New shelf-friendly 'Complete' "I Love Lucy" coming in November (1 Viewer)

[Seanhtf]

At least a couple of the season four "Hollywood" shows also missed having cut-from-the-syndication-print scenes restored to the shows themselves. The scenes are on the last disc in the season four set in the bonus features section. I don't remember whether or not CBS/Paramount officially used the "differences in picture quality" excuse here, too, but privately, Gregg Oppenheimer, son of I LOVE LUCY producer Jess Oppenheimer, who was working on these DVDs, accepted responsibility. He said he should have reviewed the 16mm network air prints available to him to verify whether or not there was footage in those shows that was missing from the syndication versions, but didn't because he didn't remember there being anything missing. I can at least respect that he was willing to admit that it happened because he screwed up.


Of the top of my head, I believe the "Tallulah Bankhead" LUCY-DESI COMEDY HOUR is missing Bankhead's remark about being allergic to strawberries, which sets up a bit of business in the show's climax. The "Ernie Kovaks" show is missing a short bit that references Clark Gable, cut for network repeats after Gable's death. There may be more, but those are the two I'm aware of.

 

[Nick*Z]

Oh great. Another snatch and grab from the studio that hasn't given us anything new to cheer about in a very long time. I can't get excited about new packaging or even old packaging if the quality of the transfers isn't up to snuff. Lucy on DVD didn't look all that bad. Lucy on Blu is better. A complete Lucy on Blu would be exquisite. P.S. - I won't hold my breath!

 

[Tony Bensley]

I do hope that I'm wrong, but in my opinion this I LOVE LUCY complete series DVD announcement smacks of the recent move by Lionsgate Entertainment to announce an upcoming complete series DVD release of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, and then announce that after having issuing the first 6 seasons on Blu-ray, the upcoming season 7 issue is to be a DVD only release!


Hopefully I'm wrong, and CBS / Paramount continues with the I LOVE LUCY Season Blu-ray issues!


CHEERS!

 

[bmasters9]

I do hope that I'm wrong, but in my opinion this I LOVE LUCY complete series DVD announcement smacks of the recent move by Lionsgate Entertainment to announce an upcoming complete series DVD release of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, and then announce that after having issuing the first 6 seasons on Blu-ray, the upcoming season 7 issue is to be a DVD only release!


Hopefully I'm wrong, and CBS / Paramount continues with the I LOVE LUCY Season Blu-ray issues!


CHEERS!

Not that I was ever the fan of Little House, but why would Lionsgate's seventh-season (1980-81) release of that be for DVD only, and not be a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack?

 

[classicmovieguy]

I do hope that I'm wrong, but in my opinion this I LOVE LUCY complete series DVD announcement smacks of the recent move by Lionsgate Entertainment to announce an upcoming complete series DVD release of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, and then announce that after having issuing the first 6 seasons on Blu-ray, the upcoming season 7 issue is to be a DVD only release!


Hopefully I'm wrong, and CBS / Paramount continues with the I LOVE LUCY Season Blu-ray issues!


CHEERS!

I doubt it. CBS has been reissuing their shows in 'Complete' sets like this for a while now.

 

[t2smith]

Not that I was ever the fan of Little House, but why would Lionsgate's seventh-season (1980-81) release of that be for DVD only, and not be a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack?

I don't think too many seasons of TV series are released as Blu-ray/DVD combo packs, but it is a good question why they would release the first six seasons in both formats at the same time, then go DVD only for the seventh season and complete series releases.


There doesn't seem to be as much outrage about the complete series of I Love Lucy being released on DVD only, but that's probably because the Lucy Blu-rays are expensive and only two seasons have been released on Blu. Also, Blu-ray probably favors a series shot outdoors more than one shot mostly in a studio, and this Lucy release looks like it is just previously released discs in new packaging and not a new master being released on DVD only.

 

[classicmovieguy]

The complete 'Lucy' has been on DVD for quite a while now. This is a reissue in simpler packaging at a quarter of the price, and timed to target Christmas 'stocking stuffer' buyers for the Christmas season. I can't really imagine that CBS is putting it out again instead of the Blu-ray sets or is testing the market to see if future Blu-rays are going to be viable. In my experience there are people who'll only buy TV shows DVD or Blu-ray... not both.

 

[LeoA]

Just got this as a birthday gift and have been watching season 1 and noticed something I don't quite understand that I never realized before. Why are season 1 episodes timing out at less than 24 seconds?


If you remove the colorized title card, the 3 episodes on disc 1 that I've watched are running around 23:30. Seems awfully quick for 1951.

 

[LeoA]

I suppose that this doesn't warrant a bump just to correct my obvious mistake from my prior post (since I'm sure everyone realized exactly what it was that I meant), but I just noticed that I said 24 seconds.


So for the record, I of course meant 24 minutes.

 

[Brent Reid]

The 29-disc I Love Lucy: The Complete Series box set was released in the UK in 2016 by Mediumrare. Its PAL discs duplicate the first 29 of the 33-disc US set discussed above, so it's missing The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour episodes.
The US set is in turn a simpler repackaging (with new generic grey discs) of the original 34-disc US Complete Series, minus that set's bonus disc. Said disc consisted of I Love Lucy: The Movie, the colorized "Lucy Goes to Scotland" episode and some other extras. It was later retitled and sold separately as I Love Lucy: The Movie and Other Great Rarities.

Meanwhile, the 34-disc Oz Complete Collection replicates the original US set.

As it looks like we'll only be getting the first two series on US BD, I thought others wishing to complete their collections – minus the ongoing colorized US DVDs – might find this info useful.

 

[Regulus]

I took took the disks out of the heart=shaped case (which was relegated to my storage room) and placed into cases I purchased from supermediastore.com

I do this to all my DVD sets because they save space on my shelves. When a case is "Customized" I keep the case because some day they may become collectors items.

 

[bmasters9]

I took took the disks out of the heart=shaped case (which was relegated to my storage room) and placed into cases I purchased from supermediastore.com

How many discs do your cases hold?

 

[LeoA]

Does CBS repurpose old inventory for these? I have the complete series set from 2015 and noticed the other day that all but one disc for a later season had artwork like pictured below, where as the rest of the set including the last disc for that particular season were just the typical looking CBS discs from recent years.



When I first saw this back then, I didn't notice that one disc from this season was plain like the rest, and figured that they just jazzed up this season with fancier looking discs and just didn't bother to change it for this complete series release.

I don't care about the inconsistency, but I hope I didn't get something inferior with these older discs?

 

[Ron Lee Green]

I had the new 2015 complete series compact set (which I ended up selling on ebay), but I rememer all the discs were grey EXCEPT for one season had the old pictured discs which I thought was rather odd and inconsistent. I forget which season it was now. Maybe season 5.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm sure the disc content is the same, but as they run out of the older pressings with the full color labels, they're repressing with less expensive generic labels.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Not to mention this whole thing:

 

[LeoA]

Are you sure they made such a claim?

They make no secret on the DVD's themselves that these are the edited versions, except for the premier episode with Rudy Vallee and Ann Sothern that they found an unedited 35 mm source of that Desilu missed and never butchered. Much of the "lost" footage that only exists on 16 mm is even present as bonus features, with the disclaimer that because of condition, they choose not to reinsert it into the episodes themselves.

I wish if they're not going to continue the series on Blu-Ray though, that they'd skip ahead and at least do these specials before calling it a day. They're the most in need of some TLC, it seems. And they've shown themselves capable of doing small miracles with cleaning up such sources when they're willing, as seen with their past two Blu-Ray releases.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Are you sure they made such a claim?

They make no secret on the DVD's themselves that these are the edited versions, except for the premier episode with Rudy Vallee and Ann Sothern that they found an unedited 35 mm source of that Desilu missed and never butchered. Much of the "lost" footage that only exists on 16 mm is even present as bonus features, with the disclaimer that because of condition, they choose not to reinsert it into the episodes themselves.

I wish if they're not going to continue the series on Blu-Ray though, that they'd skip ahead and at least do these specials before calling it a day. They're the most in need of some TLC, it seems. And they've shown themselves capable of doing small miracles with cleaning up such sources when they're willing, as seen with their past two Blu-Ray releases.

Yes you are correct they note on the DVDs the missing footage and explain that all that exists is old 16mm footage in poor shape so that could not be used with the 35mm re-masters so they included it as extra footage. You can see from the youtube videos how poor the footage is. Prior to the DVD release we only had the edited down to 1 hour version of Lucy goes to Havana released on VHS and TV. So I was so happy when the DVD's came out and we finally got to see the complete 75 minute version which is around 63 minutes I believe without the commercials.

 

[Randy Korstick]

On youtube with lower resolution its not quite although still very beat up. But watch the footage on the DVD it is Really rough and in bad condition if they released it as part of the episode they would have been guaranteed lots of returns from people thinking it was either defective or unacceptable quality. It would need a major restoration not a cleanup just to look presentable and they wouldn't spend that kind of money on 16mm. If the 35mm versions of that footage was discovered somewhere then they may consider it..

 

[The Obsolete Man]

On youtube with lower resolution its not quite although still very beat up. But watch the footage on the DVD it is Really rough and in bad condition if they released it as part of the episode they would have been guaranteed lots of returns from people thinking it was either defective or unacceptable quality. It would need a major restoration not a cleanup just to look presentable and they wouldn't spend that kind of money on 16mm. If the 35mm versions of that footage was discovered somewhere then they may consider it..

Ah, but with Blu you have your branching options to reassemble the episodes in complete form for people who aren't idiots and understand the condition of the cut footage is unavoidable.

You know, people who don't stretch the picture because "MY TV GOTSTA BE FULL! BLACK BARS BAD!".