Cheap I Love Lucy Collector's Edition (The Beginning to the End) (Video) Price

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Customer Reviews of I Love Lucy Collector's Edition (The Beginning to the End)

The unaired pilot and "I Love Lucy" Christmas special
This is a rather special volume in the "'I Love Lucy' Collector's Edition" in "The Beginning to the End" brings together the two least seen episodes of the celebrated situation comedy. The first actually predates the beginning in that it is the unaired pilot while the second, far from representing the end, was aired once and not seen again for decades. There is also an above average regular episode to fill up the tape that is pretty good as well. <
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>Episode 0 is the "lost" pilot episode for "I Love Lucy" so it was never aired until a CBS special on April 30, 1990 although it was kinescoped on March 2, 1951 as an audition for potential sponsors. The fascination here is how different things are from the classic situation comedy. Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball play Larry and Lucy Lopez, and the Mertzes are not part of the picture. The script by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll, Jr. was based on an old "My Favorite Husband Script." Cuban bandleader Larry hears from his agent Jerry (Jerry Hausner) that several big sponsors are coming by the club to see the show. Larry is worried Lucy will try to be in the show, so he tries to send her to all the way downtown to take their wills to the lawyer. But then Pepito the Clown shows up at the Lopez apartment injured and Lucy schemes to take his place in the show. Note: For everybody who got excited when Lucille Ball was "enceinte" during the show's second season, the comedienne was six months pregnant with daughter Lucy when the pilot was Kinescoped. <
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>Episode 10, "The Fur Coat" (First aired December 10, 1951) has Ricky showing up at the apartment with a $3,500 mink coat that he has rented for his act at the club. Of course Lucy immediately assumes the mink is a surprise gift for her for their anniversary. The next thing Ricky knows his wife is eating, sleeping and doing the dishes wearing "her" new mink. So Ricky has Fred dress up as a thief to steal it back. Of course a real thief (Ben Weldon) shows up first. The best parts of this one are when Lucy gives Ricky a lesson and when she is finally parted from "her" coat. This might be a regular episode sandwiched between the two specials, but it a solid example of why this show was a hit in its first seson in 1951-52 when it finished third in the ratings and had a rating of 50.9 (no show has done half that well since "The Cosby Show"). <
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>Episode 164, "The I Love Lucy Christmas Show" (First aired December 24, 1956), aired on Christmas Eve and has the distinction of being the first retrospective episode for a television situation comedy. While trimming the tree the Ricardos and Mertzes think back on the wonderful and wacky events leading up to the birth of Little Ricky. Included are the memorable moments from when Lucy tells Ricky she is pregnant to when she is taken to the hospital. The episode ends on Christmas morning with Little Ricky opening up all his presents and getting a visit from FIVE Santa Clauses (think about it). This episode achieved special status because it was not part of the package when "I Love Lucy" went into syndication because CBS did not think anyone would want to see a Christmas show when it was not Christmas time. After Lucille Ball's death the network finally aired the show twice, the second time in a colorized version.