodes which the DVD's did not. Overall, the blu-ray's are a winner, but...

 

[BobO'Link]

Nice write up, Josh! You answered the one question I had about the set - whether or not it contains *all* of the colorized episodes. I'm not much of a fan of the process but *have* been considering picking up the "all-in-one" DVD release which has all of those colorized up to this point but have held off just in case they were on this set.

I still have to decide how much I want to see them... after all, I've never found a colorized project that I thought worked all that well and I've seen and own dozens (most of the Image releases, the 3 Harryhausen films, Bewitched S1/S2, and Zorro).

I just watched that episode with Lucy telling Desi she was pregnant last night... like you, that one always gets to me. Yet I don't particularly care for most of the rest of the episodes dealing with her pregnancy nor many of the ones featuring "Little Ricky." Didn't care for them when watching as a kid either so it's nothing to do with age - just general preferences.

I've also noticed the heavier grain on several of the S2 episodes (didn't really see it much on S1) but chalk it up to the age of the masters and that they've likely suffered from the many, many, many prints struck for syndication over the years. It's not distracting to me at all - just something I noticed. And it could be caused by nothing but the film stock used. I've not compared it to the DVDs but would expect it to be there as well, just not as prominent due to the lower resolution of the medium.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks for the effort for the review. I knew you are fan of the series so it made sense for you to do the review.

I have the set, but haven’t had time to watch yet. I hope to rip the first season soon to MKV to watch over Thanksgiving. It will be interesting to see how it will be to rip given each disc will have extras. I look forward to seeing the early episodes, I haven’t seen these in a long time.

 

[BobO'Link]

Not just "extras" but different entire versions of episodes. All of them have the "standard" commercial free version and the "Night of air" version (which has the Phillip Morris opens/closes and mid-break commercial). Any that had special things done for a rerun, usually a wrap-around segment with the episode done as a flashback, also have a "rerun" version and there are quite a few of those.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Howie. It was a bit of a nightmare trying to rip the first season of The Dick Van Dyke Show as it had tons of cigarette commercials where you can choose to watch an episode work or without those commercials. So I imagine for Lucy, it will be a bit more of that. Plus as you said, the alternate “night of air” versions. I’ll be curious to see those.

 

[Joel Arndt]

Thanks for the excellent review Josh.

My first recollection of watching the series was when I was probably about 3 years old. CBS aired reruns on weekday mornings and my babysitter Mary watched it every day. It was the episode where Lucy plays a witch in Little Ricky's School Pageant. I was so scared I hid behind a chair in our rec room.

I never tire of this series as it was so well done and is still funny to this day. Fortunately, I haven't noticed any of the issues others have mentioned such as dialogue being out of synch on Season 2 or too much grain. I think for the age of the show and elements it looks and sounds great. Thank God Desi and Lucy were such pioneers of the medium that they insisted the series be filmed, so it can be enjoyed forever.

 

[Mark Mayes]

I'm really enjoying these and am already on Season 4. Very keen to see the Bankhead episode restored...but I'll get there one disc at a time.

I probably have told this on these forums sometime before, but it's a good Lucy story:
I had heard some unwelcoming stories from some about meeting Lucy in person and so was wary, but idolizing, when I saw her at a play (a one-man show a fellow was doing about Oscar Levant called "At Wit's End" at The Coronet Theatre on La Cienega).

At the intermission, she was being very receptive to admirers as they came up, and, as I am - putting it mildly--an immense fan, I couldn't handle it anymore and introduced myself. Not only was she warm and friendly, but she grabbed my hand and we were soon involved in discussing "I Love Lucy." Like Lucy Ricardo herself at meeting a superstar, I fawned and told her what my favorite episode was and why--The Operetta.

She not only told me that it was one of her favorites too, but THEN she started doing lines from it as Camille, the snaggle-toothed Queen of the Gypsies ("Your prince is coming!") For me!! As we walked back into the theatre I had my arm around her shoulder and she very nearly went down my aisle with me until her friends (one was Abigail Van Buren) said "Lucy, we're over HERE!"

It was more than any fan could have hoped.

 

[KenInNY]

The previous commenters have raised all kinds of interesting points (and I love Mark's story of his personal encounter with Lucy), but my goodness, what a review! It's extraordinary even by Josh's standards, going beyond the expected thoroughness of his account of what's in the set to a deep and insightful appreciation of the show itself, an account that's made that much more alive by the strong personal connections. I'm going to have to make do with the old DVD set, which I've hardly cracked open in all the years I've owned it but now look forward to diving into -- inspired by Josh's accounting of what Lucy and Desi and their team accomplished.

 

[dallhtf]

Nice review.

It occurred to me, watching these new discs, how far we've come from those chopped up, sometimes battered 16mm prints that used to run in syndication.

Reading one of the Bart Andrews' books on the show, there is mention that Lucy and Desi sold I LOVE LUCY outright to CBS for five million dollars when the series ended in 1957. At the time that was considered a great deal on Lucy and Desi's part, but can you imagine how much money CBS has made off of it since? Somewhere in one of the books, Lucy is quoted as saying that they never expected the reruns to last beyond five, maybe ten, years.

 

[MartinP.]

Not only was Lucy warm and friendly, but she grabbed my hand and we were soon involved in discussing "I Love Lucy." [...] As we walked back into the theatre I had my arm around her shoulder...

"You touched her!"

 

[PianoPlayer]

More than one (Amazon) reviewer of the new "I Love Lucy" Blu-ray set is posting comments like:

"Do not buy until manufacturer improves the packaging."

This harks back to the Blu-ray release (9 years ago!) of "Lost In Space."

Why on earth would Paramount work hard to give us lovely transfers, fantastic content, a reasonable price ... and then blow it with the packaging?

I'll probably buy it anyway, and use my own packaging as others have suggested.

 

[Dave MJ]

Thanks for the great review. I'm one of the few who bought the fantastic ultimate seasons one and two at high prices years ago and have been impatiently waiting for the rest of the series to finally come out in HD. I'll confess that I really enjoy the night of broadcast versions, they are such a fascinating time capsule. So I'm disappointed they didn't continue those edits for the entire run in this set. Surely if any classic show deserves to be preserved in its original form it's this one. But I'm not surprised given the associated cost and how much money they apparently lost on the first 2 seasons. Looking foward to watching the new hour long edits.

 

[KPmusmag]

I do not like the packaging either, but I am so delighted to have the entire series on blu - plus the Hours, that I consider it a win. Especially since the blu-rays stalled after season 2. I think it is short-sighted for people not to buy it JUST because of the packaging. Physical media is already in decline.

 

[mackjay]

More than one (Amazon) reviewer of the new "I Love Lucy" Blu-ray set is posting comments like:

"Do not buy until manufacturer improves the packaging."

This harks back to the Blu-ray release (9 years ago!) of "Lost In Space."

Why on earth would Paramount work hard to give us lovely transfers, fantastic content, a reasonable price ... and then blow it with the packaging?

I'll probably buy it anyway, and use my own packaging as others have suggested.

Same with THE TWILIGHT ZONE bluray set Horrendous package. Hard to read disc labels, no color coding by season.

 

[MartinP.]

There's a lot of packaging over the years decades for DVD's and Blu-Rays that I don't care for, but, for cryin' out loud, If I actually get the content I want I will keep quiet about the packaging.

 

[Konstantinos]

OMG! It seems it's an isolated incident but still... OMG!

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edit: On the other hand, I wonder if this is fake! This seems so bad and ludicrous to be true...

 

[Dave H]

OMG! It seems it's an isolated incident but still... OMG!

Blu-ray Forum - View Single Post - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series Blu-ray (1951-1959)

Everything about Blu-ray Disc. Join the Blu-ray Forum to discuss topics such as Blu-ray movies, players, recorders, drives, media and software.

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edit: On the other hand, I wonder if this is fake! This seems so bad and ludicrous to be true...

Horrific if true.

Josh are you seeing that anywhere?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Josh are you seeing that anywhere?

No.

Here’s the caveat.

I reviewed this set on two different devices - a 55” flat panel, and a 135” projection screen.

I watched the discs in motion and felt that I was seeing the best presentation of these episodes I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.

But discs aren’t made by putting a raw scan of 35mm film, with 24 uncompressed frames a second, directly onto them. They are created using compression with complex algorithms to examine, manipulate and ultimately reduce the amount of data needed to reproduce the illusion of the original film in a manageable file size.

As a result, each “frame” on a disc isn’t necessarily 1:1 accurate to an original film frame, but the cumulative effect of seeing the video playback in motion should be reasonably equivalent to watching film in motion. These compression algorithms were not designed to have the video they compressed be watched frame by frame. What might appear as a horrific bit of tampering when examined under a microscope is imperceptible in motion.

Ultimately celluloid film and digital files are two different mediums. Each time a piece of film is transferred to video, it’s an act of translation.

I believe this set does a beautiful job of translating the look and feel of the original film into a digital video presentation that’s representative of the experience of viewing that film in motion.